Couple things I picked up in the past 4 months. I wasn't personally boom oping but from second-hand experiences, I came up with these few points which could help you guys on a shoot:
Duties of a Boom Operator:
Consistency in tonality.
Today we have no clue what shot will be edited against what other shot and I know from personal experience mixing that consistency in production sound saves hours of time for the dialogue editors/mixers. What I mean by this is 2 characters having a conversation in a scene that will be edited back and forth between sentences and may be shot with both a boom and a lave. You don't want one character to have too close a mic and the other character to have too far a mic - bad sound. Takes the listener out of the story even if they don't know what is wrong with it.
Do your homework.
Look to see what may be needed for the shoot and bring it. You never know what will come up or what you may be asked for. Bring extra gaffer tape, an extra and spare of pretty much everything you will use.
If you go into recording a scene with the mindset that 100% of what you do on the day is what will end up playing back in the theater, you have the correct attitude as a boom op. Do not let yourself be bullied around on set. Fight for your sound. I wholeheartedly believe that the oscar for best sound went to Hurt Locker over Avatar simply because they were able to use every bit and piece of dialogue recorded on the set and about one or two lines were ADRed. The rest is production dialogue. In my experience, the original dialogue will always sound more convincing than any ADR that can get done on the film - fight to keep the best quality of sound you can on set and it pays off not only in production costs but in the acting and general cohesiveness of the soundtrack of your film.
Grow eyes in the back of your head.
I had the privilege to work beside one of the best boom ops in the industry and he was able to walk backwards down skinny alleyways and streets with cables and things strewn about the ground and he expertly stepped and missed and didn't trip or fall over once - it was amazing. I don't know how he did it but it's probably something you could learn, too.
Stay alert.
Especially when you're shooting on film. Film is extremely expensive when you have to re-take things and you don't want it to be because of a mic coming into frame or a mess-up on your part. It's a lot more expensive than hard-drive space or DVDs when you're shooting on HD.
Work out.
Do incline benching. Do cleans. Work out your triceps a LOT. I don't know if any of you have had to paint a ceiling, but it's TIRING!!! Holding your hands above your head alone is tiring - then add a 5 - 10 pound pole with a mic on it up for 12 hours and you get my point.
Mics can be placed in more places than on a person's shirt or on the end of a fish pole.
Plant mics around the scene. Under the actor, behind a bush out of sight, under a table or plant - somewhere. Sometimes adding a bit of this mic (certainly don't use this type of mic as your main and only mic taking dialogue on set) can add a realism not able to be gotten from conventional reverbs or digital processing in mixing.
Always have breath mints with you.
I witnessed an A-List actor nearly fire someone who got too close after having a meal which had garlic on it while he was placing a lapel mic. Always bring breath mints or gum if you're going to be close to talent. You have to get pretty close and personal to the actors when you need to mic them down their shirt, etc.
Don't wear brightly colored clothing. Wear quiet clothing - preferably shorts.
Yellow is possibly the worst color you could wear. It distracts the talent when you're running around in their peripheral vision. Also, loud clothing could ruin the sound in a shot when you're moving about getting the mic closer to the subject.
Always always always always listen back to your recordings as you're recording and not after the day is over.
I can't stress this enough. I have seen whole days ruined because the main character had a cell phone he was using as a prop but it was actually on and causing beeps and interference in the mic - but the actor promised it was off and the boom op trusted him. Nevertheless, it was on and it was a hefty mess-up on the sound guy's part and all the dialogue from the day (about 10 mins worth) had to be re-recorded.
(if I think of more I'll update this.)
Duties of a Boom Operator:
Consistency in tonality.
Today we have no clue what shot will be edited against what other shot and I know from personal experience mixing that consistency in production sound saves hours of time for the dialogue editors/mixers. What I mean by this is 2 characters having a conversation in a scene that will be edited back and forth between sentences and may be shot with both a boom and a lave. You don't want one character to have too close a mic and the other character to have too far a mic - bad sound. Takes the listener out of the story even if they don't know what is wrong with it.
Do your homework.
Look to see what may be needed for the shoot and bring it. You never know what will come up or what you may be asked for. Bring extra gaffer tape, an extra and spare of pretty much everything you will use.
If you go into recording a scene with the mindset that 100% of what you do on the day is what will end up playing back in the theater, you have the correct attitude as a boom op. Do not let yourself be bullied around on set. Fight for your sound. I wholeheartedly believe that the oscar for best sound went to Hurt Locker over Avatar simply because they were able to use every bit and piece of dialogue recorded on the set and about one or two lines were ADRed. The rest is production dialogue. In my experience, the original dialogue will always sound more convincing than any ADR that can get done on the film - fight to keep the best quality of sound you can on set and it pays off not only in production costs but in the acting and general cohesiveness of the soundtrack of your film.
Grow eyes in the back of your head.
I had the privilege to work beside one of the best boom ops in the industry and he was able to walk backwards down skinny alleyways and streets with cables and things strewn about the ground and he expertly stepped and missed and didn't trip or fall over once - it was amazing. I don't know how he did it but it's probably something you could learn, too.
Stay alert.
Especially when you're shooting on film. Film is extremely expensive when you have to re-take things and you don't want it to be because of a mic coming into frame or a mess-up on your part. It's a lot more expensive than hard-drive space or DVDs when you're shooting on HD.
Work out.
Do incline benching. Do cleans. Work out your triceps a LOT. I don't know if any of you have had to paint a ceiling, but it's TIRING!!! Holding your hands above your head alone is tiring - then add a 5 - 10 pound pole with a mic on it up for 12 hours and you get my point.
Mics can be placed in more places than on a person's shirt or on the end of a fish pole.
Plant mics around the scene. Under the actor, behind a bush out of sight, under a table or plant - somewhere. Sometimes adding a bit of this mic (certainly don't use this type of mic as your main and only mic taking dialogue on set) can add a realism not able to be gotten from conventional reverbs or digital processing in mixing.
Always have breath mints with you.
I witnessed an A-List actor nearly fire someone who got too close after having a meal which had garlic on it while he was placing a lapel mic. Always bring breath mints or gum if you're going to be close to talent. You have to get pretty close and personal to the actors when you need to mic them down their shirt, etc.
Don't wear brightly colored clothing. Wear quiet clothing - preferably shorts.
Yellow is possibly the worst color you could wear. It distracts the talent when you're running around in their peripheral vision. Also, loud clothing could ruin the sound in a shot when you're moving about getting the mic closer to the subject.
Always always always always listen back to your recordings as you're recording and not after the day is over.
I can't stress this enough. I have seen whole days ruined because the main character had a cell phone he was using as a prop but it was actually on and causing beeps and interference in the mic - but the actor promised it was off and the boom op trusted him. Nevertheless, it was on and it was a hefty mess-up on the sound guy's part and all the dialogue from the day (about 10 mins worth) had to be re-recorded.
(if I think of more I'll update this.)
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