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Originally posted by Tyler

Hello there,

I'm currently in my first semester studying film in Canada. While I do have access to some pretty good equiptment, I believe that I could improve the audio quality of my pieces by buying a shotgun mic or digital voice recorder (instead of using an internal microphone). I was wondering what most of you use and what reccomendations you have.

Thanks,
Tyler

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Well you're absolutely right you can improve the quality of your recordings a huge amount. My personal choice would be to use a marantz, a simple mixing desk (the Behringer(sp) eurorack desks start at about ?20 ?$45?) and a shotgun (or in a confined enviroment with very little ambience you could get away with a Uni Directional Mic).

If you find that a little overwhelming then I'd suggest using a shotgun mic as an external plug in to your camera (I'm guessing if you're a film student you'll be using the Canon XL1 or XL2 or something similar) so you can plug the mic straight into the camera and use the cameras basic mixing desk to level out the sequence.

Sorry if that was all a bit confusing, but hope it helps.

For good sound an external mic is essential. I've seen a few brilliant low budget films shot using the internal mic but these needed a lot of work in post to tidy up the rubbish sound.

Personally I use a Senheisser ME66/K6 short shotgun mic plugged directly into my Z1 camera. I mainly shoot documentary stuff so this is fine for me. When I'm working with my sound man, he uses a Senheisser shotgun mic plugged into a mixer then on to the Z1.

An alternative is to record seperately onto a DAT recorder and slate (clapperboard) each shot. Fine if you're doing 'fiction' but a pain if you're doing docs.

At the most basic level what you want is a camera with XLR sockets. These are pro connectors and will allow you to connect pro mics. Then get yourself a nice mic, a windbreak/softie/muffler, length of XLR cable and a boom pole. If you intend to mount this microphone on your camera note that you will need some sort of shock mount to keep it out of the way of the lens and to prevent vibrations from the camera's motors etc.

Ross
XPotential Media

"Photography does not so much confirm our experience of the world as it actively constructs it." AS-G