Using internal or external audio source when recording

Hi everyone!

I'm starting a new movie project with a friend of mine. We're going to make shortfilms/longer interviews/biographies of people. We're going to follow this person throughout a regular day of his life while "getting to know him" through talking, asking questions, filming what he's doing etc.

So far, we have decent camera for this, however, we'd also need a mic of some kind. I'm thinking about getting a portable audio recorder and then synchronizing the audio with the video while editing. The advantages with this would be that I'd be able to take shots from far away while my friend who interviews/talks records clear sound while he's holding the mic close to the conversation/action

Have you got any experience with this kind of filming? What are the pros and cons with using an external portable audio recorder? And have you got any tips while recording and editing?

Thank you

/Anton

For quality audio you're going to use a quality mic anyway. What it plugs in to, camera or external recorder, really doesn't matter all that much, as long as it is a quality recorder. And the iPhone and iPad are really nice for this, too. You can get XLR adapters for them. Or get a dedicated audio recorder that is minimum 16-bit, 48kHz recording ability.

Think about a pair of wireless lavs. Other wise, you'll need a boom mic. And a quality boom mic can get pricey, if you're going outside. You'll need the whole blimp rig for it in that case.

If I can, I prefer recording directly to the camera. Even a 5D MkII records really good audio with a JuicedBox XLR converter. Simply because I find syncing audio to video a PITA. Even if it is automated.

But, if you do record them separately, you'll need the same sound on both the camera's video recording and the audio device's recording. Otherwise you'll not be able to do automated syncing. If your camera is far away, and you're recording to a dedicated audio device, you'll spend time manually syncing them up.

Wireless lav, or get a wireless XLR adapter for a boom, mount the receiver on the camera rig. I do both depending on what I need for that situation.

If you do a pair of wireless lavs, you can get a dual receiver that is small and will capture both lavs on individual channels.

Thanks a lot for your input!
You mentioned syncing the two audio sources automatically, how does that work?

You select a video clip and an audio clip together, and make them a Sync Clip. Here is the user manual page.