Bad audio can ruin an otherwise good video. If you plan to add music, sound effects and/or spoken soundtrack over the top of your moving images in postproduction, then it doesn’t matter about background sound when filming. But if recording sound in the field is important, then your microphone should be as close to your subject as possible without conflicting with background noise.

Options:

• Position a second phone near the sound source.
• Use an external microphone. Such as the Rode VideoMicro Compact On Camera Microphone.

Set up an indoor recording booth

Sound travels in all directions and bounces off everything it can. To make a cleaner recording you need to reduce the amount of sound that is literally echoing around the room. Anything soft will absorb the sound and it will not bounce back.

Try making a ‘recording booth’ from cushions and bedding. Don’t forget to put a cushion behind you.

It’s surprising how much unwanted sound this type of cushion arrangement reduces.

The editing process can remove some unwanted noise and clicking sounds. This will optimise and enhance the recording. Some of this can be done on Filmora and iMovie. There are other programs you can use if you need more advanced sound editing capabilities, for example, Audacity and Reaper. But it is much better to get a ‘clean’ recording in the first instance rather than try and improve it in editing.