galbach
Well-known member
It is indeed Moleskin. It is the industry standard for hiding mics under clothing. I've been a sound guy for 20 years and it is what we use most to afix lavs to shirts, blouses and skin.
I just did a job where the hostess had to be lav'd because we were using very wide shots from a jib. I first did what we've been doing for years, clipping the mic to her bra down in the valley. Well, there is no rubbing there but the lav has to "hear" through lots of clothing and her second blouse was silk. So even though the lav was not rubbing againt anything, it still had to hear her voice through all that noise of the material making the noise that silk makes.
So after trying to make that sound right for an hour, during a break, I removed the lav from the bra, and put it on some moleskin a stuck it onto the blouse (a rule of thumb is to stick the mic to the thing that makes the noise) up high just inside the shirt. Bingo! Noise was gone! I was sitting there thinking why I always do this instead of just doing it the first time.
Moleskin is what we also use on the show Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, which I do freelance work for. Everyone who wears a mic on the show is using the moleskin method. There's a bunch of different ways of doing it. One is to make sure the talent is wearing a tee shirt and stick a strip of molesking 1 inch by 3/4 inch to the tee shirt, where it doesn't hit the top button. Some put it on the side, others down the middle. The lav lays on this and then I put a smaller strip on top of the lav to keep the outer shirt from touching it.
Another way is to stick this moleskin and lav "sandwich" to the outer shirt facing in. With lavs, it doesn't matter. They are usually omnidirectional. For NFL Films wirings of coaches, we use moleskin with a slight change. The second layer of moleskin covers the whole mic and has a tiny hole cut in it for the element to hear through. Sometimes we sandwich the lav between the shirt and the moleskin, hearing out through the shirt. It takes some experimenting to get it right and no one method works all the time.
The show West Wing is a show that uses two sound recordists and all lavs. Some are hidden in pockets, some in ties, some in shirts, some in bras. You have to get creative sometimes.
You ask how to get the mic to be quiet under clothing. That's the hard part. On movies, the sound department works closely with the wardrobe department, and has the time to do so. Mics are sometimes sewn into clothing. We always request all cotton when we can. Ask your on camera people to bring v neck 100% cotton tees (girls too). Cotton shirts, cotton ties...cotton...cotton...cotton!!! NO silk or silk like shirts or blouses.
Sometimes, you can hide the mic in the knot of the tie in the folds. Sometimes I've taped the mic to the topside of the sizing inside the tie, so it just has the one layer to hear through. What works really well is thin clear double stick wig tape. You fold a section of wigtape over the mic, and press it on the top side of the sizing of the neck tie. The double stick keeps all layers from moving independently and reduces rustle. This same methond works well in dress shirts in the double stitched section where the buttons are. Cut a small hole in the backside of that double section and fish the mic covered by double stick inbetween buttons and press again so the whole area moves as one.
We also sometimes cut a small hole just above the inside lower edge of a dress shirt pocket. You fish the lav up through that tiny hole (which can always be repaired later) with double stick clear (thin) wig tape, press the layers of the pocket to each other, again so the layers don't move independently but as one section.
Women, of course, have the valley area of the bra to hide the lav in, IF the outside material is not silk or similar. This is easy and where we usually start. Bra straps are another place to try. If you are trying to hide the mic on a women who is wearing a bathing suit or a blouse and no bra, then taping to the skin is necessary. Be sure to ask her if she has sensitive skin, as some can get a rash from tape or even the sticky stuff from moleskin. We still tape the lav in the valley area and then route the cable underneath one of the breasts around to the backside. If the actress has to turn around, then a wireless is out and it's boom time, no matter how far away the boom mic has to be. That's when ADR comes into play.
I can't give away all of my secrets from 20 years or experience, but that's the most popular and the easiest. As things don't work, you have to keep inventing things until something works. But there may come a point where you just can't get the lav quiet. That happens sometimes and there's just not anything you can do about it. That's when you drop back and punt
I hope this helps. If you have any other questions, feel free to ask.
Peace,
the sounddude
I just did a job where the hostess had to be lav'd because we were using very wide shots from a jib. I first did what we've been doing for years, clipping the mic to her bra down in the valley. Well, there is no rubbing there but the lav has to "hear" through lots of clothing and her second blouse was silk. So even though the lav was not rubbing againt anything, it still had to hear her voice through all that noise of the material making the noise that silk makes.
So after trying to make that sound right for an hour, during a break, I removed the lav from the bra, and put it on some moleskin a stuck it onto the blouse (a rule of thumb is to stick the mic to the thing that makes the noise) up high just inside the shirt. Bingo! Noise was gone! I was sitting there thinking why I always do this instead of just doing it the first time.
Moleskin is what we also use on the show Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, which I do freelance work for. Everyone who wears a mic on the show is using the moleskin method. There's a bunch of different ways of doing it. One is to make sure the talent is wearing a tee shirt and stick a strip of molesking 1 inch by 3/4 inch to the tee shirt, where it doesn't hit the top button. Some put it on the side, others down the middle. The lav lays on this and then I put a smaller strip on top of the lav to keep the outer shirt from touching it.
Another way is to stick this moleskin and lav "sandwich" to the outer shirt facing in. With lavs, it doesn't matter. They are usually omnidirectional. For NFL Films wirings of coaches, we use moleskin with a slight change. The second layer of moleskin covers the whole mic and has a tiny hole cut in it for the element to hear through. Sometimes we sandwich the lav between the shirt and the moleskin, hearing out through the shirt. It takes some experimenting to get it right and no one method works all the time.
The show West Wing is a show that uses two sound recordists and all lavs. Some are hidden in pockets, some in ties, some in shirts, some in bras. You have to get creative sometimes.
You ask how to get the mic to be quiet under clothing. That's the hard part. On movies, the sound department works closely with the wardrobe department, and has the time to do so. Mics are sometimes sewn into clothing. We always request all cotton when we can. Ask your on camera people to bring v neck 100% cotton tees (girls too). Cotton shirts, cotton ties...cotton...cotton...cotton!!! NO silk or silk like shirts or blouses.
Sometimes, you can hide the mic in the knot of the tie in the folds. Sometimes I've taped the mic to the topside of the sizing inside the tie, so it just has the one layer to hear through. What works really well is thin clear double stick wig tape. You fold a section of wigtape over the mic, and press it on the top side of the sizing of the neck tie. The double stick keeps all layers from moving independently and reduces rustle. This same methond works well in dress shirts in the double stitched section where the buttons are. Cut a small hole in the backside of that double section and fish the mic covered by double stick inbetween buttons and press again so the whole area moves as one.
We also sometimes cut a small hole just above the inside lower edge of a dress shirt pocket. You fish the lav up through that tiny hole (which can always be repaired later) with double stick clear (thin) wig tape, press the layers of the pocket to each other, again so the layers don't move independently but as one section.
Women, of course, have the valley area of the bra to hide the lav in, IF the outside material is not silk or similar. This is easy and where we usually start. Bra straps are another place to try. If you are trying to hide the mic on a women who is wearing a bathing suit or a blouse and no bra, then taping to the skin is necessary. Be sure to ask her if she has sensitive skin, as some can get a rash from tape or even the sticky stuff from moleskin. We still tape the lav in the valley area and then route the cable underneath one of the breasts around to the backside. If the actress has to turn around, then a wireless is out and it's boom time, no matter how far away the boom mic has to be. That's when ADR comes into play.
I can't give away all of my secrets from 20 years or experience, but that's the most popular and the easiest. As things don't work, you have to keep inventing things until something works. But there may come a point where you just can't get the lav quiet. That happens sometimes and there's just not anything you can do about it. That's when you drop back and punt
I hope this helps. If you have any other questions, feel free to ask.
Peace,
the sounddude
