Sound in digital made Short films

[Dazza]

Hi Guys

Me asking questions again this time sound......

Currenty I use the built in mike on my camera for the sound in the films I make.

Do you guys use boom mikes? If so if anyone is technical, if I had a boom mike what would I need to record the sound onto from the boom mike if i then later wanted to use it with software such as sony Vegas?

I am not sure if the boom mike would plug somehow into my new camera.

[RydCook]

the built in mic for most under £1000 pounds camera's usually always terrible, with that annoying motor buzzing sound that haunts us all.. i personally dont use a boom mic as yet my new camera has a pretty dam good built in mic, but i still plan to get an external one.
the boom mic will have to be plugged into the camera i would have thought. what your looking for on your camera is a lead-in jack port i should think, and then you may have to change the settings on your camera for it to work. may i ask what camera you have? i know the stardard under £1000 canon camera's dont have this port if thats any help. as i say i havnt used or own a boom mic so this is all speculation, hjope it helps though mate, an external mic is definately worth it for diagetic sound films.

[spiderstu]

I got a small external mic from Jessops for about £30. its not fantastic but it gets rid of that annoying whir you get on smaller cameras. The wire is coiled so you can't move far from the camera but i got an extension wire from maplin so that solves that problem. I did a scene from 21 grams with it and the sound was much better than it normally is. Here's a link to it if you want to see what the quality is like.

I have used a proper boom mic before from my uni and they are very good, but very expensive if your looking to buy one yourself.

[Dazza]

Hi Guys

Firstly to RyD22 I have a sony TRV-265E I used it the other night on my first new film and it was pretty good but then I didnt use any sound as it was to music but the quality edited in Sonic Vegas 4.0 it came out really well. I had a quick look at ur film the other day I like the one that was filmed in the highstreet where the guy seems to be tripping out, I thought that was clever and I thought the music went well with it. How did u get on filing in the highstreet did people get in the way or just ignore what was going on, I'd like to use the highstreet for something in the future myself.

Also thanks both for the advice on the external mike its definately an avenue I have been thinking about. A friend of mine thought that maybe it could be possible to record on something like a minidisk recordable and then when it came to editing the film and the sound of the minididk they should sync up together.

SpiderStu I will check out ur film once i'm at home and leave you some comments. I use youtube as well, in case u havent heard of it there is a cracking site called www.livedigital.com as well where u can promote ur films, the quality on livedigital is mint.

[RydCook]

dazzab21 said:

Hi Guys

I had a quick look at ur film the other day I like the one that was filmed in the highstreet where the guy seems to be tripping out, I thought that was clever and I thought the music went well with it. How did u get on filing in the highstreet did people get in the way or just ignore what was going on, I'd like to use the highstreet for something in the future myself.

hey thanks for the comments i alsways love feedback dont we all? the filming on the highstreet was surprisingly easy. hardly anyone looked at the camera, and more importantly (which was very surprising, cos he was walking backwards) no one looked at the actor, which was great. no one got in the way really.. it just looked natural. there was one group of 40yo drunkards who went (bearing in mind this was before starwars 3 came out "OI OI what ya doin? shootin for star wars epidode 3?" ha ha idiot.. i found it funny though, cos we were shooting on DV! just like ol lucas does nowerdays. (found an interesting artical on film vs digital mediums, check out my blog for a link to it) anyway that was the only trouble we had, and they soon buggered off. But i gues smost of it is luck, i think you should just go for it! and get as many shots as you can of the same thing, so you have freedom of choice in the edit.

your camera doesn't seem to have a mic line in port so the sound would have to record into somthing else. i dont know about the mini disk idea, but i would imagine it could prove hard to synch up the footage to the sound in sony vegas (not that i've used it, but i assume its a simple editing program) whereas on final cut its relatively easy. could cause a headache though.

[Dave]

ryd22 said:

i dont know about the mini disk idea, but i would imagine it could prove hard to synch up the footage to the sound in sony vegas (not that i've used it, but i assume its a simple editing program) whereas on final cut its relatively easy. could cause a headache though.

I have done it once.... is quite a good system.... you just need a good old clapperboard to sync the sound up! Even something as simple as clapping your hands in front of the camera before a take is good enough to sync up the sound. Just match the clap on the minidisc sound to the clap image and the rest should be sorted.

[Dazza]

Cheers Dave, will have to get a cheap recordable minidisk off ebay and give it a go then.

[Dave]

Not sure how minidisc has progressed these days... but the only way I could get the minidisc recording onto my PC was via a regular stereo jack... which in a way kind of negates the digital quality aspect. However, you still get good sound of course, and none of that camera whir!

I tried a NetMD minidisc player a couple of times because it seemed like you could transfer files to your PC digitally from the disc via USB. The reality however was a giant pain the backside because you have to use Sony's bundled software and it restricts you so much, you can't even do the simplest things!

[RydCook]

typical sony

[Dazza]

lol u sure dont like sony do u RyD22

[RydCook]

ha ha no i dont! but ironically i own a sony camcorder as well as my XM2. but the sony one was free because my old camera broke and on my insurance they sent me a brand new one, and the sony one was the only one avaliable, so i had it! ha ha, its allright i guess, i think im gonna give it to my bro to use. hopefully it wont break!

[PatrickCoyle]

Vegas and FCP work pretty much exactly the same, as far as I can tell. It's a bugger to sync up sound on either of them... A clap or clapperboard helps from the beginning, but at times sound can be a mare.

I've just now got in from making a film for university, and we were shooting on a bus. I fear the sound will be shoddy, but I wasn't paying much attention as I was forced into the lead role.