Sound for a Remote Video Shoot

[SLS]

I have been asked to do the sound for a video shoot later this month. It will be a childrens video with a couple of musicians playing and singing in front of a group of kids. They want it to be kind of an intimate "campfire" feel, without cables or stands in the shot. It will be guitar and fiddle with some hand drums and one of them will sing.

Now, I have not done anything like this before, and was wondering if anyone had ideas on how to go about it. I was thinking we might need to use shotgun mics, but again, I don't have much experience with them. I was also thinking of perhaps using a wireless lapel mic for the vocal, and maybe wirless contact mic or di for the instruments. All of which I would need to rent.

I will be recording to a Mackie hard disk recorder through presonus preamps. I have lots of condenser mics, Neumanns, Audio Technicas, Shure, etc. but I am unsure right now of the acoustics of the site and don't know how well ambient micing will do. It will be in a video studio, and I imagine it is going to be pretty dead. I will be checking it out in a week or so.

Anyway, any initial thoughts suggestions on how to go about this?

Thanks!

[RobMacki]

Wow, there is a lot to it and I don't have time right now to go into it all.
What film format? What kind of transfer or down convert?
Pull downs etc?
You should find out if they want to do it as a video which would be "play back"at which point audio is played on set pulled up 48:048 so it will be in sync when transfered from 30fps to 29:97. (then audio would be back to 48)
Find this out first. If there is no conversion or transfer then at least you won't have to worry about sync. You can PM me for other resources etc.

[fifthcircle]

Sync should be your #1 concern- beyond that, the rest is relatively easy.

One of my gigs over the past year has been recording for a series of national tv commercials where people are performing live on the set. The situation is not that unlike what you are describing...

Basically, a few things- no microphones seen means that you need to be very creative when it comes to micing the principles... I've had great luck with well-placed wireless mics for that. My favorites that I used being the digital hybrid lectro (I have yet to use the Zaxcom digital system), and using either Sanken or Tram capsules. The tiny countryman (E6?) is decent, too... I would place one wireless on each of your principles. For singers, a chest mount under a thin shirt can work well. Be careful not to have it too high, though. On women, placing it on the cross-over point on the top of a bra can work quite well...

I also use paper tape to place a mic just looking over the top of an acoustic guitar. Paper tape is important as it doesn't leave any sort of residue and the glue is weak enough to cause damage. For the violin, mic about 8" or so beneath the instrument as the play. Hand drums will probably be picked up by a body mount mic, but you'll need to test before shooting starts.

Creativity is key, here... On one commercial, I had an alto sax player that also sang in parts of the song. The body mic caught the singing well, but the alto's sound was sort of thin as the positioning wasn't great.... The performer was wearing a long sleve shirt/jacket so we ended up placing the microphone in his left shirt sleve as it was at just the right height for the bell and body of the instrument. The sound was fantastic...

Now, beyond the body/close mics, you should also have some sort of area micing... Is the audience singing as well? Depending on the location, you could use a boom mic for this (ie a Schoeps MK-41 capsule, or a Sennheiser 416). A 416 will have better "reach" if you have to stand further back with the boom... I also find that a Mid-Side stereo microphone can work well for situations like this. My favorites being the Neumann and Sanken mics...

Remember, since it is video, Mono compatability is key. If it doesn't fold to mono perfectly, you aren't doing a good job... Most people don't have particularly great tv's and many vcrs only have mono audio... Mono can sound good if done properly- it sounds bad when the summing doesn't work because of phase problems.

Good luck. Sounds like a fun gig...

--Ben

[RobMacki]

...and make friends w/ the Key Grip!

[fifthcircle]

Grip, electrics, and the PAs....

Electrics and PAs will help you get up and running quickly (people never want to wait for sound on the set). To many directors, sound is a pain to deal with. Grip is nice because they can set up the little things that make your life easier (like a shade for your recorder so you can see the meters on an outdoor shoot).

--Ben

[RobMacki]

Preach it brother!

[SLS]

Good suggestions. I have not discussed the sync issue yet with them, but that is an important point. I will find out about that soon. What is traditionally the best way to sync to live video? This will be something that they might opt to mix down later, so that is something that I will need to confer on with them.

This is great, again because this is a new endeavor for me, and I look forward to any more comments!

BTW, any suggestions on a good place to rent from? I was going to check out Dreamhire, but would there be another place that I might consider? I want to be sure to get the best I can as far as the wireless mics go, so any more suggestions on that would be great too! The ones I have used in the past have been grudge

[RobMacki]

Bexel

Coffey Sound

Trew Audio

[NYC Drew]

...hire / kidnap another AE (before the shoot) that's done this before, or does this for a living...even if you come out breaking even or making no money for yourself, you'd have done good for your client.

Nothing helps repeat business like getting it right, and on point, and quick the 1st time.

[SLS]

Originally posted by NYC Drew
...hire / kidnap another AE (before the shoot) that's done this before

I would definately do this if there was an engineer in the area that has that kind of experience. What I AM going to do is to continue to dialog with the video studio about this. I don't need to worry about the client's impression of me, since it is a long time client. Which is also the reason I agreed to do it.

Rob, thanks for the links. Is there a particular one that you've had good experiences with? I have not used either of the 3.

Thanks again for all the good comments!