[00:00] Hey guys, I'm Freddie Wong and you may have noticed something different about me. I got a haircut. So today I'm going to tell you how to hold a boom. Hey guys, I'm Kevin and I'm going to show you how to hold a boom properly.
[00:14] There's typically three pieces involved in a boom pole setup. The boom pole, the microphone itself, and the cable, which is not here right now. An important thing to keep in mind is which direction the microphone is pointed.
[00:26] This is usually good. This is usually not. So what you want to do is use this boom pole to get the microphone roughly over the actor's head. You're usually pointing down at them.
[00:38] And you want to make sure you're staying out of the picture. So the easiest way to do this is to hold the pole pretty much level to the ground. You want to go out in this parallel line because that helps keep you out of the frame. If you hold it like a fishing pole, not only do you look like a complete perv, it will
[00:51] usually get in the shot. And then there's a couple other positions that are generally okay and acceptable. You can have it over like this which is usually how you do it but you can also kind of rest on your head or on your neck without looking like a total idiot That all okay The other thing you want to keep in mind is minimize your movement Be really efficient
[01:09] with how you're moving the boom. You don't want to be doing, you know, this all the time because because that'll happen. When you're booming a dialogue scene with two characters, you typically want to get the boom upright in between the two of them so you can just
[01:22] Just rotate your wrists to get both actors on mic, like this. Another thing to keep in mind is your boom pole will be adjustable in length. You typically want to have the pole out longer than you actually need it, because if you're
[01:34] holding for a shot and you're way down here at the end of the pole, it'll get really heavy. But if you give yourself a little more extension, you can hold the pole a little closer to the middle and it counterweights itself a little better. Thanks for watching, guys, and if all else fails, make sure the power is turned on.
[01:48] It's really obvious, but it's important that someone says it anyway.