Question about recording gunfire

7

7Dpimpin

Member
I'll be shooting a short in a month or so and will have access to real guns in which I plan on firing blank rounds from. My two questions are this:

1. Will a muzzle blast (if there is one) be caught on camera in 24p?

2. What settings to record sound?
 
Go to the audio section for this. This is dangerous as you can damage your equipment and/or your ears if done incorrectly. You will need a mixer and a mic that can record high decible sounds. Usually a dynamic mic will work best.
 
1. Yep. We just shot some footage of a could different types of guns shot at 24p. The muzzle fire was there.

2. Not really great at this answer, but my suggestion is to back that mic up! We were using the a boom mic into an H4N with it's levels on 1 (out of 100), and it was peaking like crazy.

Try sending a PM to Doc Bernard. He deals with weapons and may be able to help you out on quick questions.
 
I've shot a lot of guns, on film and video and getting the muzzle flash is no big deal, it almost always shows up and usually looks good. The audio is another issue. I have never had live audio recording of gun fire sound like anything but crap. I have had directors use it, but I wasn't in charge of the audio post on those gigs. I would have replaced it in post with gunfire sounds specially recorded. Shooting blanks out of real guns is dangerous so be careful. Hearing protection for cast and crew is needed. If the gun is firing towards an operated camera then protection for the operator is also needed. I like to set the shot up, hit record and get out of the way.
 
It's not online. I can try to get some screen grabs tonight when I get back home. It's for a feature we're working on (The Jones') ... there's a few grabs up in that thread on the User Films forum.

/shameless plug.

@David ... I wish I had known to bring ear plugs. That crap was the loudest thing I've ever heard. I was like, "Eh, I play Halo / COD. This should be fine." I was very, very wrong.
 
2. Not really great at this answer, but my suggestion is to back that mic up! We were using the a boom mic into an H4N with it's levels on 1 (out of 100), and it was peaking like crazy.
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Agreed. I did a shoot at an army gun range and had the zoom at 1 and it was peaking. Ironically enough the ACG of the 7D on camera mic saved us. As soon as the first shot went off it clamped down and recorded the rest of them perfectly. A little sweetening in post and voila!
 
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