How to best record group conversations at dinner table?

[henryqiu]

Recently I had a couple of gatherings with old friends. We had about 10-15 friends chatting and joking while sitting around a dining table in a separate room in a restaurant eating and drinking. I documented a lot of laughs and fun and conversations using my Panasonic TM700K camcorder and its built-in surround mic. In post, I tried to use volume control and EQ to make all the voices (when they were in focus of the camera, either visually or logically) sound about equally loud. Very loud sounds were suppressed to eliminate (further) clippings. Looks like this worked out just fine, overall. In the final edit, my friends sitting across the big table from the camera can now be heard clearly, and the really loud voices or sounds near the camera don't sound unnaturally too loud.

However, this is like re-creating the audio part of conversations in post, and had cost me too much time for the supposedly casual shootings. Since then, I have kept asking myself -

What would an experienced location sound pro do in this situation?


It's like a photojournalist shooting pure candid shots. So, it's not right to have any looking-big setup. The only alternative that I thought might have worked is to hang a stereo mic (my Rode NT4) over the dinner table. But I guess the stereo recording might mismatch the visual too much to outperform the built-in surround mic. I considered hanging an omnidirectional or cardioid mic instead (my SM58), but I guess its usefulness would drop fast for normal voices moving a few feet away. I also considered hand holding a directional mic (my AT4053b) to supplement the on-camera mic, but that would force me to move around with extra equipment.

So, what would have been a quick "stealth" inexpensive yet time-saving indoor setup, better than using the on-camera mic?

Any thoughts or suggestion? Thank you in advance.

 

[kgimedia]

So, what would have been a quick "stealth" inexpensive yet time-saving indoor setup, better than using the on-camera mic?

Old adage "Quick, Cheap, Good. Pick 2".

My vote would be a PZM on each end of the table. Another option would be an Omni directional lav on people that are at each end of the table.

 

[henryqiu]

My only knowledge about a boundary mic is that I think I run into them occasionally in conference rooms. So a couple questions: for a table with a lot of bottles, food, dinnerware enough for a dozen people, would such a mic pick up lots of sounds from those objects hitting the hard table surface - more than our ears hear? And would it work with soft surface (such as on or under table cloth)? Thank you.

 

[JordanBlock]

While the human ear can tune out random noise, microphones don't discriminate, they'll pick up anything that's making noise at the table. Two or three PZMs are still your most unobtrusive solution, sticking them on old mousepads or some of that crafting foam stuff can help reduce the noise right off the table a little.

Another option would be dropping a couple Zoom H2s on the table.

Wiring everyone up would probably give a better result, but I'm guessing you're not really into the idea of dropping massive $$ on a 10+ channel recorder and $200/each on lavs.

 

[zaarc]

i would go with a short shotgun mounted on the camera, so that it picks up whoever the cam is pointing at. on the second audio channel put a wireless lav hanging over the table for ambience.

 

[okyoureabeast]

i would go with a short shotgun mounted on the camera, so that it picks up whoever the cam is pointing at. on the second audio channel put a wireless lav hanging over the table for ambience.

I've done this before. In post, do your best to clip up the dialogue and then pan them around the room. You could probably get a little fancier with other post fixes, but go with your gut on how you feel.

If you have access to the actors after the fact, this could be a potentially good place to do ADR.