Giuseppe3000

Well, thank you all for you answers and thought about it. I'll put to use all your valuable advices. Thanks a lot for taking the time for lengthy replies. I wanted to apologies though because maybe in my post there was an undercurrent of 'No budget, I'm an artist, how can I have stellar result without you' kind of attitude which is not mine at all, and as said I try to have a professional sound person when possible, I'm working with one now in post and we talk a lot to improve the work in the future. I know that the poor sound quality is due the absence of a dedicated professional, of course. I held sound dearly, I venerate sound and that's why I'm here. But, a little but, there are instances in which the thing is a bit tricky. For instance, I'm prepping a documentary now and I'm shooting preliminary stuff to put a trailer together. I'm looking out funds with my producer still and I go there shooting alone, there's no crew, no project going on yet, but as experience taught me, there are scenes that sometimes end up in the final cut because what has happen is unique, so in this case I'm a solo shooter in spite of myself, And so on, there are millions variables in documentaries as you know. In this scenarios and in other situation where I have to be alone, I was asking for advice, that's all. Thanks, thanks a lot. You advice and work is really appreciated.

Dear friends, this is my first post but I'm been using Jw for gathering a lot of knowledge and insight into the world of sound so thank you for the help so far. I'm a documentary filmmaker working in what you'd call in english Veritè Style documentary (we call it 'observational' in Europe), anyway as you can guess for some shooting situations I'm a solo shooter and truth be told for my tastes I like to be invisible, so I try to avoid too much attention with a crew (boom pole, furs, cats, dogs and lavaliers). I sure know the limitations of this approach but it works better for the subjects and the stories I tell. I'd love to have a sound person, my production budget could afford it and usually when the shooting situation permits, I hire one but most of the time I'm alone, logistically speaking, sometimes is hard to plan a shooting day ahead, so... That said, I work with a shoulder mounted camcorder, like the Eva-1 and as a b cam a GH5s Panasonic. I use an NTG3 microphone and a Zoom H5 for sound, I shot a documentary for state televison which we are wrapping as I speak. Never missed a shot, the sound in then recorded from zoom into the camera for reference. Now in post I'm talking with my sound man (he's doing post but works on location too) and he's really critical of the NTG3-h5 combo. I like to work with him and I trust him and his disregard for the NTG3 is truly vocal but I wanted to hear you two cents before trying out and test the equipment. The why I chose the h5 is mainly portability. Now I'm asking you, if I'd like to upgrade, what would be a portable combo? I'm eying Sound devices Mixpre 3 and a Sennheiser MKH 416 or a Sanken Cs3e the question is: it is a true upgrade? What's your experience? I'm tempted to buy a good mike and keep the Zoom for now. Working these days on the post-production we are struggling to have a good sound and my partner tells me that is mainly the off axis of the NTG3 that is critical, the directivity. What would be your choice? What would you suggest if a documentarian came to you with the request: 'I can work on this gig just me and my camera, what should I get?' The Sennheiser MKH 416 is sweet budget wise too and I like the idea of an evergreen workhorse. Plus, I have a Rycote lyre and Rycote deadcat already suitable for the length of the MKH 416. Thanks a lot my friends and good work! Don't get too harsh, I respect sound and sound persons dearly, it's just how I work.