I am doing all aspects of sound (location, foley, post, sweetening, etc.) for a feature length film with a tight budget.
I'm trying various methods for recording, but I'm looking for any tips. I'm an audio student
at the Art Institute of Seattle, so I'm still learning. I'm recording everything to two seperate
DAT sources using various types of shotguns and lav's. The film is a crime/drama/action taking
place all over the greater Seattle area, so city noise is a huge problem. I've gone through
some of the takes that will not be used as prints and tried some notch filtering and
creative equilization, but I'm not happy with the results. Any tips would be greatly appreciated,
since this is the first full length film that I'm working on, I'm a bit wet behind the ears.

Please feel free to contact me directly at
topher.farrell@redhook.com
or
acousticmirror@hotmail.com

Thanks!
~Topher~

I'm a Y-1 IATSE and MPSE. Recording DAT is kind of odd as is trying to record all the sound. If you don't have some HQ lavilier mikes I'd just record some bg noise and then do all the speech in studio. On low budget you ALWAYS spend more time in post, on any budget you spend more time in post. Trying to get a finished product in the field is usually a lot more work that seldom pays off.
Is this your first project? Are you on Windows (shudder) or Mac or Linux? What are you doing for mixing, how experienced are your actors, foley walkers, recording engineer etc?

Use some dynamic mics as close to the source as you can get.

Unfortunately, the actors are not all seasoned. I want to avoid as much ADR as I can.
I'm using Pro Tools for the audio on a Mac ({}). I have some good mic's but unfortunately it's the
schools gear, so needless to say, it get's abused. I am the Foley walker, the location
engineer, the post engineer, mix engineer, and everything else related to audio. (I have one guy
helping as a boom operator) so I've got my hands full. This is the first full length that I've done,
I have done 4 shorts and a handfull of sound design pieces.

I record room/location tones at every location before the rest of the crew/talent
arrives, I also have 2 DAT sources for every shoot, so I've got back up.