Since I'm doing it dry, in a closest full of hung clothes, as I was told to do, does it matter if I use a shotgun or a hypercardioid? Whichever is best.
Test the setup... don't sit the actor down and use them as guinea pigs as you try to work out the best setup... get a friend and site them down in a bunch of different configurations and record it... including video or sketches with setup numbers and descriptions on the audio "Setup 1, blanket behind, talent facing closet"... "setup 2, blanket below, talent in closet facing out"... etc.
Once you review the audio, repeat the one that gets you the best sound with the actor when they show up.
...it was difficult to tell if there was reverb or not considering, that I can tell much better after it's recorded. The reason is through the headphones it's hard to tell. Playing it through speakers later helps me tell better.
The best ADR studios have acoustics which are designed not only to reduce the reverb of the recording room but to make the reverb which is inevitably captured as neutral as possible, so it can be more convincingly mixed.
Okay thanks. Yeah I listened to the ADR through the headphones too, and I can't hear any reverb through those.
What's next to see about 'reverbing' it in Audition?
I do not remember if it was Alcove who told me this advice (I think it was), but I used a blanket over while recording, and got a pretty dry voice.
Yes, it can be better, but I think I'm starting to get the way.
Is that clip supposed to be a VO or ADR? Whatever it's purpose, you'll really need to record it again. The actor was far too close to the mic and you have all the audio faults associated with this: Plosives, essing and proximity effect. The actor needs to be a minimum of 2ft from the mic (maybe more) and a pop screen might help. Obviously as you get further away from the mic, you pic up more of the room reverb, so mic placement (relative to the actors mouth) is a bit of a balancing act.
If the recording is supposed to be ADR, then you'll need to record it with the actor speaking into an empty shoe box (for example), to simulate the audio effect of the mask he's wearing. You'll have to experiment with different ideas a bit. This could be emulated with effects processing but would be better to just record it to sound convincing. If you have to match this scene with others where the actor is wearing the mask but is not being ADR'ed, then matching the production dialogue and his ADR could be tricky and he'll need to wear the mask when recording the ADR.
G
Alcove, the only thing I would disagree with in your last post is your figures. Even small to medium audio post facilities spend hundreds of thousands of dollars, the big ones (like the ones you linked to) cost tens of millions to build and equip.
Actually it is a VO. And the voice is this close to the mic because this character is related to fear, fatigue, trauma and above all, loneliness in an urban center. The way I found to build it was directing the actor's speech to a very low hushed tone. How could I do this without being so close to the microphone?
I personally feel we're at the point where there's so much information on how to make a serviceable image, but almost nothing comprehensive about audio in the normal filmmaking places... this would be an awesome time to start getting a comprehensive thread about audio technique starting with equipment and moving through miking techniques and through dialog editing and post production.
I also like to use screen shots of my spectrum analyzer to "show" the sound... and that's really simple to get on both win and mac.