How do YOU record your sound?

[cmnervegna]

This mainly goes to people who do low low budget films. How do you record your audio? Do you use a zoom H4n? Or another recorder? Mic's?

If you do, any test footage?

 

[Utopia]

Well, the sound supervisor said they were making a student film so they taught them how to record sound to a DAT player but the film still had to sound like a student film so they let them "tastefully" mess it up.

They added crickets, ambiences and subtle things in post, but overall it was just sweetened raw audio.

Most of the budget went to transferring digibeta to 35mm.

 

[gpforet]

I'd believe that. Don't get me wrong, I love that film.

Well, the sound supervisor said they were making a student film so they taught them how to record sound to a DAT player but the film still had to sound like a student film so they let them "tastefully" mess it up.

They added crickets, ambiences and subtle things in post, but overall it was just sweetened raw audio.

Most of the budget went to transferring digibeta to 35mm.

 

[Utopia]

Yeah - for every dollar they spent on that film, they made $10,000.

This film was in the Guinness Book Of World Records for "Top Budget:Box Office Ratio" (for a mainstream feature film). The film cost $22,000 to make and made back $240.5 million, a ratio of $1 spent for every $10,931 made.

So, I guess you don't need good audio to make money in this business,

but it's a lot easier on the audience when you have good sound

 

[Scoopicman]

I love the masks!

I love the ADR in the dark scene before the masks.

Good job! That sounded great, I thought. Especially the mask futz.

Coming from you, that means a lot. Thanks, ROC!

 

[M1chae1]

We record with a decent boom plugged directly into the camera via XLR cable.

Here is an example of the quality of sound we get:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZ7Q-GbjoFI

The first half is an interesting teaser introduction (with fx on sound, so ignore), the second half is the movie trailer with the actual sound design.

 

[Cracker Funk]

M1chea1 is back! I was beginning to wonder. Good to see ya (though, I've been keeping up with your filmmaking stuff on FB).

 

[Alcove Audio]

We record with a decent boom plugged directly into the camera via XLR cable.

It all depends upon what type of camera you are using. DSLR cameras have horrible audio implementation and capturing even passable audio is extremely difficult at best.

 

[Cracker Funk]

It all depends upon what type of camera you are using. DSLR cameras have horrible audio implementation and capturing even passable audio is extremely difficult at best.

Very true. I can't speak for M1chea1, but I assume he's not using DSLR, cuz of his use of the word "directly", as DSLR would require an XLR adapter.

 

[Gonzo_Entertainment]

On our first film together my DP just refused. He basically said if you're going to run sound into my camera and make me have to fight that cable while I'm trying to operate you can find another DP. I wanted to use him (20 years in LA as an operator on TV shows and low budget films), so I've always run separate.

 

[Cracker Funk]

On our first film together my DP just refused. He basically said if you're going to run sound into my camera and make me have to fight that cable while I'm trying to operate you can find another DP. I wanted to use him (20 years in LA as an operator on TV shows and low budget films), so I've always run separate.

I used to plug into the camera, cuz that was all I had. Now that I've been forced, due to camera choice, to record seperately, I'll never go back. It's rather liberating, not being tied down.