LB Indie Short

S

srproductions

Well-known member
Hi Guys!

I have a low-budget indie short coming up. I need to know what I should do for audio. I was thinking about renting a Sennheiser 416 and running that straight into the DVX. Will this work?
 
Hire someone that knows what they're doing.

Seriously. I'm not being flip, nor am I soliciting a job (though if you're in Northern California...). There are several reasons. (These all depend on hiring a qualified candidate): First, they will own all of the necessary equipment. Second, they will know how to use it. Third, you will learn from having an experienced soundie on the set.

For example, you ask about buying a 416 - if you and your boom op don't know what they're doing - you will not get usable sound even though the equipment is top notch. The 416 has a very tight pattern. It sounds great, but when it is off axis, it is painfully obvious. An experienced sound mixer will either bring a boom op that they know, or if you're working with a novice boom op adjust to microphones that are more forgiving.

This is just one example. There are many more. And, there is a lot more equipment needed on top of a good microphone.

Phil
 
Yeah that's true, I'd rather hire someone that can do the job well rather than have my best friend hold up the boom and tell him to do the job when he has no idea how to do it.
 
srproductions said:
What if I hire a boom op? That way, I won't have to pay a sound guy, but it will record ok.
Click to expand...

Wouldn't that mean that your boom op was your "sound guy"?

Its very common, especially on low budget shoots and doc's, to have a single person taking care of both the booming and mixing responsabilities. Although a portable mixer is strongly reccomended for this sort of a setup (you can not effectively ride your levels during the shot when using the camera's mic preamps), you can work without one. What you will need, though, is a headphone return for the boom op'. You'll also need an experienced boom op' who is comfortable wearing both hats (mixer and boom).

You should really be renting a good production mixer, though. Recording single-system sound without a portable mixer is kind of like shooting everything handheld using natural light: you can make due with a minimum equipment package, but bringing along additional equipment (tripods and lights, in this analogy) will give you more flexibility in your work and will yield more consistant results.

Experienced sound recordists don't haul around portable mixers just because they look cool. Mixers are an essential part of the recording signal chain, and many of their essential features simply are not available on-camera.
 
srproductions said:
What if I hire a boom op? That way, I won't have to pay a sound guy, but it will record ok.
Click to expand...
what about make silent movie , then you will not have ato pay ata all :-)
 
i would say it depends if you are planning on making other films and do you want to spend the time to learn a lot more about sound.

i did a short with a 416 fed right into a dvx-100a and it came out great...but i was pretty experienced and i did a LOT of reading and practice and i would rather buy the gear and learn how to do it myself.

but that is just my opinion.

the 416 has a relatively tight pickup so if you have an inexperienced boom op it might be harder for them to keep the mic on target.

no matter what, make sure the boom op has a set of headphones on so he/she can hear what the mic they are operating on is actually picking up!

too often a boom op is expected to get great sound but if they don't have headphones then how are they to blame if they don't get good/great sound?

also, if you have more than one mic going make sure the boom-op only hears the mic that they are controlling!

i have a pair of sony 7506's that are wired so they only pickup the left channel and feed it to both earpieces.

this way the boom-op only hears the boom mic...(i always put the boom on the first input and the left channel if there are more than one mic in use)

matthew
 
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