• Wondering which camera, gear, computer, or software to buy? Ask in our Gear Guide.

Any good reason NOT to use a lav mic?

moonshieldmedia

moonshieldmedia

Let's assume my actors are well clothed the entire film and hiding the wires is no problem. Are there any situations where a boom is absolutely necessary?

Seems like the best solution to get clear sound throughout your film would be to invest in a few really nice lavalier mics (the Rode PinMic looks pretty cool too).

I've been on at least 100 professional film sets as a BG actor and they almost always have boom operators.
 
Sort by date Sort by votes
1. A boomed mic sounds much more natural. If I have a choice when editing the dialog I always go for the boomed mic first.

2. For indie types reliable wireless lav systems are expensive. Two (2) Sennheiser G3 systems plus replacing the lavs is about $2k; most indie types won't even spend that on their entire sound kit, or even on their camera. What if you have three or more speaking parts in a scene? You'll need a wireless lav for each actor, so add $1k for each speaking part.

3. Properly hiding a lav - so you don't get clothing rub and other unwanted sounds - is difficult and time consuming to do correctly.

4. Wireless systems need to be gain-staged properly for optimum volume and minimum noise.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
There's also the issue of number of channels - 2 booms into each channel and 2 good boom ops will be able to cover a scene of 4 or more (depending on how much each talks) people. What happens if you've got 7 peolpe in a scene? To lav them all, you'd need to get a mixer or two and mix into the recorder, or get another 2-3 recorders. Not to mentiont the amount of batteries you'd churn through and whilst it may not seem like much, when you've already spent 2-3k on a half-decent lav, then going and spending a few hundred dollars on batteries.. .And even then, it still won't sound as good or full as a good boom. And you're likely to have issues with clothes rustle, issues hiding them, it's possible to have range issues or channel issues - you don't want to be in the middle of a perfect take and then get interference on the audio channel because someone else is using a wireless device nearby.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You'll also still have to boom or do extensive foley for all the other sounds in the scene, footsteps, a glass being set down on a table, etc...

In a perfect world you'd foley all that stuff anyway, but on an indie budget you can often get by with what the boom picks up.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
harmonica44 said:
Don't other mics need to be gain staged too? I'm probably thinking of something else, but my wire mics I have to set the gain beforehand.
Click to expand...

Two more items that need to be gain-staged - the transmitter and the receiver. Most indie types have trouble just setting proper levels on a recorder; gain-staging a complex audio chain like transmitter-receiver-mixer-recorder would leave them overwhelmed - and probably with really crappy sound that also has clothing rub and off axis pick-up since they won't place the lavs properly and RF interference as they will probably buy a cheap wireless rather than something decent.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Some lav mics are wireless. You might get the perfect shot with radio interference.

It sucks.

Shot gun always works well, with a good pop filter and wind filter.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Even if you go with lavs, you should still always boom, too. The more options you have, the better.

And don't forget you'll want to pick up ambient sound for the scene, I can't really picture doing that with lavs.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
brianluce said:
A true indie would never use real gaffer's tape. Duct or masking only. Gaffer's tape is for fascists.
Click to expand...

OK, I was suspicious when I saw this pic of a gent carrying a roll of gaffer's tape on the internets.

Photoshop magic ???

gaff-300x285.jpg


EDIT...nothing to do w/ politics...just stupid humor..OK
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top