ENG in BAR at DVinfo.net

Roy Feldman · January 22nd, 2008, 06:32 AM

Starting a segment to find the best "True Irish" bar for St. Pats day.
Want to interview people in various bar's around town, some will have music in background.
I have a handheld: fairly directional, a octavia hypercart, a beyer short shotgun and 2 lavs.
Which should I use? I can boom.

Josh Chesarek · January 22nd, 2008, 07:46 AM

Well, I am not a sound guy so I cannot tell you which will def. give you the best sound but I can almost promise you the hand held will be much easier to use, especially if the bar is busy. I did a bar shoot for a vidcast called bartender weekly and we ended up not using that bit but moving around in a packed bar is hard enough, would not want to cary a boom through it, or try and have to mic someone up, if they wanna talk just stick the microphone in their face like the news guys do would be my suggestion :)

Jon Fairhurst · January 22nd, 2008, 11:52 AM

A video crew walks into a bar.

The producer asks the sound guy what mic he's going to use.

The sound guy, being young asks the more experienced camera operator what mic they should use.

The video guy, being wise, says "let's post the question on DVInfo.net!"

Ba Dump.

Richard Alvarez · January 22nd, 2008, 01:23 PM

If it were me, I'd go one of two ways in terms of ENG in a crowded bar.

1) Put a good shotgun on the camera, covers the shot and picks up ambient more or less directionally, AND put a wireless on a hand held mic. Do the ENG hand mike dance with the interviewer/subject.

2)Clip a wireless on the interviewer, and a second wireless on a handheld. Hand held is then held by the interviewer, or could be 'boomed' into the shot with a SHORT boom, like 30 inches maybe, from below.

Wireless is the way to go, because you're not risking tangling folks in a crowded bar. Depending on how important your 'interviewer' is, IE whether or not you're doing talking head cutaways, are they officially "Talent" etc. If they are "talent" and you're featuring THEM in the bar, then I'd put the lav on them, and hand them the hand mic. IF they are not 'talent' but simply someone asking questions off screen, then I'd go the shotgun/wireless situation.

Just the way I'd approach it. If you don't have wireless, consider renting for the shoot.

Heiko Saele · January 24th, 2008, 04:19 PM

For noisy situations I'd grab a cardioid dynamic mic like the Sennheiser MD425 or MD46. One of the best dynamic mics (in my opinion and limited experience) I have used so far is the MD835 dynamic cardioid from a Sennheiser evolution 100 wireless set. We were taping interviews from people dancing in the front rows of a rock concert. You couldn't even understand people unless they were screaming right into your ears. When editing the next day we were very surprised: it actually looked pretty stupid because people were screaming into our mic, but the ambient music was at -15dB. It really looked like "why the hell are they screaming?"

Dynamic mics (all of them, even the cheaper ones) are only sensitive to their closer surroundings, they don't react much to ambient noise. The downside is you have to get rather close to your subject - no problem for a reporter holding the mic. Booming is a little more tricky, but it's possible.

January 22nd, 2008, 06:32 AM	#1
Roy Feldman Regular Crew Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Grosse pointe, michigan Posts: 189	ENG in BAR Starting a segment to find the best "True Irish" bar for St. Pats day. Want to interview people in various bar's around town, some will have music in background. I have a handheld: fairly directional, a octavia hypercart, a beyer short shotgun and 2 lavs. Which should I use? I can boom.

January 22nd, 2008, 07:46 AM	#2
Josh Chesarek Major Player Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Winter Park, FL Posts: 978	Well, I am not a sound guy so I cannot tell you which will def. give you the best sound but I can almost promise you the hand held will be much easier to use, especially if the bar is busy. I did a bar shoot for a vidcast called bartender weekly and we ended up not using that bit but moving around in a packed bar is hard enough, would not want to cary a boom through it, or try and have to mic someone up, if they wanna talk just stick the microphone in their face like the news guys do would be my suggestion :) __________________ Simple Thought Productions - Life @ 30,000 Words per second

January 22nd, 2008, 11:52 AM	#3
Jon Fairhurst Inner Circle Join Date: May 2006 Location: Camas, WA, USA Posts: 5,513	A video crew walks into a bar. The producer asks the sound guy what mic he's going to use. The sound guy, being young asks the more experienced camera operator what mic they should use. The video guy, being wise, says "let's post the question on DVInfo.net!" Ba Dump. __________________ Jon Fairhurst

January 22nd, 2008, 01:23 PM	#4
Richard Alvarez Inner Circle Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: San Mateo, CA Posts: 3,840	If it were me, I'd go one of two ways in terms of ENG in a crowded bar. 1) Put a good shotgun on the camera, covers the shot and picks up ambient more or less directionally, AND put a wireless on a hand held mic. Do the ENG hand mike dance with the interviewer/subject. 2)Clip a wireless on the interviewer, and a second wireless on a handheld. Hand held is then held by the interviewer, or could be 'boomed' into the shot with a SHORT boom, like 30 inches maybe, from below. Wireless is the way to go, because you're not risking tangling folks in a crowded bar. Depending on how important your 'interviewer' is, IE whether or not you're doing talking head cutaways, are they officially "Talent" etc. If they are "talent" and you're featuring THEM in the bar, then I'd put the lav on them, and hand them the hand mic. IF they are not 'talent' but simply someone asking questions off screen, then I'd go the shotgun/wireless situation. Just the way I'd approach it. If you don't have wireless, consider renting for the shoot.

January 24th, 2008, 04:19 PM	#5
Heiko Saele Major Player Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Wurzburg, Germany Posts: 316	For noisy situations I'd grab a cardioid dynamic mic like the Sennheiser MD425 or MD46. One of the best dynamic mics (in my opinion and limited experience) I have used so far is the MD835 dynamic cardioid from a Sennheiser evolution 100 wireless set. We were taping interviews from people dancing in the front rows of a rock concert. You couldn't even understand people unless they were screaming right into your ears. When editing the next day we were very surprised: it actually looked pretty stupid because people were screaming into our mic, but the ambient music was at -15dB. It really looked like "why the hell are they screaming?" Dynamic mics (all of them, even the cheaper ones) are only sensitive to their closer surroundings, they don't react much to ambient noise. The downside is you have to get rather close to your subject - no problem for a reporter holding the mic. Booming is a little more tricky, but it's possible.