Audio on the deck of a cruise ship

A

acentofante

New member
Hello!

I was wondering what some of you would use to capture audio if trying to do an video interview on the deck of a cruise ship. I will be on a mid sized cruise ship traveling around the world and part of my job will be to do pick up interviews all over the ship. There two main issues, wind and the drone of the engines. I will be shooting on a panasonic GH2. I have a Rhode video mic pro as well as a Zoom H4n that I could use with a lav or shotgun. What would you recommend to get the recording as clean as possible and then what software would you use to further clean it up. Unfortunately I dont have any examples as I wont be getting on the ship for a little while and once I am on it, it will be hard to get equipement!

Thanks
 
Honestly, everybody on the ship knows it's noisy. As long as you have good wind protection and capture understandable audio you have succeeded.
 
unfortunately it isn't for the people on the ship but for a produced promotion for the program (education based, I just used cruise ship because it best describes the environment)
 
You should at least have the Deadcat VMP softie for your VideoMic Pro, and some Remote Audio Micro-Cat windscreens for your lav. Try to pick areas of the ship for interviews that are less windy, and have less ambient noise (from engines and other stuff). Ideally you should have a better quality shotgun with a real high wind blimp system.

Question about stabilization... I have the GH2 as well. Do you use anything to stabilize the camera for handheld shooting?
 
acentofante said:
What would you recommend to get the recording as clean as possible and then what software would you use to further clean it up. Unfortunately I dont have any examples as I wont be getting on the ship for a little while and once I am on it, it will be hard to get equipement!

Thanks
Click to expand...

I like Izotope RX 2 advanced. but it's around $1300.00 I believe. I know the RX regular is affordable but I've never used it. Should get it best you can at the source. Buy a pre amp it will help quite a bit with clarity. Sound Devices mix pre will work. Shotgun in a blimp if you have someone to hold it.
 
Currently the shotgun on board is the Azden SGM-1X shotgun

I mostly used a monopod on my last voyage... was fast, simple and great for stabilization when in the field
you can check out a few of my my more recent videos to get an idea of what I am doing... all field shots were a gh2 on with a monopod
we had shot all these interviews indoors but really want to move them outside because of the amazing scenery

http://www.acentofante.com/index.php/workvideo
http://www.acentofante.com/index.php/blogarchive
 
You could engage the "low cut" on your Zoom unit; if you need to deal with further engine hum, you can attack it with EQ in whichever editing program you decide to use.

Lavs might be a better choice for the on-deck stuff (?)...

GJ
 
iZotope RX either regular or advanced will most likely do the job. Advanced just gives an unprecedented amount of tweakability that most novices won't benefit from, so the regular version is fine. RX is the best solution out there for most folks, because it allows you to isolate and pinpoint remove problem sounds. Droning engine noise will be easy. Most wind noise can be trimmed with a high pass filter...just be careful not to remove too much bass or the voices (especially male) will sound thin. A little goes a long way.

I recently shot a promo video at a dude ranch and got a fair amount of wind noise, but since its evident that its windy, I think a little bit is fine. Though I did later test my Rode Blimp with dead wombat fur and it completely killed all the wind noise, unfortunately didn't have budget for crew to help with boom mic. So, get the best physical wind protection you can...especially out on the sea. Since there are a ton of students on board you could probably get some help, just give them clear instructions on how to do it and listen to make sure you're getting a good recording.

Lavs with rycote or other fur protection would probably be fine...

Also, a suggestion for the footage. I watched one of your videos and parts are pretty shakey, you should use a stabilizer plugin, it would help immensely. I use coremelt lock n load with great results.
 
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