Shooting an exercise video - dealing with sound and other issues?

[Les C.]

I'm going to shoot three 'tweens' separately on green screen and green floor mats, and composite them into a 3D set using Eyeon's Fusion.

The output will mostly be for the web, but also for DVD and possibly BluRay.

I've never shot green screen with fast movements before, and am unsure of how to deal with the audio?

I've got a large boom, but ... I don't think that's going to be ideal.

My options seem to be:

1. find some kind of headset (like Madonna would wear in concert), and record audio wirelessly.

2. Record a scratch track with the boom, and ADR using Premiere/AE CS6 to match the ADR to the scratch.

I'll probably use Primatte in either Fusion or AE to key the footage - and shoot at 6x compression for highest quality.

I'd appreciate any thoughts on what kind of trouble I might get into (and how to avoid it), and the 'best' way to proceed with audio, etc? I'm used to 30 second shots, and this will be much longer. I need to get all my ducks in a row for a dress rehearsal soon.

 

[Marc Wielage]

A Countryman E6 headset wireless microphone would be my choice.

Get an experienced VFX guy in there during the shoot to check blurring, shutter speed, green spill, and all the other issues that will affect the quality of the key. High on that list is to bring the people far forward to minimize the green spill on their edges.

Be warned that hard cycs often used for greenscreen present slap echo and other sound problems that are hard to remove in post.

 

[Les C.]

A Countryman E6 headset wireless microphone would be my choice.

Get an experienced VFX guy in there during the shoot to check blurring, shutter speed, green spill, and all the other issues that will affect the quality of the key. High on that list is to bring the people far forward to minimize the green spill on their edges.

Be warned that hard cycs often used for greenscreen present slap echo and other sound problems that are hard to remove in post.

Marc - I gave Countryman a call, and they suggested the ISOMAX http://www.countryman.com/store/product.asp?id=2&catid=10 .

I'm not sure how to compare it with the E6, never having used a wireless headset mic before.

Thanks for pointing me in Countryman's direction.

What about the wireless trans/receiver? Is there a brand that stand out as reliable, but doesn't cost 'an arm and a leg'?

Good point about the echos. I'm hoping that the 5/8" green foam flooring will dampen that a bit. I usually put down black fabric out of camera to lessen sound and green spill as much as possible. My green screen is primitive fabric, which does have the slight advantage of not passing echos - and seems to key well with Primatte on CS6 (although easier to setup with nodes in Fusion).

I guess I'll have to read the 24 vs 30 fps thread a few times to figure the 'best' frame rate to shoot at?

 

[Jacques Mersereau]

Honestly, I would avoid the countryman's. Yes, they sound okay, but on almost every shoot I used them, and no matter how much tape and glue,
because they hook over the ear, they move all over the place - that's if they stay on - and your situation is especially bad with them doing aerobics.

I would go with the DPA 4088 headsets (or the DPA headset with omni caps). These hook over BOTH ears and the mic is on an adjustable wand.
This system works MUCH better and they sound better too - and yes, at a cost.

WMMV.

 

[Marc Wielage]

Marc - I gave Countryman a call, and they suggested the ISOMAX...

That can work, too. Both are used widely on big Broadway and Vegas shows, even with acrobats and dancers that go all over the stage. One would hope if they work in that setting, they would work on damn near anything. The DPA mikes are also very, very good, but more costly.

What about the wireless trans/receiver? Is there a brand that stand out as reliable, but doesn't cost 'an arm and a leg'?

Good stuff costs. The advantage of going with, say, a Lectro SMV is that it's one of the smallest transmitters available (about 2.4" x 1.8", weighs about 4 ounces) and won't get in the way of the trainer. Don't forget, you can always rent a system or hire a qualified sound mixer, rather than buy a system outright.

 

[Richard Andrewski]

I shot a Yoga video once and I absolutely didn't want this "person talking while doing" effect. Voice can be too uneven and they may mess up leading to having to retake parts. Its also up for debate too whether the people involved like the effect of the teacher wearing a headphone mic or lavalier during the video.

What we did was pre-record in my studio the whole audio track for the video with narration by the teacher of what they were doing at any given moment. This was before the video was done at all. We spent a great deal of time to get each thing right. This was using a high quality recording mic (U87 with a pop filter) which is at home in a studio and lead to a great sounding voice track. Never could have gotten that sound with a headset mic. Then we edited the audio track so it was just right, did some last minute overdubs to replace some parts and in general made sure the time for each exercise was what they would allow if they were just teaching a class. After that I added the music background on another track. They then took the track home on a CD and followed it to be sure they liked the timing and everything.

When all that was done, it was time to actually record the video. What I did was use clappers and had 4 cameras there recording the action with a Newtek VT4 switcher to do live switching. 2 cameras roving and 2 on tripods. I had the audio track loaded in the VT4 and started by playing it back in the studio so the teacher and the other "followers" could hear it and follow it as their guide track, then started the video recording so the audio was locked in with the video recording. This was perfectly synced to the video recording since it was playing back from tracks in the VT4 while the VT4 was recording the video and audio for the "program".

When we were done that day, the project was 95% finished. Spending so much time on the sound track in pre-production is what really saved all the time. That coupled with doing real time editing with the switcher. I took the recorded output of the class into Premier and added some other things like intro, titles, text overs to name each exercise and final tweaking of sync of audio track and video. I even had a video sequence I put in during their meditation and narration at the end, so it wasn't just cameras looking over people lying on the floor and doing nothing while meditating. The resulting output was great and just what they wanted and none of the cheesy teacher's "out of breath" and trying to explain well while they were doing things in real time. I believe that leads to a lot of having to retake things over and over till they get it right. We did all the above in one take, no stopping and no redos.

Of course, even if you didn't do the live switching routine, you could play such a track back while teacher and followers are acting out their parts, record that as a scratch track with however many cameras you want to record the action then do a regular non-realtime edit afterwards with the outputs of all the cameras. Then replace the scratch track with the good track during editing. The sound you'll get using this method is 10 times better than any realtime recorded action and audio during a shoot. A good multi track DAW or recorder in a controlled environment, plus allowing the person to perfect their audible performance leads to a really great finished product.