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[JohnNetzlof]

I'm planning on filming a documentary which will involve a camera following two to three guys around, and I want to make sure I've got good sound on them. I figured one shotgun style on the camera to get up the background sound, and a wireless lav to each of the people we're following. I'd like to record sound direct to camera, is this even possible? And What am I looking into here? I know the Lav's will need to operate on separate frequencies, and pass to a mixer, but can I even get that number of inputs to the Mixer? Can I have a system that will accept the input from the three lavs, in stead of having to hang three separate rigs off my camera/sound guy's waist? (Since we will at some point be on a subway and other places in public)

Any advice on what I've got set up in my mind, or mayhaps a better scenario?

 

[Alcove Audio]

IF you have the budget (notice the big if?)...

Use a stereo mic on the camera; that will cover your ambiences/BGs. You would preferably record each lav to an individual audio channel, so if you have two guys a two channel audio recorder will do, if you have three guys you will need a four (or more) channel recorder.

If you have a minimal (no) budget you will have to forget about the ambience/BG track. With two guys one lav goes to each channel on the camera. If you have more than two you will need a mixer with the adequate number of channels. Your primary speaker will be panned to channel 1 and the other speakers will be panned to channel 2.

Each lav will require its own individual transmitter and receiver - there is no way around this. Professional mixer/recorder bags are set up to handle this as a matter of course - Petrol and PortaBrace are favorites.