Zozoda

I guess there must a be part of foley somewhere, depending on your subjects. For exemple if you want the sound of a tiny lizard walking on dead leaves, who actually does not make any audible sound to human ears, bring some dead leaves in, watch the pictures and then record the appropriate sync sound?

Grant. Thanks for that. I guess it is doable (despite very complicated) to sync everything back via sound librairies. In my case, when we are talking about local birds, or general local atmospheres, there is no sound library for this. It simply does not exist. We don't have in here pro soundscapes recordists, and I can't afford to make someone come from overseas for a long period. I have been advised to look at Telinga stuff with parabola and Twin Science mic for clean long reach results, and acceptable atmos. Some might says that won't do the work because I am no sound pro etc... But it seems a better option for me than a really really good shotgun (ahem). I need decent atmos, and correct bird calls, songs etc... that I will give to my mixer to sync back on pictures, if we are good and or lucky enough, it seems... To eventual disclaimers... One man swiss knive style of production is sometimes all we can do. We don't all live in big countries or work for big productions... I'll just give it a try. Thanks to Mike as well for your feedback.

I try again... Yes sure Senator. I could eventually go further : right answers never comes up to idiots. Can't believe how fast a reply can be deleted.

Thanks Jean Paul, it helps me alot here.

Thanks all for your imput. But if you guys got wildlife sound experience, what is the most common way to record clean atmospheres, clean bird singing etc. I don't think putting lavs in the trees will do the job. Birds move from one tree to another very quickly, and most of the time, when we are looking at big birds, they live pretty high in the canopy (ie : 40m or above). How do you really do? Is it just all sound design? Meaning : we shoot pictures without clean sound, then we record good sound eslewhere with same species but different individuals, ahem... In Zoos? And the mixer just try to sync all this on motion pictures to make it real? There is virtually no infos about the way people really do for this kind of job. I'd be glad to know! @soundlikejustin, this look nice...

Of course if I had the option to take a sound guy with me, it will be a lot better. Can't understand why some take it so personal... I did not mean to be insulting about the profession. Don't make me say what I did not mean. For me the situation is as it is. Small country, small production, very long and sometime boring shooting sessions in the wild to get what you want. Here is a concrete example : I shoot with 600mm lens, means the distance from the cam to the bird is approx : 200m. Majority of the birds here don't like being disturbed, that is in some sense the minimum distance. They stay in the same position for not very long too, and sometimes they sing, sometime not. How does the sound recordist with all his stuff on his back can take the sound closer than me? There is no way, he will make the bird fly off camera if he tries something. Even a move is sometimes fatal. I may know from a pure technical point of view his sound will be better than mine. But... Will my sound be shit with a good mic on the cam? I can understand a good mic does not equal a good sound, but I know approx how to record, I'm sure you will laugh... ie the closest I can to my subject! So... Is it for you just an absolute waste of mounting a good mic on a good cam? Ok for the Schoeps, does not like humidity. I'll try to find something else like Constantin said, 416 or Sanken. Thanks!

Ok, thanks guys, very helpfull here. I was not trying to say sound recordists are not able to do something here, I was just saying this time is just NOT possible and I need nevertheless something good. Is there any problem in putting a good mic on a camera? Please... What do you guys think except it is a scandal?

No sound recordist possible here as I said. Long long long very very long time in the forests... But thanks for your advice... I'm sure I can get a correct sound alone though.

Hi everyone, Sorry to post something that has been already discussed before... I am not a sound guy, and don't know much about mics. I am more camera orientated, but this time I won't have a sound guy with me and I need a very good mic for the present doco I am doing. I narrowed Sanken CS3 or a Shoeps CmIT5. It Ill be used for quiet interviews in outdoors environments (tropical forests). Also, i will also need this mic to record particular birds and ambiant atmosphere, and maybe for a couple of sound design fX field recording. I will not use this mic on boom, it will be used as a shotgun on my Sony NEX FS700 only. What do you guys think, I heard the Shoeps might be better for quiet interviews and sounds rich and natural, but in this case, where I have quiet speakers, with all the forest around them, will it perform better than a Sanken? Thanks for any feedback, would be greatly appreciated. Zozo