Doc in Africa. Number of questions, including recording st..

Hi guys,

Last week (Wednesday to be precise) I found out I was going to Africa
for two weeks to record sound for a documentary that we hope will make
it to Sundance. It is already commissioned for a major terrestrial
broadcaster in the UK and has received massive publicity.

Please check out simunye.net . It's really quite an amazing feat my
friends have achieved (they are in their early twenties and only
graduated last year!).

The documentary has been made over the past three years and this will
be the final shoot. The director has got himself a Hollywood editor and
great post-sound guys at Shepperton helping out. This trip to Africa is
to fill in the gaps for the edit, almost like reshoots, plus also the
final scenes.

The sound ops over the past few years were not great, and the sound
thus far is not of the highest standard. The post sound engineers are
basically stripping down the dialogue already recorded, as the ambience
is really quite distracting at times. Once all the ambience is stripped
away they are gonna need a lot of wild track to replace it! This means
they need LOTS of wild tracks to assist with what will eventually be a
5.1 mix.

They would like stereo wild tracks. I should (fingers crossed) be using
the SD 744T to record all of this, and will have a trusty SQN 4S, so am
happy with these options my producer has allowed me.

But what would you suggest in terms of recording wild tracks in stereo?
Portability is an issue, and having one good M/S or X/Y mic on a
lightweight tripod packed in a rucksack will help with hiking up those
hills, plus results with these mics have also proven to be excellent.
How would you approach this? If I can get hold of the CSS-5 I would be
VERY happy! Any other mic suggestions?

In addition there will also be sit down interviews, and also on-the-run
scenes, following the lead character navigate her way through villages
and an orphanage. Our budget only allows for a pair of EW 112P G2 radio
mics, plus a suggested Sennheiser 416P.

With the on-the-run scenes I thought I would radio mic the people who
will talk the most, send them to one track, and also boom with the 416,
sending that to the other track. The post guys supposedly made a
comment that the 416 is not the best of mics for dialogue, in the sense
that it tries to do a number of different things as a mic, but never
doing any of these particularly well. Would you use this mic for docs?
I was a sound assistant for some doc in the UK last year and the sound
guy only used his 416 as a back up, preferring to use his MK41. What is
the mic of choice for these scenarios? If we can get a Schoeps MK41,
would you guys suggest this over the 416? I have not had any experience
with the MK41, and wonder, in a run and gun doc situation, whether it
is too directional. If I could get hold of the CSS-5, would this double
up as both the mic I can use for wildtracks, AND for booming sit down
interviews + run and gun situations.

Sorry for all the questions guys. Answer what you can. I need to start
looking at this equipment properly asap, and with so many choices I
figure those who are experience with these situations can put me in the
right direction.

Thanks, Chris

The 416 will be fine, it has an amazing ability to pull dialogue out of

noisy environments! If you are in relatively quiet environments, the
MK41
would be sweet. It has a slightly wider pickup than the 416, making
it
more forgiving when booming multiple people. Either mic will work
well.

As far as RF's go...the Senn G2's MIGHT be OK, but you really have to
find a
clear frequency for your area AND upgrade the actual lav mics. If the
director wants to do some long shots (with audio!) the G2's may
handcuff
you. I've had them perform well, and other times not so well. And,
the
sound is pretty shitty :) Renting a couple of Lectro's or Audio Ltd's
for
the shoot can make you the Hero rather than the Hinderance. I bet the
director would like to take advantage of the beautiful landscape!

Trew Audio has a CSS-5 package on their consignment page, everything
you
need, minus boompole or tripod. The CSS-5 has 3 modes, normal stereo,
mono
or wide. I believe if you switched it to mono for interviews and
run-n-gun,
it would be a good choice as a "do-all" mic.

Goodluck.

-Jason Porter

Chris Jothi wrote:
> Hi guys,
>
> Last week (Wednesday to be precise) I found out I was going to Africa
> for two weeks to record sound for a documentary that we hope will make
> it to Sundance. It is already commissioned for a major terrestrial
> broadcaster in the UK and has received massive publicity.
>
> Please check out simunye.net . It's really quite an amazing feat my
> friends have achieved (they are in their early twenties and only
> graduated last year!).
>
> The documentary has been made over the past three years and this will
> be the final shoot. The director has got himself a Hollywood editor and
> great post-sound guys at Shepperton helping out. This trip to Africa is
> to fill in the gaps for the edit, almost like reshoots, plus also the
> final scenes.
>
> The sound ops over the past few years were not great, and the sound
> thus far is not of the highest standard. The post sound engineers are
> basically stripping down the dialogue already recorded, as the ambience
> is really quite distracting at times. Once all the ambience is stripped
> away they are gonna need a lot of wild track to replace it! This means
> they need LOTS of wild tracks to assist with what will eventually be a
> 5.1 mix.
>
> They would like stereo wild tracks. I should (fingers crossed) be using
> the SD 744T to record all of this, and will have a trusty SQN 4S, so am
> happy with these options my producer has allowed me.
>
> But what would you suggest in terms of recording wild tracks in stereo?
> Portability is an issue, and having one good M/S or X/Y mic on a
> lightweight tripod packed in a rucksack will help with hiking up those
> hills, plus results with these mics have also proven to be excellent.
> How would you approach this? If I can get hold of the CSS-5 I would be
> VERY happy! Any other mic suggestions?
>
> In addition there will also be sit down interviews, and also on-the-run
> scenes, following the lead character navigate her way through villages
> and an orphanage. Our budget only allows for a pair of EW 112P G2 radio
> mics, plus a suggested Sennheiser 416P.
>
> With the on-the-run scenes I thought I would radio mic the people who
> will talk the most, send them to one track, and also boom with the 416,
> sending that to the other track. The post guys supposedly made a
> comment that the 416 is not the best of mics for dialogue, in the sense
> that it tries to do a number of different things as a mic, but never
> doing any of these particularly well. Would you use this mic for docs?
> I was a sound assistant for some doc in the UK last year and the sound
> guy only used his 416 as a back up, preferring to use his MK41. What is
> the mic of choice for these scenarios? If we can get a Schoeps MK41,
> would you guys suggest this over the 416? I have not had any experience
> with the MK41, and wonder, in a run and gun doc situation, whether it
> is too directional. If I could get hold of the CSS-5, would this double
> up as both the mic I can use for wildtracks, AND for booming sit down
> interviews + run and gun situations.
>
> Sorry for all the questions guys. Answer what you can. I need to start
> looking at this equipment properly asap, and with so many choices I
> figure those who are experience with these situations can put me in the
> right direction.
>
> Thanks, Chris