Boom Operator Equipment

[davidsonu87]

I would just like to know what kind of equipment it would take to become a moderately to fully-equiped boom operator. Please keep in mind that I'm not a millionaire. Cheap but good is great. Microphones, Recorders, etc.

Thanks

[Geert van den Berg]

I'll move this thread to the location recording forum, you're likely to get more answers there and I made an agreement with Steve that we only discuss about post-pro in the post-pro forum. But there will be a permanent link to your thread there as well...

[pkautzsch]

There are at least two threads for this here, seaching for the right tags will help you.
The gist of these threads is:
(1) Cheap-and-good is non-existent.
(2) Sennheiser MKH416 or MKH60, some wireless lavalier mics, SQN or SoundDevices mixer, cabling. And a boom, of course ;) I prefer vdB booms.
(3) Maybe also dedicated field recorder if not recording to the cam.
(4) Last but not least: knowing your ways round a film set. This knowledge is best gained by interning, and will also give you a good overview of what is needed for which scale of project.

[philper]

Originally Posted by davidsonu87

I would just like to know what kind of equipment it would take to become a moderately to fully-equiped boom operator. Please keep in mind that I'm not a millionaire. Cheap but good is great. Microphones, Recorders, etc.

Thanks

On most US crews the boom op doesn't bring anything more than their personal headphones, perhaps some hand-tools and maybe some lav-mic mounting tape. A few boom ops have their own fishpoles, but usually if the mixer is getting all the rental then they use the mixer's gear.

If what you mean by "boom operator" is in fact "location sound mixer", then all the usual rules apply and there are many choices of mixer, mics, booms, lavs wireless setups etc etc etc. In the US the most common small mixers are made by Sound Devices, PSC and Shure; the most common boom mics by Schoeps, Neumann/Sennheiser and Sanken. Lav mic faves are Sanken, Countryman, DPA and Sonotrim. The list goes on--all these manufacturers have websites--check them out.

For more discussion of location sound recording check out "rec . arts . movies . production . sound" on Google groups and JWSOUND.NET (Jeff Wexler's forum). Go thru the archived threads at both--lots of info about what you want to know.

Philip Perkins

[SiliconAudioLab]

Lurk here:

http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/forumdisplay.php?f=29

Philip, I sent you a PM.

The Sennhiesr 416 is standard (good advise above BTW). I use a couple of PSC Alpha mixers. Also a SoundDevices 744. The 302 is good mixer but in my opinion a little more on ther ENG side of things.

You'll need a blimp/zepplin, and a handful of wireless - I use Lectrosonic's 400/411 series.