Mic Setup for Documentary film

[bobv]

I was wondering if anybody could give me some microphone reccomondations. I am planning on doing a documentary film, with a good number of sit down interviews. I have a good bit of quality audio recording equipment and software at my disposal, but most of the microphones I have are geared for recording music. What would you suggest?

Also, I'm running a cannon HV20. Should I run the mics into the camera, or record seperatly and then sync later? I have pro tools and an mbox on my laptop or a Tascam digital recorder that I could use. I figured if I got the right type of mic for the job my audio could sound really good.

I'm in the planning stage and just want to get ideas that i can expieriment with before I go out and shoot

Thanks.

 

[DeSica]

Well, if the interviews are sit down, you can get a Countryman EMW for less than $200, and run it into your cam either via an adapter, or by having it wired for your cam (you have wiring choices when you purchase from places like B&H...xlr, jack, for wireless, etc.)

If you have a decent recorder (which it sounds like you do), then you can run the lav to your machine, and perhaps purchase a decent on camera mic for the HV20. Rode makes one (Vid-mic?) that might fit, and it's designed to plug in to cameras that don't have xlr inputs, or you can buy a good shotgun (check the sticky for your best bets on a budget), and use an adapter to get it running to the HV20. Either way, the on camera mic will not give you great sound, so it will be mainly back-up.

Another option is to boom the mic. Since you already have mics, why not do some sound tests with the mic suspended 18 inches (or just out of frame, whichever is better in the situation) from a test subject and see what you get. You might not need to buy new mics if one of yours gets great sound simply by booming it and running the mic to the Tascam.

Off the top of my head, that is what I can come up with (I'm putting a doc together myself, and bought a Countryman B3 to run straight to my camera). There are plenty of sound guys on here with far better info, so you might want to sit back and wait to hear what they have to say. In the meantime, do a search and read older posts on the subject.

 

[bobv]

Thanks for the input!

Doing some thorough testing of all the equipment I allready have is something I'm going to have to get cracking on. I just presupposed that what I had wouldn't be good enough, but I should at least test it all out.