Acoustic AI
So we’re back to the mic and recorder. Bob has mentioned earlier that you should retain a sound specialist to take care of your sound recording. That’s great advice, and even on an extremely beginner hobbyist level it may be worth recruiting a friend who also has interest in learning to make short films and may want to learn sound. It’s impossible to boom a mic and run a camera at the same time (impossible? At least clumsy and highly ill-advised...). A stationary mic on a boom stand doesn’t cover blocking in a scene unless the actors stand perfectly still.
I'll get one or two friends to help me out behind the camera. (Hopefully someone is interested
) Even if they have no experience at all, I do agree with you that's its better to have a regular setup so it's not as clumsy. And while filming your friends will get better too.
Sweetie
I have some experience, not as much as Alcove. I'm still learning.
Yeah, I figured one can criticize the quality of audio by putting the volume up and listening to the noise. And I learned that within a movie, sound must follow certain obvious rules, like consistency. So it would be important to get a mic that picks up audio consistently. Probably many others things you can watch out for that I've never heard of. Tell me if I'm wrong or if I'm missing something.
I wholeheartedly agree, how you use the gear matters more than the gear itself. This also assumes you're talking about gear that hits minimum requirements for the task at hand.
Right. And is it true that better gear can be used in more situations? I do get that pretty much everything cheap is produced in such a way which causes noise/unrealistic capture/inconsistency.
If audio from the camera up close is as good as you need I'm going to suggest something a little different to Alcove. It might be just what you need, but you really need to take into consideration what you're planning on shooting. This suits more typical youtube videos as opposed to more serious narrative films. Look at grabbing a Rode Lav mic for about $50-$100, plug it into your iPhone and click on record. See if that gives you the audio you need. I think you'll find you'll get about the same quality as you'd get with your H1. You'll have to work out a way to get around clothes noise and other challenges (like monitoring etc). It'll get you about 50-60% of the way, but that might be the spot you're aiming for.... and for a bonus at a fraction of the price.
If you need to step up your gear, you'll want to consider investing more than what you're looking at right now.
I do want something a few levels up on camera mics. It only starts to sound half-decent after editing, and that's only when dialogue is recorded from close to the mouth, without being outside as the wind would cause tons of noise.
So something 1 level up on the Rode Lav mic. Pretty much the best piece of gear at around $150 to $200. Looking at a shotgun mic and a recorder. So around $350 for the recorder + shotgun mic together. And then getting all needed accessoires for those. I reckon I could do with that for a few years.
But thanks for the recommendation anyway, and I may just pick up something really cheap to see how bad it is. I guess I could return or resell it afterwards. And if I can't, I don't lose much and have some personal practical experience with it.
Alcove Audio
You have to understand, Pizza, and I'm sure that it's painfully obvious, that directorik, indietalk and Sweetie are passionate about audio. From our handles - Acoustic Al & Alcove Audio - it's a baseball bat between the eyes obvious that we are obsessed with sound-for-picture and sound in general.
I do get that. I think what I'm trying to say is that at this stage it's too much of a risk to get the better gear, but getting the worst stuff will just be painful to listen to. I need a balance. Gear that I can work with for a few years at most until I upgrade or have a sound member. Gear that, with the right technique, can make sound that casuals love, sound that the passionate will be okay with, and sound that the experts won't like but are willing to listen to if the story is good.
I think that gear is the stuff that you two recommended. Not the cheapo list, but the stuff around $150-200 per piece. Would you agree with me on that?
I get it, you're funds are extremely limited. Been there, done that, got the T-shirt. So keep it simple. You can do "silent" films. You can get a free DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) like Audacity. There are some usable free plug-ins out there, as well as free sound libraries. Load in an image you've taken and give it a new atmosphere, or try to recreate from your sound library something like a passing vehicle or a dog. I guess what I'm saying is work at sound the other way; see what you can convey with sound and visuals only. Picking between three different car passes that all fit but sound entirely different can be a real education and that's what you're looking for.
Right. I do think it's important to see your limitations and be creative around them. For the project I'm working on right now, I did download some 'free for commercial use' sounds and play with them. It's just that certain sounds like footsteps are hard to do the same to and still have it sound good. Dialogue isn't part of my current project.
I do have Audacity for sound editing. So far I've only really used it for editing dialogue from my Blue Yeti, which I already own a few years now. (I don't plan on using it for filmmaking, apart from for small camera experiments with toys.)
But I'll look into the free sound libraries and play with them. See what different versions of the same type of sound do for the feel of the scene, as you recommend.
And someone gave me the tip to tell a story just through sound, so I'll try that with the free library, and then later, with my own recorded sound.
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Once again thanks for all the feedback, tips and opinions. It really has helped me to understand audio better.
