Sound for Movie Project - Advice Wanted

Jessariah67 wrote on 8/29/2004, 4:14 PM

Hey All,

Venturing out from the documentaries this winter and shooting a feature-length script. We're trying to be smart about it -- 4 characters; one location; 2 cameras (video, not film).

My big thing with this is the audio. I think audio makes or breaks a lot of indie movies, and I really don't want to spend 3 months looping a 90 page screenplay. The set is interior, so we can control things up to a certain point, but if anybody has been down this road and has some "wish-I'd-knowns" they could toss at me -- in terms of types of mics, setups, etc. -- I'd appreciate it.

Thanks.

Kevin

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FuTz wrote on 8/31/2004, 6:08 PM

My mistake. I was thinking about this "debate" between Schoeps and Neumann (kmr81) mics. Both cardioid. Schoeps being "larger" (I had an omni in mind there).

Professionnals not using shotguns indoors?
Everywhere I go, what I see is 80% of the time Senheisers 416, MKH60, or Neumanns 81s and 20% of the times these Schoeps (CMC series or MK) mics. Sometimes, a Sanken shotgun.
Fiction, television, reports, documentaries, drama, soaps, sitcoms, name it. They're what you'll find in most rental shops too.
Since people using those mics make a living out of it I thought they were pros.

And since ignorance is not a good friend, I'll sure have a look at this site and make a deeper research about all this. If anything can sound better using something else, why not use it?

Lavaliers are terrific...
IF these people do *not* move their heads too much left-right-up-down, IF these people don't wear leather or any fabric that's noisy, IF these people don't hit it when they say "personnally, what I think is..." when the mic's on their chest (ie talk about themselves and want to make a point), IF the installation is impeccable (some transmitters make boom-boom sounds when you shake'em), IF they don't carry their pet/child in their arms (still, with mic on the chest)...
If you want to hide the mike, it's even more fun. Think about a lady wearing mini-skirt and just a top moving all over the place. Where do you hide the wire?
And this is with a mic that won't drift (go with a true diversity mic).
And yes, please try taping a $5.00 mic on some chest and compare with a shotgun. Surprising how close it is, ain't it? And now, ask the person to move or to make his/her favorite dish in the kitchen...just for fun. Try it.
Good news for Sony: you'll want the Noise Reduction app thinking this will get rid of these annoying sounds. Bad news: you'll lose so much time correcting in post you'll regret that you didn't use a boom, kill the fridge, the computer(s) and the phones, put a table cloth under the dishes, muffed the shoe soles and closed the windows which is waaaaay more quicker than losing all this time in post.

Catwell wrote on 8/31/2004, 7:54 PM

scottshackrock,

The Beachtek DXA 6 and DXA 8 both have phantom power. The sign video and studio 1 products do not include phantom power.