Mic type and placement for instructional video?

[Greg Peters]

I am going to take a shot at an instructional video at work.
I already do all their still image work.

I currently only do video for personal stuff.
I have been meaning to upgrade the mic to an external type.
I have had the following in my BHphoto cart for a year...
This was just for personal stuff.

Rode SM5 shock mount for mic to my camera
Rode Dead Cat
1.5' XLR cable
Rode NTG-1 Condenser Shotgun Microphone

Now that I am going to try to do this instructional video, do I want the mic on the camera?
Or do I want to keep it on a separate stand?
If that is the case, then I would just need to add a longer XLR cord for the mic?

The instructional video will have people talking
I think I will have the camera on a tripod, I have not gotten there yet.

[Adam Gold]

Depends on what you're doing. If it's someone demonstrating stuff and talking, I'd go with a wired or wiress lav, never a shotgun. If you have a separate sound person, you could use the shotgun to boom them from just slightly above their head, just out of the frame. But never with the mic on the cam.

If it's several people, you should probably have a lav mic for each.

[Greg Peters]

It is just one person.

And just me shooting.

Should I look at boom pole for my extra light stand?

[Adam Gold]

I'd go with the lav. If you can't man the boom pole you can't move if the subject shifts.

[Greg Peters]

I am not sure how those mics work.
I can probably deal with a wired one as I assume the price is cheaper.

Can you suggest something simple and lower end.
I guess I should plan for 2 people to have it.

I also need to see how it would connect to my camera.
I have standard XLR jacks on it.

[Don Bloom]

there are many lavalier mics out there and most can be had with a standard XLR connection to connect straight into your camera however some would need phantom power and some need it from a seperate source other than the camera.
Countryman and Sony are just 2 of the companies that produce excellant quality mics.

[Greg Peters]

I am looking at the prices of those mics and I don't think I can swing it.

I am going to have to make due with a mic on a pole.

I have a mic and an extra stand. I need to look at boom poles.

would it help to have a mic on the camera and on the stand?
To help capture all of the sound

Have you ever seen those cheesy workplace safety videos?? that is what I am doing....

[Greg Peters]

I can probably handle $200

[Richard Crowley]

If "cheesy workplace safety videos" is your goal, then just use the built-in microphone. Any other kind of on-camera mic isn't going to be significantly better. A boom mic is of minimal value unless you have someone who can keep it aimed at the talent's mouth.

You can't "capture all the sound" with a distant microphone. Unless you want your videos to sound like home movies.

A clip-on mic is the method of choice for this kind of production. There is no close alternative IMHO.

If we knew what kind of budget you were thinking about, we could recommend some practical solutions. But dunno whether you are talking about $100 or $500?

[Steve House]

Originally Posted by Greg Peters

I can probably handle $200

You really need to think this through a bit. $200 isn't even going to start to get your feet wet for even a minimal sound kit to do serious work. I'd strongly advise you consider renting your sound package for the shoot.

What camera do you have - does it have XLR mic inputs?

Shotgun mics don't do well indoors in typical office or residential settings, picking up lots of room reflections to add a sort of bassy ringing timbre to the sound. Hypercardioid mics are a better option in this situation. Problem with shotguns is made much, much worse by the distance from the subject when the mic is mounted on or near the camera. You have to get the mic within about 24 inches of the speaker's mouth. The rule of thumb is the mic should be just out of frame but your talent needs to be able to easily reach up and touch the mic without straining or shifting their position.

Whle a hyper on a proper boom is probably capable of better sound quality than most lavs, the previous recommendation to consider a hardwired lav is still a good one and I'd suggest you give it more thought. $250 for a good lav, say a Tram-50, is going to get you a more capable microphone than you'll get trying to assemble a full boom mic kit for the same money when you take into account the cost of an 8 or 10 foot boom, lightstand-mounted boom holder, cables, mount, etc in addtion to the mic. And then there's the art of placement - there's more to booming a mic for good quality sound than just pointing it vaguely in the direction of the talent. A lav is just easier to work with if you're a one-man band. While the boom is certainly the more capable, a well-placed lav is going to sound better than a haphazardly placed boom and light years better than an on-camera shotgun used indoors.

[Don Bloom]

Sony has the ECM 44B wired lav at $220.00, AT has about 6 different lavs all under $200.00, Shure has 5 or 6 under $200.00 and there are many others.
I have to agree with everyone else. A wired lav would be the way to go in this case. While booming a mic seems easy there is a trick to it and you really need a 2nd person in many if not most cases to handle it. Plus you need to make sure you have the right kind of mic on the boom and by the time you buy the mic, buy the shock mount and buy the boom it will certainly be more than $200.00.

[Greg Peters]

I already have the mic, so the boom option would be cheaper.

If I want to run 2 lav mics, will they both just plug into my camera?

[Greg Peters]

Anyone have a prefered store to look for these at?

[Don Bloom]

Greg,

If your camera has 2 XLR inputs and you can seperate the channels in the camera which I will assume you do and can, then yes, you can run 2 mics to your camera although the preferred method would be running to a mixer and a mixer running to the camera but it appears you have a very tight budget to work with so since you already have the shotgun mic and shock mount I guess the boom is the way to go just keep in mind that if you have more than 1 person in the shot you need to move the mic to cover whoever it is that's speaking.
You could center the mic between them as a course of last resort but only as a last resort.
Anyway, Guitar Center has some short booms for static work - it could be made to work with a heavy duty stand or a bunch of sand bags to hold the stand you have in place along with a long XLR, 20 foot at least. Maybe 30 foot just in case, better to have too much than not enough.
Calumet and perhaps Helix are local possiblities as well.

[Greg Peters]

I am working towards 2 wired lav mics.
My camera has 2 XLR inputs. Chan1 and Chan2

From what people are saying cheap Lav's are the best way to go.