Audio question

We are making a feature film using a DVX100B. I am fairly inexperienced with audio. All the audio equipment I have right now is a sghotgun mic that plugs directly into the camera. This is a NO budget picture, and I am wonering what kind of audio recording equipment we will be able to get. I don't want to spend more than $400-$500. Please help me out guys/ Thanks!
 
...out of curiosity, what are you going to be shooting? Where are you going to be shooting? Maybe your camera will be enough if you have a good shotgun mic. If not, There are people who know how to make makeshift booms...

-- spinner :cool:
 
I would just get a boom pole and find a friend to hold it (someone who lifts weights or works out and doesn't mind standing all day). I have plans for making one at home depot with a shock mount and windscreen if you'd like ($20). You've already got the rest...you may need a longer cable though...50 feet may seem like overkill until you realize that the boom pole can get up to 16' and you want your sound guy/gal to come in from the side or stand under that thing over there to hide the boom better. 25' would be the minimum...your sound guy/gal would be required to be no further than 6-7 feet from the camera at all times then.
 
We use a Sony MZ-M100 disk player. 1GB disks go a long way, extened battery life means the sound guy is free to roam. It captures un-compressed sound in a wav file. It's worked really well for us if you don't mind the hassle of having to slate every thing.

Getting the mic as close to the source as possible is the key.

@ knightly - are the plans $20 or the price of the parts?
 
A shotgun should work fine you can use a mike stand as a boom pole just take it off the base. Get it as close as you can with out getting it in the frame. Be sure to have someone with headphones (boom op or otherwise) on who is paying attention and listing for boom noise or other audio problems.
Make sure to get at least one min of room tone, that will save you in editing!
 
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There is no such thing as cutting corners with audio. It's like having a great DP or having lighting people who know what the hell they are doing. Otherwise don't bother shooting a movie. Save money on production sound and you will PAY much MUCH more in post production! Hire a pro who knows how to connect to the camera, use audio equipment, and hopefully who has their own equipment (lavaliers, wind screens for outdoors, shock mounts, compressor/limiters, etc) and it call comes as a package deal or you will pay dearly doing ADR. Sometimes it's the extra things like eliminating 60 cycle hums in a system or possitioning a generator far around a corner that can REALLY save you from disaster, but often there's many small things that hurt your sound because of corner cutting.

Having poor sound is one of the things that contributes to making a movie sound "cheap". A lot of people think their sound is "good" but isn't at all because they don't have the ear to notice excessive ambience, poor proximity, phasing problems, bad signal to noise ratio, attention to detail, etc. Consumers who will see your movie subconsciously hear this stuff.
 
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Those folks started somewhere too...I've made tons of mistakes doing sound on this last project...I've learned from it. If you're just starting out as a filmmaker, screw things up and learn from them. If you're a ways into it, you should have made your mistakes...if you didn't learn from them, you should go back and look at your mistakes again...they are important.

In presenting a DIY solution for cost effective equipment, I'm not recommending that you skimp on sound quality (that comes through experience...not fancy equipment)...just on the amount of money you spend to place the equipment where it needs to be.

I use a 16' aluminum painter's pole. I have a shockmount made from roof gutter screen, hobby wire, costume fur, chopsticks and rubberbands. I challenge you to show me that my $20 solution doesn't provide anything a $200 boom pole provides (barring a coiled in-pole cable). Except that I get to spend $180 more on my project.

Spending money isn't always the best solution. I'm not cutting corners by using a DIY rig...I'm learning my craft in a cost prohibitive industry. Time = Money...if you don't have money to invest, use time as currency.

I also don't advocate cutting corners on any part of production, but more money isn't always the best answer.
 
There is no such thing as cutting corners with audio.

This is true -- the issues are two fold -- one is equipment and the other is skill.

On the equipment side what you need is:

1) Something to record with
2) Someway to monitor the levels
3) Someway to listen to the sound that's being recorded

The record with element is your basic - mic/pole/XLR cable combo -- along with ways of protecting the mic from howl around (wind noise). (This kit can grow and grow to include all manner of things, but those are the basics)

The element to monitor levels is very important, and the bit that many indies forget. Because digital sound doesn't distort at it's maximum level -- but merely clicks as it tops out -- it's really easy to miss audio topping out when recording -- a problem that will mean ADR in post. -- In order to avoid this problem you need a meter that allows you to see the levels as they are recorded -- for the indie, Beachtek make a unit that does just this and also provides phantom power for mics. They used to make a meter/headpohone amplifier, which is what I use.

The sound itself can be listened to directly from the camera via the headphone jack -- preferably by someone who isn't the camera operator -- who will have other things to worry about.

Once you've got the equipment issues sorted -- then comes the hard part -- the skill element

In the music industry they talk about engineers in studios "having good ears" and it's true -- not everyone has the ability to differentiate between good sound and bad. A good sound guy not only listens for potential sound problems and knows how to position mics to get round them, but also knows what sound is going to be needed for the mix and makes sure that get's recorded as well.

It's a highly skilled job and not everyone can learn how to do it -- however, with that said, that's not a reason not to attempt to acquire the skills -- and when starting out the DIY solutions will allow you to get acceptable sound, providing you can get the skill element right.
 
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