Best audio from a sit down interview: 2 shotgun mics on big stands above the shot and mix it live before it goes into the camera. No post production needed.
Very good option of course, but can tend to be expensive!
I find lavs (tie clips) quite good for interviews. As I mentioned in my last post, I use some home made splitter boxes, to give me 2 independent channels into a simple 2 channel audio recorder. 2 recorders? ... 4 independent audio channels! Use a clapper to sync, and the camera audio as a reference track.
I've recently been asked to do some audio recordings of older folk, discussing memories of earlier times, for a local history group. It was recommended that we use lavs, so that the participants don't 'play to the gallery' -- or worse, freeze up, which some older folk tend to do if presented with formal mics. Tie clips, they soon forget about!
Using the kit in the attached image, I have 4 independent audio channels.
Does mean mixing in post of course, but it does also mean no mixer (or power for mixer!) and it's much cheaper!
As I say, this is for audio recordings, rather than video, so the main equipment cost is the recorders, instead of a video camera.
Apart from that, the whole of the rest is less than £50. Mics are made using clips and holders etc from the really cheap Neewer mics we have been discussing. Capsules are Panasonic WM61A --which I find very good indeed. Cables, little boxes and jack sockets?--- a few quid from Maplin!
As an aside, I was watching an old repeat of 'Mock the Week' on Dave the other day, when I realised that (in the bit where the team members stand up and, tell short jokes about a specific subject) the hand held mic is just a dummy prop. The audio is still from their radio tie clips, which they wear for the rest of the broadcast.
I realised that this was happening, when they unclip the mic from the stand....no handling noise! OK, it could be that the mic is muted, until after they pick it up, but I don't think so....
I think something over 90% of studio broadcasting now uses lavs for their audio. It's only in very noisy situatons like, say, Formula 1, where they still use very close hand-held mics with pop filters, -- or the live broadcasts from the Olympic Stadium studio, where they used headset mics. (i.e.
really close lavs!).
If you're filming drama, where visible mics are a 'no no', then overhead shotguns are the answer of course.
But if you don't mind small mics being seen?.....
And in the case of lavs, you can use capsules like the Panasonic, and get results pretty close to the Sennheiser or DPA lavs.
For a fraction of the cost...