Rachel Saldivar, a production and postproduction sound mixer, recordist and audio engineer, recently used Sony’s ECM-778 shotgun mic during the filming of “Drifter,” a new feature film set against the backdrop and culture of drift racing.
The microphone proved to be a valuable addition, she said, especially in capturing the intensity and nuance of the story. The ECM-778 performed reliably in confined spaces, such as inside a car.
The ease of use, size and installation flexibility of the ECM-778 met Saldivar’s unique needs on the project. “Part of what makes the ECM-778 such a great microphone is its low profile. With a small size and smaller capsule, it’s easier to plant and mount places,” she said.
The mic’s size and installation flexibility also proved to be valuable in scenes set in a bathroom. “There wasn’t a lot of room for me to get the boom operator in there, so we were able to plant the mic with clips on the side of the shower to still get the boom recording,” Saldivar said.
The versatile ECM-778 provides stability across a range of different circumstances. It offers a consistent reduction in off-axis sounds, despite shifting between subjects and delivers greater dialogue and clearer voice response from subjects and actors in different environments with varying noise levels. Saldivar described its sound as “very true to voice tone” and said the mic offers “more saturation in the highs.”
Saldivar also said the ECM-778 made it easy to capture accurate ambience, a helpful characteristic for dynamically changing shoot scenarios.
“The ECM-778 performs really well both outdoors and indoors. In a run-and-gun situation where you can’t switch to a different microphone, Sony’s ECM-778 can go from a noisy exterior environment to an interior with ease,” she said.
“You get enough ambience in the recording, but the side rejection significantly reduces wind, street and traffic noise pick up in the recording. The voice of the subject is well saturated in the recording even in noisy environments like a busy street.”
More information is available on the Sony website.
