On-location shooting for documentaries
 

Hi all,
I will be shooting a low budget documentary for a local museum in South Texas and will be dealing with some heavy winds in the coastal/beach areas. I'd like to sit some of my talking heads on a few sand dunes and hopefully get some good speaking audio (no wind).

Also, I'd like to use this mic for indoor shooting, as well.

Can someone recommend me a good mic that I can use for my DVX100 that is in the $500 range?

Would the Sennheisser Me66 be a good all-purpose mic? Is this a good starting point???

Nick,

The ME 66 w K6 power module and a quality windscreen may well put you over the $500 and is probably not the best mic for your app. You may be better off with a good lav/windscreen hardwired. Hanging a shotgun out in a lot of wind usually will get you quite a bit of wind noise regardless of the wind screen used.

Hi Rob,
Wow, just checked to see if I had any replies and then got an email notice that you replied. Thanks!

Since I will probably be on boats, beaches, and other coastal things, I was thinking that a good mic with a windscreen may not be enough.

Question, are lavs strictly for interviews/talking heads? Or, do people sometimes use them also for ambient sound? I ask because I still dont' have a quality mic (unless u count the one on the DVX) to pick up ambient sound such as the roar of an engine from a boat or offroad vehicle.

So, what would you do with a $500 budget strictly for audio?

Thanks.

I use an AT835B shotgun in a Light Wave Systems Mini Screen. The only time that doesn't work in the high winds here is when the wind is strong enough that the wind whistles around the microphone cable up on the boom pole.

To solve this problem I went two ways. I got the SuperMount and SuperScreen from Light wave.

You use the SuperMount inside the SuperScreen and the Screen kills all the wind sound.

But a hand-held SuperMount with the Mini Screen works just as well. Much easier to point and handle. The boom handling noises don't show up either. I frequently use students in an Acting for Video class as the sound operators so it may be their first time at the task.

AT835B is about $235. MiniScreen is $155. SuperMount is $170.

You could just handhold the microphone directly as long as the person holding the microphone doesn't slide their hands around on the microphone barrel. Or have them hold the microphone sandwitched in a wrap of foam. Or a dishwashing sponge. They can wrap the cable around their arms to stop cable-generated noise.