I went on Saturday afternoon to see "The Adjustment Bureau," a romantic thriller starring Matt Damon and Emily Blunt. What's it about? Never mind. What I want to talk about is a technical point.
Do you know what a boom microphone is? Here,
here's a behind-the-scenes picture from the production, showing the crew filming Matt Damon:
A man on the crew holds it at the end of a pole, just above the shot. At least it's supposed to be just outside the shot. Once in a great while, when watching a film or TV show, you'll see a little black blob in the frame just at the top, just for a half second. That's the boom mic.
Usually you see this on television, where production values are lower and shoots are faster. In Hollywood movies, almost never. When it does happen, someone is supposed to notice. If the cinematographer doesn't see it during the shot itself, someone will see it when they review the shots at the end of the day. And they surely
must see it when the edit the freaking movie.
In "The Adjustment Bureau," there are three scenes in which you can see the boom mic. At least three scenes, because then I stopped counting. I stopped counting because I walked out, and I got a refund, because by that time I couldn't keep my eyes off the top of the frame.
For the record, you can see the mic:
- Several times during the washroom scene where the film's romantic leads meet. In fact you can see it in both stars' close-ups, which were of course done separately, so I think that means the boom mic operator was high all day.
- In the first scene in Union Square, where you see John Slattery, just as he sits down on the park bench with Anthony Mackie.
- In the scene in Central Park halfway through the movie, where Slattery and another actor have stepped outside the restaurant and are wondering what to do, there it is again.
WTF??!? Was this movie made by amateurs? Was anybody watching the dailies? Was anybody looking when they edited this film??
It's inexcusable.
Update: In the comments in
this review of the movie, viewers from around the country complain about the boom mike. Some say you can see it
ten times.