A CHALLENGE: Booming in the rain. How can I do this?

J

Jackson Miller

Well-known member
Ok, I have a problem and I challenge all of you you fine people to help me come up with a solution. Has anyone ever boomed with a mic and pole etc. in the rain? Here is the thing, this rain is actually FAKE rain. The film I am directing is using a sort of rain machine. Now this causes a serious audio problem. There is a significant amount of talking in these shots. So... what can I do? I was thinking about constructing a sheild or umbrella for the mic. of course water droplets hitting this will be loud and we don't want that. So I was thinking we could use towels or fluffy sponges to absord the impact and get rid of the sounds. Of course this all needs to be mounted on a boom pole some how and this is also very heavy I am guessing. Is there a standard method for this that I am overlooking?

Supposing I did rig up something like this, is my equipment in danger? Will moisture still get in to my mic and how bad is this? If there is moisture in the connections is that bad? Also I am borrowing the boom pole. I am thinking I better just use a PVC pipe for these scenes because I don't want to drench this guy's boom pole. So yeah... what to do?
 
You don't want to get water into your mics, but there's a fairly simple solution. The standard technique is something like this:

First, seal the mic in a (non-lubricated) condom. Seal up to the cable so you don't get water sneaking in where the cable enters the XLR connector.

Now put the mic in a full zepplin system. To cut down on the noise of the rain hitting the zep, wrap it up in hog's hair (furnace filter media, check your local hardware store).

As water soaks into the fur of the zep, it's going to get heavy, so you'll have to dry it off periodically to avoid getting too heavy for the boom op / pole. Get an extra fur for the zep and it'll cut the downtime a little, have a PA hair-drying one fur while the other is in use.

This all assumes of course that the rain machine (or even the rain itself) isn't going to overpower your dialog.
 
Just to add to Jordan's post, try to get a few wild takes as well without the rain. Plus if the shots somewhat far away sync can be faked to a small extent. Although if there's a lot of dialog, it's CU, and/or the rain ends up being too loud, you may just need to get your actors to do ADR in a studio later.

So do you best with audio during the shot, get clean wild takes, then review both of those options in a studio, and then consider if ADR is needed or not.
 
Thanks for the snappy response. Couple questions and a couple problems however. Won't the condom affect the noise? And make it sound strange and... rubbery? hah. But seriously.

Major problem: I do not yet own my own blimp. I'm not sure I can find one to borrow in time and once again, I wouldn't want to get someone elses equipment wet. Some nice ideas here. Any more ideas? How about sealing it off with the condom, putting a softie over that, and maybe some of that fur stuff, and then a small umbrella with fur on top of it. PVC boompole.


Man this is going to be hard. My actor says "Just adr it. A good actor should be able to do ADR just as well in a studio as on set." He is stubborn and thinks he knows everything. lol. But on set adr could work for some stuff. I really don't wanna resort to that though.
 
Gohanto said:
Just to add to Jordan's post, try to get a few wild takes as well without the rain. Plus if the shots somewhat far away sync can be faked to a small extent. Although if there's a lot of dialog, it's CU, and/or the rain ends up being too loud, you may just need to get your actors to do ADR in a studio later.

So do you best with audio during the shot, get clean wild takes, then review both of those options in a studio, and then consider if ADR is needed or not.
Click to expand...

Just saw this. Thanks for the advice. By wild take I assume you mean an onset audio recording for adr? I was thinking about that. But that sucks. Hmmmmmm...
 
Entity said:
Just saw this. Thanks for the advice. By wild take I assume you mean an onset audio recording for adr? I was thinking about that. But that sucks. Hmmmmmm...
Click to expand...

Yeah, although it can be better than doing ADR in another environment days, weeks, or even months after the scene was shot. From an acting / directing perspective, the raw energy of the scene is still there and much easier to find again rather than waiting. Adds some time on the set, but you'll be much happier when you get to post.
 
Entity said:
How about sealing it off with the condom, putting a softie over that, and maybe some of that fur stuff, and then a small umbrella with fur on top of it. PVC boompole.
Click to expand...

The umbrella is just going to turn the rig into a kite, if there's any wind at all it'll
make it much harder on the boom op.

Hog's hair can have some rather pokey bits, so I wouldn't want to wrap it directly around the condom-clad mic.

If at all possible, rent a zep, but if you absolutely can't, maybe you can figure out a kind of additional softie for the back of the mic with some accoustic foam and some extra fur from a fabric shop. Then wrap the hog's hair around that to dampen the drop noise.

As for a PVC boom, I'd think there will be too much flex in PVC, especially once everything is soaking up water. I'd suggest you experiement beforehand with some weights to see if there will be an issue.
 
A zep is plastic. No issues.
The Fur on the outside dries. No issues.
Hog's hair on top of that. No issues.

Wring out the hog's hair between takes.
Done moving on.

I also wire people a lot during rain shots. Not a huge deal either..
of course dont use any kind of tape to hold it on..once the shirt is wet its a no go.
Vampires or safety pins work fine.
I usually turn the lav upside down..with a metal windscreen on it and thats fine.
If you want to take it farther use a b6 or b3 that have zero water issues. (unless a drop sits on top of the mic blocking the sound)

As far as the acoustical issues with a rain tower..
ive done rain towers with water trucks and pumps -kinda loud
rain towers using a fire hydrant for the water supply..much better.
And also numbers of times where the fire dept is hired to use hoses which seems to be
the quietest, plus there are usually so many of them that show up they have no issues
moving the truck farther away (doing more work)..etc.
 
Just wanted to say thanks guys. I actually got inspired by this whole thing to build my own blimp, boompole, and wind protection. I am also going to have a go at a BBG with the leftovers. I found some great tutorials and took a bit from each one. Once the materials get here, I should be able to put it all together in just a few hours and I am pretty confident that it will be super functional and look ok until I can get my rode blimp and ntg-3 package. I plan to use all of that stuff for the rain shots (and the blimp on all outdoor shots), because it won't cost me much if it get's ruined... which it won't. I'll use the condom for the actual mic and I am still trying to figure out what to use for the rain absorber and cover.

QUESTION:

That hog's hair stuff isn't real hogs hair is it? I'd like to make my own cover and just buy a section of the hogs hair. Any idea where I could get that and how much it would cost? Any similar, cheaper alternatives? Thanks a ton guys!
 
It's natural fibers (apparently hog's hair and coconut fibers) coated in latex or something similar.

You should be able to get hog's hair furnace filters in any sort of hardware store. I paid something like $5 for each pad (roughly 20" x 30" I think) last time I picked some up. I linked to a picture earlier in the thread if you need to know what you're looking for.

You can also get it in rolls if you need larger qualtities.
 
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