Using lavs as spots.

[Benjamin Gandy]

So it wasn't too long ago that I got my radios, the idea being that it would open up more work and give me more options. Their first use was on tie clips for a talk show, which of course worked fine but wasn't exactly challenging, but provided a good platform to use them for the first time.

 

Recently I recorded a scene for a music video with four kids sitting around a table playing Monopoly. The shot was a medium wide and there was a gas fire hissing away in the background. Fortunately room was very dead so I figured it best to use my shotgun, but the scene was essentially ad libbed so I wouldn't really have a chance to get everything nice and close with the boom.

 

I decided to tape a pair of lavs to the table under the corners of the Monopoly board closest to the kids (the board curled upwards at the edges a little). The cables I ran under the board and out from the edge closest to camera (which was just out of shot) and placed my TXs on the floor. It did well, the idea being that one would pick up the two kids on the left and one would pick up the two on the right. I was impressed with how well the technique worked, and thought it could equal the shotgun in terms of performance. It picked the dialogue up well, albeit one of the kids was a little muffled because he decided to rest his chin on his hands (but was also the quietest, and this shows on the boom as well), and they also picked up the board game foley fantastically well.

 

My question is simply how common is this? Placing lavs as spots within the scene rather than on performers, given the scene and action permits it? I suppose this extends to plants as well. Do any of you have a tendency to just place microphones around and mix them as needed? Given how small and concealable the lavs are I think I might do this as much as I can if I think it might be of benefit and is possible. I know a lot of you like to spot car interiors with lavs, so does this extend to more than just cars?

[Olle Sjostrom]

I do it all the time if the situation allows for it. I use DPA lavs and when cabled they sound amazing given the size.

[afewmoreyears]

If the situation permits, always use the RM-11s when using as a plant or "boundry mic.."  It helps to insulate, protects the mic from goo.. (until your boom op uses Joes sticky stuff directly to the barrel) and provides a better surface area to place your favorite sticking material... as per the Sanken instruction sheet by the way...

[Gerard-NYNY]

you can hide them anywhere: behind a book laying flat, behind a coffee cup, almost every any prop. the people i worked with years ago when i was just starting out did it all the time. sometimes even using one taped to a grip arm and raised up just out of the shot. for two shots, talent sitting throughout the take its great. very adequate for industrial stuff.

[Jan McL]

Whatever works, I say.

 

But yes, used lavs exclusively as plant mics until I had other choices at my disposal. Now, less frequently but if nothing else will work, by golly, a lav plant will do the job.

[old school]

I did this recording and the Lectro trx and sanken lav are on the yellow lifting strap. The mic is maybe 8 inches away from him. We boomed the CU shots. It sounded fine on all the shots. So whatever it takes is always the answer.

CrewC

 

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[VASI]

A week ago I had experience with "sound in car" (reality type work).

 

Three talents.

Two talents, front seats, driving and talking. Two hardwired AKG lavaliers.

Third talent as guest, picking up from different location. He sat in the middle of back seats.

 

I decided to not wire the third talent (guest) and put the lav as plant mic behind the driver seat. I had better result with that route rather than hardwired from main talents. Why? As much close to mouth (better S/N), not visible in camera frame and without clothing noise. Also AKG lavalier. I'm impressed with the sound guest result. After that shooting I change my workflow about lavs (and decisions how to capture a better dialogue). So that not mean always the lav as plant mic work.

[Olle Sjostrom]

If someone's looking at a computer screen in an office type situation, lav smack dab in the middle of the screen

[Philip Perkins]

The estimable Conrad Slater related a scene from one of his giant "Suryothai" epics (shot in Thailand over several years) where actors had to deliver a lot of lines while prostrating themselves before the king, in wide shots.  Conrad found he could get lav mics quite close to the actors, who were speaking downward into the floor, by running the lavs in the cracks in the wood floor from out in front of their heads to TX hidden under the actor's bodies.  The scene sounded great.

 

philp

[mikewest]

Just add a Sanken CUB-01 to your kit and amaze yourself!

 

mike

[Benjamin Gandy]

I may well do so, plenty of people here seem to love them.

[studiomprd]

" My question is simply how common is this? Placing lavs as spots within the scene rather than on performers "

Very; we call it planting mic's.

it also works with wired mic's, including lav's...

[jdutaillis]

Here's a spot mic I did using a cos11 on a short last year.

[Mark Andrews]

Nice, but a white lav would have been less visible.

[jdutaillis]

Ah, but the shot was from the other side.

[WhyOne]

My favorite lav plant war story took place in a remote village in the Czech Republic in '95, shooting a scene where an SS officer was walking alongside an eleven year old Polish girl, carrying her marketing home in a basket, harshly questioning her about her activities, while she was doing her best to ignore him, looking down and speaking in a small voice. The boom guy said he could get the soldier no problem, but we needed to wire the little girl. Instead, I quickly got with props and threaded the lav (a SonoTrim) through the long baguette in her basket, where it looked like a slightly larger caraway seed. Her lines were now spoken into the lav, about eight inches from her mouth. The rest of the food in the basket did as much to attenuate the clomping jack boots as good cue on the Neumann 82i, so the mix worked pretty well. We were able to boom a tighter shot of her dialogue, but a lot of the scene was carried in the wider shots.

 

Jay

[Olle Sjostrom]

Baguette saves the day once again!