Glidecam and Audio Tips?

gooser

gooser

Member
Since last winter, I have picked up a glidecam and a standard Rode mic (with deadcat) for my T3i. I know the glidecam can be a little difficult to control in high winds, especially with a mic on it. Just curious to see if anyone has tips to have smoother results while skiing with a glidecam.

Also, I would like to be able to have nice, crisp natural sound in my videos, without the wind. Does anyone have any tips on this aswell? Just curious to see what people like to do in post with their audio.

I think this video is a very good example of what I'm looking for.

[VIDEO]http://vimeo.com/71369574[/VIDEO]

Any help is greatly appreciated!
 
To cut wind noise, getting a deadcat will help a lot. For the glidecam just make sure it is well balanced, and practice a lot. I'm still not the greatest with mine, but can tell lots of improvement from when I first picked one up.
 
As far as skiing at high speeds, it's just something you get used to. You'll likely have to grip tighter with your guide hand and it WILL look like shit when you first start doing it because it'll jerk it around a lot. After you have a fair amount of practice you'll be able to control windy glides much more effectively.

As for sound, I would be willing to bet that 90% of the audio in Heath's (and anyone who has good audio in their videos) was not recorded in the shown clip, it's foley. What that means is that it was externally recorded and added in post. This is usually done best by recording the sounds of skiing from a stationary position. A surprisingly effective solution to good audio would be to use "Voice Memos" on your iPhone to stand next to features and record 10 different people hitting it. Then you'll have a good amount of sounds to work with in post. It takes work figuring it out but will pay off.
 
I also don't want to discount using an external mic while filming. Often enough, on slower glides, you can keyframe the audio to be quiet or loud. So you can use the recorded audio track from the video and fade out the windy parts between features, only keyframing in takeoffs, rails, landings, etc. Usually it's not perfect and you'll end up having to use a mix of foley sounds and on-camera sounds, but it does speed up the workflow.
 
Magic lantern helps control audio a lot better than just recording it. Lower the audio by 10-20db (I believe) and it should cut most of the wind nose while recording but audio may need to be a little boosted in post.
 
13261549:gavinrudy said:
As far as skiing at high speeds, it's just something you get used to. You'll likely have to grip tighter with your guide hand and it WILL look like shit when you first start doing it because it'll jerk it around a lot. After you have a fair amount of practice you'll be able to control windy glides much more effectively.

As for sound, I would be willing to bet that 90% of the audio in Heath's (and anyone who has good audio in their videos) was not recorded in the shown clip, it's foley. What that means is that it was externally recorded and added in post. This is usually done best by recording the sounds of skiing from a stationary position. A surprisingly effective solution to good audio would be to use "Voice Memos" on your iPhone to stand next to features and record 10 different people hitting it. Then you'll have a good amount of sounds to work with in post. It takes work figuring it out but will pay off.
Click to expand...

I really like this idea. My question now is: Will sound quality be better from an iPhone recording, or from standing stationary with my rode mic?
 
13262070:Guuse said:
I really like this idea. My question now is: Will sound quality be better from an iPhone recording, or from standing stationary with my rode mic?
Click to expand...

Stationary with your Rode Mic will certainly be better. Not sure if it's possible but maybe you could record through the Rode Mic into your iPhone for the sake of creating audio files and not have to deal with the headache of sorting videos for audio.
 
13262070:Guuse said:
I really like this idea. My question now is: Will sound quality be better from an iPhone recording, or from standing stationary with my rode mic?
Click to expand...

Rode mic makes an iPhone mic that I've heard is pretty good and they have an app you can use to transfer it over for post then just sync it up well.
 
13262660:CameraWiz said:
Rode mic makes an iPhone mic that I've heard is pretty good and they have an app you can use to transfer it over for post then just sync it up well.
Click to expand...

The Rode lav mic is the only one i know works with an iphone. i picked one up for about $60 (Canadian) i was pretty happy with it, but i dont think that it would work well for this type of application. The app is called RODErec and the free version works pretty well. (i haven't used the paid version)

I think tripodding your camera by the feature with a hotshoe mic would probably give you better audio than the lav mic
 
13269034:DorianF said:
The Rode lav mic is the only one i know works with an iphone. i picked one up for about $60 (Canadian) i was pretty happy with it, but i dont think that it would work well for this type of application. The app is called RODErec and the free version works pretty well. (i haven't used the paid version)

I think tripodding your camera by the feature with a hotshoe mic would probably give you better audio than the lav mic
Click to expand...

I can't find it but it just sits on the bottom of your iPhone. It looks like a Zoom H4n
 
13261549:gavinrudy said:
.

As for sound, I would be willing to bet that 90% of the audio in Heath's (and anyone who has good audio in their videos) was not recorded in the shown clip, it's foley. What that means is that it was externally recorded and added in post. .
Click to expand...
since I am switching to a new cam that doesn't have 3.5mm input I have to record Foley. My question for you Gavin is how do you determine the duration/speed of the sound? Say you have a clip of a skier hauling ass on a rail 'tsssst' now say your audio Foley is slower tssssssssst' do you just speed up the audio to match the time on the rail? As well as different features produce different sounds how do you account for that? I believe in some of your older windells films with long lens you were using foleys on the big jump and it sounded good but haven't heard much on the rail side of it. Cheers sorry for old bump
 
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