Re: Budget Sound--is it even possible?
- From: Whitney Ince <whitneyince@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 16 Jul 2007 16:30:09 -0000
On Jul 16, 3:29 am, Chris Howland <thenewmus...@xxxxxxx> wrote:
I'm a bit sleepy so I won't be able to get to everything you mentioned
in your post but since I've been doing nothing but low budget indie
film work for the past couple of years, I wanted to point out 3 BIG
things that will dramtically improve your sound quality.
1-The 1st weakest link in getting good sound is never the mixer or the
gear, it's always the LOCATION. Pick locations where the natural sound
of the area match the imagery that you want to shoot. I recently
worked on a feature where they had a couple having a nice romantic
picnic lunch at a park here in Los Angeles. They had important
dialogue and they kissed alot (Which also makes a very delicate
sound). The frame looked great but the shooting location was 50 feet
away from the 5 freeway. During the scout, I told the director that no
matter what we do, if you plan to shoot here then it will be an ADR
situation. He understood and agreed. Since, I'm betting, you have no
budget for ADR, you should pick your locations for sound consideration
as well.
2-The 2nd weakest link is the lock down. You have to make sure that
people are not talking while your shooting and shut off things like
Air Conditioners, Computers with fans that don't need to be running,
Buzzing lights, refrigerators, Cell Phones and noisy dollies. On a
small crew, everyone should be thinking about sound and ways to make
it cleaner.
3-Get as much coverage as possible. Avoid doing scenes as "One-ers."
You will find that getting more coverage with give you more options in
the cutting room and will result in a better scene for everyone,
Actors, Camera, Sound and Production Design.
These 3 things will improve you sound dramatically.
Best of luck,
Chris Howland
myspace DOT com SLASH lasoundmixer
On Jul 8, 12:05 am, jhol...@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
I'm fairly new to the world of filmmaking (or at least, filmmaking of
any sort of quality), and am working on a budget of next to nothing--a
few hundred dollars, total, is my absolute max right now. I'm
convinced, however, that this is enough. I'm not looking for Hollywood
quality. I just want something more than a camcorder's built-in
microphone, you know?
Up to this point, my equipment has consisted of a $25 omnidirectional
microphone from Radio Shack mounted on a $20 telescoping lightbulb
changer (with the mount just taped on there--and re-taped every time I
need to use it), recording to my Canon ZR500 (with the lens cap on,
it's really just a bulky recorder), and monitored on some enormous
headphones I found in my basement. It works okay, but I wouldn't
record a feature with it.
I've finally decided that I want something better--or at least
something more convenient. I bought a little voice recorder (a Sony
ICD-B300), but I'm afraid to open it. It's smaller, which is nice, but
I'm worried about quality. It has connections in and out, but I don't
know if the hardware will affect my audio. Frankly, I'd keep using my
camcorder if it was set up just a little differently. The connections
are 1/8", but the audio-out is used for the A/V connection as well, so
I get awful noise ("video") in my right ear with stereo headphones.
Luckily, the headphones I've been using are 1/4", so I bought a mono
adapter for a few dollars and everything is peachy (I needed one for
the microphone, too, anyway). Frankly, I don't know what to use,
regardless of price. I'm still not entirely sure what a DAT recorder
is, since I've never seen one for sale anywhere. I found a minidisc
player at Sears (I thought they were discontinued?), but is there some
specific model I'd need for recording? I'm under the impression that I
need some sort of mixer in the middle to interface everything. And
what about a preamp? Like I said, I'm new to all of this and would
appreciate any words of wisdom you'd like to throw at me.
In terms of a microphone, the one I have is cute, but it's just not
cutting it. I'm on the market for a new one, but I can't justify
spending more than $200 on one right this moment. I'm not looking for
perfect quality, but as long as I can get something that sounds good,
I'd be golden.
While I'm at it, here are a few products I'm looking at right now. Am
I on the right track, at least?
ART Tube MP Professional Mic Preamp/Processorhttp://www.amazon.com/ART-MP-Professional-Preamp-Processor/dp/B0002GZ...
To be honest, this is just the first cheap preamp I came across. I'm
still not entirely sure what this guy is used for.
NRG SA-568 Dual-Mode Shotgun Microphone with Accessory Kithttp://www.amazon.com/SA-568-Dual-Mode-Shotgun-Microphone-Accessory/d...
The reviews for this microphone look good, and it's definitely within
my budget.
I look forward to anything you might have to offer (and half-expect to
be laughed at as awfully naive, but I'll risk it)
John
If your serious about good sound save your money up until you can buy
some better gear. That Olympus Ws-100 looks aweful it records audio in
WMA (Windows Media Audio) format and only has 64mb of internal memory.
I won't even use it for transcriptions. Also abandon any Radio Shack
product we all need radio shack when things break but I would NEVER
use a Radio shack microphone. Save up till you have about $1000.00 and
buy some gear you can be proud of.
.
- References:
- Budget Sound--is it even possible?
- From: jholdun
- Re: Budget Sound--is it even possible?
- From: Chris Howland
- Budget Sound--is it even possible?
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