Do lavs work at all outside in a city, or not really?

[Pete Cofrancesco]

He’s been running these mental planning exercises for every aspect of his film for years.

[Greg Miller]

Originally Posted by Ryan Elder

I am surprised that omni may work better for outdoors, because I used them once before for a project, and the outdoor noise had more background noise in them, so I thought therefore, they were worse for outdoors likely.

This train of thought is off the rails, in terms of logic and also in terms of grammatical clarity.

[Josh Bass]

That's just Ryan's writing style.

[Greg Miller]

I wonder whether, if he slowed down and wrote rationally, it would help him think rationally. I wonder whether either one is even a possibility.

[Josh Bass]

I'm gonna say that's all symptoms of spectrum.

[Ryan Elder]

Originally Posted by Greg Miller

1.) This is the perfect time to shoot on a city street. There is no traffic. Just pick a calm day.

2.) Ryan, if you are curious about wind noise, get the recorder, get the lav, get the appropriate foam, get the appropriate furry, get some gaffer tape. Spend a few hours playing around. Different mics, different wind treatment, different clothing, will yield different results. You need to experiment. If you wait until the next time you're on the job, and find several wrong ways of doing things, you will develop a bad rep.

At one point I was testing for wind issues, so I just set up a pedestal fan in the room, positioned myself six feet away, and recorded a bunch of tests with different wind treatments on the mic. Voila ... a controlled experiment. No question later about how hard the wind was blowing when I recorded a given take, because it was constant for all the tests.

Oh okay, it's just that I don't want spend money on things I don't need to if possible, so I want to buy the best wind protection to begin with rather than buying a hole bunch of different kinds, and then having to sell the ones that aren't as good, and take a hit if that makes sense. But I can buy which kinds look like the best from those examples.

[Greg Miller]

Do you already have a lav mic?

Do you plan to really use it some day?

If so, buy the foam and the fluffy that the manufacturer recommends for that mic. If you can't afford that expense, do you ever really expect to be doing sound? Maybe you need a cheaper hobby.

And if you really do end up doing sound, you will need to have some minimal kit. One lav mic, one foam, and one fluffy seem like pretty minimal parts of your kit, IMHO.

Maybe I should refocus the question a little bit. Do you enjoy doing sound, do you enjoy playing with sound gear in your spare time? Or do you just enjoy talking about it?

[Brian Drysdale]

A lav mic is a standard piece of kit for any sound recordist, they usually have at least a pair of them, They will also have at least one radio mic, for one person crews the later can be the only practical way of working on occasions and they commonly have two.

Wind protection will depend on if you wish to have the mic in shot. If not, it'll be your techniques that will provide that by using the methods shown in the videos, Some lav mics come with a small windshield, so you could experiment with combining two methods.





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[Paul R Johnson]

Buy things you use at least ten times a year, either for work and money generation or for leisure and education. If I won't use something more than ten times I hire. Sadly in the past I've bought so much stuff with as low as one use a year or lower. I have tons of stuff that got used for a project and then has not moved on the shelf for years. This is stupid. As I've got older, I rent more and more.

I also share-buy. I needed some lighting, so asked two other localish people who use lighting what they would find most useful. This way, if I need to borrow some loudspeakers, I know somebody who has ones that will match mine, and my lights will match theirs. This year I have spent by £14,000 on equipment that I have no work for.

ryan, why would you be buying this stuff? Do you already own the lavs, and radio kit? I thought you said you didn't in another post. Why would you spend considerable money on stuff you may never need? We've said before when talking about mics that before you buy, you experiment with home made protection. I'm not going to tell you to BUY wind protection because for your purposes that's plain crazy!

[Pete Cofrancesco]

I’m pretty sure he must be planning an outdoor action scene and wants a lav so he can get audio without someone following with a boom. I don’t know why he never simply explains what he wants to do. All of this stuff he talks about I believe is contingent on if he ever gets funded. How many months back was he talking in earnest about what camera should he get.

[Greg Miller]

I don’t know why he never simply explains what he wants to do.

He's afraid someone will steal his creative ideas.

[Pete Cofrancesco]

Originally Posted by Greg Miller

He's afraid someone will steal his creative ideas.

That’s funny. It’s probably because people usually try to dissuade him from doing something (for good reason), but he wants to do it anyway. All of this comes from having limited experience, not owning said equipment and planning out all the details at the screen play stage.

Unrelated CBS had Raiders of the Lost Ark on last night. The well of souls scene was amusing that almost all the snakes in it weren’t native to Egypt. But still enjoyed it.

[Greg Miller]

Originally Posted by Pete Cofrancesco

The well of souls scene was amusing that almost all the snakes in it weren’t native to Egypt.

After a lifetime in show business, you get to know a lot about snakes.

[Pete Cofrancesco]

Originally Posted by Greg Miller

After a lifetime in show business, you get to know a lot about snakes.

Lol
I just love reading bts of great movies. The snake handler shaved his legs to do the close ups for the actress.

[Greg Miller]

Originally Posted by Paul R Johnson

This year I have spent by £14,000 on equipment that I have no work for.

That has to hurt, and I can see that would make you inclined to tell Ryan not to do the same thing.

Originally Posted by Paul R Johnson

Why would you spend considerable money on stuff you may never need?

This may boil down to (a.) a definition of "considerable" and (b.) how much one enjoys experimenting.

For example, if Ryan really wanted to get a good feel for how a lav might behave in wind, he could get a Rode Lavalier GO for $79 (if he didn't already have one) and that includes the foam. For another $29 he could buy the Rode MINIFUR-LAV which they make for that mic. So for $110 he could experiment to his heart's content, whenever and wherever he likes. Try different mounting styles, try different fabric clothing, etc. etc. until he either knew a lot or didn't care any more.

Admittedly we don't know whether Ryan has this -- or any -- lav. I simply offer this as an example that the furry would not be terribly expensive, (the cost of dinner at a chain restaurant if any were open these days). The cost of a lower-end mic like this, likewise, is pretty inexpensive. It's such a far cry from your £14,000 that IMHO the word "considerable" doesn't begin to apply to the mic gear. If Ryan never makes a dollar of profit from the mic, so what! And if his dream comes true and he gets funding for some imagined film, then he might even get to use the mic.

So, if I were in Ryan's shoes (assuming he is not destitute) I would just buy the toy and be done with it. And I think an intuitive feel for the issue, gained from experimenting with his own mic, would be quite valuable; if nothing else it would give him a sense of confidence in having arrived at his own answer.

Maybe it's just a matter of individual personality, or personal philosophy.