I am a young Photographer from Cape Cod/Boston, Ma. armed with a Fulbright Scholarship and a Canon 5D Mark II. For 10 months I will living in Arusha, Tanzania working with various research projects and NGO's to make a documentary on human/wildlife conflict.

1/19/10

How make your own Dead Cat!

Since purchasing my 5D, I have been researching what it takes to make a quality documentary. I have no video shooting, editing or audio recording experience, so this should be interesting... I'm just learning all this along the way, and I figure I got plenty of time in the bush to figure it all out!

The 5D shoots great HD video, but the built in mic is less than adequate. So I got myself a nifty Rode Video Shotgun Mic so that I can hopefully pick up some good animal noises while I'm shooting. In order to cut down the ambient noise, usually from wind, you have to get a windscreen that goes over your mic. So I looked into those; turns out, those fuzzy mic covers are called Dead Cats! PAH! (i've never even used a mic before, don't judge me) I just thought that was the greatest thing I ever heard, so obviously I wanted one! Yea, they're like, $50!? For this fuzzy little scrap of fabric? yea right!

So being the craftmaster 5000 that I am, I went on down to AC Moore (i'm there, like 3x a week anyways) got myself some craft fabric and made one my damn self! I looked all over the place for directions on how to properly make one, I didn't think I'd be the only person who didn't want to waste $50! But I couldn't find directions anywhere, so I thought I'd put some up. Here it is, for all you crafty, amateur film makers out there, making your own Dead Kitty is quick, cheap & easy!

You need some craft fabric, scissors, needle and thread to sort of match the fur, or not, if you're into contrast stitching, and your mic to measure off of..

I just laid my mic on the underside of the fabric, wrapped it around loosely and cut, leaving about an inch off the end. My piece came out to be 7" x 7.5", in case you have the same mic..I sewed the fabric inside out so the fuzz wouldn't get in the way. Start the seam by stitching several times in the same place to reinforce the edge. I stitched around and around, tucking the bottom edge under the other one as I went. It was a little tricky to work with the fuzz at first, but it definitely does not have to be pretty, so don't worry if it looks sloppy. Just make sure you're stitches aren't too far apart. And reinforce your end stitches, too.After sewing the whole seam up, turn your tube inside out by tucking one edge inside itself, then just kinda roll the non-fuzzy side down. See if you're Dead Cat fits! It should be snug, but not too tight, don't force it on. If it's too tight or loose, cut your stitches, re-measure & try again!
I left the piece on the mic to sew the end together..I just pinched the end flat & stitched it together in the middle..
..so it looked like this....
..then squeeze the opposite sides together, kind of like wrapping the end of a present...squish the seams together and sew it flat!
And there it is!! Your own Dead Cat! BAM
Hopefully this works out okay, sure looks like the ones that cost $50...mine was $2.99 + 20 min. Once I get my 5D back from Cannon I'll do some audio tests to see if it compares!
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9 comments:

  1. David25/2/10 3:12 PM

    Good post. Thanks.

    How did the audio come out? No wind?

    D

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  2. Anonymous19/4/10 1:53 AM

    I'm interested in how your windscreen worked out for you. Does it work as well as commercial windscreens? I'll probably make one of my own too based on your instructions!

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  3. Anonymous1/10/10 9:19 AM

    I'm also interested to hear how your windscreen worked out. Various other posts on the web lead me to believe that homemade dead cats do help but that commercially made ones use special fabric with years of R&D behind them. Let us know! (We're using the same mic with a Panasonic GH1 - an excellent HDSLR camera with some features missing on the Mark II).

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  4. Anonymous20/1/11 8:12 AM

    HEllo!!!???! How did it work out?

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  5. Liana Rasmussen20/1/11 10:01 AM

    Thanks for all your interest in my homemade dead cat! Since I never tested it against a store-bought one, I'm not sure how they differ.. but overall I was not very impressed with the sound quality on the Rode Videomic for anything outside the immediate range. For interviews and close range audio with little ambient noise, it was fine. For shooting in the field, I'm afraid there was quite a bit of dead noise and even with the foam windscreen + deadcat I could still hear the IS in the camera. I would be interested to hear this mic with a store-bought deadcat, just to give this low-end mic another chance, but in general, it was clear that this is not a super high-quality microphone.

    Hope this helps! Sorry for the delayed response!

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  6. Anonymous24/1/11 12:31 AM

    of course you might hear the camera's mechanism going... but how was it in windy conditions?

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  7. John Christian9/4/12 9:17 PM

    Good on ya! I'm gonna make one too.

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  8. Anonymous18/6/12 6:44 AM

    Yep that model of the RODE Mic does seem to have low sound quality ... you could always boost it pre-camera input using a small (headphone) amplifier like the FiiO E5 or E6

    http://www.amazon.co.uk/FiiO-E5-Headphone-Amplifier-Black/dp/B0026RJQJ6/ref=sr_1_2?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1340016051&sr=1-2

    but I'm deffo gonna build a Dead Cat for my Zoom H2 ...

    thanks
    Martin

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  9. Anonymous1/8/12 8:58 AM

    Never heard anything bad about the sound quality from the Rode VideoMic. That's odd.

    Not to sound snarky, but is it possible that the battery you're using in the mic isn't very good? A fresh, alkaline (not "heavy duty") battery should give you excellent sound. If it doesn't, you could have a defective mic.

    Anyway, excellent tutorial on making a deadcat! BRAVA!

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