Microphone experiment -Mistakes I've done and what I've learned

Mistakes I've done and what I've learned

For this blog I was going to compare different effect of different recording equipment in the same environment, and find out which one works the best in certain situation.

Equipment I've chosen are 

-Rode VideoMic Pro

-HAMA RMZ-10 

-Zoom H4n Handy Recorder

-Microphone within the camera (Nikon D3300)

-Microphone within smart phone (Huawei P30 Pro)

What I've done

First of all I decided to choose three location which I can simulate different environment, which are in study room (simulate to interview room), Terraces-with people (simulate filming with background noise and possible wind wether), and Terraces-without people (simulate filming at outdoor).

Before starting the experiment, I've estimated 3 possible distance between the speaking subject (me) and the microphone with camera, therefore after the experiment is done, I can know the best distance with between subject and camera, however, I also have to consider the loudness of the subject and too make change as well before the start of the interview.

To make sure the test in valid, I also decided to make sure the distance between me and microphone will be the same within different situation, during recording, I'll also read out the same sentence for each of the recording in different situation with different microphone.

Mistakes I've done and solutions

I've started recording in study room at the beginning, because I thought it will be the easiest and quickest one to be done. 

I spend about 20 minutes to set up the tripod with camera and microphone, this is a result of me been not familiar with the my equipment, therefore before next time shooting, I'll do enough practice to set up everything in 5 minutes to save more time for recording.

During recording I stuck so many times because I was not used to the situation of recording myself so I feel stressed, but also I didn't know what to speak front of the camera, I was not sure should I just read out a sentence or should I explain what I'm doing for each time. This is a result of me not prepare enough, next time I must get used to recording and know what to do or what to say during shooting, to make sure the shooting will run smoothly. But with the experience of me shooting myself, I've also know how would the subject feel during interview, and the importance of making them feel comfortable and relax.

After I've done all my recording in study room, I went back to check all the footage and found out that for most of the footage I can only hear the white noise sound, and the other footage's sound quality wasn't good as well, which is the worst mistake I've done. This is due to I didn't check the footage after each shot, and I didn't check doest the camera and microphones works well before I borrow from school, and also I didn't have enough knowledge to understand how to use all the microphones. Therefore I need to watch some YouTube Tutorial video, ask teacher about the information and be more prepared for the shooting, and have to be more careful after each shooting. This time it's only a practice, I can go back and do it again, if this happened in real interview, the impact that cannot be reversed. Therefore to if I want to become more professional, I must have more practice and knowledge, and must have a plan before I'm going to shoot any footage.