16mm sound prints or stock?

[Guest Jayne]

Hi, question of an amateur.

I am preparing a long feature that I plan to shoot on 16mm and am wondering what is the most effective way to obtain a clean, crisp sound on film. Should I be thinking sound stock (with Arri BL cam and crystal synch) or recording sound separately and getting a sound print made in post-prod? I am leaning towards a separate recording and am also wondering what to invest in to do so. I am sceptical about MiniDisc and MiniDV because of the poor quality optical input.

Let me know what you think.

[Tom Ballard]

Hi, question of an amateur.

I am preparing a long feature that I plan to shoot on 16mm and am wondering what is the most effective way to obtain a clean, crisp sound on film. Should I be thinking sound stock (with Arri BL cam and crystal synch) or recording sound separately and getting a sound print made in post-prod? I am leaning towards a separate recording and am also wondering what to invest in to do so. I am sceptical about MiniDisc and MiniDV because of the poor quality optical input.

Let me know what you think.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

16mm sound stock was discontinued years ago.

 

Crystal sync is recommended regardless of how you're recording audio, unless your cam runs at a constant speed very, very close to 24fps, in which case you can increase/decrease audio speed in post. Don't stray too far from 24fps or you'll find adjusting the audio speed will effect the pitch.

 

Good luck.

 

Tom

[Freya Black]

Hi, question of an amateur.

I am preparing a long feature that I plan to shoot on 16mm and am wondering what is the most effective way to obtain a clean, crisp sound on film. Should I be thinking sound stock (with Arri BL cam and crystal synch) or recording sound separately and getting a sound print made in post-prod? I am leaning towards a separate recording and am also wondering what to invest in to do so. I am sceptical about MiniDisc and MiniDV because of the poor quality optical input.

Let me know what you think.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

I'm assuming you mean the digital optical output some minidisc players have.

The problem with minidisc is not the optical output but the fact it is a heavily compressed system of recording in the same way that .mp3 is, however, you can get good results. Also the mic inputs can often be of lower quality, and not many computers have the optical inputs required to get the audio off the minidisc recorders. Some recorders don't allow control of the gain either which is scary.

 

MiniDV might not be such a bad idea if you can find a camera with XLR sockets and connect a decent microphone and boom to it. The audio/video can easily be transfered off the camera using firewire and you might find it useful to have a mini-dv camera to edit your film on the computer with.

 

There are also digital recorders that just record the sound onto flash memory or harddisks and they are also worth looking at.

 

As with everything, theres lots of different levels at which you can work with sound, and you will undoutedly have to compromise somewhere unless you have oodles of money.

 

Things to look at:

 

Headphones!

 

A good microphone. Perhaps a sennheiser shotgun microphone.

 

A recorder with XLR sockets.

 

A mixer with phantom power and XLR.

 

You may also need to make or buy a boom and possibly a zepplin basket and fluffy cat softie thing.

 

A simple set up might be a Sennheiser microphone that can operate from internal batteries, a recorder with XLR sockets and some way of setting the gain, a boom/fluffy/zepplin, and some reasonable headphones.

 

Theres a lot of options and it depends on budget and what kind of production you have in mind.

 

love

 

Freya