Costume mask

[ghance]

Hi,

 

We've an engineer out in panto land struggling with a character who wears a full face mask during some scenes. Mic is a MKE2 on a Senn G3 bodypack.

 

Tried the usual things like 2 channels (mask on / mask off), chest lav mic, low-mid eq cut, phase rev, damping mask etc.

 

Any other suggestions? How do they nail it for shows like Phantom?

 

Cheers!

 

.gh

[MarkPAman]

In Phantom, the mask does not cover his mouth. So that's how they do that one....

[the kid]

I will drop a line to a friend who does lots of full face mask. IIR you "dont" mic unless you have lots of space, like a helmet size rather than close to skin. Last time I had to do a mic for a mask we had an offstage mic. Less easy if they are on AND off stage. Recordings work, but can look really clunky.

[ghance]

Thanks! Standing by

[Bobbsy]

I've only hit this a couple of times and used two different solutions.

 

In one case there were only a few lines in the mask so we used recordings--done on the same mic and mic position as the rest of the show--triggered line by line to be in time with the other dialogue.

 

On the other we used a lav clipped to the chest (like on TV) and put up with the slightly muffled sound--indeed, a point was made of the voice sounding muffled in the mask as it would in the real world. FYI, chest mounts only work if you don't have to push the gain too hard.

[the kid]

If it's a full mask don't - it would look and sound weird and just not work. If its a half mask- mic as normal actor. If its a greek mask with mouth hole then GET THEM TO PROJECT.

is what I god from my mask guy