Ideas for a low-budget location sound (for film) setup?

[Josh Donnelly]

Good afternoon, everybody. I'm going to be doing some location dialog recording for a short film, and I need pointers on a mic setup. The majority of the film is being shot inside an empty concrete fort on an island in Washington, and involves a bit of screaming. This is the first time that I've done anything like this, so I'm sorry if I don't know what I'm talking about.

I've been looking at this: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/cont...goryNavigation Does that seem ok to get me started? I have absolutely no money for a recorder, so I think I'll just try to find someplace in Seattle that can rent me one of the nice Sound Devices boxes (again, recommendations welcome).

This is really exciting, but I hate not really knowing what I'm looking for. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[dolo72]

Have you ever recorded sound for film before or assisted or been a runner on a film while watching the sound recordist and boom op/s ?

I think in direct answer to the package proposed is that you are better off hiring all the kit you need. You will be able to ask the kit hire people questions if something goes wrong.

Is it to be shot on video or on film, with or without video assist and what are the dialogue scenes like i.e. loads of people talking at once or mainly two person or one person? Also lastly do you have a boom op or is it a one man band type situation?

[Junkie]

obvious choices would be shotgun mic's, room mic's, lavlier/butterfly (small in-clothing) mic's. often people overdub the scene with script back in the studio, a good IR (impulse response) of the room you filmed in or decent reverb unit is needed to emulate the room ambience ofcourse

[pkautzsch]

Lo-Budget and film sound are two things that won't go very well together. Well, actually, lo-budget is relative, and even a small Sound Devices recorder can be considered lo-budget when compared to the BIG stuff.
As to the mics: Inside, probably super-cardioids will work better than shotguns. Schoeps CCM-41 is very small and lightweight, and has the usual high quality. Shotguns would be Sennheiser MKH416 or MKH60. So these are what you should ask for at the rental facility.
On location, sound is usually not the most important thing, and the last thing a film crew needs is a sound guy hanging around the shot all the time installing mics. Location sound often is to make the best of a situation that actually isn't good at all. You're best off with just a boom mic to start with. In 97% of all cases this is sufficient - other 3% include cars, public transport like planes, trains..., underwater shots, and very wide shots, as well as lots of lights where the shadow of the boom will always be in the frame.

[Jim vanBergen]

Without sounding snobbish, in my opinion you want to stay away from A-T mics. The Sennheiser 416 and Schoeps MK41 are the INDUSTRY STANDARDS, for a reason.

I did production sound on several low budget indies early in my career to get the film sound design and post mix jobs, and learned a LOT about it. I learned my Audio Technica shotguns did not improve with good preamps, and that DAT preamps suck in general. I learned about timecode, slates, and getting great room tone and location effect tracks.

I also learned a LOT of about boom miking techniques, cutting down reflections using sound blankets, and how sound is not important- until you did not get the take perfectly.

I think renting a recordist's kit is the best idea, and finding a mentor you can discuss all the elements of film location recording is imperative.

Good luck!

[celticrogues]

If you are on location see if there is a place you can hide some small lav mics in the set (not on the actors). There are usually places where you can hide a small mic where it will not be visible to the camera but it will pick up ambience better than a shotgun copuld in some instances. Good luck!

-Mike