Recommendations for a boom pole?

the painter's pole will work fine, as long as you can mount the shock mount with no rattle. You can handle the cable with a velcros strap easy enough (or gaff tape if ya must)
That said, man there are alot of places I've saved some budget in my day. A boom pole aint one of em.

You are going to have to base your decisions on the following:


The longer the boom pole is the more expensive it will be. The more "sections" the less bend there will be.

I would not get a boom pole less than 12' for narrative film work, preferably at least 16'; trust me, you will need the length at some point.

The lighter the boom pole is the more expensive it will be.

A graphite pole will be the lightest and by far the most expensive, aluminum the heaviest and least expensive. Just keep in mind that someone will be holding this over their heads for hours at a time. When the arms get tired they shake and the shaking translates into potential noise.

Internal cabling is more expensive. Internal coiled cabling will be even more expensive.

Internal cabling will add a lot to the price, is it really that important?




I would figure on spending about $150 to $300 for a basic boom pole of decent quality.

Yes, the shockmount you choose will make a huge difference.

Why do you need two shotguns? You should have a hyper-cardioid for indoor locations. It is very rare that you will need two mics to record production sound.

I've used a simple mic stand. You know, the kind you can get at Guitar Center for $30 that bands use for live shows. It works alright, but it's only about 6 feet long, and we were very restricted for our shots, and could only have a few wide shots. If you plan on doing a lot of close ups, it works great. But for wide shots, I could never really get lower than the actor's knees.

Hi Sean,

I use a Gitzo G557 boompole with a Audio-Technica AT8410a shockmount.
The boompole collapses to 31.5 inches and extendes to 104.5 inches. The boompole does not have a mic. cable in it. It cost me $132.00 a few years back.
The shockmount was $42.00

You do need a shockmount on the end of any boompole. Without one, you will wish you had never lived to regret it. ;')

Terry

If used right an experienced person can make any boom pole work, to a point. As you said yes to the shock mount. I would agree also to have it as long as you can. Check on ebay to see if they have anything worth while to get. I don't know why you would need more than one boom pole tho. If you could explain that a little bit more it might make more sense. Otherwise if you were planning on spending $300 on three boom poles and just need one then you shouldn't have a problem finding a decent one that will do the job for $300

Thanks for all the response.

I suppose some clarification is necessary. I suppose I don't necessarily need more than one boom pole, but I was thinking of using shotguns only for recording audio, just to get dialogue and nothing more (all foley or environmental sounds re-done in post), with perhaps an omni-directional mic for the sake of reference material for syncing, and not actual audio recording.

It's a fairly dialogue-heavy piece, with people talking fast and interrupting each other often, and for most scenes, we'll be shooting with two cameras simultaneously. I figured that perhaps using two shotguns would bypass the problem of the boom operator not having enough time to reposition the mic between lines. However, two booms probably aren't necessary — if it seems like it'll work with the framing on both cameras, I wouldn't be opposed to someone with a hand-held shockmount or a mic stand supporting a shotgun (unless, that is, anyone here warns against it) pointed toward the secondary character(s).

I figure that we'll probably be OK with just about any decent boom pole as long as the shockmount is good, but an audio consultant has been telling me what he recommends (somewhat pricey stuff) and I thought I'd check in with the fine folks here to see what they use. Also, if anyone here thinks my idea of two shotguns is stupid, please let me know. This is the first piece I've made with a huge emphasis on good quality audio, so I probably don't know exactly what I'm doing. However, I already have the NTG-2's, so if it seems this setup will work, then great.

At this point, I suppose I don't care too much about internally-cabled poles. Lightness is an important factor, but I was thinking that with the amount of hands we'll have on set, we might be able to have multiple people taking shifts with the boom pole (unless that's a bad idea, too).

Thanks again!

I found a good deal on a boom pole. it was about $46.00 on
http://www.markertek.com and the shock mount was about $25.00 on www.soundprofessionals.com. This set up has worked out well as i've used it for 3 commercials, music video, and am working on my second film with it..

Use a fishing rod, I use one and it works wonders.

Just make sure it's shock mounted

I went for a 3m collapsable painter's pole, and a screw on adaptor that converted the thread to one suitable for mounting a mic/shock mount. The most expensive thing was was the shipping costs to get the adaptor from the US, but it still only cost me about £30 in total. Had no problems with sound quality, and although it wasn't fantastically light it wasn't a struggle to use.

When I bought my boom pole (B&H) I paid a little more for a lighter one, and I THANK GOD I did. There were a few times when I held that boom. Holding that sucker over my head for a few minutes at a time, I came to appreciate the lighter the better.

I think I paid $80. It was worth every penny.

Inexpensive boom pole? Look no further than the brilliant post by VPTurner at the end of this thread.

buy a pro

hey, im usually all for diy stuff, save money, but, if your shooting a feature your gunna be workin long days, and im guessin your crew is workin for free, and believe me holding a diy boom up for 10 hours a day it gets pretty dam heavy especially if your not even gettin paid, so do yourself a favour and be nice to your crew, buy them proper equipment, or youll loose them all