[David C jones]

Hi Stan

I took a look at your other photos you had posted and I noticed the boom arm on the c-stand; you don’t want to use the (c-stand) boom arm with ether boompole mount.

First, put a 2 1/2 grip head on the c-stand and put the boom pole mount in the smaller opening of the grip head (so the boompole mount is parallel with the floor).

Second, put a sandbag on the long leg of the c-stand.

Third, extend the (mic) boompole (from the smallest end) until it is as long as you need to keep the stand out of the shot and out of the way. Put the pole in the boom mount and adjust the stand so the long leg w/sandbag is opposite the front of the pole where the mic will be (this adjustment should be done before you mount the pole).

As far as your question about the boom pole, I can’t really tell what’s missing. It looks like you’re missing the thread mount on the end of it which makes it totally useless; you need to be able to mount a shockmount on the pole for the mic. Can you take some clearer pics of it? What brand is it?

[David C jones]

Hi Don-

You’re right…everybody DOES have their own recording studio at home. More has changed in the audio and video business in the last ten years than at any other time. In fact, I know a recording engineer who works at a triditional recording studio and does some big-time stuff, but also has his own “home” recording setup and does that on the side as well.

The college I went to (and have returned to), has revamped its media technology and filmmaking degrees to keep up with the industry. Gone are seperate programs for filmmaking, television, and sound recording production. Now, they’re all combined into, more or less, one area of study.

It sounds like you are doing the right thing by getting up on the latest technology; now it’s about owning the right gear and marketing yourself. I also think the fact you have experience will go a long way. This is the type of business where experience matters.

When I say, “owning the right gear” I mean having the tools that are considered industry standard. If you don’t have what the client wants, you won’t be getting many calls.

When it comes to marketing yourself, it’s all about the internet now. Sites like mandy.com, media-match.com will let you list yourself and look at job postings. There may be others like these more geared toward the audio recording industry as well.

I hope this helps. The real question is what do you really want to do? Keep an open mind about what area of recording you want to go into. But keep in mind that it is a business, and if you’re not making (or can’t make) money where you are, look into where the work is you want to do.

[David C jones]

If you’re going to be moving like you described, I would go with a lav. Unless what you’re doing with the laptop won’t be a part of the program and so you wouldn’t be speaking at that point.

[David C jones]

Ahhh…I was wondering about that; yeah, he’s (I assume) just running a lav mic directly into the camera (no wireless).

That’s funny about those ew100’s: I just got done with a shoot with those (the camera guy brought them) and I wish I had had more time to experiment with them because there was something weird about them, like the line and mic “thing” was backwards! Anyway, I never had time to see if the camera or the wireless was set up wrong or what the deal was…lol.

[David C jones]

Hi Stan

To answer your questions:

1. In general, it is ideal to have the mic as close as possible without being in the shot, but if you are doing it all yourself, you would put the mic one to two feet overhead (depending on the shot), and slightly in front of you.

2. You can point the mic at your mouth but you have to make sure you don’t move in and out of the axis or there will be changes in volume and tone. You can also point it at the bottom of your sternum. That way, you will be speaking into the loeb (the width of the pickup pattern).

4. You can check out an article for free on booming at http://www.equipmentemporium.com. Just click on Articles about Prod Sound, then the one about booming. Or you could buy Ty’s book :o)

[David C jones]

Hi Stan

You had everything right the first time; As a production sound mixer, I’ve never heard of a lav mic running at line level (but maybe I’m missing something). And the Sanken will run on 48V power which the HVX as well as all other pro cameras supply.

As far as it sounding tinny, I would have to hear what you’re talking about. I use Sankens (COS11X) (w/wireless beltbacks) and they sound great. Have you used it with other cameras? How did it sound then? What are you listening to it with?

[David C jones]

The pixel count of the HDX-900 is 1280 X 720 (which is the same as the varicam and the HPX-2000); the HPX-500 is 960 X 540 and uses pixel-shifting to achive HD. Most of the other specs, including compression, color space, and bit depth are the same. Two other things: the 900 is twice the weight of the 500 (mostly because of the tape deck); and the 500 has a flip out color viewfinder.

In my opinion, tape is dead and I wouldn’t want to spend that much money on a format that won’t be around much longer (I give it 2 years).

[David C jones]

Hi Ty-

I know we never (or should never) actually set it and forget it. I was just trying to simplify the point :o)

[David C jones]

Yeah, as long as each wireless has it’s own track, you won’t have to worry about riding the levels, you should be able to set them and (for the most part) forget them. It’s when you’re putting multiple mics on the same tracks or channels that you can’t just set them and leave them [all turned up].

[David C jones]

Generally speaking, whenever you go with more than two mics (and only two inputs on the camera), your venturing into a place where you will need to consider using a mixer and someone to operate it. The problem is that you can’t just leave all the mics turned up without introducing a massive amount of room noise – to the point of the audio being unusable. When using more than two mics (one for each channel on the camera) someone needs to be riding the levels via a mixer.

Honestly, I would recommend hiring a sound person for the shoot and renting anything you might still need [that they don’t have]; it will be a lot less expensive then buying everything to make this work which, even on the cheap, will run you into the thousands of dollars.

The other option, is to use only two wireless systems – those being a couple of handheld mics that simply get passed around from person to person.