On camera Audio

J

JwrFord

Active member
For hero fest as recently graduated students we don't exactly have the funding for a superb microphone or any shotgun for that matter. All of our dialog is VO and is going to be done with our editor and his shotgun (not sure of the design but much more access to equipment in Boston) We plan on doing 3min ambience for absolutely every scene. For the small subtleties like somone walking on carpet or up steps is the on camera microphone ok or should I start selling things for a microphone before production. All of our action scenes are going to be done "folley" with our editor. We would only really need to capture the small subtleties of a room (laying someone in a bed walking around a room washing hands cars passing etc) The on camera microphone is horrible and what I am asking is a sin I realise this. However I am not really an audio guy and again running on a tight budget. Can we "fix it in post" to sound even with everything else?
 
Sorry. I never really made that. My apologies.

How bad IS the on camera microphone. Is it good enough to fit my needs? Will I be able to fix it enough to match our folley? How bad IS the camera microphone? Lots of artificacts?
 
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Maybe. You might be able to mask or duck the camera noise successfully. I'd experiment some first, see if the results are acceptable.

But forget it if you zoom...that you'll really hear.

So no zooms. They're tacky, anyway.
 
If you're on-camera mic matches your foley, then your foley is in serious trouble. Even if the on-camera mic manages to capture something as subtle as footsteps on carpet, the footsteps will sound cavernous and distant.

As for the 3 minutes of room-tone you mentioned, unless the room happens to be unusually noisey (eg. a factory floor) most of the room tone will be swallowed up by the noise of the on-camera mic and electronics.

That said, if you can make it work for you, go ahead. There aren't really any "sins" in production audio, just tried-and-true tools and techniques. It all depends on how you want the final product to sound.
 
Thanks for all the advice. Yes some of our locations are going to be unusually noisey. I am going to go out and test a little bit today. Thanks for all the advice guys!
 
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