Pros and Rentals saying Shotgun for Indoor Dialogue

P

pernell91

Active member
i have been going into stores and talking to rental places and over and over again when i say that i am shooting indoors dialogue and ask for a hyper like the oktava mk012a, which nobody seems to have heard of, they look at me like i'm crazy and start trying to sell me on various shotgun mics

these people rent and sell to industry pros and i seem to be the only one, based on my dvx readings, that has any idea what a hypercardioid even is?

is there a reason for this? is everyone out there incompetent? is there a hypercardoid marketing conspiracy on the forum? i'm just getting tired of the weird looks and feeling stupid when i go into stores and ask for something that might as well be depleted uranium from the looks on their faces

?
 
which companies are you talking to? The reputable ones are Trew, Coffey, Location and Gotham.

If they even mention a Sennheiser ME66, run, do not walk to the nearest exit.

The best place to get the Octava's is sound-room.com. You can use the DV discount code to get either 5 or 10 percent off your purchase.


Phil
 
i hear sennheiser at most places

it is what most of the film school grads out here shoot with on their stuff

but most of them only look to see what the microphone inside the BBG is when i ask what they are shooting with
 
The problem is that at the high-end, Sennheiser makes great mics (the 416 has been an industry standard for many many years). Sennheiser tried to position the ME66 as the next step down from the 416, but the quality isn't there. And, I'm guessing that, given the way it gets pushed, Sennheiser is either spiffing or giving nice high commissions to those that sell the ME66. If you need something in the lower price range, look a the Rode shotguns, or even better, look at the Audio Technica 4073a. Or even better still, look for a used 416 (though the pickup pattern on the 416 is pretty tight - you'll need a good boom op to swing it appropriately).

Phil
 
thanks for the info - and yeah its the me66 not the good senns that are getting pushed

but i am in this case looking for a mic for interior dialogue scenes - are you saying i should go regular shotgun rather than hyper when you talk about the rode and ATs?
 
and i did talk to Trew and they had never heard of the Oktava, they had to do a google search to see what it was
 
This is probably a good opportunity to say that the shotgun for exteriors and hyper for interiors is just a "rule of thumb" Last month I was shooting on the general assembly room of the UN and the microphone that did the trick was the Sanken Cs-3, on the other hand there are more patterns than the Hyper for interiors, specially very quiet locations. I use a KM183 (omny pattern) a lot, when I shoot in very quiet situations and I'm doing sitting int and I know the shot has no head room. I like the sound of omni microphones and how little color they have.
Octava has a very good reputation of being a "good sounding microphone for that price".
I will still use my Neumann Kmr81 and my Cs3 over the Octava in most of interiors locations, because they sound better all around, but they are a lot more expensive too.
This "rule of thumb"depends of many factors from the acoustic of the location to the head room of the frame. You really need to listen and pick up the best mic for every situation-location.
 
again thanks for the information

i just dont have the ability or means to whip out an arsenal of mics and test them all out in a given space

i kind of have to pick an interior mic and exterior mic for now and run with them for the next little while, and rent others accordingly as demanded by the situation

and money is an object here so "great for the price" is a consideration unfortunately

don't get me wrong i appreciate and am taking in all of your comments but i am at the stage where i kind of need a couple "swiss army knives" and when my expertise and budget have both expanded then i can get surgical
 
for the price of octava you can take one of feilo usa microphone , which come with 3 capsules( hyper , cardioid and omni) and do excellent work for interiors , same microphone as sontronics sts-1 and use the same capsules as peluso microphones
the mic already has low cut filter and attunuation , what make it exellent direct to camera without pick up boom handling rumple , or just place it on the camera

http://sellbuyexchange-film-videoaudiogear.googlegroups.com/web/chiniz%20mics.zip-%20cheap%20and%20good%20for%20boooming?gda=3BBRPl0AAADUpwjBi0ECN90JJuiVE3oOiHBfPgsSoq2Y2TCPwDAI5mG1qiJ7UbTIup-M2XPURDR7FpGzTfhqSSB-jigbkFoI8FVGMt3SQ_loZn50glS-C-kZ8n8DnXWKiVsSprjut2A&gsc=GktIxRYAAACSjuTv7J6Htq0rMjhIysmY9pmI1qD38G08ONb6YfjJaQ
 
That links to the same page and in safari anyway it comes out as a bunch of unreadable text.
 
ptalsky said:
The reputable ones are Trew, Coffey, Location and Gotham.

The best place to get the Octava's is sound-room.com. You can use the DV discount code to get either 5 or 10 percent off your purchase.

Phil
Click to expand...

Is there any reason why you didn't mention B&H? Just wondering.
 
because the brain wash people got to buy only in sound for film places :-)
by the way , i got excellent prices lately at PROFESSIONAL SOUND SERVICES in NY .
B@H is an excellent place , sometimes cheaper then others , sometimes not .
very good after buying service if you need to return something as it doesnt work properly but you need to know exactly what are you looking for when you buy .
 
I totally agree about Pro-Sound, Eric is great guy and they are very helpful. About B&H, not so sure. Their sound people are no that good. I found they know more about music stuff than sound for film.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top