For a tireless boom operator
If it’s possible to mount a shotgun mic on your camera rig, there is a few tradeoffs. First, if you keep getting close and backing out, the sound recorded will have different intensities that will need taking care off in post. Then you can have different sound characteristics depending on where you shoot, if there is walls nearby for the sound to bounce off, echoes, etc…
The best would be to have a dedicated boom operator, who will be able to capture the sound as close as possible from above, but for solo gigs or tight budget productions, this is often not possible.
An alternative is, if you have a c-stand at your disposal, to build a simple support to maintain the boom without getting in your way while you shoot. This is what this article will describe.
As always, a full list of the articles in this blog can be found HERE.
A steel rod and a bit of welding
The idea is to use the weight of the boom pole to maintain it in place without having to screw it down on a support. Here, the left claw serves as a lever point while the right one prevents it from tilting forward. It is then mounted on a c-stand through an Avenger grip head. In this case, it should be taken care that the weight and the lever created by the boom pole tightens the grip head, that’s why the handle in on the right. Appropriate weights should also be added on the legs of the stand to have a stable platform. If the weight of the boom and mic combo is too high, a counterweight can be added on the foot of the pole to prevent the stand from toppling down.
There is already similar boom pole holders on the market but they were either too expensive or seemed to have a shoddy quality (as a number of reviews stated that the welding broke on the first use). If you have a welding station at your disposal, why not make it yourself?
The holder was made with a steel rod that I had hanging around. As seen above, it has been cut into 3 pieces: the “U” on the left, a midsection extending into the right claw and a central rod to clamp it into the grip head. The pieces were shaped by hammering and bending them on a vise. Then it was just 2 small welding joints and adding a bit of gaffer tape where the pole touched the support to prevent scratching it.
I’ll just have to clean the metal and add an anti-rust coating.
Use
To mount the boom pole onto the support, you just have to let it rest between the claws. I use a cheapo boom pole so I don’t need a counterweight as it doesn’t extend very far. As it is immobile, there won’t be any noise coming from the cable scraping against the pole, maybe only in heavy winds outside.
I then raise the stand high enough so that I can’t hit it with the camera, while getting the mic as close as I can without it coming into the frame. This way I can naviguate around the room as I please, while keeping a clear and constant sound level.
There it is, a short post for a small but useful accessory, especially for one man operations where the less things you have to manage at the same time, the better. Of course, this way of mounting a boom pole is only optimal when the subject is stationnary. If you have to follow someone across the room or have a very wide frame, a lavalier mic or keeping the shotgun mic on the camera might be a better idea.