Interview Microphone Recommendation

[Lucky Haskins]

Hey Kids...I have to shoot a ton of on camera interviews for a training film. It will be basic one shot set ups in front of a green screen. Pretty straightforward stuff.

My concern is sound. I rarely do stuff with a boom mike but that appears to be the smart move here to avoid using a lav mic. I am shooting in a big empty room with sheetrock walls and ceiling and carpet (it's my client's training room).

I am shooting SD into a VX 2100 with a Beachtek DXA 6VU with phantom power. I also have a pretty good shockmount.

Looking for recommendation on a good Mic I can put on a fixed boom in the $250-$400 range. Also, any recommendations on a mic stand/boom for hanging the mike over the subject would be cool too.

Thanks

[Steve Oakley]

for that price 2 options

Oktava 012 with hyper cardiod cap

AKG CK300 power module + MK93 hypercardiod

both are in your price range for the mic. a gitzo boom can be had for $200 and will work for what you want. don't forget a C stand ($120) + boom boy ($29) to hold it.

you'll also want another 2 C stands with arms to hang a pair of sound blankets just outside of frame. that can help enourmously to dry up room slap. won't eliminate it, but get it down the a barely noticable level.

[Chris Swanberg]

I have had good luck with the Oktava MC-012 with the hypercardiod capsule.... I had mine modded and like the result.

[Richard Gooderick]

Originally Posted by Chris Swanberg

I have had good luck with the Oktava MC-012 with the hypercardiod capsule.... I had mine modded and like the result.

How did you modify it and why?

[Jimmy Tuffrey]

You may find that shooting green screen in an echoee room undermines the illusion somewhat so your best bet is to check whether the boom mic or lav mic sounds ok first.

I've come accros this problem before. Basically someone decides that any room will do as you wont see it. You will most certainly hear it though. An interior echo just sounds very wrong when the backdrop is outdoors.

[Jay Massengill]

The Rode NT3 (the large hypercardioid) would also work in this situation, although it would also depend on how clean your combo of BeachTek and VX2100 preamps are. There are several settings on the DXA-6 that aren't very intuitive and can trip you up when trying to achieve the best level match with a camera. The NT3 has a medium level output, your camera may need more to get a clean signal. However the mic is very clean, doesn't pick up much bass frequency from interior spaces, and it will run on its own internal battery. The older DXA-6 had very short battery life when supplying phantom power. I don't know about the VU model but if you're shooting alot of interviews, keeping up with this battery in the BeachTek would be something you'd have to listen to very carefully.
You could also try the AT875. There are threads here recently about it. It's less expensive than the Rode and has higher output, but it is phantom powered and I haven't compared the off-axis performance between these two mics.
One thing about using a static boom on a stand, using a small (3-5 pounds) sandbag on the short end of the boom gains much more stability than using just a heavy bag on the base of the stand. You should still use a medium bag on the base of the stand, but if the boom is perfectly balanced out with a small bag, then your stand will be much safer and have more safety margin.
If the room has an acoustic tile ceiling, carpet, furniture and you can hang some blankets, then micing close with a static boom should prevent too much of the room reverb from filtering in.
How wide (high) are you shooting for green-screen?

[Lucky Haskins]

I'm shooting wide enough that I can get some type onscreen in post. I'm shooting widescreen with subject on the right third leaving the left for type.

[Jay Massengill]

Shooting widescreen will help keep the mic closer to the subject, but even if the static mic is in the lockdown shot, it can be masked out easily.

[Chris Swanberg]

In answer to the question about modding the Oktava here is a link that better explains it... I find the claims to bear out.

Oktava MK-012 Modification Kits and Service

In an interior shoot, I'd suggest, as have others, that you try both a lav and a boomed hyper to see which, at he end of the day, sounds best. If you can record both simaltaneously each to its own channel that's the best solution I think.

[Lucky Haskins]

Thanks for all of the great input. I think I know which direction to head.