Wireless lavs for filmmaking?

[Brian_Rice]

Instead of using a hyper for indoor dialog scenes, I've been thinking about going the wireless lav route for my short film. I've used wired lavs in the past (Countryman) and overall I was happy with the result.

My worry is that there could simply be no such thing as a good wireless lav for filmmaking.

Has anyone had any experience/success using wireless lavs for narrative work?

Thanks!

 

[sjcampbell]

My saying 'If you can boom it boom it'

Lapels dont have a patch on a well placed microphone, be it a small pencil, shotgun or whatever.

Wireless lapels also carry a large amount of baggage. Clothing rustle, wireless drops, damaged mic cables the list goes on.

 

[Alex H.]

Wireless systems with lav mics are commonplace on sets. They are, however, secondary to hard-wired mics on fishpoles/booms. Normally, they are used as backups for when a boomed mic cannot get close enough (extremely wide shots), or where space may be too tight to get a boomed mic wiggled in between camera and lights. And on higher-budget productions, you'll find all the actors wearing lavs and transmitters... and every mic is recorded separately using multi-track recording, and the boomed mics are still there (and are most likely what will be used in post).

Lavs have a very distinct sound. It's a bit more "dead" (not as lively) as a shotgun/hyper. The sound isn't quite as natural, and it will take some work in post to make lavs match a shotgun or hypercardioid. In addition, they have the other problems mentioned by sjcampbell. They're fine to use, but never as a first choice. A boomed mic will never have a dropout or RF hit.

 

[davefisk]

There are really great sounding lavs out there, but they are spendy. If you know how to properly wire someone up, the dialogue coming off the lav can be quite good. But yeah, if you can boom, then boom.