Shotgun 101
Location Sound Corp. has a “Tech Tip” section that covers a wide variety of audio issues. One of the posts is “Shotgun 101,” which covers types of microphones, microphone placement and other considerations.
LSC says shotgun mikes are always preferable to lavaliers (even though most documentary filmmakers seem to use lavs on the notion they’re better.
…the use of lavaliers and radio mics produces dialogue that is often sterile in texture – lacking natural sound effects and ambiance. Perspective is always forced and “close-up” – regardless of camera angle. Audio is often subject to abrupt changes in presence, such as those caused by talent turning their head off-axis to the lav, or leaning over a hard surface (such as a desk or podium). Last, though surely not least, lavaliers are prone to distracting clothing noise and other interference.
I’ve come to the practice of using a boomed overhead and a lav taped insode the subject’s clothing, and I mix them in post at a factor of about 80/20. The lav produces a richer bass in the voice, and more presence. Plus, if there’s a problem with one (which is almost always echo with a shotgun and clothing rub with a lav), you can always default to the best sound you have.
And, for placement, remember,
Similar to telephoto lenses, shotgun microphones tend to compress the distance between foreground and background. Avoid pointing the mic as if it were a rifle, unless you are totally unconcerned about bringing up the background. Be careful of what is in the “line of sight” behind the talent.
The best way to eliminate this “telephoto” effect is to aim the mic down from above, so that the only “background” in the microphone line of sight is the silent ground.
What’s in your China ball?
The China ball can make a useful key light to get a certain effect for documentaries; they’re cheap, pack flat and create a very soft lighting when hung from the arm of a lighting stand very close to the subject. Using these new-generation compact fluorescent lighting “bulbs” are both less energy-consuming, are light balanced to move toward a tungsten color temp (2700-3500 in the CFL to 3200 in tungsten), but also more robust than carrying around standard incandescent glass bulbs.
There’s a thread on DVXUser that discusses using low-energy consumption bulbs that are often daylight-balanced and low heat output.
A $10 China ball with an N:Vision 6500k daylight CFL, which costs $5-10 for a two-pack, can work nicely.
For these bulbs, they are best when they have a CRI (Color Rendering Index) of 90 or more – some fluorescent lighting is down around 25.
Joren Clark has a nice post on doing decent ligthing cheaply. He says that “Consumer paper lanterns are sold for about ten dollars (30” diameter) or professional video lighting Chinese lanterns for about $40). The main difference is the pro one won’t catch fire as fast. Yes, now is a good time to suggest buying a 15-dollar dry powder fire extinguisher for your video kit. Even the pros need an extinguisher from time-to-time. Back to Chinese lanterns, don’t exceed the wattage recommendation and turn them off between takes. They are super easy to hang off a C-stand. Or, just make a crewmember hold it (very still), micro budget style!”
With CFLs, the fire danger all but goes away. Barn Door Lighting Outfitters is one place to get thse lights. They sell a Lowell and Westcott CFL bulbs that run 50w to 65w and cost about $40.
For the less-expensive brands, here’s a color-temp chart of most-common bulbs that came from Popular Mechanics:
Sylvania Soft White
- no instant on
- color temperature is about 3000k
- I found the color to be a bit industrial looking
- grade: B
GE General Purpose Soft White
- no instant on
- color temperature is about 2700k
- color was a bit yellowish but acceptable
- grade: B+
Philips Duramax
- instant on
- color temperature is about 2700k
- color was a bit yellowish but acceptable
- grade: A-
Commercial Electric
- instant on
- color temperature is about 2700k
- color too yellowish
- grade: B
n:vision Soft White
- instant on
- color temperature is a bit cooler than 2700k
- color was just right (a bit whiter than incandescent). Nice for general purpose, hallways, sconces etc.
- grade: A
n:vision Bright White
- instant on
- color temperature cooler, 3500k
- color is bright white
. Nice for a bathroom or office.
- grade: A
n:vision Daylight
- instant on
- color temperature cooler, 5500k
- color is bluish white. Not sure where I’d use a light like this. Looked very weird to me. Maybe in a garage?
grade: n/a
Do ecology/environmental films constitute their very own genre?
Pable Da Vita at MiradaGlobal writes that there is a preponderance of ecology-minded films makes a case that these have moved from being a topic area to a genre unto itself. In his essay he encompasses both dramatic and documentary films, but makes a distinction between what might be “the world as it is,” to paraphrase Wittgenstein, and “the world man has made.” The Former might include “March of the Penguins,” the latter “An Inconvenient Truth.”
He writes at length and thoughtfully on how such films are categorized and understood…
Without trying to give an encyclopedic approach, the perspective of ecology that films have given and continue to give seem to travel through opposing rails. On one side we have those films that based on “global warming” build odes to disaster films, such as Roland Emmerich’s The Day After Tomorrow (2004), with his apocalyptic climate change (it is always worse in U.S. territory), which is also present in his 2012, where with the excuse of the Maya calendar we see the end of the world through all the imaginable cataclysms. Other films like Vulcano, Waterworld, Twister or A Perfect Storm show man facing nature out of control. In this case, it would seem that the always frightening otherness (the other) in the movies doesn’t come from outer space, but from the deep crack in the earth. Or could it be from within ourselves?
And now comes Lindsay Lohan, documentarian
Is there anything to say? Is there really anything to say? From IndiaServer.com:
Lindsay Lohan, who is keen to put her bad girl reputation behind her, is flying to India next month to shoot a documentary highlighting the trafficking of children in Bihar. The ‘Mean Girls’ star, who has hit headlines for her stints in rehab and drink-driving arrests, has teamed up with the BBC Network for the charity work, reported contactmusic.com. “I’m going to India soon, actually, before Thanksgiving. And I’m doing a documentary for the BBC Network. It all happened actually when I was in Dubai. I like to support charities. I think it’s important to kind of have a voice when you can have one and make a difference,” said Lohan. “It’s basically on the trafficking of children in Bihar. So it’ll be starting soon. We’re just trying to work out the times and the dates. I’m a little nervous, but I’m excited to do something like that,” she added.
New documentary goggles hit the market at $350 a pop
We love this piece from the Los Angeles Times, in which a line of glasses made as replicas to those of famed doc maker Albert Maysles are now available.
Maysles, who with his late brother David made such watershed documentaries as “Grey Gardens” and “Gimme Shelter,” has for years worn dark-framed glasses most associated with Elvis Costello, Woody Allen and aught hipsters everywhere.
In a blog at the LAT site, Max Padilla writes that,
Maysles, egged on by Judy Collinson, Barneys’ general merchandise manager, mailed in his own eyeglass frames that he’s worn since the 1960s to Patty Perreira, Barton Perreira’s designer. She reproduced the spectacles in new lighter materials and colors, including black, cloud and white. The limited-quantity Albert Maysles frame sells for $350 and a percent of sales benefits the Maysles Institute, which operates a documentary film theater in Manhattan and a summer youth film program.
You may not make great documentaries with these, but you’ll look suspiciously like someone who makes great documentaries.
10 Cool things from HD Expo
DMN Newswire’s piece speaks of the $7,000 Canon EOS 1D MK IV, the Red Rocket Bundle (sounds like something Wile E. Coyote would purchase from the ACME Co.), a Sony 4K projector, and more.
The post is here.
A “high poverty school” seeks filmmaking equipment from donors
DonorsChoose.org is a site to match schools with needs to donors who will support them. Here’s a request from a “high poverty” high school in California – a package that comes in just under $45,000. To quote:
“Our students need two Sony HVR Z7U camcorders with 4 microphones, 2 headphones, 8 16GB flash cards, 4 hard disk recording units, a wide angle lens, 3 GPS units, and the Final Cut Studio 2 Upgrade with a Bella Pro Series 3 Keyboard for video post-production. The cost of this proposal is $44,602, which includes shipping for any materials requested and fulfillment.”
To quote Major T.J. “King” Kong from Dr. Strangelove, “Shoot, a fella’ could have a pretty good weekend in Vegas with all that stuff.”
Using the BeachTek DXA-5D with the Canon 5D MkII
Trying out the JVC HM100 at Tracker Productions
Digital Video Magazine has a piece about the Canadian Tracker Productions use of the HM100 from JVC, a near-handheld camcorder that shoots 1080p. The HM100 has small chips – 1/4 inch CCDs – but seems to be getting good response otherwise.
Tracker’s Les McDonald says the camera is durable:
“I can certainly attest to the strength and durability of this camera,” McDonald adds. “One week after I got it, I put it in the back of my car, but the hatch door didn’t secure properly. When I drove off, the camera bag fell out onto the ground and the tent trailer I was pulling drove right over it. There were tire marks on the bag, the lens hood was twisted off and there were some dents, but it still worked perfectly. I had three days of filming left in Jasper National Park and having a functioning camera was essential.”
Video shot by Tracker on the HM100 is here.
‘For $1,000 I’ll give you a zombie hand’: How do docmakers create buy-in?
Rebecca Collins at MNFilmTV, reporting on an entertainment-distribution panel at The William Mitchell College of Law, writes about the innovative ways filmmakers are funding and distributing their work, and writes that it’s still “discovery mode” as new models for all this.
She writes about a horror-film maker who prices out cameo appearances such as “for $1,000 you can be a bloody, rotten zombie.” The film, Urban Scumbags vs. Countryside Zombies, is trying to raise money on Facebook.
For documentary filmmakers, the question of how to create buy-in is different.
The most common way is basic sponsorship. Collins writes that “it could be that an environmental organization wants to see your documentary about three-headed frogs get made so that it can further its own cause of clean water, air, soil, etc.”
Of course then it becomes suspect journalistically unless it’s a full-on advocacy piece. For example, getting Warren Buffett interested in investing may not be a bad thing.
One way, we suppose, would be to get interview subjects with strong interest in the topic to buy in as investors on the film. The ethics of that could be shaky, but docs provide a showcase for certain types of experts; could there be a model one could live with. You’d not be letting people buy their way into your doc (would you?), but offering participants some opportunity to make the project succeed.
Another might be buy-in to the reenactments that have become more prevalant in documentaries. Most re-enactments involve amateur actors in non-speaking roles. “For $1,000, you get to be a Confederate soldier.”
How about product placement? How about pre-selling screenings, with a group with strong interest in the film pays up front for a screening coming after the fact?
It goes toward perceived value. If the subject matters enough, there may be unusual ways of getting that subject properly addressed.