Low budget feature

[REDefine]

I am planning to do low budget psychological thriller.

General scences breakdown is as follows:
60% House Interior
30% Car Interior
10% Exterior

It is based around 3 characters. There are no crowd scenes.

I want to finalize my sound kit. Can someone please advise if I am on right track. I might be completely wrong here as I donot have pro experience.

• Is Rode NTG-2 mic good enough to cover interior/exterior scence. or do I need more mics.

• I want to buy sound device 302 and use only two of RED's audio channels.

• Dead Cat windshield for NTG-2 (for exterior shots only)

• Boompole

Thanks.

[Shawn Nelson]

If you are going to be shooting on Red, please buy a Schoeps CMC641 or a Sennheiser MKH50.

Sound Devices 302 is quite nice, I use it.

The Gitzo 12' Carbon Fiber boom pole is the best bang for buck

Get KTek for the suspension/windjammer

[Henk van den Doel]

We have a NTG1, which is I think is a pretty alright mic. But don't use the deadcat, it sucks beyond the moon and back. It not only ruins the quality of the sound in many cases, it also hardly helps against wind. KTek or Rycote would be a better option for windjamming.

We also have a RODE boompole, which works fine for us. They might be cheap, but the distributor told us he had sold quite a bunch of these to the BBC as well.

[Noel Evans]

I am planning to do low budget psychological thriller.

General scences breakdown is as follows:
60% House Interior
30% Car Interior
10% Exterior

It is based around 3 characters. There are no crowd scenes.

I want to finalize my sound kit. Can someone please advise if I am on right track. I might be completely wrong here as I donot have pro experience.

• Is Rode NTG-2 mic good enough to cover interior/exterior scence. or do I need more mics.

• I want to buy sound device 302 and use only two of RED's audio channels.

• Dead Cat windshield for NTG-2 (for exterior shots only)

• Boompole

Thanks.

I dont mean to sound harsh here, honestly, but I am suprised to see what your audio set up is vs shooting on red.

Can you hire a dedicated sound guy that can bring equipment into the deal?

If not and youre tight on budget; and you must shoot interiors and exteriors on the one mic - Id go for a sanken cs3. Im shooting a docu at the moment and shooting everything on this mic in addition to lavs , and its fantastic.

So,

Sanken cs3
SD302
Rycote Softie - which I use in all shots int and ext where there is little more than a mild breeze.
zeppelin - for use in actual wind.
Wired boom

If budget permits - Id get another mic for int.

[Paul Leeming]

Nothing wrong with the Rode NTG-2 or Sounddevices 302, but maybe as Noel says you're better off getting one of the Sounddevices recorders and getting a dedicated sound person to make it better.

I've recorded sound on many films and the NTG-2 is perfectly good for both interiors and exteriors, but as with most things sound related everyone has their favourite and studiously ignores everything else (that includes me!) :)

HTH anyway!

Paul

[Noel Evans]

Paul I wouldnt debate the Rode is value for money and is quality above what your paying for. But when compared to the sanken its pretty much night and day. Kaku has the NTG as an all purpose cam mounted mic on the HPX, hopefully we can all catch up soon anyway and show you first hand.

[Steve Sherrick]

Rent mics if need be. A hyper will always sound better on interior dialogue. You could go for budget mics such as the Oktava MK012 which is a pretty good hyper for short money. Maybe a 4073A for exteriors. Need great wind protection for exteriors. I like the Schoeps, Sennheisers are pretty quiet and good mics too, however I don't like the ME66 very much. Go with their MKH series.