Alright guys. I know ideally, that the best way to shoot outdoors is in areaswithout alot of side noise, but what is the best way to cope when you really just need to shoot somewhere where you can't possibly control the enviorment such as a busy city street? Would it be good to use the little mics that attatchto people's shirts for the dialogue? Also, what kind of mic do you guys recommend asI'm shoppin for an all purpose external mic. Thanks in advance for the help.

Shoot it from far away and loop it.

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I don't want FOP godammit, I'm a Dapper Dan Man.

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Yeah, looping it would be the easiest/cheapest method. I'm about to loop 15 minutes of dialogue for a short. ADR/looping drives me nuts, though. The talent never is able to recapture the moment. If you do decide to loop the dialogue, be sure to get plenty of good, clean roomtone. It also helps to record the dialogue on location as a reference so the talent can reproduce the inflections and tone of the dialogue more accurately.

When shopping for a mic:
1. there is no all purpose mic.
2. almost any mic will be better than the on camera one.
3. you get what you pay for. ...spend more, get more.

Different microphones are good for different things. You mentioned Lavaliere mics. Those are good because they can be concealed, but don't have the best dynamic range and sound empty because they don't pickup as much reverb and such. Plus when attached to people, you risk hearing clothing rustle. Lavs are great to have, but if you are to only buy one mic, I'd get a Super-Cardioid (AKA boom or shotgun) mic. They are great for dialogue (even of multiple people off one mic) and can be used for other sound gathering such as room tone, foley, and can even be mounted on camera (although that's not as ideal). They aren't as ideal in close quarters or indoors, and often you'll need a sound guy operating a boom or fishpole for the mic to be most effective.

I use a wired Countryman B6 lav and a Sennheiser ME66 super-cardioid mic normally. Often, I'll record sound using both mics, sending each to a stereo channel. Then, I'll adjust the EQ and reverb of the lav in post to better match the super-cardioid if I need to use the lav channel in the final mix.

Getting good sound is expensive, difficult and time consuming, but good sound makes the film look better. You can always call shaky, blurry, poor video a look. Poor sound will always be poor sound. [stepping off soap box]

hope this helped.
joren

[This message was edited by joren on July 12, 2003 at 11:44 AM.]

Thanks Guys. I was figuring I would have to use looping. Joren, what methods do you use to reshoot the dialogue during the shoot? I'm planning to shoot this out of town and won't have access to most of the cast during post-production so I won't be able to do the voiceovers later. Do you just let them watch the footage and do the readings on the spot? Thanks.

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Originally posted by Goldenboy:
Joren, what methods do you use to reshoot the dialogue during the shoot?

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Well, I do everything in my power to not adr/loop. Second, I do all the editing, see what take I used and exactly what the actor needs to say, then bring 'em in. Doesn't sound like you'll be able to do either of those. What I'd do is imediately after each take, get the actor to repeat their lines for audio recording. This is what Rodriguez did for El Mariachi. Warn the actors ahead of time so they'll be consious of just what and how they said their lines. And, make sure the recordings are as clean as possible (i.e. no BG noise and the levels are good). Again, get lots of room tone.

good luck,
joren