Filmmaking Amateur | Two Camera Shoot with Flip and DVX100A (Day Fifteen)

by Scott U
(Georgia, USA)

Recently, I did a shoot with two cameras. This, in and of itself, is not a big deal. People use two cameras for video shoots all the time. But on this occasion I was running both cameras - still, not THAT unusual. But for this shoot we were using one camera for recording video and the other camera for recording audio. Now, it's starting to look like an unusual shoot.

The camera that was recording the video was a Flip MinoHD and the camera I used for audio was a Panasonic DVX100A. The Flip is a great little camera but the audio can sometimes be less than stellar when recording outside or in an environment where you can't control the background noises. The Flip has a tendency to pick up unwanted background sounds.

I shot a series of interviews, all outside at an active farm. I couldn't risk losing that great soundbite to the sound of a cow mooing, a pig snorting or a tractor driving by as the soundbite was being laid out. So, to give me better control over the audio, I used the Panasonic with its XLR inputs so that I could put a lav mic on my subjects. The Panasonic is (was??) a great camera. But after doing several tests, I determined that this combo package would give me the best results with what I have.

This is not an ideal set up by any means. Editing took longer than normal as I worked to line up audio from one source to video from another source. But like I said, this was going to give me the best results based on what I have. Sure, I wish I had a Canon 7D or something better. But the best camera (or cameras in this case) is the one that is in your hand.

All in all, I think this worked out pretty well. I've actually recorded good audio from the Flip, it is a neat little camera. But in this uncontrolled environment, I'm glad I had a second camera that I know will bring in good sound.

Here's one of the videos that uses the Flip video with the Panasonic audio. You'll notice that there are only about 5 seconds where you see the interview subject where the audio was synced up. (This is where you can notice the two camera set-up best.)

Let me know what you think of this two camera set-up in the comment section below.

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