Location Sound: The Basics and Beyond

I count myself fortunate to have Stephen Black and Henry Stern as neighbors and friends. Their TV scriptwriting and producing credits would fill this page. They forged new directions in episodic dramas with their work on Dynasty, Falcon Crest, Flamingo Road, Matlock, and Knot's Landing. Their work as head writers on As the World Turns and consultants for One Life to Live stirred things up and added sizzle to both of these long-running daytime staples. They've had a hand in a half-dozen TV movies, including the only TV film starring Audrey Hepburn, Love Among Thieves.
They got their start as a writing team doing comedies in the mid-1970s. Stern had been one of Broadway's youngest producers, and Black had written a couple plays. Despite failing to sell their first comedy script to The Mary Tyler Moore Show, they were given free access to the set where they watched rehearsals and show tapings, all the while taking copious notes. That led to a brief stint writing for a new show called The Love Boat ("It paid the bills and got us in the Writers Guild") and finally landed them a job with Norman Lear Productions, the company behind All in the Family.
These days they're working on their second novel and a movie script. Here's their advice to aspiring scriptwriters:

The most important thing is that we like to tell stories.
And the most important thing in stories is the characters. The best kind of character is one with the ability to surprise you. The audience is not dumb. You've got to come up with something unpredictable. You don't want a white hat or black hat. You want people wearing gray hats. People you can't read. You want to be interested in what happens to them.
It's not a good idea to start your script writing with a plot. It's better to start with a theme. Know what you want to say, how you want to say it, and where you want to be at the end. The theme of our current film script is, How does the death of someone affect his three closest friends?
With the theme in hand, we next create the characters. What is their arc and how will that change throughout the story? We invent detailed character bios. Where did they go to school? What were their parents like? What was their childhood like? We don't have to use all that in the script, but it's good for us to know to help craft the story.
Next we sit down with a yellow legal pad and make 30 to 40 story points, such as guy robs bank, hides in mother's house, falls in love with neighbor, and so on.
Then we write an extensive narrative outline—30 pages or more. We include texture—the tone and detail. We take time to describe settings and characters. Instead of merely using physical descriptions of characters, such as Bob is 6'2'' with the torso of a long distance runner, we're more likely to write, "As John was driving up Canyon Avenue, he looked out his rain spattered window and caught sight of Bob, one more time, running in the rain." That says a lot. We love doing that. It makes it easier to do the script.
It's really crucial that you learn how to structure a piece so that your story makes sense. Know where your story is going and how plot elements and character elements will build on each other so they peak at certain points. An excellent film example of structure is Two for the Road, with Audrey Hepburn and Albert Finney. Even though they use multiple flashbacks, you know that from beginning to end this is a story of a marriage on the skids.
Tell as much of the story as you can without dialogue. Tell it cinematically. Don't give camera directions such as wide, tight medium. That's the director's job and disrupts the story flow. But it's okay to script camera angles. We wrote a scene where a woman was about to tell her husband their son was killed in combat. The husband ran a steak house and happened to be in the walk-in freezer when his wife arrived. We directed the camera to look through the window and, without any dialogue, watch the woman tell the husband and see the reaction.
You can't write if you're not an observer. We're constantly eavesdropping in restaurants. We're acutely aware of dialogue going on around us. Our characters have to speak in the vernacular of the time.
Dialogue is more than just writing down what two people say to each other. Good dialogue is succinct, crisp, entertaining, and rich. It's a level above conversation.
Bury the "pipe." The pipe is the exposition, the conduit of information, the stuff that the audience needs to know to make sense of the story. Say the character's been divorced three times, has six kids with six different women, and runs a grocery. You don't come out and say that. You impart it to the audience in an interesting way.
Scriptwriting is collaborative. Everyone has a hand in it. A screenplay will go through 10 to 15 drafts before shooting begins.
Writing is hard work. To sit there in front of a blank, empty computer screen knowing that you have to come up with compelling characters and stimulating plots, week after week after week can be daunting. Back in 1970, we were working with Leon Uris on a musical production of his novel Exodus. After several tiring meetings with potential backers, Stephen asked him if he had any advice for aspiring playwrights. He said, "Put your ass in a chair in front of a typewriter." This was the most succinct, valuable information we were ever given.

Unblocking Creativity
Writer's block strikes us all. As Black and Stern noted, it's darned hard to sit down in front of a blank computer screen and start putting words in the computer.
Here are some ways to get the creative juices flowing:

Story-Creation Tips from Bob Dotson

NBC-TV Today Show correspondent Bob Dotson is, I think, the best human-interest feature-story TV reporter. Dotson has received more than 50 awards. The National Press Photographers Association award committee wrote, "Bob Dotson's reports help us understand ourselves a bit better. They show that all our lives are important and really matter. After all, this country was built not by great heroes or great politicians, but by ordinary people—by thousands whose -names we don't know, may never know, but without whose influence America wouldn't exist."
Although you probably aren't a TV newsperson, you'll probably create human-interest stories—Dotson's forte. If there's a storyteller out there you should emulate, I think he's the one. During my TV reporting days I tried to watch all his stories, and when a station I worked for offered me the chance to attend one of his seminars, I jumped at it.
I've reproduced my notes, with his approval, here. I took many things away from his class. Three points stand out:

Bob Dotson's Storyteller's Checklist
Dotson's Storyteller's Checklist inspired his book Make It Memorable (Bonus Books) and a companion videotape of all the stories in the book. He prepared his list (and book) with TV news reporters in mind, but his tips apply to professional, corporate, and home video producers as well:

Always remember that the reporter is not the story.
Make sure the commitment is present. Commitment is your description of the story, stated in one sentence. That is, what you want the audience to take away from the report. You should be able to state the commitment as a complete sentence with subject, verb, and object. "Outside money is altering the city's architecture," "This cow has never taken an order in her life," "You can't murder a pumpkin," and so on. You formulate this commitment to yourself to help guide the story creation. Then you use your images to prove the commitment visually. Very seldom will you state the commitment verbally in any story.
Write your pictures first. Give them a strong lead, preferably visual, that instantly telegraphs the story to come.
The main body of the story should usually be no more than three to five main points, which you prove visually after you've identified them.
Create a strong close that you can't top, something you build toward throughout the story. Ideally, the ending is also visual.
Write loose. Be hard on yourself as a writer. Say nothing in the script that your viewers would already know or that the visuals say more eloquently.
Throughout the story, build your report around sequences—two or three shots of a guy buying basketball tickets, two or three shots of a husband and wife drinking coffee at a kitchen table, and so on. Sequences demand matched action.
Allow for moments of silence. Stop writing occasionally and let two or three seconds or more of compelling action occur without voiceover. For a writer, nothing is more difficult to write than silence. For viewers, sometimes nothing is more eloquent.
Use strong natural sound to heighten realism, authenticity, believability, and to heighten the viewer's sense of vicarious participation in the events you're showing. Some reports merely enable you to watch what happened. The best reports make it possible for you to experience what happened.
Tell your story through people. People sell your story. Try to find strong central characters engaged in compelling action that is visual or picturesque.
Build in surprises to sustain viewer involvement. Surprises help viewers feel something about the story; surprises lure uninterested viewers to the screen. Surprises can be visual, wild sounds, short bites, or poetic script. Always, surprises are little moments of drama.
Short sound bites prove the story you are showing. Don't use sound bites as substitutes for more effective storytelling.
Address the larger issue. "A trailer home burned down." Such a story fails to meet the "so what?" test. "The trailer home burned down because the walls are full of flammable insulation" describes the larger issue and meets the "so what?" test.
Finally, make your story memorable. Can your viewers feel something about the story and its subjects? If feeling is present, the story will be memorable. It will stick in the viewers' minds.

Keep It Simple...and Short
As a coda to Dotson's advice, I'll add that you need to remember, this is only TV. You need some mighty compelling or entertaining material to keep viewers glued to the tube for more than a few minutes. Think about whatever message you're trying to get across in your video project and consider what images, sound, and graphics will convey that message in the briefest, most effective manner. Then shoot with brevity in mind.
That's not to say that you don't grab unplanned video that looks great. Or that you cut interviews short even if you haven't heard some compelling sound bites. Videotape is expendable. Feel free to shoot plenty. Although it's true that you might have to wade through a lot to find the best shots, the advantage of DV is that after these shots have been located, you can simply capture them to your hard drive and they become immediately accessible.
Source http://www.samspublishing.com/articles/article.asp?p=169588&rl=1

Shooting : The Commandments
101 Tips to make shooting with your camcorder easier

Remember to take the lens cap off. (Eh?) No, really, I'm being serious. In the rush of setting everything up for a shot you would be surprised at the number of people who set the camera recording with the lens cap still on. Even the pros can do it - a friend of mine had some footage that a Channel 4 documentary crew had shot the other day, there was a five minute segment with just sound, until the producer starts cursing when he discovers the lens cap is still on.

Always record 5 seconds before and after the shot you want. Editing decks need a bit of space to get the signal properly (called pre-roll) and they can muck their edits up if you don't have enough pre-roll. Your editor will hate you if you don't have enough, and if you don't have an editor you will hate yourself even more.

Use manual focus if at all possible. Autofocus hunts for stuff to focus on, so if someone walks through the shot it will try and focus on them, getting your subject out of focus. Autfocus also uses up a lot of battery power, so using manual focus and push focus (a button you can press for autofocusing) makes your batteries last longer. Whatever, make sure your subject is in focus. To be absolutely sure, zoom in on the subject, focus, and zoom out.

Leave that zoom rocker switch alone! See that button that rests just underneath your fingers when you hold the camera? That's your ticket to bad film-making. Its sitting there, nuzzling you saying 'Hey press me! Zoom in, go on. Now zoom out! Smart'. Unfortunately when you come to watch your film most of your audience will be sick because the zoom is constantly tromboning in and out. There are only two occasions when it is OK to use the zoom during a shot.

Try not to appear in your own film - Unless of course you are Hitchcock or your actor has called in sick and you're having to play the role yourself you want to try and avoid appearing in your film as...the camera operator! Avoid fingers near the lens or long hair draping into shot. Equally be careful when shooting through glass, mirrors or shiny objects not to catch a view of yourself. Use a polarizing filter to cut down on any reflection.

Switch the camera on before you take the lens cap off. You can damage the camera's CCD chip if you take the cap off then switch it on. Don't point your camera at really bright lights i.e. the sun.

Check your sound - Most cameras have headphone sockets so you can monitor what the camera is picking up. Recording without checking your sound is like shooting and not looking down your viewfinder. Remember : your ears are great (they can filter out all that extra noise and focus in on just one voice) - your camera isn't, it'll pick up on every squeak and rumble.

Use an external mike if possible - To get better sound get your hands on an good external microphone that plugs into your camera. This should cut down on operating noise from the camera (gubbins inside whirring etc.) and you can pick a mike for the job at hand. Doing street interviews? Get an unidirectional mike (y'know, the ones that look like ice creams) to cut down on all that traffic noise (if your camera has any kind of handle tie your flex around this, so if your interviewer yanks on the cord the mike isn't pulled out). Drama? Try a supercardoid mike and mount it on a old broom and get a mate to stand there and dangle it in front of your actors.

Gag your microphone - If you know you're going to be shooting in a windy place get a wind gag for your mike. Wind gags are basically furry things that fit over your mike (in the wild they can live up to 70 years), that cut down on the roar you will hear if filming in wind. The other day I stuck my camera out of a car window and the sound I got was like ground zero at a nuclear blast!

Protect your equipment - You've got to keep it safe from two things - the environment and from it getting nicked. Keep your gear clear from dust and dirt (use a cover to protect it from the rain) and screw on a skylight filter to protect the lens. Clean the lens/filter and viewfinder using blowerbrushes, airjets etc. Security! Keep your camera close to you, make sure its insured and know its serial number if it does get pinched.

Tape Care - Always use the best quality tape you can afford (usually metal evaporated). You can only capture an event on tape once. The great thing about tape is that you can record over stuff but be careful you may need footage again in the future. Remember, keep all your rushes!

Batteries - Always carry fully-charged extra batteries, otherwise you can bet that you will lose power halfway through the most important shot of your film. Bear in mind that batteries have a shorter lifespan in the cold. Hug them to keep 'em warm (and show them that you love them).

Shoot loads! - Tape is cheap. Use it. When you get around to editing you might just need a certain shot, so shoot everything. Shoot plenty of cutaways (shots to cut in at any point - closeups, buildings, reactions of other people). Don't tell your actors, but shoot practice takes (you might need to put a bit of gaffer tape over the recording light) sometimes they are the best, most natural take.