AHH! Wind!

Most people attach a microphone to a pole and hold it closer to the actors. If you are able to recruit an extra crew person to do this, you will find it helpful. Shooting in a windy outdoor setting is never ideal. Even with an external microphone on a boom pole, you are still likely to get wind noise. What you may end up having to do is shoot the video outdoors, then have the actors go inside and re-record their dialogue while watching the video (doing their best to match their dialogue with their mouth movements/timing on the video). Remove or reduce the audio from the actual video. You might be able to find some pre-recorded samples of ambient sounds to layer in as well.

I am new to this as well, but everything I read says to do any or all of several things: of course shoot on a day without wind if possible; put a wind muff/screen over the microphone; get the mic as close to the actors mouths as possible--boompole, lavalier, etc; ADR; I just bought a preamp mixer that has filters for dampening wind.

jeremyhung said:

Hey everybody,
I currently shoot with a Canon HG10 and the image quality is fabulous. However... when it comes to the sound- terrible. I know the best way is to use an external microphone, but the only one I can find in Hong Kong is the Canon microphone, that can be attached to most Canon camcorder tops. Have any tried this microphone out and is there a significant difference? Is there any other way that'll let me cut down on the wind sound so that when I cut parts out of the scene and put a different one there won't be some weird wind sounds?

Thanks,
Jeremy

Click to expand...

You can make a cheap wind sock for it using costume fur and some sewing skills! The longer the fur the better for dampening and diffusing the wind which in turn eliminates the noise.

Thanks

I am not sure what good microphones to get that could be attached to a boom... The problem is when I cut audio, there's a dramatic background sound difference and it sucks...

Jeremy

In all of Hong Kong that is the only microphone you can find?
http://www.google.com/search?source...microphones+audio+supplies&btnG=Google+Search

jeremyhung said:

Hey everybody,
I currently shoot with a Canon HG10 and the image quality is fabulous. However... when it comes to the sound- terrible. I know the best way is to use an external microphone, but the only one I can find in Hong Kong is the Canon microphone, that can be attached to most Canon camcorder tops. Have any tried this microphone out and is there a significant difference? Is there any other way that'll let me cut down on the wind sound so that when I cut parts out of the scene and put a different one there won't be some weird wind sounds?

Thanks,
Jeremy

Click to expand...

jeremyhung said:

Thanks

I am not sure what good microphones to get that could be attached to a boom... The problem is when I cut audio, there's a dramatic background sound difference and it sucks...

Jeremy

Click to expand...

Yep. That's where ADR comes into play. You could record some background ambiance on location seperately from the dialogue (or just find some like John@Bophe mentioned). This way you can control the background level relative to the dialogue and have a continuous, uninterrupted flow. Loop indoors with ADR to replace the dialogue audio. Mix the background with the newly recorded dialogue in sync with the actors, and viola! This is why studios spend big bucks on outdoor sets within their own property so they can control all the noise going on around them.

Indoors, you record the same ambient noise because it is different for every room, and this is called "room tone".

I'm finding out through this learning process that there is considerably more to know and understand about sound recording and mixing than there is about video.

Geez, it sure sounds like it.