Dude, I'm cramping in my side from laughing so hard.
Shoulder mount boom pole?
- Thread starter c3hammer
- Start date
Dude, I'm cramping in my side from laughing so hard.
ROCKMORE
Veteran
Sorry I didn't mean to sound so stiff, and wasn't directing the comment at anyone specifically.
Better yet, use a lav, wired or wireless, and a fixed boom. I often work by myself, and this is a good way to go.
Grant
Steve House
Veteran
If you can actually work as a one-man-band and GET THE SAME RESULTS that you would get if you partnered up with one or two other people, then fine. But I don't see how you can just dangle a mic out in front of you in the general direction of the talent and get the same quality recording as you would get with a properly boomed mic. The bottom line always has to be measured by results obtained. Compromises in technique and staffing are fine as long as they don't translate into compromises in the quality of the final product.
ROCKMORE
Veteran
Sometimes I have to work alone as I do tomorrow and Sunday at a race track shooting race footage, interviews and behind the scenes technical footage in 2 languages. It's a TV pilot project I'm close to getting funded buy the track's sponsors. I have to shoot alone with a 60D, tripod, jib, Miller head, Sachtler head, audio and laptop. I have a Sony ECM 55 and ECM 66 wired mics for my interviews and an AT mic mounted on the camera for wild sound.
I'm in West Java Indonesia and won't be able to visit B&H Photo until my trip home to NYC in Aug., so my Mixpre-d and NTG-3 boom kit must wait as I can't find them here. I have to make do with what I have for tomorrow 12 hours from now. Sink or swim is reality.
This is the scenario many new comers and students to the industry face every day. You might just tell them to wire the talent, but many, or most of them don't have a Sony ECM 55 and ECM 66 or any Lav in the bag. We need to show them how to use what they have and learn to make do with what they have, as apposed to calling a great sound guy, or placing a nice audio package order Fed-X. Many can't afford a 6 pack of beer.
In art school we learned photography first with a pinhole camera in a shoe box. Those experiences you remember and carry with you.
Steve, I've read many of your posts, and believe you are a knowledgeable pro. beyond most here and I completely agree with you, but sometimes you have to start a fire in the wet jungle with a flint and steel to survive the night. It's all fun for me.
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Steve House
Veteran
With all due respect, I submit that you probably don't HAVE to work alone, rather you're CHOOSING to work alone. Are you seriously suggesting you are so isolated that there aren't two or three other competent people in your professional network who wouldn't be interested in and willing to partner up with you on a speculative venture such as the one you're currently shooting, perhaps in exchange for your committment of reciprocal assistance in their projects?
There is only so much funding to go around and only so many projects that can get funded. Does it make sense to choose to go it alone on a spec project if the quality compromises it inevitably leads to places you at a competitive disadvantage viz a viz the output of other producers and production companies? The only thing that counts is what is on the screen and there are no points earned for how you put it there. I suggest that tactical choices that interfere with your ability to put forward your best possible work are unacceptable.
Years ago I walked past a display window at an upscale men's-wear store in San Francisco - Armani suit, Dior shirt, Bally shoes, Vuitton briefcase, etc, and a small engraved card that read "To get where you want to be, you must look like you're already there." The same thing applies to our projects. We may be funding them from left-over lunch money but they MUST look and sound like we had a reasonable professional budget and a professional crew to work with. It may be done on a relative shoestring but there's no way one person working alone can master all of the skills and jobs necessary to do justice - theer are only so many ways you can divide your attention at any one time before it all falls apart. Picture won't take care of itself, it needs a pair of eyes, hands, and a brain giving it undivided attention if one is to produce professional results. Sound also needs a pair of eyes, ears, hands, and a brain similarly giving it complete and undivided attention if one is to get the job done to proper professional quality standards. You don't need an army of grips and gaffers, etc, but you do need a team of at least two and preferrably three individuals, just to have enough hands and minds on the set to do properly all the things that have to happen concurrently.
Rippie
Veteran
I do have to give one example of excellent 1 man band results.
I know "This old house" for many years had no sound mixer. It was a camera man (I believe a D-600, with the add-on that gave you access ch 3 &4)with
3 receivers strapped to the side. Mic's were usually hidden, Camera work was excellent, sound was great.
So it can be done, but as mentioned before using a boom isn't the way to go.
I know "This old house" for many years had no sound mixer. It was a camera man (I believe a D-600, with the add-on that gave you access ch 3 &4)with
3 receivers strapped to the side. Mic's were usually hidden, Camera work was excellent, sound was great.
So it can be done, but as mentioned before using a boom isn't the way to go.
Rippie
Veteran
haha that just might be one of the most ridiculous things ive seen.
Where's his kick drum and tamborine?
On a serious note, notice his camera angle. It's tilting down, and the distance he is from his subject leads me to believe
the headroom on the shot is tight.
In the blown up picture it looks like the boom is 2? 2 1/2 ft out?
Plus it being a kid leads me to believe he doesnt have full sounding voice so I bet
the voice isn't carrying that far.
Call me silly but wouldn't a lav have been a tad bit easier/better?
Where's his kick drum and tamborine?
On a serious note, notice his camera angle. It's tilting down, and the distance he is from his subject leads me to believe
the headroom on the shot is tight.
In the blown up picture it looks like the boom is 2? 2 1/2 ft out?
Plus it being a kid leads me to believe he doesnt have full sounding voice so I bet
the voice isn't carrying that far.
Call me silly but wouldn't a lav have been a tad bit easier/better?
ROCKMORE
Veteran
Out here no money no help. This isn't like the states or Canada.
It's a classic event at the national F1 race track located about 40 miles from the city and a lot of traffic to get here. I live out here in the hills a mile down the expressway so it's convenient for me. I will eventually get a good crew, but I've been shooting this type of spec work for a long time, and it's easier to just go and deal with it. I did some seminars for an advertising and film collage and gave the director a call yesterday for some student interns. I'm sure I will be able to get a handful, these kids are smart and anxious to work, but too short notice to get them by tomorrow. If I have to wait and depend on other people to accomplish what must be done it may never happen. I met with the track management yesterday and they are introducing me to all their sponsors. I submitted edits of 4 different events I have already shot there. Thing are moving forward. If I wasn't willing to take a chance nothing would happen. I say go for it.
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ROCKMORE
Veteran
Shoot alone or stay home waiting for a helper is a no brainer for me. Anything is better than nothing. Get out and shoot.
Got some great footage today, tomorrow return to shoot the interviews with a wired lav.
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That's fine if you're doing it for yourself. Maybe not so much if you're doing it for a paying client who expects good results.
ROCKMORE
Veteran
When there are paying clients it will be a full crew and a film truck. It's all listed in the quotation. If they pay for it they will get it. If they don't have the budget I will make sure it gets done right anyway.
This spec material is necessary to get them interested.
The whole point of this thread was the OP was looking for a solution to recording audio alone. Although it may not be the best choice, sometimes the only other choice would be to quit. My point is don't be afraid to try, fail, learn from your mistakes and get it right the next time.
I don't ever remember in art school a professor instructing the students that the only way to get quality results was to go hire somebody.
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Steve House
Veteran
No one suggests that the only way to get quality results is to hire someone. But to get quality pictures, someone needs the be looking through the viewfinder, giving the images and the mechanics of running the camera their full attention. To get quality sound also requires that someone give their undivided attention to monitoring and the recording process. That means two someones are generally required. It's simply physically impossible for one person to do both actvities at once and give them both the attention and focus that they require if one is to deliver consistently professional results. Some activities are by their fundamental natures team activities. Now there are certainly situations where one person might double up and get acceptable results - a sitdown interview with a wired subject, for example. Most broadcast streeters similarly don't have a separate sound person, for another. But those are exceptions, not the rule.
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ROCKMORE
Veteran
Agreed Steve, but life doesn't always give us everything we want, or think we deserve. These are desperate times and we need to be prepared for anything thrown in our way or fail, with or without a crew.
I like to tell people just get out, see what you find and learn. Most of what I discovered in the last 2 days was completely unexpected. One of the track owners actually asked me if I could use his nephew as an assistant next time for free. I said as long as he has a golf cart. They laughed and said he has a motorcycle. I said he's hired.
It seems the harder I have to work these days, the more fun I have.
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