Posted by Richard Crowley on 03/29/06 14:03

ben wrote ...
> I am planning an indoors project that I want to make
> look as professional as possible, but I have a very
> limited budget ($300 AUD in full). I need advice on
> suitable lighting and microphone options. A two-point
> lighting system would most likely be the best I could
> hope for, but there appears to be a large variety of
> different equipment to choose from and I don't know
> what I would need.

Splitting your 300 AUD budget between lighting and sound
is stretching it extremely thin. You could easily spend that
much on a single light/stand. You didn't mention WHEN you
need to have this ready (next weekend vs. next month?) Since
I am a tinkerer and hacker, my prefrence would be to get some
ideas from people who have assembled very low-cost lights
from things like work-lights from the industrial/home shop
vendors. There are several good ideas out there along those
lines.

Good for you to realize that lighting is extremely important
in making your video "look as professional as possible".
If you can hack together some things, and you have enough
lead-time, you could likely get yourself a couple of lights
and stands that perform adequately for a 1-2 person sit-
down interview scene. You didn't mention what other
kinds of things you want to shoot. There is no generic
solution that covers everything, so don't hesitate to ask
about specific situations.

> On the audio front, as there will be scenes where someone
> behind the camera is talking to the person in front, a uni-
> directional microphone is probably out of the question.

A $25 "lapel" mic clipped on the interviewee will sound
much better than a $1000 mic that is three feet away. (This
assumes you don't have an experienced microphone boom
operator and sound mixer on your crew. :-) Don't plan on
using the on-camera microphone for anything but background
sounds/noises.

Can you insert the camera operater/interviewer's questions
into the production during editing? It would be easier to
shoot, and much less expensive than having to deal with
mixing two microphones while you are shooting.

> A bi-directional or cardioid microphone may do the trick
> (I don't know enough about these to know for sure),

There is no viable (IMHO) way to use a single microphone
to adequately pick up an on-camera interviewee AND the
interviewer behind the camera. Not if you you video to also
"sound as professional as possible".

> but not having an XLR connection probably limits my
> options anyway.

Not really. It is easy enough to adapt professional XLR
microphones to the 3.5mm mini-jack on your camcorder.
I have frequently used a cheap ($5) "computer microphone"
a clip-on "lapel style" and just plugged it directly into the
mic jack on a camcorder. It works great, IME.

> If anyone could give me an idea of the kinds of things I
> need to ask for

You seem to be asking all the right questions already.
Keep up the good work.

> at my local lighting/audio store to get suitable equipment

I would stay away from "lighting/audio stores" if I wanted
to maximize my $300 budget. There are some very
ingenious "hacks" out there for getting good lighting and
sound for very low budgets.

I would first try a cheap "computer mic" with your
camcorder for things like the sit-down interview.
Not necessarily suitable for other kinds of shooting,
but we have no idea what you have in mind?

Also for lighting, at least for your interview scene,
a couple of "broad" sources will provide some
flattering and professional-looking illumination.
Some people do this with things like "work-lights"
and 1-meter pieces of reflection/diffusion material
like rigid foam, etc.

[Back to original message]