Audio Components: Drama Dialogue

When it comes to recording drama dialogue, there is often a few more crew about. Because drama's are seen as an on screen world the sound recorders can't put visible mics on the characters to collect the audio. What they use instead is mics on the end of boom poles. This way audio can be recorded without the microphone being in shot and the crew being well away as well.

The Boom operator must have some physical strength as they may be holding the boom pole for a prolonged period of time and at a certain angle, so that it gather adequate audio but remains out of the shout. To do this they must work closely with the camera operator and Director of photography.

There is normally more than one boom operator because there is more than one character. Each character is assigned a mic so that the dialogue is of equal sound levels and not focused on one or the other. There may be a sound mixer on set to regulate these as recording continues, or it may be altered later on by a sound mixer in a studio, so that there is no background noise to interrupt or distract. A good use of having boom operators is that if the shot is moving then they are able to move as well, maintaining the right level of recording.

They must also take into account the background noise and loud moments, either coming from the actors shouting or loud noises from other objects.