Micing an interview

[litehouse]

Can anyone recommend a good solution for micing a camcorder to record sound in front and behind the camera. Obviously a shotgun mic works great for the subject in front of the camera, but if the person doing the recording is also asking the questions, the shotgun mic attenuates and destorts the volume.

My current solution is to use 2 mics, a shotgun and a wireless lavalier for the interviewer behind the camera. The only problem with it is that it requres more components to merge the 2 signals, and it’s cumbersome to set up and adjust properly.

Does anyone have any alternative approaches that they recommend?

[Luis Maymi Lopez]

Both the interviewer and the interviewee can use a handheld mic (1 mic for each of course). If you don’t like to have the interviewee holding a handheld microphone then you can use the lavalier. Since the camera operator will not be on the scene I don’t see any problem about using a handheld mic, you will get clear audio and it will be easier to set up. If your going to use a shotgun I suggest using a boompole and put it near the talent. That way the shotgun will only pick the talent voice and the handheld will only pick the camera operator voice. Depending on what camcorder you have you could record on two channels having the interviewer and the interviewee on separated channels, then combine them in your editing program. What I suggest will work great outdoors, but if you are indoors try using only one omnidirectional mic and have both the interviewer and the interviewee to be as near as possible to the mic. Tell them to speak as loud and clear as possible to get better results. Also be aware of outside noise using this method.

[XTR-91]

You don’t need that many mics, as you’ve stated in your post.

I’d do what sargehero said and use a dynamic mic for the interviewer and boom mic for the interviewee, if the interviewer’s supposed to be louder. Or, mic the interviewer with lav, and the interviewee with boom mic.

If there’s outside noise, use lav on both.

[Author]

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