Lav Routing: Athletic Wear vs. Heavy Coats - Seeking Workflow Wisdom!
Hey everyone, Priya here, a working colorist. I've been diving deeper into best practices for audio, specifically lav strategies for different types of wardrobe, and I've got a genuinely curious question for the sound folks here.
When you're miking talent, let's say, on a shoot for an athletic brand where they're in light activewear and moving a lot, versus a more dramatic piece where they're bundled up in heavy winter coats, do you have a standard, almost 'pre-set' approach you typically follow for routing your lav cables? Or does your workflow change pretty dramatically based on the specific garment, the material, and the anticipated movement? I'm thinking about things like minimizing fabric rustle, concealment, and maintaining signal integrity.
On my end, when I'm working on a project that involves a lot of body movement, like with a V-RAPTOR XL shooting action, I find myself anticipating and trying to communicate how the lavs might affect fabric. But I'm sure there's a lot more nuance to it. I've mostly been trying to secure the mic head itself directly to the garment seam as much as possible with athletic wear, and then using moleskin or similar for bulkier clothes, but the cable routing is where I feel like I could learn a lot more.
What are your go-to practices for getting clean audio in these contrasting wardrobe scenarios?