1 - Field Recording
What is field recording ?
Field recording is using portable recorders to gather material outside the confines of the studio or the restrictions of the landline or cell phone. At the back of the farm, on the city street or on board the fishing boat; we talk to people in their own surroundings, capturing the activity and ‘feel’ of everyday life - their feelings, attitudes, prejudices, stories and experience – first-hand and unfiltered – up close and personal.
Field recording and its place at Radio New Zealand
Radio New Zealand serves up a wide variety of spoken fare ranging from news and current affairs to the imaginative feature. But a good proportion of the daily output is provided by day-part presenters using the studio, landlines and cell phones to deliver a variety of interview-based programmes, many of them ‘live’. While maximising immediacy, personality and interesting content, studio radio of this nature cannot easily generate a feeling of ‘place’. In the listener’s mind the studio is ‘no place’– neutral. The studio presenter can talk about a venue or event but is not on the spot. Landlines and cell phones can link us with the other side of the world but are unable to provide soundscapes that can come anywhere near those of field recorded programmes.
Gallery: Radio NZ producers and presenters recording in the field
Using a variety of field recording techniques, producers (mainly based in Radio New Zealand’s Spoken Features department) attempt to build programmes which have a sense of ‘place’ and are often rich in ambient sound. This ‘in situ’ form of radio, invested with high technical and production values, strives for a realism which can activate the mind’s eye of listeners, allowing them to picture a scene or event and feel part of it. In the process, listeners are often given access to people, places and events which they would otherwise never experience.
The evolution of portable recording techniques has helped to decentralise and democratise radio. In a very real sense, the portable recorder takes radio to the people and imbues their voices and stories with an authenticity and veracity undiluted by transcription or reportage.
So field recorded programmes could be described as supplying the sauce and garnishing which complements the meat and three veg of Radio New Zealand. A wider view, surveying radio around the country, finds that field recorded programmes are largely the preserve of Radio New Zealand and are, therefore, a valuable hallmark of public service radio.
The gear and what it can do
With your recorder shoulder-slung, or in your jacket pocket if it’s small enough, and two hand-held mics (one suffices but two have advantages I’ll discuss later), you are a portable recording unit capable of tackling most assignments.
Your arms are microphone booms allowing quick and easy manipulation of the mics to cover anything from the simple one-on-one static interview to a group of people moving around and talking to you and each other, set against heavy background noise.
