What Mics For Documentary...

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Damien Arkins

Member
..on Chess.

Please no jokes on on the theme of chess and boringness... The idea is that the chess tournament is a way to branch off into getting to know the players etc

I have never done professional audio before having mostly done "video art" where the sound was experimental and added "after the fact".

I have been reading as much as possible about which mics do what but I'm a little confused...

There will a few different recording situations I will need to be ready for:

1. The general atmosphere of the playing room
2. Up close and personal recordings of the chess pieces being moved and player's breathing and sighing.
3. Off the cuff interviews with players as they hang out in the back rooms.
4. More serious organised interviews.

So my questions are:

A. If I got the AT4073a and Octava MK012 would I cover all bases?
B. Can both of these be mounted on camera? (yes I know the problems inherant with this but sometimes I'll just be recording ambient sound)
C. Do the above Mics work in very different ways? Can the AT zero in on very specific sounds at a greater distance than the Octava or do I need a more specialised shotgun like the cs-3e which I can't afford?

I'll stop for now
Thanks for any feedback!
Damien
 
Damien
I wouldn't use the octava on the camera, it's going to pick up the noise of your hands, camera movements, everything. That's not going to work. The At is better for that, but you need to understand something, microphones don't work like lenses. There are not telephoto microphones. They reject more or less sound from the sides or the rear, but to get a good sound you need to move the mic. as close as possible to your source. I will choose the microphone for the sound quality/price relationship and try to find my way to shoot as close to those players as possible. That's your best audio solution with any microphone.
 
Can you mic the players with lavaliers? If fumbling with wires (what I currently do) is not a problem, you can get two Countryman EMW's wired for XLR for about $150 each from Northern Sound and Light. http://www.northernsound.net/

If wired is too cumbersome, you can go with Sennheiser G2 (i think) for about 500 bucks, but that only gives you one mic. I've done a lot of recording with a Rode NTG-2 camera mounted and been happy with the results (though I tried to really get close to the source). If you're indoors, especially in a small room - that's not so good.

Another option is to set up a stationary boom mic (use a light stand, boom pole, and boom holder - I use a fishing pole holder, works great) with an Oktava over the middle of the chess table. How obtrusive can you be?
 
Thanks for the replys.

I don't want to wire up the players as that would prob annoy them more than I already will.. and I want to be able mic many different players..

I wont be recording voice so that prob gives me some room for error? I was just worried with the AT that I would get echo or whatever it is you get in inclosed spaces.. thats why i thought of the octava..

I will be able to get quite close with camera (.5 - 2m) and I'm not recording dialogue so that's why i thought having the mic on camera would not be such a problem?

I'm going to need a shotgun in the future so I might just order that and see how i go.. And the tournament is once a week for 10 weeks so in the first couple I'll hopefully be able to work out if i need to change technique etc.

Thanks
 
if you're not recording dialogue, quite honestly you dont really need to be worrying so much. chuck a shotgun on the camera for ambient sound...

if you're after very specific "chess piece moving" type sounds, get really close. other than that, i dont really see what audio you're planning on getting here?
 
Okay after thinking more about it and reading up on mics and the responses here: I've decided to get both mics..

I'll use AT shotgun on camera to get ambient sound when I'm floating around the playing hall... otherwise when I'm recording an interview I'll have to get a boom operater or some lavs if I want decent sound.. I'll use the Octava with hypercardioid cap on the boom as it works better indoors that the AT..

Just thought I'd let anyone interested know what I've decided... Thanks for responses..
 
If you're doing an interview that might consist of a MCU or CU shot and you don't have a second person available to boom, then mount your Oktava on cam and wire them up. If you do have a second person available, ask them to boom for you.

If you're doing an interview that consist of Medium to Wide shot, then mount AT on cam, wire them as well.

Believe it or not, this past Saturday's shoot I encountered a situation where I had to record a stream of dialogues from multiple talents and suddenly an argument whips across. This wouldn't work with a hyper, so I decided to choose the 4073a and left the other shotguns alone for this task. Majority of the rooms were very small with hardwood floor and marbled countertop. At the time of the argument, the father's back was directly pointing to the opening of the hallway/doorway which gave me headroom to use a short shotgun in the situation. The sound was very direct and hardly any reverberation nor hallowness were picked up by the mic. Worked out well. So I went to my checklist and marked Argument-4073a-INT-Good.

This doesn't apply to every indoor situation, but when you do get the chance to have the talent's back to an opening area, short shotguns can be your friend. I would have gone to a hyper, but the amount of cameras (4) rolling and the amount of talents (4) moving around at various locations made this a shorty call to cover all.
 
You can go with a shotgun on cam, though the Oktava has reputation for high handling noise, as others have said, so I'd go with another mic on the cam...

...and then you could plant some mics near the players. A wireless lav clipped to the table or on the game clock (if they use one) will pick up some sounds of the game and the players without being obtrusive. You could also place some boundary mics for general sonds and passing comments and such...the room feel.

Any interview stuff can be done with lav, or close uo camera and mounted shotgun.

One of my favourite docs, Camp Hollywood, was shot on a consumer camera with the on-camera mic...and it was great, so don't worry too much.

You aren't making Searching For Bobby Fischer.
 
i wouldnt go with ANY mic on camera for an interview situation - if you are wiring them, you are NEVER going to use that camera track. get a stand, mount oktava on stand. position on frame edge. done.
 
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