Sound Mixer Problem, Need Advice

themattcastro

themattcastro

Alright here's the deal...so I have less than a month to get a short film shot and edited. I can only film on weekends and now I've run into a problem with my Sound Mixer.

I'm shooting the first scene this Saturday and my Sound Mixer is busy this weekend due to family problems, but will be free after that. Now I don't have a Sound Mixer to record my audio this weekend.

So now here are my options, either:

1. Replace old Sound Mixer with someone new that I haven't worked with before

2. Hold off on filming until next weekend, which leaves me with only 3 weeks to film and edit the entire short

3. Record on my Zoom H4N with a shotgun mic (my sound mixer uses a rode, however I don't have one) and hope that it works together with my Sound Mixers equipment.

My short consists of 4 different sets, and we will be filming all the scenes for 1 of them this weekend, so it's a large part for the short.

So what should I do? Which option should I choose?
 
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Will your mixer loan you his/her gear?

If you have to shoot, you have to shoot. Hire a guy for just this weekend if needed. Ideally you'd use different mics for different sets anyways, whatever is right for the location, then match it all in post.
 
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PaulGriffith said:
Will your mixer loan you his/her gear?

If you have to shoot, you have to shoot. Hire a guy for just this weekend if needed. Ideally you'd use different mics for different sets anyways, whatever is right for the location, then match it all in post.
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Thanks for the advice. I know I'd be using different mics, but I just don't know if the quality would match the same as my mixers.

I also don't have much experience or knowledge in the audio field, so I don't really know what type of mic I would have to use for the set I'll be using.

It's an empty dirt lot with the most amount of dialogue, so I was thinking that just a shotgun mic would do since I just want more of directional sound and not much ambiance.
 
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Forgive me if Im wrong, but do you want ANY ambiance in the dialog recording ? Id wanna add that in post.

Im thinking if you get good sound regardless of the mic, a competent sound person would make it work in post as well... Unless you are an anal retentive sound engineer, but the average watcher wouldn't have a clue.
 
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A good PSM is a good PSM, a good boom-op is a good boom-op, and they should have decent gear. More importantly, they will know (or should know) their personal gear inside/out so you will get optimum sound. You'll have to rely on their professionalism. Jump on it - you've got less than 70 hours!
 
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We're probably going to try and do the audio ourselves this weekend and wait for the next week for our Sound Mixer to come back.

But just in case, do any of you happen to know someone in Murrieta or Escondido CA willing to be a Sound Mixer for free, or in deferred payments?
 
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