(Audio) equipment information documentary

Give me your total audio budget and I'll see what I can squeeze together.

But, no matter what, your audio is going to be fair to terrible. Unless, of course, you spend some "serious" money.

I know sound is the most important thing

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Oh? Then why aren't you putting most of your money there?

Sorry, I'm feeling "curmudgeonly" tonight.

In a very intense EM/RF interference environment like China - I'm assuming Taiwan - you'll need an incredibly reliable wireless unit to have any hope of capturing passable audio from a lav. (BTW, you'll have to check for available local frequencies; they vary greatly from country to country, even city to city in the same metro area.)

You'll have to work very hard on lav placement to get optimum pick-up; I have little faith in getting much usable audio from a camera mounted mic.


Depending upon how long you'll be shooting, renting may be a better option. A Lectrosonics wireless system (in the proper frequency ranges for your destination) and a decent lav can be had for about $200/week. Lectrosonics are very reliable, very durable, have good battery life, etc., which is why the pros use them.

Yeah, a hand-held recorder would be okay for interviews as long as you get it in close to both the interviewer and interviewee. You'll need to sync later, of course.

Thanks for your reply! I will be shooting in Beijing, so cant use a boompole, need to be low key...

I'm shooting this thing by myself. It seems I dont have any other options then the mounted shotgun mic and a wireless lav system? I dont have funding or a big budget available myself, I can spend maybe buy a lav set in the range of 200-450 euro.

I know my options arent optimal and wish I had a sound guy with a boom...

Any advice on equipment or how to do this the best way possible is highly appreciated.

Oh and renting is not an option..I will be there for months...

For an "El-Cheap-O" wireless you can try the Audio-Technica PRO 88W series, in the $150 range. The biggest issue is that it's only VHF; you'll have an extremely high possibility of picking up taxi radios, police bands, construction site walkie-talkies, etc., etc., etc. You may also get interference from power lines, phones, lights of all kinds, wi-fi devices and anything else that generates EM/RF interference. UHF would be better; they start in the $500 range.

As far as the camera mic is concerned I don't know if you should stick with a traditional shotgun like the NTG-1 ($250) or AT875 ($175) or if you should go with a hypercardioid like the Audio-Technica AT4053b ($600) or the Avantone CK-1 ($150). No matter which you decide upon make sure that you get serious shock-mounting and wind protection.


I do not recommend that you go this route. The odds of you getting usable audio are very slim. Capturing good audio is hard under the best of circumstances, and you're trying to do this with very little audio knowledge and extremely substandard audio equipment, and trying to do it covertly/guerilla style in a country with a rather draconian "justice" system. I wish you the best of luck.




Oh, you may want to ask some questions over at Jeff Wexlers site for production sound professionals. A bunch of them have probably worked in Beijing or know someone who has, so they may be able to give you some tips.

http://jwsoundgroup.net/index.php?


BTW, you may want to research renting the right gear in Taiwan; it may be cheaper there.




Oh, one more thing....

The Inverse Square Law

A sound source two meters away will sound only 1/4th as loud as a sound source one meter away If you are four meter away it's only 1/16th as loud.

This is why it's so important to get the mic in close.

Thanks for your advice. I will let you know which route I take. Maybe a lot of voiceover recorded on the Marantz