| The biggest "killer" of students' movies is lousy sound. Unless you are
shooting in a very quiet environment, you will need to buy a shotgun mic with a
narrow (unidirectional) pickup range. The camera mic and other mics you might be
used to are omnidirectional - they will pick up everything and even out the
sound, so that when you subject isn't talking, it will lift any background noise
to that level.
The cheapest I know is called a "Yoga" microphone and is available from
Jaycar Electronics for about $80.00.
Camcorder manufacturers also sell their own brands of "hot shoe" mic that
mount on top of the camera.
Another kind, slightly more expensive, is from Rode.
You can all the way up to very costly Sennheisers if you're mad keen.
You will notice that all these mics have spongy things -
this is to protect the recording from wind noise and is very important.
Also, try not to have anything touch the mic while
recording as sound can be conducted through the casing. For Kid Witness News (www.panasonic.com.au/kwn)
I noticed that a lot of schools attached news-style logo boxes on their handheld
mics so that they would look more professional. In every case the logo boxes
wrecked the sound as the reporter's hand rubbed against it.
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