Shooting dialog with MOS camera

[Nojus Drasutis]

Hi,

I was curious - if it would be okay to shoot dialog scenes with Moviecam SL which is MOS camera?

Thanks

[Jon O'Brien]

I've been thinking about this too. I have noisy MOS cameras and soon I want to shoot a movie with dialogue. I can't afford a sync-sound system. My tentative plan at this stage is to record sound with all takes, using something like a Zoom digital recorder. Do something like a clapper thing if this helps at the start of all takes. Then have the actors come in for dubbing sessions. They listen very carefully to the on-location sound and timing of their lines, with all the coffee-grinder noise of the camera also on the track, while watching their lips on the computer screen. Then dub their lines again, in the studio. Or even outside if necessary, or in different locations to get the right ambience. Is there a book on this technique?

 

I think this is how the Spaghetti westerns might have been shot. I think some of them were filmed using noisy MOS cameras.

Edited October 14, 2017 by Jon O'Brien

[Samuel Berger]

 

I think this is how the Spaghetti westerns might have been shot. I think some of them were filmed using noisy MOS cameras.

 

All of them. 100% of them, no exceptions.

[Tyler Purcell]

Moviecam SL ain't that loud actually, no comparison to real MOS cameras like the 2C for instance.

 

My Aaton 35III is 30db @ 24fps and it's a bit on the loud side, yet ya don't hear it in the mic's.

 

Yea the Spaghetti westerns were pretty much all looped, but I don't think that's ONLY due to the camera loudness, I also think it's due to the environments they shot in. Lots of exteriors and locations, which you have no control over is very difficult to get sound.

[Samuel Berger]

Yea the Spaghetti westerns were pretty much all looped, but I don't think that's ONLY due to the camera loudness, I also think it's due to the environments they shot in. Lots of exteriors and locations, which you have no control over is very difficult to get sound.

 

It was also the cast. They used a multinational cast that didn't all speak the same language. Plus, if you ever look at an Italian film set, it's like a cartoon. The director does use a megaphone and he does bark orders all the time.

[Nojus Drasutis]

Thanks guys!

[Dom Jaeger]

The Moviecam SL is not a MOS camera, it's about 26db, a little louder than the barely audible Compact but nothing like actual MOS cameras like a 2C or 435.

[Aapo Lettinen]

Both the moviecam sl and aaton 353 were used on sync sound scenes in the 90s and 2000s. The film 21grams used the SL a lot for example.