Shooting behind the scenes documentary

J

jghenderson

Well-known member
Hey everyone. I'm going to be shooting a behind the scenes documentary about the making of a TV show soon and I am a bit concerned about the audio.

I have a Zoom H4N and AT897 Shotgun Mic for my sound recording.

I understand that when doing sit down interviews (which i probably will do with the important crew members) it's pretty simple. you just point the mic at the persons mouth and get it as close as possible.

My concern comes with the actual behind the scenes part of the documentary. I will hopefully have a rig by then that can hold my camera and my Zoom H4N/Mic and that is how I was planning on doing it. However will this potentially lead to some major issues with the audio sound? I assume I will be moving the camera around a lot, but in doing so I fear it will become really difficult to get good sound.

I also don't think I will have anyone to help me with this, I will be doing it solo (that's one of the main reasons I got chosen for it).

If anyone has experience in this area and can give me advice on getting good sound quality by yourself on the run I would greatly appreciate it.
 
You don't mention what camera you are using. Does it have XLR inputs and phantom power? If it does, why would you record external for a interview which you are recording solo. This doesn't sound like a situation where anything useful would be gained with your plan to record external unless you are using a consumer cam.

Grant
 
I have a T2i. I was under the impression that if you wanted good sound quality you should use an external recorder because the T2i has automatic gain or whatever it's called.
 
My advice, get a cheap wired lav such as the shure SM93. Much higher fidelity for sitdown interviews than a shotgun or wireless lav.

As for the audio of the behind the scenes. Three options exist as I see it:

1) zoom recorder on the floor behind the scenes, shotgun mounted on a boom stand, point towards action.

2) ask sound team to give your zoom a mono xlr feed (might interest them to have some redundancy)

3) hire a boom op to get you decent behind the scenes sound.


Jason
 
Chadfish said:
There is a JuicedLink mixer that defeats a DSLRs AGC: http://www.juicedlink.com/?gclid=CKOR-6_Q8KECFQmjiQodymc6Jg
Click to expand...

YMMV but everything I have heard with it sound bad. A photographer friend bought one and ended up sending it back and getting the Zoom because he hated the sound. I'm not sure it's the Juice link so much as a truly crappy audio section on the Canon. It is a still camera after all. We have one but I haven't tried using the onboard for anything but a guide track so?
 
Yeah, I wouldn't expect much out of that combo. The DSLRs only have a wee 1/8" mini jack. And the JuicedLink's method seems dirty to me. It sends a lower than human hearing audio signal to the camera to force the AGC down. Maybe it's clean sounding, but it just seems wrong. IMO you should use a grown-up camera to do grown-up work.

But if one is a "one man band" and all you have is a DSLR, then the JuicedLink is a reasonable option. Either way, by the time you get the DSLR all railed out to hold all the accessories, and ad the price of recorders etc, you're at the price of a real video camera. It's a long way to go for some shallow DOF...
 
Chadfish said:
And the JuicedLink's method seems dirty to me. It sends a lower than human hearing audio signal to the camera to force the AGC down.
Click to expand...

Really? My understanding is that the device sends a noise/tone (selectable) to one channel, leaving the other one open for recording (which is why these devices leave the user with only one record channel). The AGC is linked between the two channels, so a noise to defeat it in one defeats it in the other.

Of course, the quality of the recorded audio in the good channel is still suspect with DSLR cameras.
 
Ah I see. I thought it was a subsonic tone on both channels. I suppose having one channel unmolested by low tones is not too bad, but still, I bet the preamp in a DSLR isn't too wonderful. There is a demo video explaining the process somewhere on the JuicedLink site.
 
Ok so i'm going to be shooting the first part of the doc this coming saturday. It is a meeting of the crew. I am still really confused as to how i'm going to record the audio. Unfortunately I don't have a rig yet.

What do you guys think the best thing to do would be? Should I hook up my shotgun mic to the camera and then put the zoom H4N in the middle of the room? I'm worried that if a rely on a shotgun mic it will be difficult because I won't be able to capture everyone talking unless I point the camera straight at them, but i'm also worried that if I just put the Zoom in the middle of the room it won't be able to get everyones voices clearly plus there will be a lot of unwanted noise

I really need some advice.
 
Going solo on an event type shoot, with a minimal kit, and a lack of audio experience isn't a great recipe for success, especially with a cam that doesn't do much with audio.

You might want to give additional consideration to hiring a sound person. A regular video cam would be another thought if you are determined to go solo. At least you could ride the levels from whatever mics you use.

Grant

Grant
 
Maybe use the camera's built-in mic? It will pick up the audio happening all around. Or rig an omni mic onto the camera, or even a dynamic mic. You've painted yourself into a corner with the choices you've made, and your budget restrictions keep you from getting out.

Maybe just do the only thing you can with your gear. Put the H4N in a place where it picks up the most voices around the table, then put the shotgun on the camera. Blend both in post, or use one or the other if one works best alone.
 
ggrantly said:
Going solo on an event type shoot, with a minimal kit, and a lack of audio experience isn't a great recipe for success, especially with a cam that doesn't do much with audio.

You might want to give additional consideration to hiring a sound person. A regular video cam would be another thought if you are determined to go solo. At least you could ride the levels from whatever mics you use.

Grant

Grant
Click to expand...


they are supposed to be finding an assistant for me that would do the audio recording so once that happens this will be a lot better but they do not have one yet.
 
Subtitles! ;)




In all seriousness JG with your last post, what you mention you have to work
with gives pretty much no other recommendations to throw at you.

I'll mention 2 things that are common sense but will drasticly improve your sound
as opposed if you DONT do them...

- Get as close to the person speaking with the camera as possible.
-Make sure you find a VERY quiet room to do this in. AC off, deaden the room, or find the deadest sounding room you can.

The only other recommendation given your situation would be
if possible get the person speaking to hold your shotgun (like a hand held mic)
and pass it to the next person speaking. Ideal? not always, but in your case
you're kinda limited now arent ya.
 
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