Hello Dobb,

First off you have good taste. Secondly I have to ask you with you chase seen are you following the actors without a dolly. Because if you are I think this is unwise especially in a forest. A better idea is to use pans and high/low angle shots instead. This can give you the chance to shoot a frame inside a frame (If you don't know what this is ask me). Also not to be critical but does the short film need the dialogue in between the chasing. I've looked at quite a few good films and they have no dialogue at all just some moody music which adds to the quality of the finished product.

But if I had to choose I would try all three and see which works best!

Cheers

Eledmondo

quote:

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Originally posted by Dobb

Hi fellas,

I'm working on a short film for my final year project and I picked a horror-action movie as a subject. I want to know what kind of audio capturing device is suited suited to shoot for an action film which is mostly handheld and chasing scenes?

There are also dialogue in between chasing scene, which is much harder for me to record if I'm using a boom mic, especially when the setting is in a forest with trees everywhere.

Overall, what do y'all recommend? Boom mic, LAV or Wireless?

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For starters, your list of mics doesn't make sense. "Wireless" is just a way to get the sound from the mic (boom or lav) back to the mixer and recording device as opposed to using a hard wire. You would use a wireless RF system if and when A) the wires would be in the shot and B) when wires would inhibit movement of the actors and/or the boom operator.

So, if your actors and camera are moving a lot (and it sounds like they will), you will likely need to put wireless lavs on them to capture any dialogue they would speak DURING a chase. For scenes when they are primarily standing still and speaking, you would likely want the boom operator to capture that sound, in which case he could be hard-wired back to the mixer.

Whichever the case, because of the nature of your shoot, you should also consider that you may need ADR afterwards, meaning, after your movie is edited, if the dialogue track isn't perfect, you'd bring your actors back in to a controlled sound stage and have them rerecord their own dialogue for clean tracks using the on-set tracks as reference.

I'd also like to urge you to take a lot of time to record separate effects/foley tracks, like footsteps and other sounds. These should be mixed on a separate track from the dialogue. Don't rely on the natural effects sounds you recorded on set. You'll want clean tracks of everything in order to enhance those sounds which, of course, will make your movie better. 🙂

After saying all that, I would urge you to find someone near you who has experience (and possibly equipment) who can do sound for your movie so that you can concentrate more on directing and less on the technical aspects.

Brian Dzyak
Cameraman/Author
IATSE Local 600, SOC
http://www.whatireallywanttodo.com
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