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Audio Recording Technique for Reality Shows


maniemjr

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Hi everyone. We are shooting a reality (cooking with challenges) TV show next week. I'm gathering all needed information, techniques, advices in order to make everything smooth. I'm assembling 9 soundmen. We are using PSC Promix6 and Azden FMX42 for the mixers, Sennheiser SK 3063 and EK 3241, G2's and G3's for the lavs and Sennheiser MKH 70, MKH 60 and ME66/K6 for the boom mics. We are shooting in the Philippines. It's a cooking/reality/challenge show. Challenges will include river rafting, ATV rides among others. There might be lot of running, following the contestants. We are wired directly to a Canon C300 camera. The producer doesn't want a separate recorder since it will take so much time in syncing in post.

I would appreciate any bits of peices of advises, share your experiences in similar situations. If you have links to articles or videos that we could watch, I will greatly appreciate it.

Most of my concern are the techniques in rigging lavs to the contestants as they will have a lot of movements, sweat, heat and moisture (in their body as well as the sorroundings). I bought some hushlav but I still have to do some test in on how to use it efficiently. If you have images to share, that would be great.

Thanks so much and have a great day. Cheers!

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The producer doesn't want a separate recorder since it will take so much time in syncing in post.

 

The producer is mistaken. All they have to do is hire a couple of modestly-priced assistants to sync the sound in the Avid or Final Cut edit bay (or Premiere or whatever your cutting in). It takes about :30 seconds per shot if you're fast. All the cameras will need to have common timecode reference, no matter what, or else they'll be syncing the multiple cameras with each other. It's a few hundred bucks a day, not a huge expense, and could allow you to break out 8+ iso tracks on the recorder, which is not possible in-camera.

 

I don't think Promix or Azden mixers are ideal for this, and I'm personally not a big fan of the G2's and G3's under conditions like this. I think you're better off with Lectro transmitters and receivers, and my opinion is even the older Lectro 200 series (particularly the 211) is going to outperform the Sennheisers a lot of the time. But there's a lot of "it depends" to this. Not a fan of the lower-cost Sennheiser ME66/MK66 -- to me, it's an ideal mic for student films but not for a broadcast show. All the other mics could be fine.

 

I'd worry about exposure to water, particularly in the rafting scene. There have been past discussions of how to mic talent in "splash" conditions like white water rafting, and there's no one right answer -- more like a series of things you can try and experiment with. I hope the producer is prepared to have to subtitle scenes that will have high ambience noise levels to the point where nobody can be heard.

 

Shows like this are very tough and trying even if you have top-of-the-line equipment and tons of time and experience. Watch out for the C300 -- that's not a sound-friendly camera, in my opinion. (I also don't like that it makes 8-bit pictures, which is not good for video, but that's again my opinion.)

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Hi, and welcome mani: " I'm gathering all needed information, techniques, advices in order to make everything smooth. "

in the week or so since you signed on to jwsoundgroup.net you should have been reading the scores of discussions about reality shows,cooking shows, and equipment,  just as my CPF JB has suggested.

I also thinking his other suggestion applies as well.

 

in addition to John's spot on 2 items, I would add #3: beware of the unreasonable expectations.

you have a lot to get past before the limitations of some of the gear that marc mentioned will even become factors.

 

and #4: the production company has to be responsible for all of the gear.

 

unless he is being sarcastic (probably.?), I disagree with field: " sounds like a fun time ", to me it sounds like a long hard slog!

 

a couple familiar Senatoriums:

it isn't about the arrows, it is about the archers

and

it takes years of experience to get years of experience.

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#1: Here on JWS there are hundreds of discussions that pertain to what you're asking. Study all of those.

#2: Have the production hire an experienced sound supervisor.

To add on to John's list:

#3 Make sure your 9 sound mixers are experienced and have worked this kind of show before. Inexperience in your sound crew could end in disaster and unusable audio for your show. They will know how to operate all of the equipment and how to properly wire up your contestants for any situation. Hire the right people and you won't have to try to cram learning many years of experience into a week's time.

#4 Instead of supplying what seems to be the wrong equipment, allow your 9 experienced sound mixers (and/or sound supervisor) to supply their own high end gear.

#5 If you are insistent on NOT recording double system and want primary audio only in camera, make sure you rent high quality wireless camera links for each camera. It would be insane (and unsafe) to have 9 camera operators running around hardwired to 9 sound mixers. It is just not how reality TV (or really anything other than sit down interviews) works anymore.

We could keep going on and fill in #6 through #276 for you or you could just hire a good sound supervisor and experienced mixers and they will take care of it all.

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The producer is mistaken. All they have to do is hire a couple of modestly-priced assistants to sync the sound in the Avid or Final Cut edit bay (or Premiere or whatever your cutting in). It takes about :30 seconds per shot if you're fast. All the cameras will need to have common timecode reference, no matter what, or else they'll be syncing the multiple cameras with each other. It's a few hundred bucks a day, not a huge expense, and could allow you to break out 8+ iso tracks on the recorder, which is not possible in-camera.

 

I don't think Promix or Azden mixers are ideal for this, and I'm personally not a big fan of the G2's and G3's under conditions like this. I think you're better off with Lectro transmitters and receivers, and my opinion is even the older Lectro 200 series (particularly the 211) is going to outperform the Sennheisers a lot of the time. But there's a lot of "it depends" to this. Not a fan of the lower-cost Sennheiser ME66/MK66 -- to me, it's an ideal mic for student films but not for a broadcast show. All the other mics could be fine.

 

I'd worry about exposure to water, particularly in the rafting scene. There have been past discussions of how to mic talent in "splash" conditions like white water rafting, and there's no one right answer -- more like a series of things you can try and experiment with. I hope the producer is prepared to have to subtitle scenes that will have high ambience noise levels to the point where nobody can be heard.

 

Shows like this are very tough and trying even if you have top-of-the-line equipment and tons of time and experience. Watch out for the C300 -- that's not a sound-friendly camera, in my opinion. (I also don't like that it makes 8-bit pictures, which is not good for video, but that's again my opinion.)

+1

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Rob above is right -- Zaxcom transmitters are also very good and some have the benefit of built-in recorders. 

 

There's some very good advice above; I hope Maniem will reflect on this and come up with a good strategy to handle this job. I agree with all who have pointed out that 9 people hardwired to cameras will drive everybody crazy. At some point, the producers just have to spend the money to do it right.

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Yeah... Working on a show in Alaska right now doing boat to boat coverage with smqvs at 250 mw...we still get drop outs because the distance between the boats and things in between constantly change. I can only imagine in rapids this is going to be exponentially worse. You need to hire a real sound supervisor that has done this many times before.

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Thank you so much for all the replies here. Very informative at the same time scary. Sad to say we don't have the luxury of all the equipment you have here in the Philippines. Those equipment are on my dream list (not even my wish list). And with the budget that we have, we simply cannot afford it. 

 

We are aware of the difficulties of having hardwired to the cameras. We have laid down the ideal set up but the producers chose to do the wired thing. This is something we discussed with them already so we set some limitations and they are willing to work within it. Sometimes, we just have to work within what's given. It's a different scene here. We also understand all the risks. Your comments help to remind us and be ready further for all the challenges that will arise.

 

There will be 2 of us who's doing sound supervision. I have 14 years of experience in film, TV and commercial productions, started out as soundman to editor, cinematographer and have directed a few personal short films. I have focused on cinematography for the last 6 years with a bit of sound recording/mixing projects on some occasions. The other sound supervisor is almost 20 years in production purely as a soundman. He did some National Geographic documentary projects shot here in the Philippines. He was my supervisor when I started as soundman on TV 14 years ago. This is the first time we are doing this run and gun sort kind of thing.

 

Pretty much we have the experience but we don't have the desired equipment. So, thank you for all the advice. Keep the info flowing. I appreciate even the sarcasm. :-)

 

Good luck to us. You're the best guys. :-)

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The C300 has been discussed before. The danger of recording on any camera (alone) without a sound backup is that there's nobody monitoring it. I'm also not happy with the C300's timecode jamming stability. This has been mentioned before in past discussions. Others claim they had no problems, but I had two different projects, different cameras, and both of the cameras did not do well with TC jamming.

 

In terms of sound, I think the input connectors are placed at a very bad spot on top of the camera, leaving the wires to dangle over the side, and the gain controls are placed in a very precarious spot.

 

ScreenShot2014-09-09at12246AM_zps97d41b9

So that's basically what I mean by "not a sound-friendly camera." I think the Alexa is fine, the Amira is fine, the Sony F55/F5 is fine, and the Red is workable. The Canons -- particuarly the 8-bit C100 and C300's -- are really just glorified DSLR cameras. The C500 is a lot better for picture, but it continues the same odd sound and timecode issues.

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Actually, SM was not completely correct.

It's correct that the earliest Zaxcom transmitters did not have recording capability. But, with the RX900 series, it was an option (as was IFB) -- so some of them have it and some don't. Starting with the RX900 series that have a composite material body (RX900LT, RX900LA, etc., superceeding the aluminum version), internal recording became standard.

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I would say that your producer will insist on audio cabled to camera until the first few times either the shooter or the soundie stumbles while moving fast and the camera falls to the ground.  Much of the C300 is made of plastic, and connectors etc stick out of it at odd angles, so it is very likely that something important will be broken when it falls.  I would pitch the no-cable thing in terms of camera mobility, which is very important in these situations to capture the action--and get the shooters on your side about it.  I also think that not recording a backup on your own rig is kind of suicidal.  Sooner or later the shooter is going to want to go someplace the soundie can't got with them, fast, and beyond the length of the cable tether.  Then what?  No sound?   In any case, at least 60% of the soundie's attention, if not more, will be going into managing that cable and trying to keep camera and sound from tripping over it.  With a lot of wirelesses out that leaves too few brain cells for working on the sound of the show.  Really--the cable between sound and camera has to go.

 

philp

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I would say that your producer will insist on audio cabled to camera until the first few times either the shooter or the soundie stumbles while moving fast and the camera falls to the ground.  Much of the C300 is made of plastic, and connectors etc stick out of it at odd angles, so it is very likely that something important will be broken when it falls.  I would pitch the no-cable thing in terms of camera mobility, which is very important in these situations to capture the action--and get the shooters on your side about it.  I also think that not recording a backup on your own rig is kind of suicidal.  Sooner or later the shooter is going to want to go someplace the soundie can't got with them, fast, and beyond the length of the cable tether.  Then what?  No sound?   In any case, at least 60% of the soundie's attention, if not more, will be going into managing that cable and trying to keep camera and sound from tripping over it.  With a lot of wirelesses out that leaves too few brain cells for working on the sound of the show.  Really--the cable between sound and camera has to go.

 

+1

 

Especially on these types of shows, it's also a safety issue!

 

As a matter of fact, if you have the latitude to speak freely, ask the producer, "Why plan for failure?"

 

Go double system with a scratch track link to camera.

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