With all of the attention and time that’s spent on shooting great footage, recording quality sound is often overlooked. A questionable visual shot here or there in your finished project will likely be unnoticed and just merge into the flow of the story- IF you have an excellent soundtrack that holds the edit together and makes great shots and average shots all flow together into a flawless final masterpiece. That is the great big Hollywood secret to moviemaking.

But a section, or even a single shot with bad sound will shock your enraptured viewers out of their reverie and immediately destroy the continuity of the edit, and thereby the illusion of moviemaking.

Great location sound is the biggest secret to great looking footage. And since capturing quality sound is in some ways more challenging than capturing quality visuals, we’re going to give you a few secrets and tips on recording location audio.