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CAMS recommends students checking out production gear buy a pair of closed-back, over-the-ear headphones such as Sony MDR-V6 or MDR-7506, widely prized for their audio accuracy as well as durability.
Depending on how much footage students plan to shoot at one time, you may wish to buy additional Class 10 SD card(s) of your own in denominations of 16 GB or more from Lexar or Sandisk. To give a sense of scale, one hour of footage shot at maximum quality takes about:
-21 GB of space on SD/SDHC/SDXC card on a Canon 60D or
-11 GB of space on SD/SDHC card on a Sony HXR-NX5U.
Students wishing to buy their own PCM-based audio recorder might wish to consider a model with XLR inputs, such as the Zoom H4n in use in CAMS, or new devices such as the Roland/Edirol R-09.
II. equipment to check out
A_. general_
Students currently enrolled in CAMS production classes (including comps) have access to cameras, microphones and accessories to complete class assignments. This equipment is reserved in the CAMS Production Office (phone 5698; pbernhardt@carleton.edu). The CAMS Production Office is open for equipment check-out and check-in:
Sun 4:30-7:30pm
Mon 3:30-6:30pm
Tues 3:30-6:30pm
Weds 3:30-6:30pm
Thu 3:30-6:30pm
Fri 3:45-5pm
Sat closed
B_. examples_
These are the primary instruments for field production, available from the CAMS Production Office, that students are likely to design a production around:
1. microphones
"Form factor" refers to the shape and size of a mic, which matters because microphone placement is so crucial to getting good sound. A microphone's diaphragm is the wafer-thin material that actually picks up sound and converts it to electrical signal, housed inside the protective shell of the microphone.
USB mics convert that analog electrical signal to digital using an analog-to-digital (A-to-D) converter built inside the mic. They're especially useful for recording directly to the timeline in Final Cut Pro. Other professional wired mics use XLR cables to conduct electrical signal on the recording device.
Large-diaphragm mics are specially attuned to subtleties such as the timbre of a human voice in a highly controlled environment. They're particularly fragile and should not be used in the field, and are usually built in a large, unwieldy housing designed for use on a floor stand with a heavy base. A shotgun mic merely refers to a long, skinny, highly directional mic of one of several different polar patterns (usually either hypercardioid, line-gradient or figure eight--more on those in a moment), just as "boom mic" merely means any mic attached to the end of a boom pole. Handheld mics are most often used by reporters and musicians but can be well-suited for field production. Lavaliers are often used in documentary filmmaking as well as electronic news gathering because they are extremely small mics that can be clipped or pinned so unobtrusively to clothing out of the field of vision of the person wearing it.
Polar pattern refers to the direction(s) around the microphone's diaphragm in which it is most sensitive to sound. An omnidirectional mic is equally sound-sensitive in all directions. Its pattern could be envisioned as a ball surrounding the mic. They are prized for being equally sensitive to the wide range of tones all across the frequency range of sound. A cardioid mic is somewhat directional, rejecting some sound from the sides and rear. . Hypercardioid and supercardioid mics are more directional than cardioid mics. Line+gradient mics are even more directional than hypercardioid or supercardioid mics, achieved by housing a directional diaphragm in a long perforated tube designed to reject additional sound from the sides. Figure eight microphones have the unusual property of being equally sound sensitive in back as in front of the mic. Audio-Technica provides an excellent review of polar patterns here.
a. USB: Samson C01U (operator's manual)
form factor: large-diaphragm studio mic
polar pattern: cardioid
type: condenser (power supplied via USB).
b. wired wired
i. Rode NTG-2 Audio-Technica 815a (operator's manual), 815b (operator's manual), 835b:
form factor: shotgun
polar pattern: line+gradient
type: condenser
ii. Audio-Technica ii. Audio-Technica 875R (operator's manual), Rode NTG-2 (operator's manual):
form factor: short shotgun
polar pattern: line+gradient
type: condenser
iii. Audio-Technica Technica 804 (operator's manual), Electrovoice 635a (operator's manual):
form factor: handheld
polar pattern: omni
type: dynamic
iv. Audio-Technica iv. Electrovoice RE50 (operator's manual):
form factor: handheld, internal shock mount
polar pattern: omni
type: dynamic
v. Audio-Technica (operator's manual):
form factor:
polar pattern:
type:
2. Zoom H4n audio recorders (operator's manual)
3. cameras
a. camcorders
i. Sony PD-170 (operator's manual)
ii. Sony HXR-NX5U (operator's manual)
b. dSLRs: Canon 60D (operator's manual)
4. camera support
a. Fig Rig: hand-held mount (designed by [Mike Figgis|http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001214/], author of [Digital Filmmaking|http://www.amazon.com/Digital-Filmmaking-Mike-Figgis/dp/0571226256/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1316529536&sr=8-1]) that makes ingenious use of a person's arms as natural shock absorber
b. Spider Brace II: lightweight shoulder mount
c. various tripods and tripod dollies
III. governance
A. rationale
Carleton production equipment and studios are shared resources. As with shared resources elsewhere, there must be governance around them. People who successfully complete the Moodle-based qualification training form a media production community at Carleton. This governance was created to protect our personal health and safety, our ability to meet work deadlines, and the production equipment we use.
It’s vital to the Carleton media production community’s well-being that facilities are safe to use. This safety is not external to our creative activity but arises from the sum of our actions.
Learning to navigate complex deadlines under tight time pressure is part of the creative endeavor. Just as other people’s actions can affect your ability to do your creative work and finish assignments on time, your actions affect others’ ability to do the same. The importance in this context of returning gear on time can’t be overstated. Treating well the gear we use, so that it stays in good working order, turns out to be just as important. Replacing lost or damaged gear not only costs money but causes delay likely to compromise your ability and others’ to finish work on time.
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1. I will not use gear or facilities without becoming qualified to do so, as outlined at http://moodle.carleton.edu/go/prodcert
2. I will follow safety procedures outlined in the qualification training (linked above) or seek further clarification from either the CAMS Technical Director or the Carleton Manager of Environmental Health and Safety Compliance.
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