Hi Guys an girls.
Wicked forum thanks for letting me join.
Alrighty Im a film student in Perth Australia. Our latest assignment is making a add to advertise campus show casing there million dollar bar/café/safe social environment for students. We have written an awesome script got our cameras sussed how ever our boom mic and awkwardly placed stick mics aren't cutting the mustard. We have no audio department on campus and the local music/audio school want to get paid for helping us and there quote was rather ridiculous. Right straight to the point we have two subjects male and female conversing then a group (4 subjects) come in to converse but as we have 30+ people in the venue and loud music my audio is crap.
What mics do I need? My research has got me stumped. Obviously need body worn mics(Lapel/lavalier) but no next to nothing about them. Do I get omnidirectional or unidirectional? CArdoid or super cardoid next is best brands/quality and what else I might need? Best brands help me please and yes I am first year. =)
Regards
Derek Jones
A few thoughts.
Lav mics could probably be sufficient to fix your problems. Most are omni directional. You can hide them under clothes or clip on the outside of the clothing. They can be hard wired right to a recorder or camera or sent wirelessly with a wireless package, one per mic. If the subjects are moving or you cannot hide a cable well enough, then the subjects need to be on a radio device. The idea is to get the mics close to the subjects so the ambient noise in relation to the good stuff is a lot less. A talented boom mic OP on a pole can also be successful at grabbing distinct clean audio. Often times both ways so one can choose in post.
whether that can work depends on the camera angles and how close you can get the shotgun mic. Over the head of the subjects facing down or from underneath works well but past a few feet the ambient noise level will creep up again. Sometimes you can hide mics in the set close to the subjects too. Is the audio getting recorded right to cameras or on a separate recorder?
Good mic choices:
DPA 4060 & 4061, expensive but nice.
Sanken COS 11, expensive but nice.
Audio Technica 831, inexpensive, sounds good
I'd say the Rode, which is Australian, is a very nice choice for quality vs price. Look at the PinMic and Rode Lavalier under $300us. Good sound.
Good wireless:
Sennheiser ENG kit G3
Good boom mics:
Rode NTG-3
Sennheiser me66 or 416
hope this helps