audio capture

[Anatol]

I've decided to stump up for a Canon 500D. I intend to do some movie shooting with it, and I anticipate the built-in mono mike won't be up to the task.

Can anyone out there recommend a budget-but-decent standalone audio capture device I can use, ideally with either a lapel mike or a mike at the camera location?

Thanks in advance,

Tol

[Fordo]

Anatol said:

budget-but-decent

doesnt exist!

depends what your shooting, but Id recommend hiring in the kit you need- a Dat recorder, SQN mixer, boom pole & Mic, or radio mic, as a kit can be hired for as little as £30 a day.

Also, since you'll have no way to sync sound, get a clapper board, and make sure each take is marked clearly AND spoken for the audio (other wise some poor sod will have to spend ages working out which audio clip belongs to which take. ive been that poor sod before, and its no fun!)

[Fordo]

was just having another think- you might be able to pick up some digital minidisc kits with a mic off ebay. They can make great portable audio recorders- batterys last for ages, and the medias cheap. A lot of people use hard drive based audio recorders these days, but i dont like them- seen too many errors occur on set with them.

Bare in mind any audio got from the cameras position wont be too good- youve really goto get your mic close to your subject. which is why boom operators have strong arms- they usually always boom over the subject, so they can get the mic as close to the subjects mouth as possible, and as close to the edge of frame as possible.

Closer you are, the more you can turn down the recording volume, and the less background noise you'll get.

Apologies if this is all obvious to you! But ive been on far to many shoots where the audio hasnt been thought about properly, and ends up sub-standard. You can see the image on set, but its not till everythings in the edit suite that people suddenly realise that theyre audio has been ruined by a plane going over head. To me, the audio is almost more important. If a shot is over exposed, you can grade it, or cut to a cutaway, but if the audio is screwed, theres not much you can do.


Another option, is me! Im a cameraman by trade, but ive been a soundman on a couple of docs. If your shoot is at a weekend, and im not working, id be happy to help out. I can supply boom, shotgun mic, radio mics if you need them, clapper board. I dont have a dat, but id probably record the audio onto a dv or hdv cam. Id come with a laptop to ingest the audio, then then supply it in whatever format youd need- aiff, wav etc

Edited by Fordo on Friday 8th May 15:02