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location sound mixer


Eric Perez

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I've done a few projects in the past for social media where the production insisted on using iPhones. I've used a smart slate, but the main problem was the variable frame rate from the iPhones. Even though it stated that it was recording with 30fps, it used a variable frame rate, which led to a lot of out-of-sync audio in the final release (though it might also have been an error of the rookie editor). 


Try searching the web for "mobile phone external audio drift". There are some fixes that seem to work for some of people, but you might want to talk to post/production and tell them about potential problems.

Short clips might work, but as soon as you roll a few minutes, the drift will become a problem. 

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As others have mentioned, phone video tends to be unreliable and frame rates may vary.  I think this happens because they will drop or delay frames if the phone processor gets bogged down, much like streaming video is designed to be tolerant of bandwidth bottlenecks.

I would suggest feeding audio directly to the iPhone and having them edit with that, and if they want more channels than the iPhone can record, they can use Pluraleyes (or some other form of waveform syncing) to sync specific clips as close as possible to the cuts where they are used.  (i.e. they should sync to finished cuts when the picture edit is locked, not to takes in the pre-edit).

Whatever happens, I strongly advise a test shoot for whatever workflow and length of shot they intend to use.  Make sure they know that their choice of camera is going to give them headaches in post.

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