Approach: Part 2
Like I mentioned in my previous post a few questions have been bubbling in my mind
- What is my thesis statement as a recordist?
- Why do I pick the things I want to record?
- How do I approach recordings?
- What are the things I want to keep improving on?
I've been feeling a little stuck with my goals lately and wanted to reassess my values and intentions moving forward. I'm not sure how concrete the rest of the people who responded in their responses are, but I find my approach and values change quite a bit over time.
Here's where I think I'm at right now
Both my personal library and my general SFX library feel overwhelmingly large and it's really changed my outlook about consuming. When my collection was small, I was really hungry and always wanted to be producing more to fill out what I didn't have and was consumed with amassing bulk.
Now that I'm at a point where I have more content than I have time to organize, I've slowed down a lot as a recordist. Some of my earliest projects were figuring out methods to quickly get recordings from the field to library, and I think the pipeline is pretty clean, but that said, to master in a way that holds up to my standards, it still takes about twice as much time mastering as it does recording.
Keeping the pipeline and my over all library in mind, it's all influenced the way I record.
One of the first things I ask myself when I'm out exploring in the field is:
Here's where I think I'm at right now
Both my personal library and my general SFX library feel overwhelmingly large and it's really changed my outlook about consuming. When my collection was small, I was really hungry and always wanted to be producing more to fill out what I didn't have and was consumed with amassing bulk.
Now that I'm at a point where I have more content than I have time to organize, I've slowed down a lot as a recordist. Some of my earliest projects were figuring out methods to quickly get recordings from the field to library, and I think the pipeline is pretty clean, but that said, to master in a way that holds up to my standards, it still takes about twice as much time mastering as it does recording.
Keeping the pipeline and my over all library in mind, it's all influenced the way I record.
One of the first things I ask myself when I'm out exploring in the field is:
Is this worth it or not?
I've been finding more and more: No
The more bulk I make in the field the less likely I'll want to spend time mastering the session. Setting up for a recording and working around obstacles takes time away from the rest of the recording day. It's always a game weighing how much time I have and if it's worth spending that on a recording or exploring for a better opportunity.
The more bulk I make in the field the less likely I'll want to spend time mastering the session. Setting up for a recording and working around obstacles takes time away from the rest of the recording day. It's always a game weighing how much time I have and if it's worth spending that on a recording or exploring for a better opportunity.
Will I be able to record this again?
Most of the recording I do involves jumping in my car, driving to remote places and seeing what inspires me. LA hasn't been the most recording friendly city so it takes a lot of effort to make something really pristine. I'm always weighing is this something I could come back to later, or is this going to become a missed opportunity?
Ambiences are always really hard in this regard. I'm constantly passing through different unique landscapes and always have a difficult time deciding if it's worth pulling off the road and hiking into a trail or field with all my gear, setting up, and recording a minimum of 10 minutes.
When you come back to a place in another season or another year at the same time, the place is often times different, so what really matters? I still haven't decided if this is a matter of inspiration, motivation, or value.
What do I have the least of right now?
Again, this is probably a product of spending most of my recording time while also traveling, but I'm constantly weighing time against content. I also tend to leave very early in the morning and the further I travel the less energy I have. If I leave at 4am, by 8pm I'm likely getting sleepy and need to get back home so the likelihood I'm going to stop and record night ambiences.
Especially when there's a lot of gear in the car, I'm probably going to hike most of it in with me to the location. This gets really difficult when you have a 20lb bag and need to climb a mountain for instance. Now the decision is, do I really push myself to get my gear up the cliff at the risk of loosing out on the rest of the recording day because I'll be too tired afterwards?
I feel like a lot of recording involves making background calculations to figure out how to make the most of the situation you're in.
Especially when there's a lot of gear in the car, I'm probably going to hike most of it in with me to the location. This gets really difficult when you have a 20lb bag and need to climb a mountain for instance. Now the decision is, do I really push myself to get my gear up the cliff at the risk of loosing out on the rest of the recording day because I'll be too tired afterwards?
I feel like a lot of recording involves making background calculations to figure out how to make the most of the situation you're in.
How do I want this to sound?
These days I'm working backwards rather than forwards. I'm not sure when it changed, but I realized I'm trying to think about what I want the final product to sound like and making decisions around it.
A lot of this dictates how I'm performing so it's easier to group performances when I'm mastering and what qualifies rolling or cutting. I'm still trying to build better habits, but ideally I want to slate a lot of the context used in the metadata, perform at least 5+ versions of an action, tail slate if necessary, then move on to a new action in a new recording. Currently I'm still pretty sloppy.
The thing I'm still trying to figure out is what the process is for figuring out how I want something to sound. So much of the process feels instinctual, but there's a few nodes of consistency.
If I hear something and it's really impressive and big and bold, I find myself trying to make the biggest boldest version of that sound through recording maybe using a combination of close mics, contact mics, lavs or whatever needs to happen to make it sound bigger than life.
Sometimes things just catch my attention like a nice solid door and in those instances, I tend to try to capture the recording like I would experience it by placing a mic where my head would be, and maybe catching a couple perspectives if the reverb is nice.
I wish I had a proper process how I make those judgement calls, and that's certainly something I'll be reflecting on more while doing future recordings.
A lot of this dictates how I'm performing so it's easier to group performances when I'm mastering and what qualifies rolling or cutting. I'm still trying to build better habits, but ideally I want to slate a lot of the context used in the metadata, perform at least 5+ versions of an action, tail slate if necessary, then move on to a new action in a new recording. Currently I'm still pretty sloppy.
The thing I'm still trying to figure out is what the process is for figuring out how I want something to sound. So much of the process feels instinctual, but there's a few nodes of consistency.
If I hear something and it's really impressive and big and bold, I find myself trying to make the biggest boldest version of that sound through recording maybe using a combination of close mics, contact mics, lavs or whatever needs to happen to make it sound bigger than life.
Sometimes things just catch my attention like a nice solid door and in those instances, I tend to try to capture the recording like I would experience it by placing a mic where my head would be, and maybe catching a couple perspectives if the reverb is nice.
I wish I had a proper process how I make those judgement calls, and that's certainly something I'll be reflecting on more while doing future recordings.
On that note, my choice in mics is so situational, I don't even know how to write about it. I think there's a constant weighing of how much maneuverability I need, what complements the sound I'm recording best, and what's going to give me the most variety of options in post.
Lately I'm gravitating to a DMS rig, a pair of Lom Usi and a geofon. I've been finding that this combo can do just about everything I need... but I'll probably write a post about this kit down the line
I think I want to make less recordings, but want to make those recordings really distinctive and unique. I want to record longer ambiences and only keep the best parts; record things in ways that really feel bold or record really clean organic samples that effortlessly blend into the background.
I guess simply the goal is boutique over bulk.
The beauty of being part of a community of learning is being able to pose the same question and get so many different correct answers constantly challenges my mindset and makes me rethink how I'm doing things. I'm looking forward to crystalizing what matters for me and experimenting with some of the other approaches and better define what makes sense to me.
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