Question by Tony: What is the best way for an independent filmmaker to record sound for a short film with a very small budget?
I am planning on shooting my first short film. I am not a film student, have ZERO experience in filmmaking and know NOTHING about film and sound equipment. I am planning on shooting this film with a DV or HDV camcorder (although I have yet to purchase it). I already know that, no matter what camcorder I purchase, the built-in microphone on the camcorder is not going to cut it as far as recording the dialogue in the film. I am hoping that someone could give me a comprehensive explanation, in layman’s terms, about what the options are for recording the sound in the film.
I’d also very much appreciate any recommendations for the specific products (as well as their prices) that I should purchase for this film that is within the constraints of my budget. As far as my budget is concerned, I’m only willing to spend about $ 1,000 for my camcorder and I don’t want to spend more than $ 1,000 on the rest of the other costs. I won’t need any lighting equipment for this film, I will be using my friends video editing software (Adobe Premier, I believe) to edit the film and my actors don’t need to be paid. That means I am only willing to spend about $ 1,000 on whatever it is that I need to record the sound. Of course, I’d like to spend only about $ 200-300 on this equipment if possible.
Best answer:
Answer by suzie
In the film industry audio and video are on two separate tracks for quality purposes and they’re then mixed together in editing.
They hold up booms (those big microphones with the fluffy stuff on the end) to pick up speech straight from the actors.
Pretty much all sound effects (door closing, gunshots, even footsteps in some cases) are put in afterwards =)
What do you think? Answer below!