Audio perspective

- Welcome to capturing audio for video tips and techniques. In this movie, we'll take a look at a conceptual area not really a tip or technique, but rather, let's just call it good to know. And while it mostly comes into play in post-production, it might impact your decisions on location too. It's called audio perspective, and by audio perspective I refer to the relationship of the sound to picture. Wrap your head around this, the audio and video are separate. They don't automatically go together and sometimes are even recorded on separate devices. You already know this if you've done any video editing. The video appears on your program on the video track, and the audio appears on the audio tracks. This is a really good thing because it allows you to play with that relationship, modify it, and create some pretty cool moments in your show. Here we are on Cortland Avenue in beautiful San Francisco. Let me set this up for you, I'm standing about six to eight feet away from the camera right now but notice that I don't sound like I'm six to eight feet away. I sound like I'm close up because we're playing with audio perspective. If I sounded like I was six to eight feet away it would sound something like this. And this sound of course is unusable and I don't like it so let's go back up to the close-up sound. Here's another commonly used example of playing with audio perspective and film or television. Alisa and Lizzy have run across the street. The shot is from across the street but we have the option of listening to them close-up. That does two things, it keeps things interesting visually, of course, but it also makes us feel like we're eavesdropping doesn't it? - Do you think Jeff is listening right now? - I hope not. - Okay, because I really don't want him to know that... - I'll see if I can find out what they were saying later. Let's go back to the studio. The point of all this is that the visual perspective and the audio perspective are choices that you make as a director, it's not automatic and it requires that you give it a little thought as you make your show. It also demonstrates that capturing the video and capturing the audio are not the same thing and must also be considered equal partners in delivering your message whether it's an infomercial, a dramatic program, or anything else. The audio and the video are separate, and they go together because you choose to make it so. This is true on set, and it's true in post-production. Understanding that process will help you create more powerful shows that the audience remembers.