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Mic Placement Question?

LastChancey

LastChancey

Hey guys,

I'm going to be shooting my short film, "Pockets," here in Nairobi in a couple days. In the last few days, I've been traveling around rural Kenya doing an Adventure-Filmmaking project and audio has been a big part of that. My PA and I have been learning a lot about getting ambient sound, and creating a compelling "cushion" to layer under dialog that puts the viewer into a situation without becoming noticeable.

But this upcoming project is straight from my script, and in one scene, we are shooting indoors, in a rather echoey warehouse-type location. I'll have four actors in fairly close proximity all trading lines for at least part of the scene. Two of them will be moving (a slow walk) at one point. How do I mic this setup to best capture all the audio live?

For my docu-project, I've been using a Sennheiser MKE400 placed as closely as possible to my subjects, with a windsock and a sound-diffusing panel to block wind and absorb any weird blurbs that might blow past the mic. It has mostly worked brilliantly. I don't know if this is the same way to approach recording a full-on scene???

Thanks in advance,

Clay Chancey
 
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I'm sorry I can't answer your question, but I hope an expert'll be along soon.

I just posted to wish you luck. Your script was pretty interesting and you have the makings of a good scene. Don't forget to improvise and brainstorm lines if you have the budget/DV tape. That should really bring her alive.
 
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This is all about the art of "swinging" a boom with the proper mic at the end. The boom-op knows the script and knows the blocking of the scene, then aims the boomed mic for optimum dialog pickup at each actor as that actor speaks his/her lines. The boom-op has to do all of this while remaining silent and preventing the boom from casting shadows.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boom_operator_(media)

http://www.colinhartonline.com/?p=336

http://www.thompsound.com/old-site/Articles/QSFT/zen_boom.pdf

http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/location_sound.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-0o6miil9E
 
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Excellent material. Will sort through all of it, and give this to my sound guy. It's great that we're using sufficient lighting, otherwise that kind of movement would come across in subtle shadowing. Thanks, Alcove.

And @PositiveFuture -

Thanks a lot! It may not end up completely perfect, but it will be great to finally work on a project where I have creative AND technical freedom at the same time! It's almost always been one or the other, for me. If the short-form of the film is liked/accepted into some festivals, I'll begin pre-production on the long-form version of the story. We'll see how it goes...
 
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