Recording Sounds with a Dictaphone

    For my Psychoanalytical film I decided that as part of it I would use exaggerated diegetic sounds within certain scenes to try and enhance the feeling that the visuals would be giving. In order to actually enhance the diegetic sound I would need to record the sounds I intended to enhance that are made by certain actions that would occur in the film e.g. a door opening, the sounds would then need to be enhanced or modified and added into the film. One method of obtaining these recorded sounds is to use a dictaphone, which can record sounds at close proximity. Once the sounds are recorded they can then be modified and enhanced then edited into the film at a later point to exaggerate the diegetic sound within the film. One problem with this however was that I had never used this piece of equipment before and it was rather awkward to use at first, even after reading the instructions on how to use it, the buttons were somewhat confusing and it took me a while to figure out how to begin recording sounds and playing them back, as I didn't realise that the record button needed to be pressed twice to actually record as pressing it just once only gives a preview of what the recording will sound like. I also had problems whilst recording as I was unaware that the volume on the dictaphone needed to be turned up quite high as it affected how loud the recording would be so that set me back trying to get the right volume as I had to constantly re-record sounds that were too quiet, as well as having trouble hearing the sounds unless the volume was turned up even while I was wearing headphones when using it.

 Even with the initial problems with using the equipment, after a few attempts and practice with it I quickly learned how to use it properly and I managed to record the majority of the sounds I required for my film, I will be using these sounds as enhanced diegetic sounds within my production as an aid to the visuals of the film. The use of the Dictaphone was actually quite easy once I figured out how to record the sounds and navigate the digital menu system, also once I knew about how to adjust the recording volume it made acquiring the sounds much easier and by using headphones I could hear what the sounds being recorded much clearer. Another issue with the Dictaphone I found however, was that the SD memory card that was provided with it was somewhat "defective" as it didn't register as being an SD card when inserted into the Dictaphone so I couldn't record anything onto the card as it didn't register that the card had even been inserted into the device. The issue was resolved however as I needed to simply replace the SD card with my own from a digital camera which ended up solving the problem as it registered the SD card this time and created a separate sound folder in the cards memory so I was able to record the sounds I needed.