I was shooting a very run & gun documentary yesterday, crew was tiny. Literally just me, DP, director & producer. I love shooting this kind of stuff and would love to grow more into it in the future.

We were backstage at an event, lighting was horrible, literally one giant spotlight about 10-20m above us. I couldn't boom overhead as it would just create horrible shadows, so I just boomed from underneath pretty much the entire time for safety. Even when we moved to areas with softer lighting I was a bit nervous to boom overhead as I've mostly worked on narrative / commercial stuff where there's an opportunity to check frame to see whether there's any shadows etc, whereas this is obviously a lot more run & gun. I had the actor wired too, so was obviously relying on that a lot for the mix.

Is this best practice, or do I just need to get better at learning light patterns to predict shadows? Would love to hear some feedback/input from more experienced documentary sound recordists. TIA

Hi everyone! Finally I’m upgrading my location sound setup with new purchases and can’t decide which bag I should buy. I will definetly go with a K-tek one because I am using it with my F6 and definetly fantastic. Also tried some orca and doctor bags but I find the extra compartments of k-tek bags pretty useful in my usecase. I’m quite obsessive with the layout and I dont want extra gaps on the main compartment. I love tight setups. Also I want it to be future proof because kteks are not the cheapest ones, so I cannot buy another one easily.

Beside the extras, I’m sharing my main pieces that I need to put in the main compartment and let me know your advices, also the photos of your setup will be highly appreciated! I’m between the K-tek Stingray Small X and the old Medium one. The large one is gonna be too big for me and rest of them are gonna be quite small.

-Zoom F8n Pro
-2x Sound devices 2 channel Mix-pre (old field mixer made in 2000)
-BDSV4 power Distro
-3x Sennheiser G3 Reciever
-1x 3rd Gen. Sony Transmitter for IFB (dont have to be in the main compartments)

Potential buys
-Deity Spd Mini
-Deity Mini Rf Distro
-2/3x Lectrosonics SrB/SrC
-1x Sony 4th Gen. Reciever for wireless boom

I’m gonna use low profile cables at the all inputs and outputs to make it tighter. My main goal and concern is putting 2 sound devices mix-pre’s side by side. (14cm each of it) Does the small-X one got enough space for it? Or should should I go with the medium one? If so, how it is with the F8 in terms of width?