Jim Ritscher

Does anyone recognize the lavs on the Charlie Rose show?

The following advice is in keeping with what other people have said. Basically I would break my advice into four sections: 1. Make it as simple as possible for yourself. You are going to be in incredible overwhelm. For example: Unless there some valid reason to produce stereo (like recording a concert), avoid it. It's just one more complication. 2. Get training in advance. Find a production-audio knowledgeable friend who is willing to spend some time with you, or pay a professional for one half-day or one full day of their time to teach you the basics. This will be the best money you have spent. The object is not to become highly competent (that will be impossible), but to become familiar with the basics. Purchase and read the following books (or at least the sections that seem to apply): The Location Sound Bible by Ric Viers, and Soundman by Richard Patton. There is surprisingly little duplication between the two books. 3. Practice extensively in advance. By the time you fly to this country, the basics of sound (just the basics) should be second nature to you. You can still be learning the camera overseas, but the basics of sound should be relatively routine. The reason is that when you start to operate the camera, your attention will naturally shift toward what you see. You will get caught up in the visual realm, and start to ignore the sound. If you do so, you may end up with beautiful looking unusable footage, particularly where dialogue is involved. Make sound so important to your project that you never forget it. Learn enough so you can quickly diagnose problems and errors. Make as many mistakes as possible before the trip so you have some experience under your belt. At least a month before your trip, have purchased your core audio equipment and practice with it. My suggestion is, find someone who is doing a tiny documentary (etc.) and offer to do sound for it for a day or so. Tell them that you are a complete novice and will be learning by making mistakes. Or shoot a little project of your own. For whatever wireless system you purchase, you should know all the technical aspects of it. Likewise learn the mixer/recorder thoroughly. This will take time. You should be able to walk up to a stranger and wire them with a wireless lav in a few minutes and be ready to record. You should practice with a boom mic until you develop some confidence. Have knowledgeable people critique your work. For sit down interviews, you should have some way to mount a boom mic on a stand. Go out and record a class, since that is important to you, so you have that experience. 4. Other Miscellaneous Suggestions: You don't have enough money to do everything you want to do well. Therefore, optimize on the areas that are really important to you. In my opinion, things that are really important are: get a good mixer/recorder, one good boom mic, some adequate wireless lavs (Sennheiser G3 or better), wind protection, a power supply, and all the necessary cables, adapters, ways of attaching microphones, etc. You might want some hardwired lavs. Oscar Sound Tech is a reasonable low-budget choice. You can buy adapters that allow you to use the same mics either with a specific wireless system (Sennheiser, etc.) or as hardwired. You might consider the Sanken CS3e, just because that one mic can do so many things. However, there are many other good choices. Plan on having a good on-camera mic. This can also serve as your backup boom mic in case the primary mic fails. Though the first thing any sound tech will tell you is “don’t use a camera mounted mic,” there will be times when that is the best choice in a run and gun situation. And it’s certainly good to have the mic as a backup. Plan on the assumption that you will use some local person at least some of the time to be your boom operator. Train them on the spot. (Of course, get yourself trained first, preferably by someone with proven skill). Your chosen boom operator might not be great at it, but they will be better than what you can do while running the camera. For example, using a boom mic would be my first choice for the classroom situation. (A situation where someone is about to speak, and you don’t know who it will be.) However, use a wireless mic for the teacher (probably). There are, though, other logical choices for the classroom. Always wear headphones so you can monitor your boom operator’s work. So both of you should have headphones. If you use the Black Magic Cinema Camera, there will be a lot to learn. But learning audio is probably tougher. Don't make the mistake of assuming you can pick it up really quickly. Best of luck. --Jim

Regarding the 5/8th threaded rod (http://www.atlassoun...ct.aspx?id=1497), you could cut one end at an angle. You would need some way to protect the threads on the other side while you pound it in: some kind of cap. If you had such a cap, however, you could drill a hole in it and use two bolts to attach (say) a 1/4 in threaded rod (available in a well-stocked hardware store), which you could sharpen at one end. You might be able to push that in by hand. Just a thought. --Jim

One small point, I seem to recall that Timecode Buddy will be releasing a new, interesting product at NAB. Might be worth waiting.

You could also buy a booklet of appropriate sized Avery paper labels, and use Word to duplicate the same label (this is an automatic function). To make it water resistant, cover it with a piece of Scotch tape. Just a thought.

Max, all freelance businesses are similar. There are many books that cover the basic content. I'd be surprised if your local library doesn't have several. --Jim

There are several "g3 antenna boosters" listed on ebay. I have no idea as to whether they are effective. Sample: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Sennheiser-AB3-Wireless-Microphone-Antenna-Booster-G3-Series-A-516-558-NEW-/230856939073?pt=US_Pro_Audio_Microphones&hash=item35c0255641 -Jim