Sound for documentary

Summy

Summy

Member
Hello,

Im preparing for a documentary which will be shot over a longer period with the gh1. Im already set on stablizers for run & gun, vari-nd and the like and im now stuck on sound.

to start with i already own a h4n but since im gonna shoot probably 10-20 times the footage that will be acctually used syncing will be very time consuming even with plural eyes. On top of this ive seen no great solution mounting the h4n on top of the gh1 in a shockmount. Add to this i will mostly shoot guerilla style without permits so stealth is a factor.

Ive been considering Rode SVM for the run & gun and perhaps use the h4n for interviews perhaps with the SVM plugged into the rode. I'm a one man band so boom pole is out of the question except for interviews when i can rig it.

My budget is 400-500$ and i want to squeeze the most production value i can out of it although the end product will have its primary distribution online. live music performances might be part of the footage so it would be great if that would be taken into consideration.

Any tips & tricks would be very helpful.

Regards, S
 
Last edited:
It doesn't cost much to mount the H4n on the GH1, certainly less expensive than a dedicated hot shoe mic. As for syncing, I'm looking at that myself, and thinking that what will help a lot is to just start logging which file on the zoom goes with which file on the GH1. It is a few extra seconds work in production, and not always practical, but should speed things up considerably.
 
I'm aware that its probably not to much of a hassle to mount it on top of the gh1 but is it possible to have it shockmounted as i will run & gun alot? Also what are the odds of h4n without external mics connected giving better sound run & gun then a Rode stereo mic? Finally would their be any big disadvantage going with the Rode stereo mic recording dialog? I will use wide angles and be close to the subjects would that be sufficient for the job?

Regards, S
 
It can help to sync by running the h4n out into the gh1

It can help to sync by running the h4n out into the gh1

One nice thing I have been doing is running the 'out' unbalanced signal from the h4n into the my hv20, and you can do the same with the gh1.

This will help sync your audio if you choose to use the h4n captured audio.

And it will improve the audio being captured on the gh1 dramatically for your everyday footage being captured in the field. Then if you 'need' better sound for any of the documentary footage you can bring in the footage captured directly on the h4n.

I think it is something to consider, especially if you can mount a shotgun on a flash bracket to run into the h4n. Then you are really getting some great sound, being recorded on both devices.

Good luck!
 
I'm not certain the h4 and the h4n share this problem but from what i read here the gh1 and the hv20 handles this differently. Apparently "The zoom output is line level 1.0 volt pp and too high for the mic input" if anyone could confirm this that would be very helpful.

Regards, S
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top