Did I use the wrong type of mic?

I know, I wish they would not have shot this scene, with the night club music on, but it's going around interviewing people, not a movie set unfortunately lol. Well he wants to reshoot it to try to eliminate more background noise. He said that I used the wrong mic by using the hyper and should have used the shotgun. Maybe I was wrong, maybe I should have. I just went with the one that had the least amount of background. I also showed him some samples of why a hyper is better indoors, and tried to explain it, using drawings of pick up patterns, and what not. He said that on a shotgun, the speakers voice is much more crisper, since a shotgun is more directional, which is true I've noticed. He said that that crispness is more important to sell his movie.

So he told me that during the reshoot, to use the shotgun. And he's the boss, so I will.
 
If youre going into a night club with music blasting and expect it not to get recorded is the equivalent as jumping in a swimming pool and not expecting to get wet. the jump from hyper to shotgun will be minimal as long as the music is loud.
 
+1 on the dynamic plus mic pre as the others have said.

a shotgun is more directional, that just means that its going to record sound from a narrower cone,.... but it still records what's in that cone so if the whole of that cone has music going through it like the rest of the room,... you wont hear much of a difference.

i used to record (shitty) MC's who didnt feel comfortable wearing headphones, they were used to being on stage, not in a studio,.... so i'd play the backing track over the monitors,.. nice and loud, and point the back end of a dynamic at the speakers,...

of course, it picks up what's coming out of the speakers, but its at such a low level as to be negligible in the final mix.

dynamic+mic pre is the way to go, and try and have the ass end of the mic pointing at the source of the sound. whether the signal to background noise ratio will work in your situation, no idea, but i think it'll sound better than a shotgun.

you still have to get in close though so the director will have to shoot closer if he doesnt want to see the mic,... just ask him what's more important to "sell" his "film" :D
 
Proximity is your friend in a noisy environment. To improve the volume of the subject's speech over the music in the background, you'll need to get the mic very close to him - like just an inch or so away from his mouth. As others have mentioned, a dynamic mic with a cardioid pattern works well in this circumstance. Not going to be able to keep it out of shot though - it will need to be very close. Think of all the news shots you've seen of a reporter doing a streeter during a parade or demonstration and visualize where they were holding the mic.
 
Thanks I know what you mean. I told him that but he wants the mic out of the shot. But he is also more fearful now and may change his mind, when we get on set.
 
ironpony said:
Thanks I know what you mean. I told him that but he wants the mic out of the shot. But he is also more fearful now and may change his mind, when we get on set.
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Unfortunately his desires cannot trump Mother Nature's physical laws of acoustics. Sound does what sound does, whether he likes it or not. If he wants to shoot in a noisy environment, he has to position the mic so that the volume of the sound he wants is higher than the volume of the sound he doesn't as they both hit the microphone. The closer the mic is to the source of the desired sound, the louder it will be with respect to the surrounding background sounds. The way Hollywood achieves such good sound for conversations in a crowded club is by setting it up so that everything going on in the background - background conversations, the band playing, etc - is all done pantomime with the only actual sounds being the dialog being recorded. All the rest of the background noise and music is added in post.
 
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"crispness" is mic dependent not pattern dependent. We used to use a shotgun for some FX recording and it had a huge low end, then there is the ME66 that has no low end. At this point you probably need to do it his way but don't kill yourself if it still doesn't come out the way he wants because he has a fundamental misunderstanding about sound. On the other hand he may love it even if you don't because it was his choice so it has to be the right one.
 
ironpony said:
So he told me that during the reshoot, to use the shotgun. And he's the boss, so I will.
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Just proves that office cubicles aren't the only places to find pointy-haired bosses. They can't (won't) understand logic, and are constantly amazed that wishing won't change the facts. Sorry you have to put up with him. Just make sure you CYA.
 
Tell him to watch the out-takes from movie "10 things I hate about you" the out takes have a lot of scenes shot at a prom and a house party, which shows how Hollywood does it.

Cheers
 
In this case, sound is more important then image (for the interview parts), so... handheld mic it will be...
And if the director doesn't agree, sent him to me... And I'll make him think different :-p
 
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