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Need advice on sound equipment

I

IrishOReilly

Hi guys

I have a situation where I need to purchase some sound equipment for a tv show.. I'm in the circus, completely outdoors and not under a tent or anything. We film a mockumentary on circus life as we go along. Our previous tv show pitch was loved, but was rejected due to sound quality.

Basically, a standard shotgun/boom wont work for what I need. We are very fast paced, no script, no set filming pattern, no story boards, etc. We film a lot of stuff in between shows, while performing, setting up, packing up and driving. Sometimes our performances consist of two of us, sometimes more but never enough people that we can have one filming and one on the mic. We do everything with $0; I basically just purchase stuff as I go along.

Our setup is a basic 1080p handheld camera without sound input (Hasty purchase I regret), and now a Canon EOS 550d/Rebel ti2. What would you guys recommend that we'd be able to capture decent sound, but still have filming and sound input a one man job?

Cheers :)
 
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You want good sound ? You have to plan and work hard at it. No easy solutions other than good technique along with proper eqt. MANY threads on this forum.

If you are withing a few feet from the speaker at all times, you "might" try a mic on top of the cam, but it will have issues. Another option is to use a Lav Mic plugged into a small digital recorder. That way you have the mic near the speakers mouth.

I use an Audio Technica ATR 3550 ? Lav Mic and an Olympus VN8100PC digital recorder and get decent soundon my projects


Only way to get good sound is to use good technique along with proper eqt.







.
 
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How much have you got to spend? Hard to say without a budget. You will need some sort of field sound recorder...what sort depends on your budget is. A portable recorder with the option of built in mics for spur of the moment recording might be helpful. You also want at least 2 XLR mic inputs. A shotgun mic mounted on a stand, or a pair of mics mounted x-y pattern on a stand might be helpful if you are shooting and fiming at the same time, and if there is only one operator. A reporter's mic handheld if you are interviewing maybe useful. How are you going to sync the film and audio?
 
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Cheers for the replies, guys

Indie: I knew there were lots of threads, but couldn't find any specifically related to what I need. I know for top notch sound I'd have to have a proper setup, but was hoping there'd be an easy-ish almost as good solution

Rock: Budget, nothing in mind at the moment. Basically what we need, I will spend. We don't have much money to spend on this sort of stuff, but if it takes me a week, a month, three months, etc. to get then I'll just wait, you know?

To put into perspective, this is the kind of stuff we film:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljMM3u6u3m4
That day, we'd driven from 7pm the night before all through the night to the most remote town in Australia. We set up our stuff, and did first performance at 11am, finished at 12:30, second show at 1:00, finished 2:45, got the idea for that video, filmed it quickly, performed again at 3pm, packed up and left.. So we don't get a LOT of time to get stuff set up as I'd like it

Edit: Oh, and as for syncing the sound/video, would that be done in the video editing software? I assumed it'd be a wav file or something that I could just add and sync up
 
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IrishOReilly said:
I know for top notch sound I'd have to have a proper setup, but was hoping there'd be an easy-ish almost as good solution
Click to expand...

Solid production sound is never easy. And technique is much more important than the equipment, although you need even more technique to make budget gear perform well.


IrishOReilly said:
as for syncing the sound/video, would that be done in the video editing software? I assumed it'd be a wav file or something that I could just add and sync up
Click to expand...

Lots of folks are using PluralEyes; probably out of your budget at this point. So what you have to do is slate every take verbally and visually, and line up the "SMACK" of the slate. Do this when you import the video footage. It's a bit of a PITA, but Hollywood did it that way, and still does when shooting on film, since sound first appeared in the late '20s. It's not that bad if you have detailed video and audio logs.
 
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I have a slate app on my iPad that has beeps.. We use that before shots primarily for the thumbnail previews so we know which videos we like and which we can ignore before we start editing. Saying what the scene is wouldn't be hard on top of that. Cheers :)
 
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IrishOReilly said:
I have a slate app on my iPad that has beeps.. We use that before shots primarily for the thumbnail previews so we know which videos we like and which we can ignore before we start editing. Saying what the scene is wouldn't be hard on top of that. Cheers :)
Click to expand...


You have to be able to see and hear a really clear signal like a hand clap, or clapper board to sync it. A beep is not really a good idea because though you could hear it, how are you going to be able to see the precise moment the beep is made?
You may find this helpful
http://rocksuresoundz.com/2011/10/11/the-importance-of-getting-good-audio/
 
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