If your camera has audio input, you can plug your microphone into your camera and the audio will already be synched up with the picture. Generally in movies, whenever you see the camera angle change, they’ve done so with the same camera, relit to fit the new angle and re-recorded the sound of the new take. By getting pristine audio for each of your angles and getting “room tone” (1 full minute of noise on the set with everyone being silent to put under the finished product to blend the audio together from different angles), you can cut together your conversation between ralph and fred (for example).
Using a “master” shot (wider shot showing the actors in their environments), a shot of fred from over ralph’s shoulder and a shot of ralph from over fred’s shoulder. In these “Singles”, get the boom mic as close as possible without showing it in the frame. My closeups tend to be with the solar plexus at the bottom of the frame to the forehead at the top in DV to maximize the image quality, so the boom can come within a foot of the actor’s mouth picking up pristine audio.
When cutting them together, I start on the master shot to show the environment, then based on the conversation, I cut to the singles in turn showing what’s being said when that is what I feel I want to see...and showing what the reaction is to what’s being said when that’s what I want to see. After you lay the room tone under the finished edit, all of the edits seem to disappear and blend together.
If you’re working with actors who are inexperienced, you can get a full conversation shot in the master with them just getting the scene done using ad lib - they make up the dialog based on what the scene is about...you won’t be using this shot that much and don’t necessarily need to use the audio from it at all. You’ll be able to find places in it where the actors are in the right positions and their lips are moving to put the dialog form the singles over the top of it. When shooting the singles, you only need them to do 2 lines and the reactions to the other persons dialog or what’s happening in the scene to be able to cut together. I’ve done lots of work with non-actors who have difficulty memorizing their lines…
If fred has all of the odd numbered dialog and ralph has the even numbered, I shoot fred’s side thusly:
have fred memorize lines 1 and 3, ralph is off camera with a script (no turning pages when they’re acting together). Fred delivers line 1, reacts to ralph reading line 2 off camera (very slight pauses for editing between each line being read - called not stepping on the lines), delivers line 3 and reacts to line 4...cut
have fred memorize lines 3 and 5 and repeat. From this, you can cut together a conversation that is continuous by moving back and forth between takes...get ralph doing the same thing with his lines.
If you can get actors who can memorize a scene and deliver it all the way through, do that...let them make the dialog their own, sometimes the actor will be able to deliver the dialog that’s been written in a way that feels more natural than what’s on the page. As long as the dialog feels honest and fits the purpose of the scene and the character, it’s going to look better on camera than anything you forces them to memorize word for word. Make sure they listen to their fellow actors and respond with the next line rather than just parroting off the lines one after the other. Making them relaxed on set and asking them how they feel about key lines their acting partners are delivering forces them to think about how they personally would react to them, this gets them reacting rather than acting.
Give the actors something to do on set as well...tell one of them privately to make solid eye contact (depending on whether this is the dominant character in the scene, the feeling can change from establishing dominance to looking for approval), tell the other privately to avoid eye contact at all costs. Have them searching for something that’s not on set, like a number 2 pencil...make sure there’s only clicker pencil’s on set. tell them to make it all the way through the scene even if they can’t find one...If they’re stationary, tell them you’ve hidden one in plain sight and to find it. This will take their mind off of their acting and make them think about the next line. Thinking is good. Perhaps you could actually put one or two things on the set and make it a competition between the two actors to find it.
How does this all relate to audio? By getting them to think about their dialog, you’ll be able to get more honest sounding dialog from your actors...by breaking up their lines they can’t memorize, you won’t dwell on a single take so long that you don’t progress in your shoot trying to get a full performance. Allow them to go back and redeliver lines they think they can do better. The better audio you get in camera, the easier your editing will be and the better your final product.
Test your equipment, tape is cheap, keep a single tape just for tests. put the mic 5’ from your subject, pointed just in front of their feet, now at their chin, now at their chest, 4’ 3’ 2’ 1’ listen for the differences with a critical ear. Point it at their back, mic from the bottom, straight on, from the side. figure out what you can and can’t do. Do the same types of tests with your camera, exposure up a bit, down a bit (called bracketing in photography), different filters, different types of motion, pans slower, faster.
play...this is a fun art form!
