Booming a tracking shot

[Aaron Mouser]

Hi there please forgive if this is a well worn topic. My question is that of booming a tracking shot. Not so much keeping the boom out of a shot but ideas on the most effective way to record live footsteps, breathing etc within a 2 to 3 minute tracking shot.

What is standard? Foley all the footsteps? Add everything in later? Or is there something I'm missing?

Thanks in advance!

 

[ericyoung]

You could potentially just mount more than one or more mics on the dolly itself, if camera department are cooperative. One for the footsteps low down, and one for the breathing up high.

You'd want the low one away from the grip's feet though.

 

[Glen Powell]

So before you all laugh... This worked pretty awesomely on a no-audio-post-budget short that I helped a friend with a few years ago:

The sound guy, taped lav mic to one of the actors ankles; it was one that was less directional (?) I'm not a sound specialist - so you'd have to consult one for more info. Or if you have lavs in your kit just tape one on right now and do some tests; testing is good. You learn from even the most miserable failures - or at least I do.

 

[Mike P.]

Footsteps & breathing are so easy to do in sound design that you should just do whatever is easiest/fastest/cheapest on the day. If you have no post-audio budget, obviously you'll have to use mics (the ankle, like Glen suggests, is a great idea presuming the talent isn't wearing shorts as that'd make it difficult to mount/hide the lav wire and use a boom to catch the breathing noises), as that would negate a lot of sound design... Is there any dialogue? If not, it's as straight-forward/easy as you think it is, and whether doing it on the day with mics or in post is at your discretion/budget. You probably don't even need to create your own foley or get it wild either (unless they're running on something really unique/extraordinary); there are plenty of stock footstep and breathing audio beds out there that I'm sure your sound designer has a bunch in their library.

If that doesn't put your mind at ease, wait for Marc Wielage to chime in; he'll know the "proper" way *and* the "git'er'done" way.

 

[Aaron Mouser]

Thanks for all the help. Very small post budget but we'll have to do what we have to do to get it done.

 

[Marc Wielage]

You can also do one take just for sound alone and capture just the feet and breathing, putting the boom in the shot to get optimum sound.

You could also boom from below if that happens to work. And you could also lose the boom entirely and record all the dialogue with wireless lavs.

And there's also the option of removing the boom in VFX later on. This is cheaper than you might think; as has been said before, often the cost of digitally painting out the boom is less than doing ADR on the scene.

If there's no dialogue, then I would say doing foley later on in post will be quieter and more controllable. Bear in mind that you inevitably start hearing the sound of the crewmembers walking (or running) along the path, which is the last thing you want if there's just one or two people visible on camera.