DV Filmmaking

The Impact of the Camcorder

Because video records sound and image onto the same tape, maintaining sync becomes much less of an issue than in film production. If you’re recording audio with a camcorder’s onboard, or built-in, microphone, you’re pretty much guaranteed audio that syncs up without issue, though the audio quality will likely suffer, as the mic can pick up the camera motor sound and might be too far from the subjects to sound great. If you use external microphones to get better sound recordings, you can also record their audio directly to your video cassette using a variety of methods described in the next chapter. Unless you run into real problems, you won’t need to worry about your audio falling out of sync, because the same device is capturing both picture and sound. (Chapter 8 explores techniques for maintaining sync when recording audio to other devices.)

In addition to the benefits of sync, because DV tapes are cheap and easy to change, you can leave the camera on and continue to record sound even as your cinematographer experiments with different framings or walks from one part of the room to another. If you’re shooting a documentary, this can be invaluable, because the best moments often happen when you aren’t expecting them, and if you record good audio, you can piece together a strong sequence even if you miss some of the visual action.

Another benefit of digital camcorders is that they record digital audio at a higher level of sound quality than a CD, which ...