Tuesday, February 25, 2020
Production Notes: Shotgun Mic
Nevada Film Office: A shotgun mic is a unidirectional microphone that must be pointed directly at its sound source for proper recording. Shotgun mics are most sensitive to capturing sound entering the front of the mic while softening sounds that enter from the sides or rear of the mic as opposed to omnidirectional mics which capture audio from every direction. Shotgun mics are so named because the body of the microphone is shaped like the barrel of a shotgun. In filmmaking, they are used with boom poles or they can be mounted to a camera.
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I have a love-hate relationship with shotgun microphones. As with any equipment, if you know how to use it properly, you can get great results. However, not understanding even the basic concepts can give you a headache. Shotgun microphones take me back to high school, when they were often used to pick up ensemble members. I vividly remember them being placed right on the downstage edge behind the pit. All seems fine and dandy, however if you watch the video you may notice a hypercardioid or supercardioid pickup pattern has some space behind the mic as well (which they don't really talk about). When the orchestra for that show arrived, all of a sudden we were getting a lot of brass in our ensemble mix! In the film industry, where these are often mounted on booms pointed down, this isn't a problem that is encountered often. It is, however, important to know about it if you want to use them in a theatrical environment. God forbid they get placed on lighting booms in the wings, and all of a sudden you start to hear your rail ops' conversations. I think we can all agree that nobody wants that...
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