Micro-budget feature mic options!

S

stolenbike

New member
This is similar to questions asked before (trust, me I searched!), and while I got some great info from other threads, I still need to post my own.

I will be shooting my first feature film in January of '08, and I am not going to be the audio guy (I sure hope not at least) so bear with my lack of knowledge:happy: . I will have a tiny crew, so I'm not sure if I'll be able to hire/find a volunteer experienced sound guy, so it might be my co-producer who isn't extremely knowledgeable.

I believe it will be shot on an XL2, and because of time and budget constraints, I will have to record audio straight to the camera via XLR. I'll probably have a $500 budget for a microphone, and I'm going to need something versatile (half of the shots will be indoors, half in the wilderness). I was almost convinced by the ME66 but the folks on this forum have made me think twice.

I'm not in any rush, but it can't hurt to plan ahead - is there one mic that will work well both outside / inside for the price, or should I just use the onboard mic for shooting and do ADR in post? I really, really wanted to do as little ADR as possible, as I expect to get the best acting in the field.

Any suggestions or steers in the right direction would be extremely helpful, thank you kindly!
 
You need more than just a mic. You need a boom - Gitzo G7680c carbon fiber ($250), a K-Tek KSSM shockmount from trewaudio.com ($99), an Oktava MK012A with hyper-cardiod capsule from sound-room.com ($183), a Rycote 20mm Baby Ball Gag ($140), the furry jammer for the baby ball gag ($70) and some good XLR cables starquad or somthing MattinSTL can make you. You also need some Sony 7506 headphones. You can call trew and get everything except the oktava. Save yourself a lot of time and just get this stuff as a minimum. Don't bother spending days asking pointless "but can I do it cheaper questions". Just get it!!!
 
Good advice, Mike.

... and to answer the understandably inevitable question, that is the cheaper alternative. Take away any one of those items and you'll be setting yourself up for some pretty serious sound problems. Even with the kit in question, you'll need a very skillful and resourceful boom opperator.

As for discarding the production tracks and re-recording all the dialogue at an ADR studio, that can be a very expensive proposition. After all, you'll still need wall-to-wall foley to cover other elements missing from the track.

In most cases, its much more economical to record good production sound than to rebuild everything in post. Even in cases where your almost assured unuseable production sound (pyrotechnics, wind machines, etc.), well recorded dialogue will help the ADR sessions run smoother.
 
Oh ya, I agree w SMuir.

The recording must be good for the ADR software to "lock" on to the actors. ADR is not cheap ($250/hr here in Seattle not counting actors) anything you can do to help it go smoother is for sure the best and cheapest way to go.

We did a shoot for a LARGE company that involved 3 actor on treadmills in front of green screen composited later with dolly shots in the outdoor locations. We hired a pro sound guy with tons of gear just because of that (we knew the sound would be unusable because of the treadmills). It saved tons of $$$ in the ADR process.
 
Thank you fo all the info. I know I will need more than just the mic (and thank you for telling me what else I would need), but will the Oktava MK012A work all around for indoor shots (in a controlled environment) and in the woods?
 
You can use the Oktava outdoors with the proper wind protection (that I listed). The usual rule is shotgun outside and hyper inside, but it is better to use the oktava outside than buy a cheap shotgun. There is a $500 AT shotgun listed in the stickie on this forum everyone likes (or you could spend much much more). There is also a Rode that runs $250 or so. You will need seperate wind protection for that mic too, so if your budget is limited, it is better to just get a nice Oktava setup.

I would also reccomend getting a nice LAV if you can swing it (if you are doing interviews). That is one place where you can get the best of the best for not that much money ($3-400). People like the Sanken Cos11, Countryman B6, Sennheiser MKE2 (not the ME2, don't be fooled). I always prefer wired mics because of sound quality, dropout and expense. Wireless is really out of your budget.
 
Although the octava MK012A will "work" for an exterior shot (with the Rycote BBG), it is not an ideal mic for such a situation. Exteriors are where shotgun mics really shine, since they reject far more of the sound coming in from the sides (eg. distant traffic, crew moving through underbrush). Even among shotgun mics, certain mics are better suited to certain situations (eg. long shotguns for noisey locations).

As previously stated, Mike's reccomendations stands as a bare minimum kit. If you look through the stickies, you'll find some great reccomendations regarding shotgun mics. Just remember that every mic will need appropriate shock-mounting and wind protection.
 
Sell some of your stolen bikes. Buy the right gear. Do the job right the first time.

Regards,

Ty Ford
 
tyreeford said:
Sell some of your stolen bikes.
Click to expand...

Stolenbike is singular, not plural. One stolen bike (assume bicycle not motorbike) might buy him one moderate shotgun. He will need to expand his thieving career to put together an adequate audio kit. :)

Others have already given you good advice, but also read this thread: http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=51526 to get some nice starter packages that Jeremy put together.

Good luck
 
Thanks for all your help. I definatly think we'll be pursuing a set-up similar to this. Is there any shockmounts that will support both a shotty mic and the Oktava? Also, what Rode shotgun is $250, and how well does it perform?
 
I have audio samples of the NTG-2 compared with the 416 in the Audio folder of my online archive.

Regards,

Ty Ford
 
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