To get the best the quality sound we do two things. I have a top quality shotgun microphone on top of the camera and a lavalier microphone hidden on the subject.

The shotgun microphone gives a very rounded, natural sound and feels very close to what your ears naturally hear which I will try to get as close to the subject as possible to help isolate the subjects voice.

The lavalier microphone is fantastic at cutting out the ambient sound so the viewer can hear the subjects voice clearly.

So at the start of the day / event / filming we will attach a microphone to the subject before anything starts to happen.

One of the biggest problems we face in getting clean lavalier audio is T-shirt/shirt rustle. The best way to avoid this is by attaching the microphone to the subject's chest at the bottom of the sternum (in the dip, to help avoid T-shirt rub) we do this in three stages:

1) Apply a piece of hypoallergenic medical tape to the subjects skin.

2) Stick the lavalier microphone in its protective case to the medical tape using "snot" tape.

3) Place a piece of double sided tape over the lavalier microphone to make sure it stays attached and protects the lavalier microphone from T-shirt rub.

4) I may have to occasionanly add some extra tap
to hold the microphone cable down if it
is rubbing / moving.

Additional to help further reduce T-shirt rub try not to wear T-shirts/clothes with large printed logos. If you rub your fingers nails against the logo/print and you can hear it rustle or make noise then it’s probably not a good item to wear. If you have to wear certain T-shirts/clothes due to the nature of your job/role/team etc then we will do our best to work around this.

From the lavalier microphone you will have a cable running to a small mircrophone pack. The pack can easily be tucked into a pocket with any excess cable. Try not to leave any cable hanging out. Please make sure that your pocket is empty apart formt the pack. We don't want to cable to be pulled out of the receiver accidently whilst you are fishing something out of your pocket.

The above method may change from time to time depending what tapes I have in stock and as my lav'ing technique improves. This should still give you a good indication of what we need to do.

In a sit down interview situation the need to be as thorough as the subject barely moves, a simply stick pad attaching the lavalier to the inside of the T-shirt. This is usually used as a backup to the main boom mic that sounds better overall.

Other info about filming:

When we are filming a fly on the wall scene (known as vérité) try not to look at the camera, you can either talk to me (literally making eye contact with me) or to the room/air as we walk around and you get on with what we are following you do.

Occasionally I may as you to repeat something / summaries a statement or do something again as I missed on camera.

If you have any questions at all please just let me know.