Recording Sound

1. What camera are you shooting with?
2. What type of audio connectors are on it?
3. the Korg 1600 is a 44.1Khz studio recorder/mixer. Seems to big for field usage.

Do you hear motor noise pickup even when the boom pole and shotgun mic are hooked up and held some distance from the camera? If so it is being introduced through the audio cable. Have you tried another cable?

I wouldn't want to use something as big as your Korg. It is intended for studio usage. Can buy rent a small DAT recorder? That's what I would do if you can't solve the motor noise problem.

I'm not sure how you are picking up camera sound through your mic. It wouldn't travel through the wire me thinks. Maybe it's the cable? Like the gentleman above stated...try another cable.

I think it's important you find a good boom situation. You don't need anything too big. Just make sure your boom operator is skilled (I boom quite often). Believe it or not, it takes a lot of panache to properly boom a scene.

As far as the screaming and the other dialog...you should be fine. Mic the scream for a take, and then mic the actor for a take. When you are shooting and micing the speaking actor, don't have the actor on the bed scream. Mix that in post. And be careful about overlap of scream and talk...you can create the tension and overlap in post if you are clever.

If both actors are in view, one is screaming, and the other is talking...you can either use the separate audio tracks and mix...or you can direct your actors to be mindful of stepping on important lines, and also be sure the speaking actor knows how to drive their line through.

Cheers.

Thanks, it makes sense now.

The first project I used a Canon XL-1 and we had to buy an adapter to use the mic. While it didn't sound bad, it could have sounded better.

I don't know what camera I'm using this time. But, whoever is DP will own it. I just know it will be 24 fps.

I guess I'll wait and see what camera is going to be used.

Has anyone ever used the Panasonic HVX200A camera? I've seen some clips on youtube taken with the camera right out of the box. It looks great. But, every clip has music and no recorded sound. Does it sound as good as it looks?

ussinners said:

I know sound is always the sore spot in micro-budget movie-making.

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Oh Yeah!

ussinners said:

I have a Korg 1600 which is a mobile digital recorder. Can I use that to record the sound? Are these field mixer things basically digital recorders?

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Not a good choice. You'll be better off with a DAT, or preferably something like the Fostex FR-2 or Marantz PMD-660.

ussinners said:

Or does the recording engineer just use that to lower wind or room noise or whatever?

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Having to do extensive noise reduction in audio post indicates poorly recorded production sound.

ussinners said:

Also, the last half hour of the movie the star is tied to a bed, and she's going to be doing a lot of screaming. I mean A LOT and her capture is going to be talking to her. Will this be a problem with one mic?

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Since you are recording the audio to two tracks you set the levels for each track accordingly; one to record loud sounds, the other to record sounds at "normal" levels.

Your best option is to hire a production sound mixer.


You may want to check out my blog on production sound:

http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.ListAll&friendId=111888913