Hi, I’m Robert Maxfield.  For over 30 years I’ve made a  career out of recording sound for radio, television, documentaries, TV series, and motion pictures.  At no time did I ever read a book or watch a tape on how to do what I do.  Everything I have learned was on-the-job-training.   It was fun, because I felt like I was pioneering into a new territory.  But, it was very hard work and it took a long, long time to get ahead of the learning curve.  If I had been able to learn my craft through a well thought out and organized sound course I could have moved to the top of my professional field in far less time.  That is why I have created The Art and Craft of  Recording Sound.

I have worked with over 25 Academy Award winning actors, directors, and producers on some of the best projects in Hollywood.  I was on the production sound team that was Oscar nominated for Best Sound in a Motion Picture for ‘Twister’.  And most recently, I have been on the team that records the dialog for the phenomenally popular AMC network show, ’The Walking Dead’.   We have been nominated by our peers at the Cinema Audio Society for three years in a row.

Whether you’re the designated family videographer, a film student, a documentary filmmaker, an independent filmmaker, or a professional film worker that wants to take your sound recording abilities to the next level, this course is for you.  I’m going to teach you everything I know about recording world class production sound so that you can apply these techniques to your projects, and/or vault your career as a sound mixer, boom operator, or utility sound person to the top of the list with the best professionals in the business.

Now keep in mind this is not your ordinary sound recording class.  You’re not just going to learn the ordinary techniques of how to set up a mixing panel, a recorder, and some microphones.  You’re not just going to learn about what type of equipment to buy, and where is the best place to buy.  You’re going to learn what it takes to record world class sound the way the Hollywood professionals do….from the script up.

Truth be told, recording production sound has far less to do with what recorder and mixing panel you use, and a lot to do with the choices you make within the environment in which you record the sound.  You can have the best equipment in the world, but if you can’t get the most appropriate microphone in the best position, and the noises dampened or eliminated on your set, then your sound is going to suffer.  I’ll teach you how to deal with those elements, and if they really are a problem when it comes to the end result.

On the art side of the recording track, it has less to do with in-your-face levels, and everything to do with your dialog and sound cutting from one non-distracting frame to another.  After all, we are in the world of moving pictures, and the art behind what we do lies in the most important part of the whole filmmaking process…the emotion….the dramatic performance.

Every project starts with a story, whether written down or not.  This story, not just the words and descriptions, but this story and the emotion that will come out of it, will determine the success of a motion picture.  Whether it’s 5 minutes long, or two hours long, you have to have a great story and the compelling emotion it drives.  In my course you’ll learn how to analyze a script to determine what equipment and techniques will be needed to record the best and most appropriate emotion for each and every scenario.

You’ll learn how to prepare locations for better recording conditions.

How to investigate sets for areas of concern or improvement.

How to understand and work with lighting.

How to utilize the Grips and their equipment to shape light and mount equipment.

How to work with cameras, lenses, and frame lines to better boom scenes.

How to work with props to ensure quiet bang free tracks.

How to work with wardrobe to get noise free dialog from radio microphones.

How to work with the hair department to install lavalieres in the actors hair.

How to install radio microphones on actors under the varied circumstances.

How to boom a scene.

What type of equipment is best for any given project.

How to set up that equipment for your shoot.

How to mix the different tracks of sound.  And, what to do with the files, or sound, once captured.

This is a course in recording World Class Sound.  It is an art, and it is a craft.  And that requires implementing any and all of the techniques and tools available under your budget, to record tracks that are rich, dynamic, emotionally engaging, and consistent enough to cut-like-butter in the editing suite.