This may seem like a stupid question but:

Painters' poles creak.
PVC wobbles.

But is there any problem with using a wooden broomstick? A run of the mill, ordinary wooden broomstick, with a screw drilled into the end?

Is true they used a Nimbus 2000 for a boom in the Harry Potter films?

This may seem like a stupid question but:

Painters' poles creak.
PVC wobbles.

But is there any problem with using a wooden broomstick? A run of the mill, ordinary wooden broomstick, with a screw drilled into the end?

Too heavy and too short. Gaffer tape a mic and mic mount to the end of one and hold it over your head for 10 minutes - how's your shoulders feel? Looks amateurish - for better or worse, looking the part is important if you're seeking paying gigs.

I made a boom pole out of one of those light-bulb-removal poles that Home Depot sells for people in big houses...it was, I think, $15. While I did machine an adapter for an Audio Techica shock mount (metal is my hobby), it would not be hard to make an adapter for the shockmount with a dowel and a machine screw. My version lets me run the cable up inside the pole, which one could also do by drilling a couple of well-placed holes in the pole...disadvantage is it is only a two-section pole so it doesn't collapse very far...but t is light and rigid.../Battle Vaughan / miamiherald.com video team

My first boom was one that I made out of a piece of bamboo. It was light and strong. I epoxyed a threaded insert and was good to go. It was by far the lightest pole I've had. I've since gone on to a carbon fibre VDB. Probably because the 12 foot bamboo wouldn't break down. It was hard to get into interiors and was always in the way.
Jon

Good grief guys, I think you can still buy a carbon fibre real boompole for around U.S. $250.00, its not really a major expenditure unless you get a top of the line K-tek or something.

This is a perfect example of a time when you are being penny wise and pound foolish in most cases. I am cheap and I am the first one to buy Harbor Freight dimmers and Contico plastic tool boxes and I built my own Kinos from scratch. But in this case, your sound is 70% of your product so why use tools that are wrong for the purpose?

I highly recommend ponying up the dough for a real boom pole.

Dan

A $250 pole for a $150 microphone?

I'll hold off for right now on purchases. I've made a "telescoping painter's pole" boom (was pretty simple too) and now all I have to do is find a way to connect the 3/8" male end of the pole to some sort of shoe.

As much as I like DIY stuff, the Rode boom pole was a great deal for me at €85. Sure, it's a little heavier than the $500 carbon poles, but for occasional use it's great and looks pro in front of clients.

I gotta say, I side with Dan on this. Making due with a creaking painter's pole strikes me as silly no matter what the mic costs.

I gotta say, I side with Dan on this. Making due with a creaking painter's pole strikes me as silly no matter what the mic costs.

The cost of these poles, even the cheap ones is more than I spend on any individual production currently... I've done this:

http://yafiunderground.com/Images/blimp/mike1.jpg
http://yafiunderground.com/Images/blimp/mike2.jpg
http://yafiunderground.com/Images/blimp/mike3.jpg
http://yafiunderground.com/Images/blimp/mike4.jpg

I use a 16' aluminum painter's pole. I have a shockmount made from roof gutter screen, hobby wire, costume fur, chopsticks and rubberbands. I challenge you to show me that my $20 solution doesn't provide anything a $200 boom pole provides (barring a coiled in-pole cable, and a bit of squeak that the shock mount all but eliminates). Except that I would get to spend $180 more on my project... which is still more than I spend on any given project.

Well, I'm a little taken aback that someone would buy an XL series camera and have so little respect for audio as to utterly deny the value of even a modest expense on halfway decent gear.

At least the kid holding the boom in your pictures is getting good placement, in one of the photos anyway. I'll give you that, as it's 98 percent of the battle. Still, I wouldn't expect him to be able to hold it there very long given how heavy that thing looks and the poor positioning of his arms.

As far as the benefits go, a real pole:

• is less prone to creaking and handling noise that will ruin a take;
• can be quickly and easily extended and taken in (sometimes even during a take), allowing your boom op to efficiently adapt to each setup, which can be quite fast paced;
• way stiffer, giving you less handling noise and enabling your boom op to more quickly and accurately cover the scene;
• is much lighter so your boom op's arms don't get tired as fast;
• let's your cast and crew know that you take the project seriously and intend to make a reasonable attempt to produce something everyone can be proud of.

Okay, that last one was snarky, but seriously, if you don't want to spend the money fine, but please don't pretend that cobbling together a creation like that is somehow just as good as using quality gear. If it sounds like I'm getting my back up a little over this it's because the whole assertion represents the casual, even dismissive, attitude that so many filmmakers exude towards audio in general.

I spent all my money on the camera before I understood the value of the sound... I'm working on remedying that situation... but you've read the newspapers or turned on the news right? Economy sucks, layoffs rampant, some of us are living on 1/4 the household income we were living on just a couple of years ago. I can make things affordably that wouldn't be an option for me otherwise.

I always see the "Why don't you just spend the money to get real gear" argument on here alot. I always have the same reaction to that. In a perfect world, circumstances ideal, we'd all have top of the line gear... but for an individual to accumulate all of their own gear for what is slowly turning into a career option (oh, to have the luxury of living in a hotbed of cinema activity and have access to those resources - I pine)... takes time and money. Without gear, it becomes a non-event. If you're willing to fund our upgrades, by all means, I'll give you a credit in my next auditorily pristine short film... until then, I'll have to suffice with what I have as it's the only access to gaining experience that I'm able to utilize.

That is why I post cheap alternatives (which ultimately get roasted by a large amount of professionals, but I persist - I'm stubborn like that). Cheap alternatives are what I have to offer.

I also didn't pay full price for my used XL series camera either... had I done so, I wouldn't own one - mouths to feed, mortgage to pay, even back when I had gainful employment. What I have now is more time to pursue my cinematic endeavors... learning to operate with a noisy boom (thus far with a relatively crappy microphone as well, slowly piecing the Sony ECM-672 together as I can afford parts... which will probably ultimately cost as much as a new one, but again, access to small amounts of money as I get gigs precludes just buying one outright) will make my operation of a professional boom that much quieter in the long run. I think you may be a bit (spoiled-not the right word, but I can't think of the right one - so that, but less insulting please) and have either lost track (or never got to experience) what it takes to start from nothing with cheap as hell equipment.

If the OP is asking about using a broom stick, $100 is most likely out of the possible budget range for that piece of equipment, insisting over and over again that they're never going to be happy with the results if they don't buy pro gear is simply unnecessarily discouraging.

This gets into a different can of worms, but what it comes down to is that the pro gear is meant for pros. That is - $250 for a "modestly price" piece of gear is NOTHING if you plan to make $50,000 on your next project, and a good investment if you plan to make $1000 on your next project.

But there are some of us whose return on investment in damn-near zero. Nada. Zip. Zilch.

I make indie documentaries.

No, let me rephrase that.

I make indie documentaries for the web.

Actually, maybe I'm not making it perfectly clear.

I make indie documentaries for the web in my spare time.

To you, a $250 boom pole is an essential piece of gear necessary to your livelihood and well being.

To me, it's an expensive toy.

To you, you have the skills in video and audio to make the most of that $250 boom pole.

To me, it's something I'm going to have to learn how to use.

Don't get me wrong, I understand that paying for the pro gear once is usually better than finding out the cheap gear is unusable and buying the pro gear anyway. But to improve audio quality, the $250 can be better spent in other ways - namely, a better microphone (I had been using the Rode Videomic) or a new mixer.

It's not professional. But I'm not a professional.

I made one out of a window squeegee washer pole. It has an allow extendable pole and foam hand grips, I mounted a mic ferrule on the end and it is very light and ideal as a short boom for interviews etc. It cost less than $10

Okay, I would agree that people can get over zealous with the "buy pro or nothing" argument. It's not as if you can't get good sound if you can't afford a Schoeps. But I also started with nothing and limited means and have made wise and poor choices over the years as I've accumulated gear.

In general, I've found cobbling together strange Frankenstein-like solutions to be a waste of time, energy and even money in the long and short term. Choose wisely, and you can find affordable gear that will last you for years.

While it's nice to have an expensive microphone, in the end, placement is way more important. To that end, the pole is critical, and if I were starting from scratch I'd put it at the very top of the list.

For starters, a $250 pole isn't top end. True professional poles are more than twice that. As much as it may seem expensive, it is at best the point where the law of diminishing returns start to set in, and tight as things are (believe me, I'm feeling it too), it's the most reasonable investment you're going to find in this business. Still, if $250 is just too much, there are other nice poles for cheaper.

My point is, from all of my years of experience doing this, and I am a professional audio person, I feel that having a decent pole, at least something more serviceable than a broomstick or paintpole, is more important than the other gear. For Brian, I'd say keep that Videomic (it's pretty decent) and hold off on the mixer. Get a decent pole first before you start adding other things.

And I'll add my "Amen!" to Marco's statements. If you are shooting for your own pleasure or artistic satisfaction, knock your socks off doing it however you feel like. But if you expect to be called on by a TV station to do audio with one of their stringers after his regular soundie got sick, hired by a corporation to make a public relations film on the latest advances in widget manufacturing or develop a series of training programs for the folks on the widget line, hired to do second unit sound on a feature or episodic shooting in town, or any other gig where you're going to a: get paid for doing the work; and b: charge a daily kit rental to the client for the equipment you bring to the job, you really have to bring a kit to the table that fully meets professional standards in all respects. As a sign I once saw in an up-scale clothing store window reads: "To get where you want to be, you must look like you're already there."

Get yourself a Gitzo G556.
It's a good starter fishpole for under $100.

The cost of these poles, even the cheap ones is more than I spend on any individual production currently... I've done this:
...http://yafiunderground.com/Images/blimp/mike2.jpg


Cole, that metal boompole used under the powerlines looks a bit like something out of a Health and Safety training video - I hope you are well insured!
:-)

Hi guys:

I think one other factor that is overlooked is called amortization. Chances are your painters pole, light bulb changing pole or broomstick is not going to be useful to you for a long period of time. Do I still have all of the production "junk" that I bought when I was in my late 20s? No, none of it, it was crappy gear that I sold off at a high loss usually. The point I am trying to make is that you should look at your gear, at least the support part of it, as an investment. Not cameras, not computers, they are terrible investments, but support gear like tripods, boompoles, grip and lighting, etc. are investments because they will last you a very long time with proper care.

I bought a Gitzo carbon boompole for $250.00 in 1991. It is 2009 and I am still using it. It is a quality piece of gear, not the best, not state of the art, but it is quality. If I look at the economic viability of that purchase, that boompole has cost me $14.71 per year to own and use since 1991. Maintenance and repairs have been $0.00. If you break it down further, a decent boompole has cost me $1.23 per month over the past 17 years. Hmm...not sure if non-pros can afford that? Even in a recession, which will not last forever, I think that anyone who can get together thousands for a camera could afford that, you have just made short sighted decisions about how you spent your gear budget. Most people new to production do this.

If you buy gear, always buy the best that you can afford. There is nothing wrong with engineering your own gear, where appropriate, but I agree with Marco, audio almost always gets short shrift in the value equation of video shooters and it is, ironically much more important to the quality of your finished web films or home movies or whatever than the stupid, disposable camera is. Way too many people in our business who are shooting with $5,000.00 to $10,000.00 cameras SHOULD be shooting with $1,500.00 camcorders. That other $3,500.00 to $8,500.00 that would have essentially been wasted on a "better" camera should be spent on quality grip, lighting, audio and camera support. It's no different than building a race car and dropping 90% of your budget on the engine, ignoring the chassis, suspension and tires. The camcorder manufacturers have done a very good job of brainwashing neophytes and a lot of pros as well.

There are new camcorders at around U.S. $1,400.00 that are as good or better than most HDV and many other small format cameras that cost $3,000.00 to $5,000.00 just a few months ago. These new small AVCHD camcorders don't look pro, they don't have the reputation or ALL of the features of the more "professional" camcorders, yet they are totally capable of amazing results if you have the talent. One of these small, cheap camcorders, paired with a quality and complete camera support, grip and lighting gear and sound package will result in a MUCH more superior product technically than shooting with a mid-range camcorder and a surfeit of quality support gear.

This phenomena will continue to happen because the camera manufacturers want to sell sexy, semi-pro, cool looking camcorders, they don't want advanced amateurs and low end pros buying their consumer AVCHD camcorders, they WANT you to buy their $5,000.00 to $10,000.00 "pro" camcorders. But most, not all, advanced amateurs, hobbyists, and many low end pros would be much better off if they would buy a "production package" rather than a camcorder and bunch of cheap afterthoughts as far as sound, grip and lighting and camera support. The end product would be better, the users would be capable of producing work at a higher level of technical quality.

Even if you are not a pro, you will be better off, in most cases, buying the right gear to do the job than trying to invent it yourself. A good example are video lights. Yes, real video lights are better than Home Depot work lights. But at least if you look at the big picture, cheap or homemade lights generate an end product, light. Light is light, correct? I built my own Kino Flo Divas for 1/5th of the price of their equivalent "real" Divas. The light they cast is identical to the light that real Kinos cast, I am using the same bulbs and actually a better ballast than the real Kinos use. That is a situation where homemade makes total sense.

But I must agree with the other audio pros, homemade audio gear doesn't make sense in general. Can you use a painter pole or broomstick? Sure, Can you make your own zeppelin out of dryer lint and metal screening? Sure. Are using these homemade items an intelligent choice? Not really, your audio will be worse in general with a painters pole or homemade zeppelin. The poles will either be too heavy, will creak, will look amateur or will break. The homemade zeppelin will lose more highs than a real zeppelin. Will your audience notice or care? Perhaps not consciously, but your product will end up not sounding professional. In all but the highest levels of production, you only get one chance to record quality sound. To compromise that sound with anything but competent gear is shortsighted.

I am extremely cheap and love a bargain, I made my own lights from scratch. Much of my gear rides to and from shoots in $20.00 plastic Home Depot Contico tool totes. I bought an iPod Touch and am messing with free VOIP because I don't want to pay AT&T for an iPhone and their ripoff service. I am selling my digital still cameras and going back to shooting film on a $69.00 old school camera because digital still cameras are a scam and ripoff IMHO. But my vote is to only use homemade gear when the end product will be indistinguishable from the pro stuff. With lighting and skill, yes, homemade light will be indistinguishable from pro lights. But with sound, will your homemade mixer, boom pole or zeppelin sound indistinguishable from using pro gear? Probably not, it will probably sound worse. So to me, it makes no sense.

Dan

Here are some analogies that may explain why I'm willing to "throw away" 30 bucks on a homemade boompole but not make the reasonable $250 investment for a pole.

I'm not a professional filmmaker. I am, however, a professional writer.

My first words were written with a $1 box of crayons.

And I would never insist that a five year old be given a $1000 computer to learn how to write.

See what I'm getting at here?

Here are some analogies that may explain why I'm willing to "throw away" 30 bucks on a homemade boompole but not make the reasonable $250 investment for a pole.

I'm not a professional filmmaker. I am, however, a professional writer.

My first words were written with a $1 box of crayons.

And I would never insist that a five year old be given a $1000 computer to learn how to write.

See what I'm getting at here?

Hear, here! And I love your sig!

I have been on both sides of this equation. Yeah I have a painter's pole boom AND a Gitzo. I find myself using the Gitzo 99% of the time... was the painter's pole wasted money? no. Do I better appeciate the Gitzo now? yes.

Your position is well founded, but I would re-read Dan's. He rather eloquently expressed the long term, should this pan out for you, and his view is sound, and in a way more limited sense experience wise, I echo it.

That is not to say run out and buy a carbon fiber boom pole....rather, understand the limitations of your "sound acquisition" equipment should you decide to do this past the hobbyist stage.... and know that your "minimal" investment is likely worthless in the bigger scheme of things. Be warned: Once you have tasted the champage of good equipment, and in some cases the dramatic improvement it offers, it is tough to go back. But I agree, that $30 will seem like peanuts - the real Q being what did you miss in the meanwhile.

Chris

ps. My shop lights I started with still work great - as shop lights. I still on occasion have resorted the my painter's pole as a 2nd boom or for a long reach. You won't go to hell for using a painter's boompole. Nor will you for buying an Indian blimp.... but that is another story.

I'm not a professional filmmaker. I am, however, a professional writer. My first words were written with a $1 box of crayons. See what I'm getting at here?

And if I could shoot an HD doc for Discovery Channel with a box of crayons I would. See what I'm getting at here? The right tool for the job.

Imagine how impressed your clients are when you show up with a mic duct taped to a painters pole. If nothing else as a businessmen you need to consider your image. Do you show up to a Fortune 500 corporate shoot in flip flops and old jeans? No. It shows respect for self, for your profession and colleagues and most importantly for the client to show up with appropriate attire, a professional attitude and the right gear.

Or to quote a sage and wise veteran of the video world "If you can't afford it get out of the business."

And if I could shoot an HD doc for Discovery Channel with a box of crayons I would. See what I'm getting at here? The right tool for the job.

Imagine how impressed your clients are when you show up with a mic duct taped to a painters pole. If nothing else as a businessmen you need to consider your image. Do you show up to a Fortune 500 corporate shoot in flip flops and old jeans? No. It shows respect for self, for your profession and colleagues and most importantly for the client to show up with appropriate attire, a professional attitude and the right gear.

Or to quote a sage and wise veteran of the video world "If you can't afford it get out of the business."

Dude! I don't have clients!

I'm not actively looking for clients!

If Discovery Channel wanted me to do a shoot for them, I'd rent the best goddamn equipment GEAR had to offer, I'd charge them for the cost of it, then after I got paid on delivery, I'd buy the stuff outright.

Maybe I need to change my sig back, but the last "pro" job is merely that I'm splitting internet advertisement revenue with a guy who runs a blog. I don't expect to make enough from it in order to afford the boompole.

If I was in the movie making business, I wouldn't even be buying a boompole, I'd be hiring a soundguy with his own equipment. But I'm not. And for right now it doesn't make sense to try to "make it" in the business because I'm probably getting paid more now than someone working in the movie industry with the same amount of experience and qualifications I have as a writer.

When it comes to making videos the most important thing is to get the video made. If you can't afford a carbon fibre boom pole, then make your own. Basta!

I would have a look at fishing poles. Yup, you can buy blanks (ie with no rings or anything) for a few bucks/euros/pounds and some of them are even carbon fibre!

Much better than a broompole.

Lovely example with the crayon BTW.

We traveled very incognito to India a number of years ago on a doc that made national television. What did we attach a Sennheiser ME66 to? A stick. Wrapped in duct tape. Did it work? Kinda. Did it suck? Yup. Did the piece go to air? Yep. Was I proud of it? The pictures were sure pretty...

Sometimes you just gotta do what you can with what you got.

I shot a magazine story with a point-and-shoot camera. That's what I had. I wasn't about to buy a DSLR just for that, and the editor said the photos were just fine. Of course I cleared it before the assignment with some samples. But the point is that if it looks good (or sounds good) and the client is happy, then why not?

There is the valid suggestion, however, of looking further ahead and determining if you ever need better gear in a year or two. If the answer is "yes" then it might be worth investing in the right equipment. It can be sold later for a decent price.

But in my case I didn't have an SLR; And I didn't need one either then nor in the near future, even though I worked with one at my side almost every day for more than 25 years.

I'd much rather spend that money on a carbon fiber boom pole.... :-)

You know, the longer this debate goes on, I have to wonder if the aversion to buying a real pole has something to do with the fact that as a piece of gear, it's not very sexy. It's not like it's something that most people would ever brag about, is it? I think a lot of times people forget that when it comes to sound, booming is by far the most important element. To make the job any harder with odd, makeshift gear, especially since the task is often fobbed off on people who aren't very experienced at it, is folly, as far as I'm concerned. But hey, whatever floats yer boat. I think getting good sound can be easy, but it seems having the will to do it is hard for some people.

I went to Home Depot and bought a telescoping painters pole for about $15. Did it work? Yeah, better than nothing when the airline "misplaced" the cameraman's tripod case which contained my boom pole. Unfortunately the cam-op did not have this option. Lukily we only had to endure this hardship for one afternoon.
In a pinch, use whatever works.

Bryan, if your broom handle idea works I'd appreciate an update on how you did it.