Help! Recording in moving vehicle.

[track2side2]

Ok, now maybe this has been address before, but I really need some help and some specifics.
I am currently underway in setting up to shot my short film Coachella Bound. Now the issue is... 80% of the film occurs in the car, while they drive to the festival. Now as far as filming goes, I have constructed some mounts for the hood and sides of the car (suction based, this is a 2 cam shoot). But recording the audio stumps me. The windows will be closed. The car will be driving (on empty highway). How to I properly mic the car to get the best sound, while trying to reduce engine noise, tire noise, etc. What equipment do you recommend? mixers? whatever. I was planning to take audio to the camera to relieve some stress on post. Help!

Andre

 

[PerroneFord]

Audio to the camera might be tough.

I've seen some lovely examples of using LAVs on the sun visors or on the dash. Pretty easy to rig, and should give really nice coverage. I'd be sure to get plenty of sound without dialog to use later for noise reduction.

You might also use some external mics to get exhaust, tire noise etc. for Foley purposes.

Hopefully, the pros will step in here in a minute and give you 100 ideas for how you can do what you want to do.

Frankly, I'd put a good recorder on the floor of the back seat, and roll to that. You can ride the route in the back seat monitoring levels for a rehearsal while setting levels, then just put the unit in the back or under a seat for the real thing.

 

[MontrealAudio]

This video demonstrates pretty much what you are talking about however in a convertible. Might be some stuff that is helpful to you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mtt_yV60MHM

I would go with lavs and tapped to the talent under the first layer of clothing, using the triangle tape method on each side of the lav itself. GL

 

[puredrifting]

Hi Andre'

If you can a hold of the most recent (October '08) issue of www.hdvideopro.com magazine, I wrote my Audio Assist column on this exact subject. I won't re-type the whole article here but suffice it to say, the Sanken CUB-01 is what you want to think about.

Dan

 

[Huy Vu]

In a film I did with a driving scene (one passenger), our sound person sits in the back, pushes the boom to the front so that the mic points away from the engine and he simply rotates the mic for coverage between the driver and passenger. Barely any engine sound at all.