Alex Sutherland
Well-known member
I'm coming into the film industry from the perspective of a multimedia journalist, so bare with me if these questions sound elementary.
First of all, I'm assuming the film industry has an equivalent of B&H Photo, which is pretty much the industry standard one-stop-shopping locale for photojournalists and multimedia producers. They don't have any of the higher end cinema equipment (like gear heads), so what's a good resource for finding cinema gear?
That was sort of unrelated to my audio questions, which are as follows:
What's a standard recording unit that a production sound engineer or boom operator would carry? Tascam and Nagra are the two that I found in my research, but I failed to see why they're a significantly better choice than a Marantz 671, which is what most of my friends at NPR carry. Is it a matter of syncing with the camera? The Nagra has a sync input I think, but the Tascam and Marantz do not. How important is that? Seems like you could line up audio cues without it.
Some of the Nagras look like they still record on tape. What the heck? Why wouldn't anyone this day and age use something that records digitally onto flash media? Is there something I'm missing? I expect to hear something similar to what I hear when I ask old-timers why they still play LPs instead of buying a CD or MP3 player -- in other words, nothing real convincing.
Finally, the last question I can think of presently is to beg someone on here to explain why recording off camera is superior to coupling the audio with the video. For instance, one could use a wireless transmitter to send audio from a sound mixer (like the Marantz) carried by the boom operator, then have it record the audio straight onto the video file. This would save you the post-sync trouble, so what is the benefit of doing it off camera that is so compelling that it warrants the extra time in post?
Thanks
First of all, I'm assuming the film industry has an equivalent of B&H Photo, which is pretty much the industry standard one-stop-shopping locale for photojournalists and multimedia producers. They don't have any of the higher end cinema equipment (like gear heads), so what's a good resource for finding cinema gear?
That was sort of unrelated to my audio questions, which are as follows:
What's a standard recording unit that a production sound engineer or boom operator would carry? Tascam and Nagra are the two that I found in my research, but I failed to see why they're a significantly better choice than a Marantz 671, which is what most of my friends at NPR carry. Is it a matter of syncing with the camera? The Nagra has a sync input I think, but the Tascam and Marantz do not. How important is that? Seems like you could line up audio cues without it.
Some of the Nagras look like they still record on tape. What the heck? Why wouldn't anyone this day and age use something that records digitally onto flash media? Is there something I'm missing? I expect to hear something similar to what I hear when I ask old-timers why they still play LPs instead of buying a CD or MP3 player -- in other words, nothing real convincing.
Finally, the last question I can think of presently is to beg someone on here to explain why recording off camera is superior to coupling the audio with the video. For instance, one could use a wireless transmitter to send audio from a sound mixer (like the Marantz) carried by the boom operator, then have it record the audio straight onto the video file. This would save you the post-sync trouble, so what is the benefit of doing it off camera that is so compelling that it warrants the extra time in post?
Thanks
