I'll be renting a DVX100 for a few days in January to film a short for school. I've been researching the DVX100 heavily for weeks now - I don't want any suprises when I begin to shoot. The one thing that is terribly underdiscussed is the quality of the DVX100's onboard mic. I'm a perfectionist, and I don't want all of my hard work with lighting, acting, and camera settings to be ruined by a film with bad sound. Should I look into renting an additional shotgun mic, and if i do, how is the sound recorded - along with the onboard mic audio onto one track on the MiniDV? Keep in mind that neither I nor any of the "crew" have ever dealt with a boom (perhaps there's a helpful website that explains the basics).

Thanks so much.

I don't know what your production is, but you will probably need some form of external mic ... and someone experienced to run it. You're a perfectionist, right? So, don't expect you'll be able to perfect a skill right away people work their whole lives in, do you? (The same goes for the visual elements of movie making, BTW) But, for whatever reason, a sound person is out of your means. So, rent a boom mic or a lav/plant mic (or both), and make sure you have some time (like a 12 hour day or two) to practice recording sound in different environments and hearing how it turns out. Generally, you want to get the mic as close to the speaker as possble and possibly use sound blankets to reduce reverb in interior shots. If you're using a boom, its best to send a lav to a separate channel an mix them in post. And, try to get minimal SFX/ambient sounds on the voice track. With that said, make sure you also go back and get as many sfx/ambient sounds while you're there. What I mean by this is if the person's drinking a soda on a porch, get sounds of the soda pouring, ice falling into a cup, the fiz, the chair creaking, the birds chirping, the person sipping the soda, and cars driving by all separately from the dialogue. And most importantly, get lots of room tone--it'll save you in post. Speaking of post, you'll also need to learn/experiment with mixing sound ...but that's another topic.

BTW, it doesn't matter how nice the DVX100s mic is, the problem with it is it's attached to the camera. The closer you can get the mic to your subject, the cleaner the sound.

Yeah, if you want to get the best audio possible, get a nice Sennheiser shotgun and a boom. These two pieces of equipment have vastly improved the quality of my films.

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