I received my shotgun mic today. I'm looking forward to playing with it!

During my recent educational excursion, it was pressed home to me just how important good sound is. I started to panic. If you haven't noticed, my "video sketchbook" DAHT has pretty crappy sound. The on-camera mic just won't do.

Ideally, I'd put my puppeteers in headset mics. That's what the pros use (and by "pros" I mean "Henson"). Well, the rig I'd need for that kind of a set up is a bit out of my budget. On "Uncle Grizly", Adam Brody used an overhead boom. The sound turned out great, even when Russ and I were on our backs and partially obscured by set pieces. We didn't ADR anything. So I started shopping for a mic.

The "cheap-o" solution I found was the Audio-Technica ATR-55, as pictured above from the Audio-Technica website. The retail price is $100 but I found a new one on eBay for about $50. My camera doesn't have a headphone socket (!) so I may need to finagle some kind of pre-amp/splitter deal. I have a great set of Sony Studio Monitor headphones, so at least my ears are covered!

The more pressing issue now is where to shoot! I've looked around, and the cheapest soundstage I can find is about $300 for a full day. Plus insurance! Yikes! I know that somewhere in North Hollywood there's an empty (or semi-empty) warehouse that I could "borrow" for a Saturday. I just need to find it!