Renting audio equipment for feature shoot...
- Thread starter dr stilly
- Start date
dr - do you need 192kHz sampling? 96kHZ? What's your budget? If I was shooting a feature with a healthy budget, I'd rent a Sound Devices 744T or a Nagra LB. If I was shooting DSLR and needed a recorder to make up for bad in-camera sound, I'd rent a Tascam DR-100 or an H4N.
Top end mixer? Sound Devices 302
Second rank mixer? Wendt X4
Top end lavs? Sanken COS-11
Second rank lavs? Sony ECM-66B (take the 44B if they don't have it)
Top end boom mic? Schoeps CMC6/Mk41 hypercardioid
Second rank boom mic? Sennheiser MKH 60 mini shotgun
Hope this is helpful,
Bill
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I'd question the need for a mixer and recorder. I'd probalby rather use something liek a Sound Devices 788T, or Zaxcom Nomad.
I'd probably grab a Sennheiser MKH416, or Rode NTG-3 for your boom, Some Sennheiser G3 wireless packs with ME-2 lavs on them. It depends on your budget, and your specific needs really.
Neumann also make a great shotgun (can't think of the model off the top of my head) which is at least on par with the Schoeps, and from what I remember of some older tests I heard, was one of the best performers, albeit one of the more expensive mics included in the test.
I'd probably grab a Sennheiser MKH416, or Rode NTG-3 for your boom, Some Sennheiser G3 wireless packs with ME-2 lavs on them. It depends on your budget, and your specific needs really.
Neumann also make a great shotgun (can't think of the model off the top of my head) which is at least on par with the Schoeps, and from what I remember of some older tests I heard, was one of the best performers, albeit one of the more expensive mics included in the test.
Actually, a mixer should always be used. Besides having much larger physical controls so you can ride volumes on the fly they also provide superior routing capabilities, such as boom-op foldback, camera mix, directors feed, video tent feed, etc. plus a stereo mix and multiple independent tracks if using a multitrack recorder
As far as what brands to rent... You'll be lucky if the rental house will have A, B and C quality packages. They'll have a basic package (Mic, mixer, two-channel recorder, accessories) up to a premium package (multiple mics, mixer, mulittrack recorder, wireless lavs, etc.). You will not have your choice of brands in most cases. Some of the major audio rental houses do let you rent a-la-carte, but you will pay extra premium prices.
Here's an example from Trew Audio (who will ship rentals anywhere in North America):
http://www.trewaudio.com/rentals/nashville-sound-packages/
(BTW, Coffey Sound recently merged with Trew Audio.)
In an indie production? Obviously on a larger set, with a higher budget then all of that comes into practice and needs to be taken into account.
I think a 788T, Nomad or even a Cantar (if you could find someone who knew how to work it) would be more than enough for most low- budget films.
Can't speak for the US, but here rentals are all a-la-carte, unless you're hiring things like camera packages. Audio is certainly a-la-carte, unless you decide to hire from an owner/operator or specialist audio rental company (who generally only stock equipment for live sound, rather than specific film set stuff).
Example:
http://www.lemac.com.au/RentalsOld/Audio.aspx
http://www.vahire.com/vahire-audio-equipment.html
I am assuming you have a dedicated, experienced sound guy to run this gear? If not, just hire a sound guy who brings his gear with him.
I'll second this^^ I looked at renting a Rode mic kit & Zoom H4N, then I decided to offer a sound guy with equipment £50 a day. He accepted, now I have sound guy AND more equipment for what I would have paid just to rent.
Good move. The sound man should really be equal is status to the DP on set. He is just (if not not more) critical. You wouldn't just hand the camera to somebody who kind of knew how to use it and turn them loose. The same applies to the sound recorder.