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I'm girding myself for the first "we can just record the audio right on the phone" argument.

 

Like this one from the widely read and (usually deservedly) respected Stu Maschwitz?

 

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Production Audio is Ripe for Revolution

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2012 AT 10:11AM

 

Dear companies that make production audio gear,

I love filmmaking. I love shooting. I love everything about the on-set experience.

Except recording audio.

When I’m filmmaking like a grown-up, I have someone else—an expert—handle dialogue recording. But often, it’s just me. Me and my portable audio recorder and expensive microphones and absolutely no frigging idea what I’m doing.

 
[big snip]
 
Like every filmmaker I’ve ever met, I own an iPhone. Build your portable audio recorder around that. Make a great app to control it. Sell a kit with a badass shotgun mic in a shockproof mount, one of those furry sock things, and a connector that connects to my iPhone (which you already know how to do).
 
[big snip]
 
A good wireless lavalier kit goes for roughly four times the cost of an iPod touch, and suffers from radio interference and complexity. Build me a lapel mic that wires to an iPhone/iPod in my actor’s pocket and you just saved me endless headaches and hundreds of dollars.
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The whole damn thing:

http://prolost.com/audio

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When I’m filmmaking like a grown-up, I have someone else—an expert—handle dialogue recording. But often, it’s just me.

 

Any idea how he plans to rig that badass shotgun with a furry sock thing when it's just him? Camera mount? Hand-held while he's shooting and directing? On his head, screwed into his baseball cap? 

 

And then, when it sounds as echoey as a camera mic because of the placement, will he write another letter castigating the pro audio manufacturers for not giving him a good enough badass shotgun?

 

--

 

I could point out out that he could have a frigging idea what he's doing... by spending a mere $35 at Amazon... but I won't.

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Basically, the simpler and cheaper camera has become,the more complicated and expensive [more wireless] pro sound has become.

 

because cameras are cheaper,they use more of them [one cam always on wide] and therefore more wireless.

 

Problem is production thinks that sound should be cheaper too-----not good.

 

                                                                                                J.D.

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Even people very hip in the arts of filmmaking are clueless about the rising level of urban BG noise, the loss of RF spectrum and the invasion of the remaining RF space by all sorts of new devices, the effect of the "mumble" movement among modern actors who think quieter and more indistinct speech = better performance, and perhaps certain basic physical laws (like inverse square) re mic position vs. audio source.  Yes--shooting some boffo images is really easy now, can be done alone, w/o lighting, assitance etc.  But gosh darn that pesky sound anyhow!  It's ok--this guy, like many others, will just buy what some blogger tells him to buy and then convince himself that he's recorded great audio with it.  I frequently hear recitations about how great the audio some grinning one-man-band DSLR shooter is getting with their cheese-ball audio gear and fractional attention to the tasks of sound recording on location.  I always listen carefully to hear if maybe they really have found a way to get good sound consistently in this manner, and so far they always eventually reveal themselves to be both ignorant and delusional.  Anyone can do sound when it's easy, as a DP friend of my says.  But location sound has a way of turning gnarly very quickly when you least expect it.  I do audio post for many of these one-man-banders, so I hear (and have to deal with ) the results of their delusions about their production sound all the time.

 

philp

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prolost: " I’m motivated to learn more about audio. I’ve tried, and tried. But it doesn’t stick....You’re probably thinking that I’m a lazy idiot. "

BINGO!

 

" so here I sit, recording bad dialogue with many hundreds of dollars in gear,... I have money. I’d love to spend it on audio gear that makes me feel like the expert I’ll never be. I know that, like the vast majority of photographers and videographers, I’ll achieve much better results with revolutionarily easy tools than with expert gear... When I said “I have money,” I could have elaborated and been crystal clear: I have and will freely spend money on audio gear. What I lament is that after all the money I’ve spent, I’m still producing bad results. "

maybe he should take up archery..?

 

Rate the quality of my incoming audio on the screen, live. Warn me when I have a bad echo, or background noise. Suggest fixes. I’ll move the mic around as instructed and watch the quality level change, and then stop moving when it’s great.

Listen for me saying the word “check” and set the audio levels automatically when you recognize that word. Flash an alert on the screen if you detect a hum. Or an airplane flying overhead. "

these are features we really need on the MAXX!!, actually we just need a MAXX app for the iPhone...

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The thing is, Stu Maschwitz, the "make my iPhone do everything" guy (and an acquaintance), worked at ILM, co-founded The Orphanage, and created stunning VFX for lots of big-deal movies. And he's developed some good software, directed some really nice commercials, & is getting some traction with his own scripts in Hollywood. And yet, he writes what he wrote about audio. Sigh.

 

Stu's has the smarts and experience to work his way out of his problems. But his disciples don't. And they are legion.

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A good wireless lavalier kit goes for roughly four times the cost of an iPod touch, and suffers from radio interference and complexity. Build me a lapel mic that wires to an iPhone/iPod in my actor’s pocket and you just saved me endless headaches

Rode already make such a mic. Should I ever use one, I imagine myself frantically checking every actor's recording after each take. Not sure it'll relieve the headache
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Jim, I did work for the Orphanage, and yes they were smart guys and brilliant about visuals, but they made pretty serious mistakes about audio on nearly every thing I did for them, as with some other mixers I know.  To be more blunt, on a couple of projects things they did to the audio really hosed me with the clients and producers, because someone else had to be called in (a certain very famous audio post concern in NoCal) to fix what they had damaged.  So, no, I would not hold Stu up as a paragon of audio engineering….

 

philp

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Jim, if you know him, maybe you could politely ask him to retract that statement? Audio people could say the same things about cameras. Make them all work within and iPhone!

 

:-) I talked to him about it once, but that was at a noisy bar. 

 

And then there's this:

 

http://www.macworldiworld.com/learn-how-to-film-movies-on-your-iphone/

Two Of the Biggest Names in iPhone Filmography [will speak at Macworld Expo] As directors, writers and storytellers, Anna Elizabeth and Michael who are well-known figures in the film industry for their iPhone and iOS filmmaking. They are currently developing a television series and preparing to release their first book, ”The Studio in Your Pocket.”
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