Izzy Video 042 – My Sound Equipment

Hi, In this episode you mentioned the ME66 microphone, however, when I read about it on the internet, I read it needs a K6 power module. Do we have to buy this as well to plug it in our camera? Or is it not really required.
greetz

Kenny,

Yes, I neglected to mention that I have the K6 power module. It screws into the back of the microphone, and you put one double-A battery into it for power.

It’s an important part of the microphone setup because it won’t work without it!

Thank you for pointing out this detail.

Israel

Thanks Israel, this is another interesting and informative episode and i look forward to more.

Here are some additional questions I have in mind:

In movies, there are always scenes when the camera zooms into a talking subject. However, the camera sometimes zoom in from a long shot, how then is it possible for the microphone man to pick up the audio without stepping into the frame. My best guess is that the voice over technique will be employed instead. But how voice overs in movies can be so in sync with the movement of the actor’s mouth is impressive that sometimes it is hard to differentiate whether the technique is even employed. What are some of the advices you can give so that one can achieve smiliar quality.

The second question regards the way professionals film conversational scenes, specifically, the audio does not fluctuate (voices do not get louder or softer as the camera shot changes and the mic man follows, or there aren’t any unnatural changes in the background noise) but rather the audio of whatever is happening flows quite naturally even if the scene composes of numerous different camera angles of say a subject giving a speech. How do professionals put all the different takes together or decide which recording of the audio to use, to realistically produce a scene where the audio is natural and syncs perfectly with whatevers’ happening (given the change in camera shots or the integration of different retakes)

Lastly, is there any more you can expand on audio in filming which will allow us amaeturs to do the best we possibly can?

I’m not very good in explaining myself, but i hope you get what i mean.

thanks a bunch
Darren

Great episode as always!

If you do another piece on sound you might think about doing a “what to look for when scouting a location”, i.e, traffic sounds, airport, people in the next office, construction. Nice job.

A couple things:

Izzy: There are TONS of sites online for building your own boom poles and all kinds of other camera equipment, there are free sites, paid sites, and even books on it! 800 bucks for a boom pole is robbery, especially when you can make it out of aluminum, PVC, or a broomstick. There are tons of other ways to make it too, I found these last night: http://www.microfilmmaker.com/tipstrick/index.html. That explains how to build shock mounts, boom poles, cranes, dollies, FX work, everything you can think of. FXhome has some great stuff too, http://www.dvcamerarigs.com has an excellent book on camera rigs, and he’s writing a second book! The point is this, if you want t great-working equipment, don’t go out and spend 800 bucks on a pole with a cable running through it, even though it doubtless works great, I used an old microphone stand without the weight on the bottom for my last short film, and that worked perfectly. And it was free because we borrowed it! So, everybody go out and look for free and cheap ways to DIY and give the pros a run for their money with the awesome stuff you create afterwards.

Secondly, I have Darren’s answer.

Darren: I recently (semi-recently) finished my short film titled “Kids And Heroes”. We used the one sound recording from our one mic, and then we’d just play that out until we needed to cut it. Then on top of it, we’d place each shot where and how and when we wanted them to be, so it was the one same audio track with different video clips aranged on top of it. You can head over to http://www.wrigleyvideo.com/videotutorial/tutdes_montagetomusic.htm and download his tutorial, you can see the basic idea. He lays the one music track on his timeline (the window in editing software where you arange your sequences and your final product), and then he places his different pictures (easily replacable by video clips) on the video track to show different images (angles) with the same audio running smoothly along for the whole duration of the project. You can email me at runeshai(at)gmail(dot)com with any more questions, and if you need any more help I’d be glad to write some sort of tutorial or do some kind of demonstration using my editing software and a screen-capturing program of some sort. Let me know if you need any other help, I’d be glad to.

Everybody else!!

Make good movies with what you have: imagination, small amounts of equipment, and huge amounts of passion and heart. Good luck!!

Israel,

I have really been enjoying your tutorials and only found them a couple of months ago. It is interesting to see where you have started and where you are now with everything. I enjoyed this episode on audio for video. I would like to see more of these “behind the scenes” type of podcast as well. Here are a couple that I would love to see you do…

How did you make the intro to your podcast with all of the animation to the text?
Do you use wireless mics?
What level of computer equipment do you need to render larger projects especially when it comes to options with having the video files on a separate HD to keep things moving faster?
What sort of specific lighting equipment do you like to use?

If any of these have been covered, I apologize. I may have missed an episode or two!

Thanks for sharing your knowledge with everyone!

Scooter

In episode 39, why do you say at the end, that you use Snapz Pro X to record my computer’s screen? Do you mean the screen of the little girl from the previous shot? If that is the case, can’t you just take a picture of it with the screenshot command, shift,4? why do you need another program?

Israel, i really like this show, i’ve been watching since you started! I was drawn to it when i realized you own the GL2, it’s nice to know there are other GL2 advocates out there!! anyways, i keep it going!! it’s a treat to check my podcasts weekly and watch the new izzy video lol. There’s always something that i can take away, even if it is that i need to actually BUY a boom pole…thanks a lot!

Hey this is to whoever asked about audio when zooming in…i’ve worked on a few movie sets and commercials and it isn’t uncommon for the sound technician to use a wireless lapel mic that is just a little bigger than a pencil tip and is hidden in the talent’s shirt. I worked for a few days as an intern on Walking Tall 3 (not staring the rock but staring kevin sorbo…hehe) and they used both a boom and a lapel on the lead, and at one point in a hotel scene they used another mic that suctioned onto a glass window and then covered it up with the shear or drapes. Most sound techies tend to like the sound of the boom over wireless and will use it most of the time for primary sound, but when the shot won’t allow a boom, they’ll use a lapel or they’ll use some other mic that has been disguised in a scene. (the only problem with lapel mics is that you have to be careful you aren’t getting a lot of clothes moving. If you do need a long shot, make sure that your talent isn’t moving too much, especially when there’s dialogue.)

Hello Israel! Thank you for all the information and tutorials. I really enjoy them very much even though I’m don’t even own a camcorder :) I’m actually looking into buying one to use in the office for real estate purposes. I’d like to create short videos of properties and neighborhoods to provide video footage on our web site. Would you have any recommendations as far as equipment for this kind of work. Inexpensive (

Hi Israel.

Just a quick quesiton regarding this sound tutorial. Are you using Apple’s Soundtrack software to work with your recordings? If so, how are you tweaking the sound to achieve the high quality? Using any filters or effects? I have a RODE Videomic connected to an XLR cable (via adapter) which is much better than the onboard mic, but I’m still having trouble during the editing stage in Soundtrack; I can’t seem to achieve the vibrant, broadcast quality as in your tutorials. I’m just wondering what your settings are.

Any info would be appreciated.

hi paul, i read that you have a RODE Video mic, can you please tell me if it was worth buying it? im planning on buying one of those, but i would like to hear some feedback first.

hi israel. i love your tutorials and i would like to ask you too about the RODE videomic, have you use one before? or have you hear any comments about them??

thanks in advance!