Several years ago, I took my daughter to the opening of Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. Fifteen minutes into the film the audio started to crack and skip (No fault to the film maker) due to some malfunction in the theater. The movie itself was beautifully displayed on the screen, but the sound was so horrible that we finally left the movie and asked for a refund. It made me realize that sound is not just one of the many components to a video, but probably the most important component to get right to keep your audience’s attention.

I asked several colleagues about the critical components of a self produced video production and rank them in priority of what is critical to making a successful video. Audio was consistently ranked number one with lighting number two. It’s clear that audio can make or break your production. The reality is that most self produced videos ignore audio completely – just look at 95% of YouTube videos.
Webcam microphones just do not cut it for sound quality. If self produced video makers would spend $35 at Radio Shack for a simple PC microphone, the production value would increase dramatically. The key being – getting the microphone as close to the sound source as possible.

Even some corporate self produced videos forget about sound. I was at a large tech company waiting in the lobby and noticed a Sr. Vice President being filmed by a small consumer hand held camera without lights, tripod and a microphone. I can imagine the audio sounded awful and only amplified the fact of a shaky camera and poor lighting. How long would you watch a video with poor sound?

Another example of poor use of audio is when companies use Captivate or Camtasia for screen recording “how to” videos. Captivate and Camtasia do a great job, but cannot make the audio any better than the microphone that is used.

On your next self produced video production, invest in a good microphone. $400 can purchase a decent wireless microphone that can handle most self produced videos. If you don’t have a $400, there are several good USB microphones that are good enough for a video blog or screen recording for under $200.

In a future post I will talk about setting up an echo free room on a budget to make your audio even better.