Best mic for "fireside chats"

Lloyds

Lloyds

Active member
We are doing a small-time video series. It will be a cozy living room scene (fireside chat-type) where an adult talent is reading and telling stories to two kids on either side of him/her. All three are on the couch during the story-time.

I want to know which mic is best for this indoor, living room scenario. There will not be much movement other than jittery kids moving around on the couch, but no getting up and walking around, etc.

I want a mic that I can mount on a boom (without a sound guy). I would like to get the mic located in the proper place and not worry about it during the shoot. I want to be able to point it to the location and pick up sound from all three talents.

I was going to put the adult talent telling the stories on a wireless lav, but would that even be necessary? Would the overhead boom/mic combo do the trick?
 
Whether or not you'll be able to cover everyone with one mic depends largely on two factors: how close together are they sitting, and how wide is the mic's pickup pattern. If everyone's sitting close together in a tightly-framed shot, you should be able to cover everyone with a single hypercardioid or cardioid mic.

If the adult is sitting down, then no, a wireless lav is not neccessary. A wired lav, on the other hand, would be a very good idea. Wired lavs are far less expensive than wireless kits, and a good deal more realiable. I would probably go for a wired lav on the adult for channel 1, and a hypercardioid on a sturdy overhead boom stand for channel 2. In post-production you can mix the two mics to get the sound you're after, although you'll need to keep an ear out for phase issues.
 
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