[Erin Herbst]

Hey Steve, thank you so much! Appreciate the detail and fairly simple answer ☺

Erin

[Erin Herbst]

Thanks Richard! Can you share the make/model of the beige mic?
Erin

[Erin Herbst]

Wow Dwight that is such an improvement! I’m downloading a trial of isotope now. Can you tell me what settings used (even just providing a screenshot would be fine) when you ran the denoiser?
You’re a lifesaver. I really can’t thank you enough.

[Erin Herbst]

Al,
Thank you so much for your input… I really appreciate your advice! I’m going to take your advice and rent the Tascam DR-60D (https://www.borrowlenses.com/product/Tascam-DR60D-4Channel-Linear-PCM-Recorder?source=auto-suggest) this is the right one, correct?
I cancelled my rental order for the Rode NTG-2 after reading Brian’s response so I need to rent another mic. Since I’m already going to be renting the Tascam from BorrowLenses I’d prefer to rent the mic from them too, which limits me to either the Sennheiser ME66 or the Sennheiser MKH-416. MKH-416 is $40 more…do you think for my purposes it’s worth it? My primary fear is getting that humming noise and not being able to remove it in post-production without my interviewee’s voice becoming “hollow” sounding, and if the Sennheiser MK416 is likely to prevent that then I’m willing to make the extra investment, but if it’s unlikely to make that big of a difference then I’d rather save the extra money!
I can definitely tell the difference between the two videos you posted. Is the Tascam MK60 that you used different from the Tascam DR-60?
Appreciate your help!

[Erin Herbst]

I’m sorry if these are all really stupid questions. I’m 17 and don’t have any formal training in filming as you can probably tell. I’ve learned everything through reading posts here on Creative COW and just getting out and working through trial and error. Unfortunately budget plays a huge role as I don’t have a couple thousand of dollars (atlas not yet) to invest in buying a really good mic and recorder yet, so I’m just trying to figure out how I can turn out the best quality work I can for this client without breaking the bank and working with the “toys” I’ve got.

[Erin Herbst]

Well now I feel stupid…I had been basing my mic decision off of this article (https://stillmotionblog.com/howtorecordaudioforaninterview/) which suggested the Rode NTG-3 but their link to rent the mic took me to the NTG-2 and so I ended up renting the NTG-2 and not the NTG-3 and now I’m learning that there is a huge difference in audio quality. I can’t rent the NTG-3 online anywhere (and don’t have $700 to drop on a mic) so now I’m considering canceling my NTG-2 rental and renting one of the following:
Rode NTG-8 (https://www.lensrentals.com/rent/audio/microphones/rode-ntg-8-long-shotgun)
which from what I understand is the same features as the NTG-3, just a longer length
OR
Sennheiser ME66 (https://www.borrowlenses.com/product/Sennheiser_ME66?source=auto-suggest)
OR
Sennheiser MKH-14 (https://www.lensrentals.com/rent/audio/microphones/sennheiser-mkh-416-shotgun-interference-tube-mic)
I will be behind the camera and my partner will be operating the boom, but other than that we’re a two person crew.
Am I on the right track with these mics and do you have a recommendation between the two? And do you have suggestion for a good audio-recorder I can rent that is better than the “toys” I’m currently using? Can I get away with using the Zoom H1 as my pre-amps if I’m using something like the Rode NTG-8 or one of the Sennheisers?

[Erin Herbst]

Thanks Steve! My boyfriend just surprised me with a best buy gift card this morning so I’m going to pickup the canon EFS-50 today (and will actually own it now!!)
What are your thoughts on renting the Sigma 18-35 F1.8?
People seem to be crazy about it. In your opinion, is it likely to boost the look of my video significantly that it’s worth the $100 rental fee?

[Erin Herbst]

Thanks Steve, I appreciate your input!
I wasn’t too concerned about capturing the slides, unfortunately that was as far as I could zoom in on the speaker with the lens I had 🙁 I’ll also filming
You mentioned in your first post that I should film in 24p rather than 30p. I know this is basic stuff but can you explain the difference between the two and why one looks more filmic than the other? In what type of situation would I want to use 30p?
Thanks, Erin

[Erin Herbst]

Hi JP,
Thanks so much for the advice! I generally shoot speeches/people talking directly to the camera for short promotional videos.
Heres an example: https://youtu.be/_F2kiG0R4oo
And another: https://www.dropbox.com/s/36ca3kb8w9f9saa/Civil-Litigation.mpeg
I apologize if this is a very amateur question but what type of lens would you suggest for this type of work? I have rented mics from Borrow Lenses before and I just build it into my fee so I would probably just rent a lens from them as well (at least until I save up enough to buy my own).
Thanks, Erin

[Erin Herbst]

Hi James,
This was very informative an incredibly helpful. To be honest I have no real understanding of f-stop or ISO settings (I’m VERY new to this haha) so that’s clearly something I need to educate myself on.
I really appreciate your input!
Thanks, Erin