mic configuration when recording offscreen wildtracks on set

[jimmycat]

Let's say the protagonist is in the toilet hearing his parents fight in the living room, and we're shooting in an actual apartment. When recording these wildtracks of the fighting on set, apart from the close miking(lavs on parents and booming), would you also set up a mic or even mics in the toilet for the reflection? 

[Ian Berman]

In my opinion, yes, if possible. In post I sometimes do this sort of thing rather than using IRs, popularized by Walter Murch as "worldizing." I would certainly love to have this option, from a post sound perspective!

 

However, on set it's often impossible to corral the rest of the crew to stay silent and respect a few takes just for sound. I therefore try to anticipate if it's possible before asking. Ideally this should be planned for in pre-production, and when plans change given time constraints, wild sound is (and frankly often should be) the first thing to go.

 

I would be interested to hear people working on larger-scope projects chime in, if time is ever built into larger sets for worldizing sounds.

[Olle Sjostrom]

Yes! I'm in favor of miking pretty much everything that could be useful for anything. So if the situation you describe would arise, I would at least try to put a single mic up at a little distance 

[Constantin]

Yes, but I definitely prioritize good quality sound over perspective. 

[Mobilemike]

Yes absolutely if at all possible. Just label accordingly. 

[Izen Ears]

Only two reason I can think of to do it:

 

1. It sounds cool and you feel like preserving it.

 

2. Post will use it.

[Philip Perkins]

On some jobs with sound-hip directors and sympathetic crew I got to do a lot of this at one time, mostly long ago.  And then there are the rest of the jobs...  I feel like production sound has become a lot more "compartmentalized" in recent years, partly due to how fast and how far the producers want to move nowadays (meaning that it's important to stay focused on getting all the talking for a scene and there might not be any time or will for anything extra), and advances in the tools post has available anymore.  These include far more sophisticated reverbs and ambiance-making tools, vastly increased SFX libraries with smart search tools and greatly expanded tools for fixing and shaping sounds.  So while the editors of a film I mixed in 1984 were very grateful to get extra dialog and sfx recorded wild in our locations, in more recent times there has been much less interest in that kind of thing being done by the PSM on location during the shoot.