Seeking mic advice

R

rpaul

New member
I am planning a video shoot for a personal project, and in need of some advice regarding choice of mics.

Here's the setup:

  • Outdoors in the desert at night (assume wind).
  • A six foot square dinner table, undercloth to help cut down noise of glasses, plates etc. and tablecloth.
  • Six people, 2 each on 3 sides seated at the table forming a "U". Some of the talent will occasionally come and go from the table.
  • The piece consists of a dinner conversation between the six "diners".
  • Three cameras: a master shot from the empty side of the table and 2 others moving around the periphery.
For several reasons I can't use booms. Someone better versed than myself (I'm an audio novice) suggested I steer clear of boundary mics as they'd pick up too much ambient sound, clinking of glasses etc. They suggested I wire each person at the table with their own individual lav/wireless mics.

This is an expensive proposition for a personal project (about $1k for recommended rentals), but there are many restrictions associated with using lavs too (clothing material, placement etc).

After checking this site and poking around the net, I'm not totally convinced that two or three well placed boundary mics might not be the way to go.
  • Am I barking up the wrong tree wanting to use boundary's?
  • If not, should I use 2 or 3? (I assume cardioid pattern)
  • What would be a safe distance to keep the camera operators away from the table so that their footsteps etc won't be picked up?
Boundaries would definitely be cheaper to rent, record from and generally make my life a lot easier.

Any advice is greatly appreciated.
 
Why can't you use booms? It sounds like a difficult scene. Can you just hire someone to help? Boundry mics are are great, but I don't think the talent is going to be close enough to get the sound you want. Plates and glasses and rustles are going to get picked up.
 
Last edited:
dont know who told you that you cant boom , but inb the desert at night you can boom people from 2 meters without a problem if you do afraid from the shadous or wide lence
b- you can place boundary mics under the table cloth , at least 4 to cover the table ,
place some wool cloth under the table cloth to reduce gtlass bumps over the wood .. you will also will have to explain people where are the mics are not to place the sup over .

or you can just wire the people properly and get more freedome , you can combine ,
you can hire someone who know how to do it
personaly i f this is kind of documenatri conversation 2 booms from above in the desert id more then enouth
 
You would want long guns and two good ops though. Wide & tight (the old mother/daughter shot) pretty much always calls for wireless. If it is a one day scene then the rentals really shouldn't cost you over $200, maybe $300 if you can't cut a deal. You can rent a 6+ channel mixer for less then $50. Getting someone who can mix well...that might cost you.

Outdoor, desert, dining table...you peaked my interest.

Good luck
 
Thanks to everyone who responded.

I went to a couple of rental places in my area yesterday - but nobody was renting any higher-end boundary mics.

As I'm so close to shooting I've gone ahead and rented 2 booms and gear - just going to have to make that work.

I also posted over at Crown Audio on their mic formus and got the following response from one of their staff:

I'd suggest using one PZM-6D mic in the center of the table. Because it has an omnidirectional mic capsule, it picks up much less wind noise and table thumps than cardioid mics. And since the recording is outdoors, it is anechoic, so the PZM would pick up no more reverb than cardioid mics would. Cardioid mics would not reduce camera noise compared to an omni mic because some of the cameras would be in front of the mics.

Maybe the glasses and silverware could be made of clear or painted plastic to cut down noise.

You could hide the PZM under the tablecloth. Make at least the center of the tablecloth out of thin silk or nylon fabric so that sound can get through unmuffled. Putting the mic under fabric also reduces wind noise.

Each actor would be about 3.5 feet from the microphone. According to the inverse square law, a camera operator talking 7 feet from the mic would be picked up 6 dB quieter than the actors, and an operator talking 14 feet away would be picked up 12 dB quieter than the actors. If foot noise is 20 dB quieter than speech (just a guess), then the foot noise would be 32 dB below the actors' speech level if the operator were 14 feet from the mic. Maybe some background sound effects or music could cover up the operator noise.

Good luck,
brubart
Click to expand...

If I can find something online for a decent price I may bite the bullet and go the bounadry route too.

Thanks again.
 
as the square low says , it would pick up the silver even better :-)
forget the pzms ,boom the bloody thing :-)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top