Capturing good sound quality of a couple running, help needed

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nyvideo

Active member
I'm working on an idea for a short film about a married couple who are runners. In quite a few scenes they're going to be running in the mountains on and off roads in the wintertime with a snowy landscape.

They're not world-class runners by any means, but they are in shape. There will be plenty of dialog while they are running at a 7-9 minute per mile pace.

Can anyone suggest options for how to pick up their dialog so that it's clean and, as this is not a documentary, that the microphones are not visible?

Thank you in advance for any suggestions.

Oh, and the budget is "as low as possible," but I understand that quality costs.
 
hidden lav mics.

but you're going to need to do some testing of different methods that will give you good results but without either wind noise or clothing rustle.

look into either countryman b6 mics or sanken cos11d mics. both of those are pretty easy to hide, especially the countryman mic.
 
It really depends on what the shot is.
Ive done this type of shot sitting on the back of a camera car booming from underneath
and I've also done this with lav's.

Figure out what your framing is going to be and that will dictate which direction
you go for sound.

General rule is whenever possible a boom is going to sound better than buried lav's
so if you can get a boom in, thats the way to go. If you cant get a boom in
you obviously switch to wires.

Pretty simple.
 
And if that stuff fails...

Have them jog in place right in front of a mic stand. Record all the dialogue of the thing at the same pace as when they were out running.

Get shots of behind them, so you can replace dialogue easier. Side shots, far away wide shots, artsy nature shots with them out of focus, anything that can help you replace the dialogue as needed.
 
All good suggestions, which should be combined. Boom as best you can, wire 'em up with lavs, get a huge library of dialog wilds and then be prepared to ADR anyway.

The biggest problem is noise from the crew. It's hard to keep them quiet when they have to continuously move with the talent.

Do a lot of testing - and you don't need the talent initially.
 
These ideas are helpful. I didn't consider all of the difficulties of getting dialog while running. My initial expectation was to have several long shots of them running on a path with virgin snowfall. Clearly that would be impossible to boom.

On the other hand I can imagine the difficulty of wireless lavs bouncing as well as rubbing against either clothing or skin.

I had hoped to have many shots of them running together (with a bit of huffing and puffing) talking, telling stories, and discussing their lives and issues. This was planned to be at several different times and different weather conditions (bright sunshine, cloudy, and even while it is snowing).

Perhaps the best solution might be a conceptual modification. Maybe the runs are the breaks and the dialog takes place back in the cabin, hotel, lodge, etc. Hmm...

Thank you all for sharing your useful information and experience.
 
We shot and boomed out the back of a hatchback car for a couple riding on bikes. It worked out pretty well. It would probably work for someone running. As someone mentioned... on the trails shoot everything but a direct close up of them speaking. Lots of ways to design this scenario.
 
nyvideo said:
On the other hand I can imagine the difficulty of wireless lavs bouncing as well as rubbing against either clothing or skin.
Click to expand...

If secured properly you shouldn't have a serious problem with that. If nothing else you get proper reference tracks for ADR.

nyvideo said:
I had hoped to have many shots of them running together (with a bit of huffing and puffing) talking, telling stories, and discussing their lives and issues. This was planned to be at several different times and different weather conditions (bright sunshine, cloudy, and even while it is snowing).

Perhaps the best solution might be a conceptual modification. Maybe the runs are the breaks and the dialog takes place back in the cabin, hotel, lodge, etc. Hmm...
Click to expand...

You could start the conversations as they pull up for a breather mid-run and finish when they continue running. They can see things and stop to look at them.

Perhaps there should be a progression as they start with walking, then jogging, then running. Walking and jogging would be a little bit easier to capture audio.

As a former runner myself (my knees can't take it anymore) we usually talked while stretching before our run and cooling down afterwards; talking and serious running don't mix too well.
 
As a first shot at creating a short narrative film from scratch, everyone’s helpful suggestions have been wonderful.

I’m grappling with the same triangle of issues that every project has: time, resources, and quality.

If I had the resources it would give me the tools to boom the runners with a vehicle or a dolly on some road shooting, and if that didn’t work, I could play with a bunch of lavaliere mics until I managed to get the best sound possible. Then I could try putting the couple on a treadmill or two and CGI a background. Eventually I could get crane shots of the couple running up or down a hillside and even the helicopter shots of them running on the pristine snowy field. All the voices would be laid down in post.

All of this works out fine in my imagination.

My thought, though, is that there might be other ways to accomplish the same end product with a less resource intensive approach.

So, while I’m still considering which of these many good ideas I can use and how to do that, I’m going to be working to recreate the project in a way that doesn’t require too many difficulties with the audio.

Thanks again.
 
First off I would not try to get anything BUT the dialog while your shooting dialog. You can add huffing and puffing later. You also are going to want to do a bunch of Foley. We have done a number of running pieces and you do want to hear the feet, but you don't want to try to record them "live". Though if you get the chance to get a bunch of wild running takes for sound (no dialog) that would probably be useful. Treadmills make a lot of noise, and it's mechanical, and indoors, you would be adding more problems than solving.
 
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