One aspect of this project that is new to me is the audio recording. Rather than hire someone, I decided it was something I wanted to learn so I invested in the equipment and off I went...Sound is incredibly important to films and/or multimedia presentations. Try watching a movie with the sound muted. If you're like most people, you will very quickly loose all interest in the film...no matter how good the cinematography. I started the audio project by making a comprehensive list of all the types of images and scenes that I have shot and will be shooting in the vineyard, crush pad, cellar, etc. Then I thought about what sounds I would need to go with those scenes such as tractor motors running, pickers talking in the vineyard or a wine press. Since harvest 2008 is now over many of the sounds that I have "In the Can" so to speak are of the pickers in the vineyard. I noticed that during any break period, (such as when the tractor would run the full bins up to the flat bed truck) they would frequently sharpen their picking knives. The sound of the steel blades on the sharpening stones was an interesting sound that I recorded on several occasions.
The photo above is me with the new Marantz Pro Digital Recorder with a shotgun mic on a boom pole. This is my basic field setup. When I don't need the reach of the boom pole I use a small handle grip that is lighter and much easier to point. Once the raw digital audio is captured I load the files into my computer and Sony Sound Forge software helps me tweak it into something special. Sound Forge is to audio files what Photoshop is for image files. Audio has been a real learning experience for me, but I really like it...
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