I heard of people using mics attached to brooms held by an assistant... is it a good idea to just redub everything afterwards maybe with a low pass filter to get rid of noise, eliminate background sounds, and make voices sound softer (like in expensive movies)? Or has anyone had experiences leading them to believe dubbing isn't a good idea? Apart from the extra work I mean.

thanks

-- cv (curzio@hotmail.com), March 05, 2000

Answers

If you're as talented as Robert Rodriguez you can get by just fine with dubbing. Check out the spanish version of El Mariachi. All the audio was recorded after the scene was shot. He was using a very loud Arri S 16mm camera so thats why he recorded sound after.

-- Steve Shafta (Steve@hotmail.com), March 21, 2000.

If you are gutsy enough to take on the El Mariachi technique I would offer one piece of advice: get a lot of cutaways! This is how Robert Rodriguez made it work on El Mariachi. Every time the audio began to get out of sync he would cut away, then when he went back to the person talking he could tighten up the audio. His actors were also inexperienced and would tend to deliver the same lines over and over. I have tried this method and if you're able to cut away quite often it can work. Watch out for those master shots though. They can be tough as hell to sync up.

-- Brian Boyd (BGboyd@sprynet.com), May 19, 2000.