# avLab notes

## 20210929

Let's get started learning stuff, playing around with stuff, and developing cool new ideas for things we can do for Harvard's faculty and students.

Most things in AVLab are going to involve sight and sound. Recording things that are visible and things that make sounds . . . then editing those things together.

In many of our meetings early in the term, we'll choose one or two tools in the AVLab toolchain and perform "studies" with them.

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- n[studies](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Study_(art), [etudes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Étude), rehearsals, warmups, practice, class, etc.
- some classic studies by Durer/Michelangelo/Leonardo. Durer's hands and pillows, say
- Chopin (via Soundcloud or Youtube)
- screentests? rehearsals?

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Today we'll work on three key elements: the camera, the microphone, and lights. We'll have a little etude on each.

### THE CAMERA

let's make a camera--actually, let's make several.

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### THE MICROPHONE

Today we received two new, relatively cheap mics. And we want to test them out to see which of them might be a good one to buy multiples of. So we want to compare these mics to each other and to mics we already have as we try to make this decision.

And if you are willing to help, this will actually offer you an AMAZING opportunity to learn a bit about microphones.
* the differences between dynamic and condenser microphones
* how proximity affects sound--both amplitude and quality (and does so differently for different mics)
* how direction affects sound, how off-axis rejection works differently for different mics
* maybe even a little bit about polar patterns
* we'll also get comfy with the faders on the Zoom L12

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* shots and links to the two microphones we got today---maybe even all the mics
* insert shot of the L12

**mic polarity patterns:**
*

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### THE LIGHTS

Here's the thing. There are always already lights in your composition. Sometimes light is created by things we plug in to electrical sockets, things we tend to call "lights." But there is light reflecting from every surface that surrounds you---even the ones that look dark! In fact, the same surface (a screen, say) can look like "white" in one context (a screen before you turn the projector on looks white), and then "black" in another context (once you turn a projector on, the unilluminated spots now look like black). So it's a relational thing. You aren't adding a finite number of things called "lights"--you are manipulating the relationships between the infinite array of lights that are always already emitting or reflecting light in your scene.

If you hop into Blender or C4D and add a 4x4 softbox to illuminate an object sitting in darkness, this is the same as taking a subject illuminated by Matrix-like infinite white and surrounding them in a black box, cutting a 4x4 hole in the side.

In the "real" world, you can decide whether you want to add a little intensity to your key light, or, rather to add a little "negative fill" to the fill side with a piece of black fabric or paper.

As we play around today, it will frequently be convenient to use the things we plug into walls, because they are easy to see and understand, and it's easy to perform "studies" with them because we can be quite precise about their positioning. But the principles we learn are going to translate into domains where you don't necessarily plug in or otherwise control your lights.