A good wireless system - mic/transmitter and receiver - can get
expensive. The cheaper ones get a lot of radio interference and
the expensive ones are, well, expensive. Both the mic and
transmitter need to be hidden which can create problems - even
for professionals. When using more than one wireless mic system a
good mixer is needed - the equipment and the person.

They work well for interviews, but for production you will need
one for each actor. Buying two to five wireless systems can get
expensive.

What you're looking for is a good shotgun mic. That in itself is a
generic term that means any long barreled mic. You want a good
condenser (externally powered) mic with a ?lobar? pick up pattern
to put on your boom pole. Lobar pick up means the mic focuses its
audio pick up to a narrow area. This is why you want to use a boom
pole to get the mic as close the the actor as possible - you?ll get
clean dialogue tracks with less ambient noise.

?URL? http://www.sennheiserusa.com/newsite/?/URL?
Sennheiser is the mic most used by professional sound recordists.
They are expensive and worth it. Check out the ME-66 and the ME-67.
The MKH60 is the best if you can afford it.

?url? http://www.audio-technica.com/?/url?
Audio-Technica is cheaper. Check out the AT835B. It?s a workable
mic, a little muddy and not as directional as it should be. The AT835ST
is a good mic for the price, but it, too, sounds a bit muddy - the vocals
don?t sound crisp enough for me.

?url? http://www.azdencorp.com/?/url?
I?ve never used Azden mic?s. They?re inexpensive and I don?t hear too
many good things about them, but if that's all you can afford it's MUCH
better than using the camera mic.

?url? http://www.rodemic.com/?pagename=Home?/url?
Rode is an inexpensive mic - they are okay for recording instruments but
their shotgun mic?s aren?t very versatile.

A good mic is an investment. It will last longer than your camera - why
skimp? A great place to check prices and purchase is B&H Photo ?url? http://www.bhphotovideo.com/?/url?

The further away the mic is from the actors, the higher the volume needs
to be. The higher the volume, the more ?noise? you get. Your goal is to
have a very high signal to noise ratio - more signal (the dialogue) less
noise (the background). Even a very good, expensive Sennheiser mounted
on the camera will pick up a lot of background ambiance because it?s far
away from the actors.

So you need a boom pole. This can be as simple as a painters pole with a
microphone shock mount on it - or a 3 or 4 section, expandable Carbon
Fiber, Graphite Fiber or Aluminum boom pole. The lighter the pole the
better. Expandable is also very convenient. A pole that?s a fixed six or
eight feet (painters pole) can pose problems if you?re shooting in a small
space like a bathroom or small apartment or if the boom operator needs
to be twelve to fifteen feet away to be out the the lights.

BTW: are you aware that ?Independant? is spelled wrong?

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The aim of an argument or discussion should not be victory, but progress.
Joseph Joubert, essayist (1754-1824)

What's difference between the ME-66 and ME-67?

http://www.sennheiserusa.com/newsite/productdetail.asp?transid=003285

http://www.sennheiserusa.com/newsite/productdetail.asp?transid=003284

I tried wireless mics and had a real time with scratchy clothes sounds. If you get one take time working with it and testing the sound before you get on location and time is a big factor.

One nice thing about a wireless system is some allow you to connect a boom mic to a wireless controller and sort of extend your XLR cables across a road or whatever so the cables are out of view and not being driven over. Not that I used that but it's a nice use I read about later.

RJSchwarz
San Diego, CA

I did a 22 minute scene (no cuts) in a bar set. Nine actors. My recordist used wireless lavs on the
five main characters and a wireless mic on a boom to pick up ambience and the few lines from
the other four actors.

It takes a lot of work and skill to place lavs and hide the transmitters to avoid the problems RJ
had. My recordist had is work cut out for him with levels. Rarely are wireless lavs a good solution
to getting good audio.

=============================================
The aim of an argument or discussion should not be victory, but progress.
Joseph Joubert, essayist (1754-1824)

Ok, well thanks for the info so far. I think I'm going to go with the ME-66. Also,since I'm figuring all this out as I go along I was curious to know what a mixer does. Does it take in a few inputs and export them out to one signal? Also, when recording sound are the cables connected to the camera or to some sort of recording mechanism so that the sound can be later added/synced as a track?