old school Posted January 27, 2012 Report Share Posted January 27, 2012 For my money RVD is one of the best writers on this site. He has a ton of world experience and expresses his points well. His only fault is at times he feels he has offended people. My advise to RVD is to not worry what others think about his posts. If he writes them then he believes them and that should be enough. As for AD's and what they think, I could care less as long as I'm doing my job and they are doing theirs. CrewC Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich Reilly Posted January 27, 2012 Report Share Posted January 27, 2012 Fun reading all the solutions. I haven't had to deal with this but this got me wondering whether there might be a way to hide a mic in plain sight via a common interior element. I think it was here that folks discussed hiding a lav/transmitter in a book on a desk for a class scene. Something like that. I suppose in most cases it would be nearly impossible to inject anything visible into the scene..even if context appropriate. This is goofy..but a fountain cup could have a lav in the straw and transmitter inside the cup. That one could work in non-car situations. Maybe a sun visor accessory (typical storage pouch or..) that could be ready to slide on with a tiny lectro transmitter and lav pre rigged. Maybe some of those hidden cam/PI/spy stores have things like this that could be upgraded with better mics. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
studiomprd Posted February 1, 2012 Report Share Posted February 1, 2012 I, too, stand behind RVD, and appreciate his excellent input. " AD is standing there worrying about how the sound dept. is dealing with their job, " as in: "Why is it taking so long"... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonathan chiles Posted February 2, 2012 Report Share Posted February 2, 2012 Nice ideas with the colette cables RVD! I have 2 but have not used them since I bought the Sanken CUBs. What would be great is a Right Angle active cable option from Schoeps.. but I think I will try using these again although they are more work to rig than a CUB. I always like having options! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
afewmoreyears Posted February 2, 2012 Report Share Posted February 2, 2012 RVD, The Collette is a great tool, expensive litter bugger... we use them from time to time..... and love it.... If the car is static, we will sometimes break it out.... same great Schoeps sound, little footprint... A must have piece of gear if you ask me.... Nice pics... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christian Spaeth Posted February 3, 2012 Report Share Posted February 3, 2012 Last movie I worked had plenty of scenes in a taxi, driver and actress speaking, her on the backseat. I placed one DPA lav on the driver's visor and another one overhead between the two front seats (pretty much the middle of the car). Hard wired both lavs to the recorder which sat in the back alone or on my lap on the backseat, depending where the cam was. Got great results with that approach and covered pretty much all head turns with the two mics. I love the DPA lav sound when especially when planted because they're so linear. Regarding the question of placing rather one or two mics for single shots - I'd rather rig all at once (before the scene starts) than go in again and do another setup for each camera position. That wouldn't look professional. I have also used the Oktava mini preamps, as a similar method to RVD's Schoeps colettes but the lav method for me has been as good or better while faster and more flexible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taylormadeaudio Posted February 3, 2012 Report Share Posted February 3, 2012 RVD, The Collette is a great tool, expensive litter bugger... we use them from time to time..... and love it.... If the car is static, we will sometimes break it out.... same great Schoeps sound, little footprint... A must have piece of gear if you ask me.... Nice pics... Ditto... We used my 2 Collette cables on the last feature I worked on... my only problem was it SCARED THE 5H1T OUT OF ME to leave something that expensive laying across so much real estate in a car that's crawling with 5 other departments -- none with any consideration whatsoever for your gear. I knew if anything happened to them that Production would take care of it, but it still made me leery (sp?). I would reserve deployment of Collette cables for those rare circumstances when nothing else will work. They are pretty cool though, huh? ~tt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matt.kraus Posted February 9, 2012 Report Share Posted February 9, 2012 Nice ideas with the colette cables RVD! I have 2 but have not used them since I bought the Sanken CUBs. What would be great is a Right Angle active cable option from Schoeps.. but I think I will try using these again although they are more work to rig than a CUB. I always like having options! An active cable with right-angle option is available: Schoeps model WKC. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan H. Chang Posted February 9, 2012 Report Share Posted February 9, 2012 An active cable with right-angle option is available: Schoeps model WKC. Wow! When did they release these?! I couldn't find them in the catalogue. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marc Wielage Posted February 9, 2012 Report Share Posted February 9, 2012 Hidden here in the catalog: http://www.schoeps.de/en/products/kc/application I agree, this could be very useful with the MK41 capsules. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonathan chiles Posted February 14, 2012 Report Share Posted February 14, 2012 great! thanks for drawing our attention Matt:) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Feeley Posted February 14, 2012 Report Share Posted February 14, 2012 Thanks for the find & link, Matt & Marc. Looks like the WKC right-angle cable sells for $644 US. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonG Posted March 4, 2012 Report Share Posted March 4, 2012 These kinds of shoots are the pain of my existence! It seems Im always doing them. The last show I worked on was a car tv show about stunts and stuff, and the talent would often have segments where they are talking to the camera while driving some sports car fast on a track, often doing doughnuts and other kinds of stunts. The production didnt ever tell me anything in advance, so every day I was winging it, and never once had the time to wire a car with plant mics. So all I would do was leave the talent laved up, or sometimes I would clip an SMQV onto the visor. Since they were going so fast and relatively far away I couldnt get good reception, being outside the car, and there was no room in the cars for me. So I began setting my bag in the car and monitoring via comteks. I got decent results, but the rf catchup sounds and gaps would still happen. Im going out on a new show pretty soon, and have managed to talk production into letting me wire the cars because there will be a lot of driving and talking. Ive done this sort of thing on films where I have time to set things up, and have gotten great results. Ive used cos11s, Oktava 012s, and now just got a pair of CUBs for the job. I definitely think a hard wired plant mic is your best option. You dont have to worry about seatbelts or rf problems. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisH Posted March 4, 2012 Report Share Posted March 4, 2012 Last movie I worked had plenty of scenes in a taxi, driver and actress speaking, her on the backseat. I placed one DPA lav on the driver's visor and another one overhead between the two front seats (pretty much the middle of the car). Hard wired both lavs to the recorder which sat in the back alone or on my lap on the backseat, depending where the cam was. Got great results with that approach and covered pretty much all head turns with the two mics. I love the DPA lav sound when especially when planted because they're so linear. Regarding the question of placing rather one or two mics for single shots - I'd rather rig all at once (before the scene starts) than go in again and do another setup for each camera position. That wouldn't look professional. I have also used the Oktava mini preamps, as a similar method to RVD's Schoeps colettes but the lav method for me has been as good or better while faster and more flexible. I don't think it looks unprofessional to move mics between setups. I agree I like to rig at the start of the scene but if the camera moves and now my mic is in I will put it in a different place and try to accomplish a matching recording. If the camera moves and production is willing to wait on that then they can also wait on me to move my mics. Production almost never waits on a good sound dept and when they do it's for good reason. I never feel bad making them wait, we wait on camera and lights and actors and touches all the time. It is very rare that production waits on sound when I am utility so I feel it's necessary every once in a while so they don't forget we're there and we're part of the team too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sdog Posted March 7, 2012 Report Share Posted March 7, 2012 I've usually had really good luck with a super simple basic setup for car INT: 1. Omni lavs, planted. I veer away from directional mics for planting unless I'm allowed to rewrite the script so that all the characters are immobilized by neck braces and can only speak in one direction. (I've always wondered why I never get invited to screenwriting sessions. hmmm.) 2. Location: first best guess is sun visor. That sounds the best most of the time, but I always sit in the car first where the character will be and hold the mic in various positions while listening (heater vent, ashtray, anything that looks like a promising hiding place). There are some cars where another location will sound better than the sun visor. 3. Adjust number of plants and plant locations for the actors and action. May not work all the time, but I've had pretty good luck with this approach in terms of sound quality and speed of setup. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taylormadeaudio Posted March 7, 2012 Report Share Posted March 7, 2012 I don't think it looks unprofessional to move mics between setups. I agree I like to rig at the start of the scene but if the camera moves and now my mic is in I will put it in a different place and try to accomplish a matching recording. If the camera moves and production is willing to wait on that then they can also wait on me to move my mics. Production almost never waits on a good sound dept and when they do it's for good reason. I never feel bad making them wait, we wait on camera and lights and actors and touches all the time. It is very rare that production waits on sound when I am utility so I feel it's necessary every once in a while so they don't forget we're there and we're part of the team too. +11 It's always nice to be reminded of this -- we almost shoot ourselves in the foot sometimes by being so efficient at what we do that we almost always manage to do it on another departments time... then we actually do need a minute to make an adjustment, the AD looks at you like you just shot his kid or something. Thanks for reminding us that we count too Chris : ) ~tt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Feeley Posted March 7, 2012 Report Share Posted March 7, 2012 1. Omni lavs, planted. I veer away from directional mics for planting unless I'm allowed to rewrite the script so that all the characters are immobilized by neck braces and can only speak in one direction. (I've always wondered why I never get invited to screenwriting sessions. hmmm.) Hah! Did you end up getting a credit for The Diving Bell And The Butterfly? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sdog Posted March 7, 2012 Report Share Posted March 7, 2012 Hah! Did you end up getting a credit for The Diving Bell And The Butterfly? I think a directional mic might have worked for that character And none of the screenwriters ever believe me when I tell them their story is completely implausible and unmarketable because it has characters who talk over each other while walking down the side of the highway next to an airport. Anyone with any sense knows a story like that has no artistic merit and shouldn't be filmed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Noah Timan Posted March 14, 2012 Report Share Posted March 14, 2012 What would be great is a Right Angle active cable option from Schoeps.. You can just put the GVC on the collette cable... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jan McL Posted March 14, 2012 Report Share Posted March 14, 2012 Wanted to add a thought to this remarkable discussion: I try to pick mics and their spots with the idea that they can and will stay in that same spot for the duration, with editorial in mind. Just sayin'. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Orusa Posted March 16, 2012 Report Share Posted March 16, 2012 2. Location: first best guess is sun visor. That sounds the best most of the time, but I always sit in the car first where the character will be and hold the mic in various positions while listening (heater vent, ashtray, anything that looks like a promising hiding place). There are some cars where another location will sound better than the sun visor. I second sun visors as the best mic position. I've rigged and recorded a number of car shots and the majority of the time the planted lav in the sun visor worked and sounded the best. I know this because I was also dialogue editor for those projects. Mark Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Clardy Posted August 17, 2012 Report Share Posted August 17, 2012 If the talent is in the front seat you might be able to boom up through the middle of the seats assuming the camera angles allow. The cub is a great option too. Lavs on talent might allow you to get closer and have greater signal to noise ratio. Hopefully its an automatic transmission. I've found manual transmissions are too noisy in low gear. Good luck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wyatt Tuzo Posted August 17, 2012 Report Share Posted August 17, 2012 I don't think there is ever one "right" way, but I have some go-to's. The schoeps mk21 wide cardioid from above can be really fantastic. It's practically a half-omni pattern. I've had this cover two in the front seat quite effectively http://www.schoeps.de/en/products/mk21 I'll also add one more vote for a cub to the visor. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wyatt Tuzo Posted August 17, 2012 Report Share Posted August 17, 2012 I don't think there is ever one "right" way, but I have some go-to's. The schoeps mk21 wide cardioid from above can be really fantastic. It's practically a half-omni pattern. I've had this cover two in the front seat quite effectively http://www.schoeps.de/en/products/mk21 I'll also add one more vote for a cub to the visor. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RandyHall Posted August 17, 2012 Report Share Posted August 17, 2012 If the talent is in the front seat you might be able to boom up through the middle of the seats assuming the camera angles allow. The cub is a great option too. Lavs on talent might allow you to get closer and have greater signal to noise ratio. Hopefully its an automatic transmission. I've found manual transmissions are too noisy in low gear. Good luck. I just did this last week on a short film: boomed from back seat, held between the front seats, mic pointed rearward, and then roll the boom left or right depending on who was speaking. Worked surprisingly well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
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.