Atmos recording

For the sound-to-picture exercise, I've been recording atmoses to put to the 'No Country For Old Men' clip. From what I've learned in workshops, and also from reading Ric Viers' 'Sound Effects Bible' religiously (get it?), I decided to use the technique of 'worldising' for one atmos. I set a Rode NT4 up on a mic stand, which I placed roughly head-height of someone sitting down, and recorded the sound of a television playing from another room. This I thought would fit for the apartment (having not seen the film, I don't know exactly where the clip is set), as it's likely that late at night, someone nearby will still be awake and watching television. For authenticity, I put The Big Bang Theory on, being one of the only American programmes on at that time.

Later, I took the Rode to the Adsetts building to record an atmos for the corridor. I placed the Rode in two different places, one at one end of the entrance to the building, and the other near to the vending machines, again as this is something I'd expect from an apartment block/hotel in the USA. The recording sounds good, but has had to be edited quite a lot because, even though I was recording at 10pm on a Wednesday night, a lot of people were still walking to and from the Learning Centre - I'll try to find less-busy locations from now on.

I bumped into a friend while I was setting up, and he found it funny enough to take a picture and upload it to Facebook:

Luckily, though, he's also given me a production photo. I had the microphone facing away from the machines because it gave the sound closest to what I was looking for. Facing the machines didn't sound ambient enough, and in the clip, the camera is facing away from what I imagine to be a corridor with vending machines and/or air-con.