For my first shotgun mic...

pfista

pfista

Well-known member
So, I've decided on the Rode NTG 2, basically because it's cheap and I think it would be good for me. I'm going to order the kit from B&H that comes with SM3 shockmount, and then buy a boom pole. Would the K-Tek KE-79 be okay? I really don't know what type of boom pole to get.

-Pfista
 
Its kinda on the short side - what are you using it for? For ENG work where you'll be close in most of the time anyways I think it would be a fine pole, but I'd go longer for feature or documentary work where you may want your boom op out farther (wider shot). The gitzo 13' carbon fiber is the most suggested pole for a budget - gb 3560 I think? something like that. I believe it runs around $370. Good for you for getting a boom pole! Too many shotguns wasting their time sitting on top of the camera. May also want to look into some windprotection (ktek - kzep for instance) depending on where you'll be booming.
 
Well the first place I'm going to be using it is in a parking garage which is close to a highway, so i'm sure there will be mild wind, and the highway has some noise too. But yeah, I don't really want to run over $200 for a boom pole. If that's even possible... I mean, I'd be buying a pole that costs more than a microphone! Are there ones that aren't carbon fiber, but cheaper?
 
If you really want cheap - get a broom/painter's pole. There are even adapters on ebay to convert a painters pole to a boom pole thread. Now there are of course downsides - the painters pole wont collapse as small as a boom pole, handling noise will be more of an issue, and weight and rigidity could be an issue. Do a search on using a painters pole and decide if its right for you. As for the cost - The best way to make sure your boom pole is cheaper than your mic is to buy a schoeps :)
 
Honestly dont know much about the aluminum Gitzo's - looks nice for the price though. You will get more handling noise out of an aluminum pole, but a careful boom op can overcome that. I'd just be sure that that is plenty of length for what you are doing.
 
the gb 3650 is $269.95, which is the same as the mic. I'll think about the one you suggested (since it's not $370). Thanks for your help!
 
Cool, yeah I might go for the 9 foot one. I mean, should I really pay another $100 for three feet?
 
yeah I think I was wrong on the price - 260 is right. Sorry! I'd pay for the extra 3 feet, but $100 could be useful in lots of other areas as well.
 
Like towards light because I still haven't gotten any yet! But does that extra three feet really make a $100 dollar difference?
 
It depends on what you are doing, but you will be very surprised where that extra 3' will get you. I took the advice of others when I got mine and I have not looked back. Jeff is right though, $100 may be useful somewhere else. It does save money in the long run when you buy the right thing the first time...
 
I know that another member of this forum has the much more expensive k-tek 9' graphite pole, but uses his 12' gitzo just as much because the extra reach is very very helpful.
 
Yeah if you are that strapped for cash and dont have anything invested in lights (I'm assuming you are shooting outside in full sun the entire time), I'd save the 100 and buy some work lights. Heck I might even go as far to just get a painters pole and buy more worklights - make the whole thing a DIY affair. I'd rather have a long painters pole and a bunch of worklights than a short graphite pole, and one ARRI to work with. Of course a bunch of Arri's and a nice long graphite pole would be ideal. But budgets are budgets and as long as you are aware of what the drawbacks are I would go quantity over quality for the basics like a pole and lights. How you use them will play a big part anyways. Mike's right though - when you can buy right the first time you'll save some money.

-note that I wouldnt chose quantity over quality for effects and other things you could possibly just write out of the script - just the basics like light and sound.
 
Yeah, well I was looking at the parking garage we are thinking of shooting in, and it's going to be a nightmare with out any lights, basically because it's open so to light up the talent it'll be way over exposed in the background, and the other way around, itd be way to dark to properly expose the background. We've been looking for locations for several days and I'm starting to get really discouraged... I'll probably end up getting the mic and shockmount though. I do have like a 3 or 4 foot mic stand pole for recording that I could use. What work lights should I get?
 
the cheapest ones with the tallest sturdiest stands you can find - another thing to look at is color temp - I believe most worklights are going to be 3000K or so and wont mix terribly well with the 5600K sky. Unless of course you wanted really warm talent or a really cool sky. Gelling the worklights would just kill thier output and gels arent free. I'd experiment with what white balancing to tungsten and letting the sky go to a moody blue feeling. If you want some in depth response on what to do with your limited budget in the lighting department, I'd make a new post in Lighting - read the stickies there first though and do some searching, the worklight thing has been done so many times theres going to be some good info already posted.
 
Well I ordered the ntg 2 with a sm4 shockmount and the gizto 9' last night... so it should be coming in 3-5 business days! And I'll start looking into the whole DIY worklights thing. Thanks!
 
the sm3 fits on camera and on a boom, is it too late to switch out for that?

Did you get the carbon fiber pole?

What kind of XLR did you get?

Do you still have budget to get sony 7506 headphones? $100
 
pfista said:
Like towards light because I still haven't gotten any yet! But does that extra three feet really make a $100 dollar difference?
Click to expand...

Well, think of it like this:

Your pole loses about an inch for every knuckly as you need to leave an inch inside to keep sturdy.

After that you need about 3' of pole to hold over your head.

That leaves less then 6' of distance to keep your boom op off camera. Imagine a 6' radius semi-circle from your talent to off screen. Six feet is enough for 90% of shots and 99% of ENG stuff but for the remaining time you come up lacking the $100 willl seem cheap.

Creatively you can usually find some way to get the shot but it will involve sacrifices of shot composition, sound, and/or time.

Lastly, sometimes it helps the boom op to actually have some boom pole behind them for balance and sometimes adjustment so the more length you have the longer your boom op's arms can last and the more swiftly he can work the shot.

Cheers
 
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