How to Record Audio for Video

[DDev]

I had a question from a guy last night that got me to wondering. How do the pro's record audio for voice dialogue for film? Is there a preferred type of mic hanging from an overhead boom, or do they use shotgun mics along with the cameras?

Any experience out there?

Thanks,
Darryl.....

[tmix]

If you are talking about offscreen dialogue I do it in the studio under controlled conditions, if it is onscreen it can be a handheld,a lavalier or a shotgun mic held over head just off screen. Some times a PZM mic works wonderful mounted to a small piece of plexiglass.

Tom

[DDev]

Thanks for the note.

I was thinking about this in terms of on-screen dialogue, like 2 people sitting at a table having a conversation, without the mics being a visual part of the scene.

I'm going to have to play around with the PZM idea, I think. I have access to a couple of those and have been looking for different potential uses for them.

Thanks again,

Darryl.....

[TexRoadkill]

Like Tmix says. They usually use Shotguns on a hand held boom for close or medium shots and hidden lavelier mics for wider shots. You want as little room sound as possible so PZM's might be a little tough. The challenge is keeping the room and actors tone consistent so that when the sound is edited with the picture you don't have to mess with it too much.

On most big action movies about 70-90% of the dialogue is over dubbed in the studio. Most outdoor dialogue is dubbed also. When they dub it in later they call it 'looping' and 'ADR' Automatic Dialogue Replacement.

[DDev]

Interesting, Tex. There must be some incredibly good lip sync'rs out there to get the expressions to come through right.

I'll pass this info along to my buddy who is trying to figure out how to do his next shoot.

Darryl.....

[drstawl]

I had success recording a live show at the House of Blues with the DV cam mobile grabbing the video and audio at various places in the audience and an external CDRW recorder capturing an X-Y pair of mics on stage. I used the DV audio as a marker to overdub the CD audio when I rendered the final mpg. I was afraid of drift going in, but didn't happen to find any and each of the tape(s) lasted 60 minutes. I switched out the CDR each time I changed out tapes in the DV cam so I lost some of the content, but I wasn't looking for documentary completeness, just a few tunes captured on both media. For completeness I would have needed an extra tech and an extra camera. I used what I had.