Top 10 Essential Equipment for Indie Filmmakers: Part II – Audio

Welcome to the DOJO!!

I am a very bad man. I can’t believe it has been almost a year since I posted part one in this series of articles for indie and guerrilla filmmakers! Sheesh.

Before I get on to part two, I want to say a couple of things about this essential filmmaking equipment list (c’mon, you’ve waited 10 months, waiting a couple of more paragraphs isn’t going to kill you). This list is really for those of you who are just getting started or who are on a budget and looking for some advice on how to get the best quality for the best price. For those of you who have been doing this for years and years or who have a bigger budget, then stick to the reviews I post…this stuff might be a bit basic for you. These are the absolute essential pieces to get started with — well, at least from my experience and perspective.

In part one of my “Top 10 Essential Equipment for Indie Filmmakers” I talked about cool cameras to pick up at various budget levels. Even after a year those choices haven’t really changed. My high end pick for best camera is still the Canon XHA1. The camera gives an indie filmmaker everything he could possibly want in camera and spits out some amazing footage. The XHA1 is also the camera a majority of the big-budget action-thriller, Crank 2, was shot with. If it’s good enough for a multi-million dollar blockbuster, then you can bet it’s good enough for an indie!

My mid-range choice, the Canon HV20 has been replaced by the HV40. If you’re looking to go for this camera and want to save a little cash, there are a lot of great deals going on for the previous generation HV20 and HV30. The HV40 itself is a fantastic camera and well worth looking in to.

For the low end, really, whatever you can get your hands on that has a mic input is going to be fine. Try to avoid cameras with no mic input because that will limit you to whatever crappy built-in mic the camera has, which is never a good idea. Adding on a mic, even one with a 3.5mm mini jack plug, is going to increase the quality of your sound and give you a much more watchable film when you’re done.

Since we’re talking about sound and microphones already, that gives me a good transition to talk about what mics and sound equipment are essential for an indie or guerrilla filmmaker. Now, before anyone goes off on me, with sound equipment, the more money you have to spend, the better your equipment will be. If you can afford just under $600, then the Audio-Technica AT4073 kit should be one of your first considerations; if you’ve got over $1000 your choices open up considerably and you’ve got options like the Sennheiser MKH-416 or the Sennheiser ME67/K6 Deluxe Microphone kit. Also, at under $500, the Sennheiser ME66/K6 combo or any of the related kits is a fantastic choice. In other words, more money equals higher quality of sound. And remember as a rule, the longer the shotgun mic, the better.

That being said, there are still a lot of great microphones out there for those of us on a more modest budget. The key thing to remember is that as a guerrilla or indie filmmaker you need a good shotgun microphone to make sure your sound gets recorded well. There is absolutely nothing worse, and nothing that screams “no budget film,” than bad sound. Heck, even porn has good sound these days, so there’s no excuse any more!

#2: The Microphone (and accessories)

The bad news here is that a decent shotgun mic for your indie, guerrilla or low budget film is going to run you some decent money. If you’re going to try and put together professional sounding videos, then you really need a balanced XLR microphone instead of just a mic using the 3.5mm mini jack plug. Unfortunately, since most budget camcorders only have a 3.5mm mini jack plug, that means you’re going to need an XLR adapter like the Beachtek DXA-2S for smaller cameras like the Canon HV40 and that adds an additional $180 or so to your cost of doing business.

If you absolutely cannot afford an XLR mic and adapter for your camera, there is still some hope. Azden has a really solid 3.5mm jack shotgun mic called the Azden SMX-10, which runs for under $70 and will give you some very nice sound for the price.

Moving up from there, if your camera has XLR inputs or if you can afford an XLR adapter, the best choices in the $100-$200 range come from Azden. My personal choice for best budget shotgun mic is the Azden SGM-1x Shotgun mic. I’ve been using mine for about 2 years now on both my Canon HV20 and my XHA1 cameras, and I’ve had nothing but excellent results. I’ve shot shorts, internet videos, music videos and even a feature with it and have always come out happy. They run for under $170 these days and make a fantastic addition to the low budget filmmaker’s toolkit.

A lot of few indie and guerrilla filmmakers also really like the Rode VideoMic, which runs for a bit under $150. I’ve got one in my kit as a back up, but my personal preference is the Azden SGM-1x shotgun microphone because the VideoMic has the standard mini-jack plug instead of an XLR input.

From $200 and up your choices become a lot broader — the Audio Technica AT875 is a fantastic budget shotgun microphone at about $199; the Azden SGM-2x at $212 is another great contender for top rated budget shotgun mic. Also, and this is a great shotgun mic in the $250+ range, the Rode NTG-2 shotgun mic is top-notch.

Beyond the microphone itself, you’ll need to get a windsock for your mic to cut down on extraneous noise. These strange and furry accessories, also called deadcats, go over the foam windscreen that comes with most shotgun mics and are an absolutely necessary little add on, especially if your audio kit doesn’t include a blimp. The more you can get your microphone targeting your actors, the better time you’ll have during sound clean-up in post.

At some point a good, light-weight boom pole will become necessary, and you can never have enough XLR cable.

The main point behind this is to make sure you are getting the best sound possible for your budget. Nothing will spoil your next guerrilla filmmaking project more than crappy sound, especially when it is so easy to do it correctly. You can skimp on feeding your cast and crew, but you should never skimp on your sound!

Check back next week for Part 3 of the Film Sensei’s Top 10 Essential Equipment for Indie Filmmakers list!

-Mat Nastos, the Film Sensei
http://www.FilmSensei.com

Related posts:

1. Top 10 Essential Equipment for Indie Filmmakers: Part I – the Camera
2. Indie Equipment Review: Steadicam on a budget – the Atlas Camera Support System
3. Hardware Review: Azden SGM-1x Shotgun Microphone Review
4. Hardware Review: Aerial Footage for Low Budget Filmmakers with the Draganflyer SAVS
5. My Killer Canon HV20 Rig – now complete

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