Re: Sound For Filming outdoors
Basics:
I don't know what your budget is, but for best results outdoors, use a long-shotgun condenser microphone w/ a cardiod polar pattern & definitely get ahold of a zeppelin windscreen. As much as possible, use the shotgun -- as long as it's got a cardiod polar pattern, it'll have a fairly wide range of rejection, but still enough acceptance to allow your actors to move about, unlike the lavs you plan on using. If your actors require a lot of head movement in their performance, the intelligibility of your production dialogue will suffer. Also, they tend to pick up a lot of noise from clothing (although this can be alleviated with some creative cradling of the mic in various makeshift cushions), but, if you absolutely feel the need, they're still usable, & can be useful as backup. When using the boom, just remember to try & get as close as possible, within 15" ideally, and you shouldn't have too much of a problem with external noise outside of the usual planes, traffic, etc. In a forest, leaves might be an issue, so if there isn't a lot of wide shots, you may want to lay down a sound blanket or at least brush away a path for the actors to walk. Other than that, just make sure your production recordist is good and your boom operator knows how the scene will be blocked in advance (so he'll know instantly where to get the best mic placement) & you should be fine.
