Getting great audio in a car.

T

thematthewbone

Well-known member
Hey everyone,

I have searched the forums and checked for some info on this but could not find anything that really enlightened me...

I am shooting some dialogue intensive scenes in a car for the first time. And I am wondering with my setup what my best options are...

My kit includes:
oktava mk012
sennheiser me66
and a sennheiser evolution wireless kit.

do you guys recommend lavaliers or i know everyone would say boom if possible...but i am not too sure how to boom a little compact car...any recommendations/experiences would be much much appreciated.

thanks in advance.
 
{sigh} Many replied here numerous times to this request. It's OK though. Here goes again:

Mount your shotgun under the dash panel pointing up. Wireless is OK. Sit in the back seat if possible.

You could try and mount the Octava on the ceiling of the car. I wouldn't, but you could.

Lavs go inside the instrument panel up against the clear plexiglass. You could try & mount the lavs along the edge of the closed sunvisor. It will get in the way as the camera will probably pick it up there if interior is light colored. Same issue (worse actually w/ Ocatava).

Bottom line the windshield is your worst most evil enemy and will produce phase crap audio. You will think it sounds fine there, due to the pressure of the shoot.

Once in post however phasey windshield audio will make you want to slit your wrists.

Use both, Me66 and lavs (on two different tracks).
 
Is there a reason why you can't mount the lavs on the people? We have done it numerous times, including Reno 911.
 
Lavs.

And tow the car if possible. A really low flatbed is even better. Put the engine sounds in later.
 
i dont think you could possibly have searched properly, because there are some great threads about this!!!

you can put lavs on the people, but seatbelts can often cause problems, maverick, so it depends on the situation. I've used lavs on people in cars often, too. Works great sometimes. Maybe not always the best solution if you looking for drama type audio as opposed to docu or reality type audio.

i wouldnt put the oktava high, i'd put it low, facing up. an x/y pattern behind the gear stick has worked great for me in the past - even if you have to go x/y with different mics it will probably sound nice because the car is such a clean environment with the windows up.

i'm not such a fan of lavs in the dash, but to be honest I havent experimented with this a huge amount because Oktava always just sounded better.
 
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