Making it in the Car: What Can we learn about Audio for Video from Social Media “Car Videos”.

Transcript

Hey, everybody, it’s Craig Lillard.  I’m going to be talking to you about making videos in your car. Not so much about why you should or shouldn’t make videos in your car, because I don’t really think it’s a great idea, but there are several reasons why it is beneficial to make videos in your car, which I think somebody figured out at some point.

So, someone started shooting their social media videos in their car, and then other people saw it done and thought hey, I’m supposed to make videos in my car. Personally, I think there are better places to make your videos. But, there are some good reasons why filming in your car is a popular thing and I’m going to explain those principles. This way, you can take those principles and you can use them elsewhere.

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So, the first principle we’re going to talk about is audio. Why does shooting a video in a car give you good audio? Well, there are a number of reasons for this. First of all, you are in an enclosed space that does not have a lot of reverb or echos. The walls of the car are built to be soundproof. The car itself is built to be soundproof so that the stereo sounds great.  In your car, you immediately have soundproofing that you normally don’t have in the home or office.  So that’s number one.

Number two, While your camera in your car is going to be right in front of you, that’s not the case with your microphone. When you shoot your videos in your car and you’re using a cellphone or a GoPro, you’re also using the microphone that’s built into your cellphone or GoPro.  In this case, while filming this video,  I’m using my AirPods. If you’re using the in-camera microphone, to get good sound quality, you need to have your cell phone or GoPro close to you. You can’t set up your cellphone/GoPro 8 ft away in a room and expect to get good audio.  The further your microphone is, the more likely you’re going to record more ambient noise, echo, and reverb.  While the built-in microphone is really good, it works best when it’s close to you.  What if holding the cell phone/GoPro close to you isn’t an option. Now what?

Is this thing on?

One solution is to use a microphone. Normally when people shoot these car videos, they’re not using a separate mic. One of your best solutions to this is to use a lavalier microphone clip-on.  If you’re going to shoot outside or if you’re gonna shoot inside, you can set up a boom microphone that’s over your head. If you’re gonna be at a desk, you can have a  desk microphone. Ultimately, you need a separate microphone unless your mic is going to be really close to your face.

So, that’s why shooting a car video actually gives you really good audio. Now that you know why it’s popular to film in your car, you can take these principles elsewhere, to a better location or to a more interesting spot. We’ve got a couple more videos about filming in your car. They include lighting and stabilization. Also, keep an eye out for these next videos in the series, and other than that look forward to seeing you on another video

 

 

1 thought on “Making it in the Car: What Can we learn about Audio for Video from Social Media “Car Videos”.”

  1. Pingback: Making it in the Car: Lighting – Craig Lillard – Scale Impact and Attention with Video

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