The sound technician or the production sound mixer has the responsibility of the technical and artistic quality of the sound recorded in a film production, tv show or commercial shooting. Aside of him, his department is completed by one or more boom operators. The sound technician principal duty is to decide which microphones to use to record any given scene according to the special needs of each one. Those microphones, that can be either wireless and with cable, are connected to the sound recorder that he has to operate, adjusting the sound level and equalizing during every take, in order to preserve the levels and the quality of the sound during the scene. Apart of that, he has to pay attention to the monitors to prevent the boom operators from getting the boom in the frame or casting any shadows. If required to do so, the sound technician synchronize the cinema camera and his sound recorder with a time-code generator so both will have the same, which will be very helpful for the editor and his assistants, specially in multicam shootings. When the shooting in one location is over , the sound mixer may ask the assistant director for one minute of silence, in order to record a wild track of the ambient tune, which could be used in the final mix of the sound. At the end of the day, the sound technician will give to the producer the correspondent sound report where are correctly specified the names of each take related with the shooting script, the technical set up described in detail, and with all the annotations that could be useful for the editor.
The boom operator is the person in charge of operating the microphone on set. He is under the command of the production sound mixer who will indicate him which microphone to use in every scene or take, depending on the special requirements of each one. He will also be advised by the sound technician about the distance and slant he should put the boom in. He will use the fisher boom to control the quality of the sound even when he is far away from the actors. He should pay attention to not have the microphone been seen by the camera, as well to not cast shadows on the actor faces nor on the backgrounds. To do that he should look to the monitors and ask for marks to the camera operator or his assistants. In order to follow with the microphone all the dialogues between the actors he needs memorized the script, because he will have to move the boom between all the actors taking part in the scene. He has to decide where to stay according to the position of the camera and its possible movements, the source of lighting, the movement of the actors inside and outside the frame, and keeping in mind the wind direction or the source of possible disturbing sounds in order to avoid them.