Another Goose Hunting Mic Question
 

I posted a question earlier about mic's and received valuable information. Thank You!

I have one more question. We typically hunt geese with four layout blinds spanning 10 yards or so. The camera guy is behind the shooters 20-30 yards. What would be a suitable mic setup?

I was thinking:
Wireless on two hunters to collect conversation, and a hard line out to the hunters and in the middle of all the blinds with a omni directional mic plus my shotgun mic on the camera.

Or two omni directional mics between the hunters and no wireless mics plus my shotgun mic on the camera.

Which one do you think would work best? I am open to other suggestions also.

Thanks Again!

Chris Holste

I"d skip the hard line if you could. Just stick to wireless w \ multiple transmitters and 1 recevier per.
If you were going to 'install' a hard mic I would still make it 'wireless' with a shorty cable to the transmitter to alleviate any possible danger\entanglements with cable.
At least that's what I do occasionally.

Chris,

Are you using a camera like an xl2 that allows you four audio channels??

Are you recording to a marantz recorder or similar recorder for two xlr mics and then two to thte camera?

If using an xl2 with multi track recording you will need software for the multi track audio. scenealyzer is dirt cheap and does the job fine.


Were I doing it I would use the dual wireless system and a decent shotgun on the camera, that would require three tracks.

The AT 897 is 279 dollars and is the standard by which many compare others too. always depends on ones disposable income.

Think about exactly what it is you need to record. The wireless on the hunters I can see, but what would be the purpose of the omni between them? About the only thing you'd get with it would be gunfire. Or what would those two omnis be recording? Not conversation - they'd need to be within a foot or so of the voices for that. Again, some atmosphere and some gunfire would be the only things they'd be picking up. So start thinking of each element you want to appear in the final soundtrack and where each will come from. Once you have defined exactly what you need to record, HOW and WHEN to record it becomes a lot easier to manage.

I shot a lot of snow goose video this past year and did not get the "talking" between hunters that I desired.

Ideally I would like to be able to capture talking between the two main "star" hunters, but also the calling that goes on when geese are coming in plus the gunshots. On top of this I would like to be able to do interviews with a single hunter and be farther away from them than what I need to do now while only using the camera mic.

The camera I am using is a GL2.

My other thought is to buy a nice wireless mic and lapel clip to use for interviews, and then use the same wireless setup for in the blinds and place a condenser mic into the transmitter between the two main hunters which are only sitting 10 feet apart from each other. This way each hunter is at most 5 feet away from the mic, I could here them talking, calling, and shooting.

Thoughts?


Thanks,
Chris

As you discovered, an on-camera mic is generally useless for anything except general ambience and even that's often compromised by handling noises.

The lavs aren't a bad idea. There's an old adage that says "When you're able use a cable" and you might be able to save money by using hard-wired lavs on the hunters since they're not going to be running around a lot. If you do go wireless, remember that you need a transmitter/receiver pair for each microphone you're going to have in use at once. Two hunters, two trans/rcvr pairs. The mic between the blinds won't be much use for conversation but should be fine for the general ambience, maybe the calling, and the gunfire. For the interviews put a lav on the hunter and have the interviewer use a hand-held stick mic, or if your staging will have both the interviewer and the hunter side by side in the shot, let the interviewer swing the stick mic between them as they talk.

Chris, will you have a dog or a hunter retrieving the geese. If you have a dog I would say use 2 shotgun mics with good wind protection. If you will have a hunter retieving, I would put a Lav on a designated person who will be retrieving the geese so you can keep up with there audio. I have videoed several goose and duck hunts over the years and learned the hard way that a wireless mic and allot of arm movement throwing guns up in the air is a big pain with clothing noise. The past several years we have gone to using 1 shotgun mic set around the feet area splitting 2 hunters in manual mode set to the hunters voice(not gun shots and calling) is the way to go. When the hunt is over get V/O of the hunters calling and get V/O of the guns going off in manual not auto audio settings. When you edit the footage you will have live blown out calling and gun shots but you will have great hunter audio and pull out the blown calling and gunshots and lay in the V/O auido. Trust me it works great and will let you concentrate on the video because you know your audio is going to be great. We do it all the time and it works.

John,

I am curious, do you set the shotgun mic up on a low ground stand pointing twoward the hunters and then run a line to the camera or mixer (as in the case of a gl2 it would be esential, an xl straight to the jack pack). I use a wireless mic on the hunter and a shotgun mic on the camera. I have thought about setting up two shotguns infront of the hunters and run two wireless, but then I would have to buy another mic, but I have not got around to it yet.