reversed direction while she was behind the camera
the entire shot. The mike had to be almost horizontal
to avoid footsteps on the plywood-supposed-to-be-
metal floor, and swivel 180° to track the actors. I
don't need it often, but when I do…
I know that the mike doesn't always have to
be pointed directly at the actor's mouth. Good
cardioid (and super-/hyper-cardioid) mikes have
an acceptance angle of about ±45° from the front
where the sound of dialog won't be audibly affected
when shown in the theater. This allows my boom op
to orient the mike so that its minimum sensitivity
direction is aimed at a noise source and still gets the
actor's voice acceptably. Have the boom op adjust
the mike to minimize the noise and then see if they
can get the actor within its 90° acceptance cone.
Text and pictures ©2019 by James Tanenbaum, all
rights reserved.
Editors' note: Article continues with Part 2 of 3 in
our Summer edition.
Cindy Gess booming with the Cuemaster on Babylon 5
