Boom Truck Operator Job Description

Basic Training and Skills for a Boom Operator

A boom operator is a member of the sound team that captures live sound on movie and television sets. The title refers to a type of microphone that is called the boom mic. Basic training and shoulder and arm strength are required for working as a boom operator, as the microphone must be held up for long periods of time.

The operator must sometimes twist the pole back and forth to angle the microphone placement, as well as bracing the boom mic over his or her head. The operator may be able to catch each actor's words by changing the placement of the microphone. Proper stance is required to avoid arm, neck, or back injury, and it is important to have strong arms and shoulder strength.

The sound mixer is usually nearby when sound is being recorded, so boom operators need to be able to communicate easily. The mixer listens to the sound coming from the boom microphone and can give valuable information about how the recording is going. An operator will occasionally serve as a sound mixer, and will be able to hear what the microphone is picking up through headphones.

The Life of a Boom Operator

The role of a boom operator is to place and hold the boom microphone to record the dialogue for actors during a film or television shoot and to know the basics of the use of wireless microphones and recording equipment. A typical day for Tim Lloyd, a Boom Operator who has worked on numerous film and television productions, is a typical one. The equipment truck is located after arriving on set.

He will help to organize the equipment on the sound and utility carts. Next, it is time to find the electricity. Lloyd states that most Boom Operators are contracted or free lance workers.

Once they start working on bigger budget projects, they become employees and become a part of the union. They are paid through an employment company that takes out taxes. Boom Operators can get holiday pay and build hours towards their health care coverage with union earnings.

The amount of money paid for a show or film can be affected by the budget of the show or film, as well as the studio or production company financing it. Lloyd is quick to mention that the life of a boom operator can be very hard. There are periods of a month or more where no jobs are available for someone who has been in the business for a while.

It is helpful to have a side gig that allows a Boom Operator to make ends meet until the next production job comes along. Tim emphasizes that someone just starting out on the path to becoming a Boom Operator can take any media-related job. Gaining on-set experience early will help when issues arrive.

The Boom Operator in a Production Sound Mixer

Have you ever watched a blooper reel of a film and seen a microphone above the frame? A member of the sound crew holds up the microphone. If they do their job well, you won't see the mic, and instead you'll hear clear audio when actors say their lines.

The boom mic can be held up by a microphone stand, but for most cinematic productions, the action is always moving, so the boom mic needs the flexibility andVersatility of a boom operator to follow the actors. The boom operator is an entry level job that doesn't require any film set experience, so you don't need to have any experience in that area to be considered. Once you get a job as a boom operator, you can use the experience to learn how to work on set and record audio for use in a production sound mixer.