Hypercardiod or omni for interviews

B

Bobonli

Well-known member
I'd like to start conducting some interviews and have a couple of mic-related questions. Most of the interviews will be indoors and I will be the sole cameraman. I was going down the path of an AT 4053b hypercard on a boom stand. I've tried this with a shotgun and understand the set-up and the limitations of using my shotgun indoors; hence the idea to go hypercard.

I have a wireless lav kit but it sounds a little un-natural compared to even the shotgun.

Today I watched a stand-up interview where the camera-op used an Electro Voice handheld mic. I did not get a chance to see how she framed the shot so my question is:

1) How close do you have to get with the handheld omnidirectional to get good sound? My concern is that if you have to have the mic right up in the speaker's face, it will show in the image, which I don't want.

2) Should I go back to my original idea of using the hyper on a boom stand? The major drawback of this is lack of mobility and it really looks imposing compared to the stick mic.

Thanks for your advice.
Bob
 
With omnis you "eat" them, get them as close in a possible. A hyper is a much better idea when you do not want the mic to be seen, but having it static (on a stand) will not get you optimum quality; a boom-op will yield much better results. Another option, since interviews rarely have a great deal of movement, would be to use wired lavs. My question is if you are doing obvious interviews why do you object to the mic being seen?
 
unclebob6958 said:
With omnis you "eat" them, get them as close in a possible. A hyper is a much better idea when you do not want the mic to be seen, but having it static (on a stand) will not get you optimum quality; a boom-op will yield much better results. Another option, since interviews rarely have a great deal of movement, would be to use wired lavs. My question is if you are doing obvious interviews why do you object to the mic being seen?
Click to expand...

I'd prefer that the mic not be seen. Just my preference, I find it distracting.

Having spoken to the person who shot the scene I watched today, the mic was in the frame and she hopes to edit it out. She suggested using a lav!
 
Omni for interviewing (sometimes cardioid).

Don't "eat" the mic. - this is bad practice and very aggressive and you don't get a good interview.

The best method is to hold the mic. vertical with your hand about waste height half way between you (the interviewer) and the interviewee. If the interviewee speaks quietly, move the mic. closer to them.

This is proper interviewing practice (not seen too often as intervirewer are not taught mic. technique nowadays and are just sent out to do it) as taught to me by Rupert Neve many years ago when I was doing my bit in radio.
 
I have a similar debate myself with interviews - mic on a stand from above or lavaliere?

I usually go with a lav since it's a fairly easy setup and it doesn't matter if the interviewee shifts back and forth in their chair (I've irritatingly had the audio level drop off mid-answer when recording them with my shotgun on a stand).

Now, I did just learn from Barry's Sound DVD that my shotgun microphone (Sennheiser MKH 416) may in fact have been my problem. He recommends using a hyper-cardiod mic indoors instead of a shotgun. I haven't tried it myself yet, but I will for my next interview. To be safe, I think I'll have my lav (ECM-44b) on channel 1 and the hyper-cardiod on channel 2. I'll let you know how it goes.

Peter
 
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