What do u capture during takes?

[Randall_Oelerich]

When you shoot a scene, dialog with actors, do you pretty much just capture the dialog using a mic on a boompole, mono into one of the camcorder XLR in ports? Or do you try to capture at the same time additional ambient sound with another mic and route that into the other XLR in port on the camcorder? Thus far with my limited filmmaking experience I had just done a shotgun mic on a boom, getting ambient and room tone when actors are not around, layer that as another track during sound editing. Wondering what is the norm?

 

[SMuir]

Generally dialogue is the primary concern, with production foley being an added bonus. Background sounds are usually treated as noise and minimized.

Ambience tracks are almost always added during post-production from discreet recordings. Perhaps the most important reason for this is so that the background ambience levels can be adjusted independent of the dialogue. Ambience effects also benefit a great deal from stereo or surround recording, and are frequently layered to achieve the desired sense of space. Moreover, you'll need a discreet ambience track if you prepare an M&E (music and effects) mix for foreign localization.

 

[Noiz2]

Also and a biggie, the dialog is going to get edited and so the background is going to jump all over the place. The ideal production tracks have NOTHING but dialog, everything else becomes a problem.

 

[Steffo]

I only record the dialog. Then after that i often take a location sound, to have something to play whit in post.

 

[ShBm]

What mic do you use to record ambient noise used in post? I got an oktava for dialogue and I'm wondering how best to capture that background noise. Would popping the omni head on work well (waiting for the mic in the mail, so I can't test it)?

 

[unclebob6958]

What mic do you use to record ambient noise used in post?

Everybody has their favorites, or like me, compromised and squeezed something decent into the budget. I'm using the Audio Technica AT822 for stereo and for mono pick one of my other mics (Sennheiser MKH-40, Audio Technica ATM-41, AKG C-1000S) depending upon the sound I'm recording. Not the best choices, actually, but those are the mics from my studio that will work in the field.

 

[Gohanto]

What mic do you use to record ambient noise used in post? I got an oktava for dialogue and I'm wondering how best to capture that background noise. Would popping the omni head on work well (waiting for the mic in the mail, so I can't test it)?

People use a lot of different things. I use a Zoom H4n portable recorder and its built in stereo mics.

I know several people use a pair of Oktava's setup in stereo. An omni cap would be another solution. It would only give you mono, but you can still work with that pretty well.

 

[ShBm]

People use a lot of different things. I use a Zoom H4n portable recorder and its built in stereo mics.

I know several people use a pair of Oktava's setup in stereo. An omni cap would be another solution. It would only give you mono, but you can still work with that pretty well.

Unfortunately I can't afford another oktava right now (really wanted that stereo matched pair kit, though). That H4n looks pretty sweet, but it's a little out of my price range. Is there something similar that would be cheaper? I found the Tascam dr07, but is that up to par? I really would like not having to have my whole setup there to get audio, or to be able to quickly grab some ambient sound without switching caps.