Would the AT4053b Hyper cardioid be good enough for an Indie feature?

[Hutchman]

Hey guys,

Gearing up to shoot our first Indie feature next year. Budget is peanuts, but we're using professional actors and film school crew so there's lots of talent if little money involved. We're shooting on the GH2.

Most of the dialogue is indoors, so I was wondering if the AT4053b ($600) would be good? I've heard the Schoepps (not sure if that's spelt correctly) is awesome, but out of our price range.

Also, what portable recorder would you recommend to partner it? Budget is a concern but quality is needed.

There are never more than 2 characters in a scene with pretty simple set ups (they don't move around too much), so getting the mic in nice and close will be relatively easy and one of our primary concerns.

Also, do we NEED anything else like a mixer, preamp, etc? Would really rather not if we can get away with it, both for budget and practical reasons.

Any advice on these questions would be greatly appreciated, as well as any other tips.

eg. how can you improve the audio quality of your locations, do you put blankets up etc. to deaden the echoes?

We realise how important audio is to our production (I heard a famous director who started off with Indies say the 3 most important things in a film are the script, actors and audio, all else is icing), so please share your wealth of experience with us - we'll be most grateful.

THANKS

 

[Alex H.]

Search around, as many of your questions have already been answered many times over, in yellow stickies and even in recent threads.

Gearing up to shoot our first Indie feature next year. Budget is peanuts, but we're using professional actors and film school crew so there's lots of talent if little money involved. We're shooting on the GH2.

Most of the dialogue is indoors, so I was wondering if the AT4053b ($600) would be good? I've heard the Schoepps (not sure if that's spelt correctly) is awesome, but out of our price range.

http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthrea...Technica-AT4053b-Vs.-Rode-NT3&highlight=4053b

Also, what portable recorder would you recommend to partner it? Budget is a concern but quality is needed.

http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthrea...-Which-cheap-audio-recorder-should-I-get-quot

Also, do we NEED anything else like a mixer, preamp, etc? Would really rather not if we can get away with it, both for budget and practical reasons.

A mixer makes things much easier, but depending on the recorder you buy (especially regarding quality of pre-amps) it may not be absolutely necessary for a single mic. What you do get, on top of generally better pre-amps, are better metering and more flexible signal routing.

Any advice on these questions would be greatly appreciated, as well as any other tips.

eg. how can you improve the audio quality of your locations, do you put blankets up etc. to deaden the echoes?

http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?264443-Question-about-using-blankets-to-mask-out-echo.

 

[Steve House]

Adding an adendum to Alex's comments, if you get a mixer you get preamps (usually better ones than the camera) as part of the package. With a mixer, additional outboard preamps are semi redundent, although you might wish a small preamp on the boom operator's belt so he can have headphone monitoring if you're working from a cart rather than a bag ENG style.

 

[Bruce Watson]

Hey guys,

Gearing up to shoot our first Indie feature next year. Budget is peanuts, but we're using professional actors and film school crew so there's lots of talent if little money involved. We're shooting on the GH2.

Most of the dialogue is indoors, so I was wondering if the AT4053b ($600) would be good? I've heard the Schoepps (not sure if that's spelt correctly) is awesome, but out of our price range.

Also, what portable recorder would you recommend to partner it? Budget is a concern but quality is needed.

I've been researching this myself as I've been thinking of going the GH2 route. What I've found is that the 4053b is an indy favorite hypercardiod mic, mostly used for interior shooting. Quite a good value -- lots of bang for the buck. There's a comparison on this forum somewhere to let you hear it -- I believe user ChadFish was the generous donor of his time and expertise.

To get the most out of the mic, you'll want a mixer. One of the favorites for indy production is the Sound Devices MixPre-D. Excellent preamps, excellent controls. Big value for an entry level mixer.

Then you'll have to have some way to record the sound. There are a number of recorders out there such as the Tascom DR-100. You could record sound to the GH2 itself, but IIRC you can't kill off entirely the autogain from the camera's audio, and you can't monitor the sound going through the camera (no headphone jack). Thus the need for the external recorder. The downside of this of course is you have to manual sync sound and video during editing. As they say, there's no free lunch.

You'll also need a boom pole, cables, and headphones for monitoring. Failure to monitor sound has killed many an indy project, so don't fall in that trap.

 

[legrevedotcom]

Note that there's a new DR-100 coming designated mk II. Supposedly with better internal mics, better preamps and lower noise.