Overcoming frustration through habits

Filming for youtube, the trials and errors of getting decent audio

Audio has been one of my biggest challenges when doing videos for youtube. Many times have I filmed lots of footage only to find out afterwards that my audio is less than useable.

I learned to deal with these upsets by developing filming habits.

My habits when filming with a microphone mounted on my DSLR

When filming with an external mic mounted on my DSLR, I made it a habit to always check the the microphone was turned on prior to pressing record. (And I'd even do a test run.)

This was after several "excellent takes" prior to which I'd forgotten to check that the mic was on.

Another one of my habits was to unplug the fridge (I'd leave the cable on the floor so that I'd remember to plug it in after I finished recording.) And I also made sure all the windows were closed.

I developed these habits as a way of ensuring that I didn't mess up my recordings inadvertently.

And because I turned them into habits, actions that I could do without having to think, they were relatively pain or frustration free.

I simply got on and did them.

Audio synching issues, how I didn't use habits to fix them

Later I experimented with using my ipad to record video while using a mic plugged into my phone to record audio.

I could then place the phone closer to myself for clearer audio.

So then the problem I had was that the ipad recorded video at a non-constant frame rate. So my audio was always going out out sync.

(One of the fixes for this is to apparently use handbrake to even-out the frame rate and then import the handbraked clip into imovie!)

Using a phone for audio with an external mic while using a DSLR for video

Rather than developing sets of habits to deal with this problem, I decided to go back to using my DSLR for recording video. But I continued to use my phone with an external mic for audio.

And this set up worked great for a long while. The phone was right next to me, and after setting the camera to record, I would then start recording audio with my phone. I then could sync up audio and video easily in imovie.

I did this for quite a while and so got used to my process.

As I mentioned earlier, becuase I was filming indoors, I'd gotten used to unplugging the fridge, closing all of the windows, and even closing the window in the hallway directly opposite my front door. These habits generally allowed me to film without any untowards incidents.

Then I started to play with instagram videos.

Recording audio and video at different times, aka "voice over" style

Doing instagram videos, I decided to film myself doing exercises outside, without audio. Then I would add a voice over when I got home.

While tedious at times, this was also pleasant because I could edit the video quickly, and then do voiceover whenever my house was quiet and there wasn't too much outside noise.

Another nice thing about this process was that while filming, I could simply focus on the exercise that I was doing. I would then review it, giving me a rest and also giving me a chance to see if I needed to redo and exercise for whatever reason (Sometimes I'm not fully in frame. Sometimes my execution leaves a little bit to be desired.)

Again, I got used to this process.

But then I decided to record audio and video together, outside using only a phone with my trusty external mic.

Recording audio and video using my phone with an external microphone plugged in

To film outdoors, with audio, I thought it would be nice to just use my phone, a tripod and a plug in microphone, the same microphone I'd been using to record just audio until now (a Shure MV88). The key difference was that I was going to record audio and video at the same time and on the same device, my phone.

Up till this video, I'd always filmed inside. I knew the things that I had to do when filming indoors and I did them. And I assumed things would work fine despite my change in approach.

Inadvertenly recording audio with zero gain

Frequently when I'm filming I get onto a role. I don't pre-plan what I'm going to say. I know what it is that I want to talk about, in this case the topic was "overhead hanging from a bar to alleviate thoracic outlet syndrome".

I had a lot of fun filming and I thought that I'd done a great and thorough job of explaining how to hang.

And then I got home and found that my audio had zero gain. I.e. I could hardly hear myself.

Fucking Shuremv88

Fucking Filmic pro.

And while we are at it, Fucking apple.

Alas, sometimes the only tools for the job are the tools that you already have.

Using audacity to amplify audio

Because I'd enjoyed filming those scenes so much, I tried to save them.

I exported the audio and tried to amplify it with audacity. Then I re-imported it back into imovie.

I thought I had fixed my problem. But, in the amplification process, parts of the audio where being clipped leading to "choppy" sound.

In the end I figured out I would be better of redoing certain sections. And if I was going to do that, I thought, sod it, I'll just redo the whole thing.

Prior to that I thought I'd better figure out how to use my microphone with filmicpro.

Deciding to redo it all

Playing with my phone and external mic,what I found was that if I set the mic gain in the shure app, then switched to filmic pro, the gain was fine. However, as soon as I finished recording, the mic gain got reset to zero. So, at the end of each recording I had to go back into the shure app and repeat the process.

I did a check on google, but Google didn't offer me much in the way of anything that was helpful.

I thought of trying the mic with a different video app, but then I would have to pay for the new app. (And free alternatives didn't were limited in function). Part of the problem was that I wanted to film in a square aspect for instagram, and filmic pro allowed me to do that. Strangely, while you can take square photographs with the iphone camera app, you can't film square videos.

I was stuck with what I had. And when I thought about it, it wasn't that big a deal. The only time it would be a pain is if I forgot to reset the audio gain prior to pressing record.

And so I figured I could overcome this problem by developing a new set of habits.

Developing a new set of habits for filming audio and video with an external microphone plugged into my phone

Developing new habits feels similiar to how I write short pieces of python code to automate procedures on my computer. With habits, I automate certain processes that I do. I'm still doing them, but it requires less mental efforting because it is a habit. It does itself.

And so the set of habits I trained myself to do was to first check the gain in the shure app, then switch to filmic pro and do a sound check, then press record.

After finishing a segment and stopping a recording, a repeat the process so that my audio is set for the next recording.

I simply repeated this each time, and it became a habit.

I'll simply have to make sure that I refresh that habit the next time I do something similiar.

Reducing future frustration

Note that initially I thought, what a pain. But once I made up my mind that I could turn it into a habit, it wasn't that big of a deal.

With this set of habits in place I could simply get on with filming. And the nice thing was, when I got home, and downloaded my video to my computer, the sound was great.

As a side-note, you can see that video here: Simple tips to improving hanging and dealing with thoracic outlet syndrome

More on habits and overcoming frustration

Because of covid, my usual job teaching yoga at the gym was put on pause and I got work making pizza and pasta at a friend's restaurant.

The Frustrations of learning different dishes in a restaurant

My first few weeks there were very stressful even though we were only doing take-out because I wasn't that comfortable with opening a dough ball into a pizza base. And I didn't always get the quantities right. And I often overcooked or broke a pizza, sometimes more than one.

Eventually I learned. I got comfortable with making pizza. I basically turned the making of each pizza into a habit. I didn't have to think about how to do it, I just got into doing it, responding as appropriate to variations in dough, oven temperature etc.

Defining a series of steps to habitualize

When we started dine-in, I then had to learn another dish, a meat and cheese platter. And again I got frustrated, mainly because I didn't know the right way to do it. (And I resisted learning the right way.) But then I realized I simply needed to learn it, so that I could get on with doing it without getting pissed of about it.

Part of that was breaking down the making of that dish into clearly defined steps.

And this is more or less the same with dealing with my new audio requirements.

Doing things even better the second time around

As mentioned, I went out the next day, a little sad that I had to redo everything. But then I just got on with doing it. I checked the gain in the audio app then changed to the video app and test the audio gain. If that was okay, I got on with filming. And actually, I think I actually did a better job the second time around.

Each time I stopped a recording, I did the same thing, set the gain, checked the gain and then pressed record again.

The benefits of good habits

Turning the process into a set of habits made it a whole lot less frustrating. When I got home, I downloaded everything then stuck it all in imovie, and guess what. The audio was perfect. Well not perfect, there was traffic noise in the back ground, but for what I was doing it was fine.

Getting rid of mental noise

The thing about habits is that we don't have to think when we do them. There may be some adjustments required, but basically habits allow us to turn off the thinking part of our brain, or they allow us to focus on other things.

Perhaps the more important point is, when we learn something well enough to turn turn it into a habit, we can turn of the mental "compaining" that goes with trying to figure out how to do something, or the frustration that occurs because we don't know how to do something, or when a series of steps required to get a desired result seems like a pain in the butt.

Making habits may be a lot easier if you clearly define what it is that you are trying to do.

How to create useful habits

With filming, I had to figure out what to do to get loud-enough audio. Once I knew the steps I could exercise them until they became habits.

Working at an Italian restaurant, the trick was learning how to make each dish. That could mean breaking the process down into a set of clearly defined steps. Once I defined the steps, I could practice them until they became habits. As a result I can then make any dish that is ordered without frustration.

Note there may be many ways of doing a dish. The important thing is to learn a process. Then turn it into a habit.

The nice thing is, you can always adjust those steps later if required.