Jump to content

LAV'ing a Holy Father


Joel Jameson

Recommended Posts

I ran into a problem attempting to wire up a Catholic priest the other day for a sit down interview. He was wearing an all polyester (I think), shiny, almost silk like, extremely noisy outfit. He talked with his hands so lots of movement. When he would move his hands, you could hear the fabric sliding across itself from a few feet away.

I did get it all with the boom, but the rest of the interviews were all planned to use the LAV track in post. Sanken COS11D was my available microphone, I could have used a B6 but ran out of time to solve the issue.

I tried under the lapel, under the jacket, hushlav mount, vampire mount, the rubber mount, ect. I had to give up after 4 attempts to keep the interview moving and on-schedule.

Any advise would be welcome for wardrobe like this.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There's no amount of repositioning the mic that will alleviate that sort of noise -- unless you reposition the mic into the next room. It's just one of those unfortunate scenarios we all have to deal with from time to time. On features and other scripted gigs, I try to get with the Wardrobe Dept. as early as possible (hopefully before they go out and buy a bunch of silk, polyester & wool...) but on the smaller one-off gigs where there's no control over it, all you can do is roll off a tad bit (not too much) of high end, turn you headphone level down a bit, and try not to visibly cringe too much -- even on the boom, that stuff is nasty (a little less so due to the difference in proximity to the source... but it's still there.)

Yeah, how you tell them the priest has gotta go through a wardrobe change... and what would he even change into?

bummer... just don't beat yourself up... you did everything you could.

~tt

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I ran into a problem attempting to wire up a Catholic priest the other day for a sit down interview. He was wearing an all polyester (I think), shiny, almost silk like, extremely noisy outfit. He talked with his hands so lots of movement. When he would move his hands, you could hear the fabric sliding across itself from a few feet away.

I did get it all with the boom, but the rest of the interviews were all planned to use the LAV track in post. Sanken COS11D was my available microphone, I could have used a B6 but ran out of time to solve the issue.

I tried under the lapel, under the jacket, hushlav mount, vampire mount, the rubber mount, ect. I had to give up after 4 attempts to keep the interview moving and on-schedule.

Any advise would be welcome for wardrobe like this.

If you can hear the fabric noise in the open air then your lav will hear it too. You did everything you could. Early in my career I encountered a similiar thing. A woman wearing a polyester blouse under a jacket with a slik lining (this was the 80s). We didn't have B6s then. I think Trams were the best we had. Couldn't get get it clean because you could stand next to her and hear the fabric noise. I was booming it with a Schopes also, and the noise was just as loud on that channel. We just went with it, we had no choice. On the drive home there was a news report on the radio talking about how polyester was overtaking cotten for popular clothing. Almost stopped doing sound after hearing that. LOL

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Quote----"I did get it all with the boom, but the rest of the interviews were all planned to use the LAV track in post. Sanken COS11D was my available microphone, I could have used a B6 but ran out of time to solve the issue."

----

Tough situation. You did the right thing. Never give up on the boom. But why did they "plan" on using the lav in post? Don't they use the best sound no matter what mic it came from? Easy for an editor to make the decision for us. I don't get it..... I don't buy the because we "laved" everybody else argument.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's a fact of life: there's some lav'ing situations where you just don't have a prayer.

Said the priest to the rabbi.

:)

I would experiment with placing an SM58 or another dynamic mic as close to the person as you can get it depending on the frame. I had a spanish person I was recording an interview with who had nothing but silk shirts and they were extremely loud (don't ask me how... Silk, right? Silent, right? nooooo)

Anyway, the dynamic mic was able to get close enough to him (the frame was a bit tighter than I'm guessing yours was) but it eliminated the fabric noise. I also recorded on a CMIT5U alongside the dynamic mic and the dynamic did a better job of lessening the noise.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I had to do this once before. I used a B6 and just popped the mic out of a button hole and stuck it behind the button. The mic was out in the open, invisible to the camera, and free from clothing noise.

There were no button holes in the shirt, it was some form of cover with access by the arms, went waist to neck.

Thank you all for the advise, at least I know there isn't a magic solution.

Today i had a starched business shirt on the male talent, and polyester jacket with a silk pencil dress on the female talent...

I said a prayer to the boom gods and it worked out :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Another story about mic'ing a priest... Once had to shoot a wedding for a show and neither the bride, nor the obedient groom wanted to wear a mic. After explaining that that would mean a boom mic hanging over the proceedings and being in all the photos of their matrimonial ceremony, it was the priest who finally agreed, reluctantly, to be mic'd.

No button holes on this priest, either, so mounted a Sanken COS-11 in his high collar. Lots of futzing pre-ceremony because of the collar, but found a happy place for the lav, and waited for the ceremony to begin.

Once the ceremony began, up, up, up, goes the priest to the altar, and down, down, down comes his well endowed chin onto Mr. Sanken COS 11. Sound was, of course, terrible. But it was a wedding, and the show had to go on.

Up, up, up goes my boom over the proceedings, and down, down, down went my gaze to avert the icy stares from Bridezilla.

In hindsight probably would have been OK to 'show' the mic for that shoot... what priest doesn't wear a wireless mic these days?

That was the last priest I mic'd up and the last wedding show I worked on, but I'm older and wiser now for the next time around!

R

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...