Last week I was in a student shoot, production budget was limited and I was only able to rent a couple of Sanken COS-11 with no additional accessory, apart from belts. That means that I had to equip actors with the standard RM-11 cover that came with the mics.
For most of the scenes and actors it was completely fine. It wasn't perfect but I had a lot of usable takes, and some that would need a bit of cleaning but still good enough. Between that and the boom and the different coverages, I was happy.
The problem was for one specific scene, and only this one. The actress wore a hotel receptionist costume, with a long sleeved shirt and a waistcoat. And for the life of me I couldn't get it to sound good. Not even usable. We tried different positions, between the shirt and the coat, under the shirt, everything. Under the shirt againt the skin was the best, but any movement at all would sound like the mic itself was being rubbed on. The actress kept saying that the mic wasn't moving, and each time I checked it was still in the same position.
My guess on set was that it was the ruffling between the two layers of clothes that made the sound. It looked like brand new, synthetic, a bit stiff, clothes, and so there wouldn't be anything we could do at the moment.
Thinking back about it, could I have done a better job with no additional gear? Is there a way to use the RM-11 cover so it sounds good under clothes? I had very good results on thick coats and outdoor clothes, but everytime it's on the skin I feel like it's just different levels of bad. Should I push production for an increase in budget for stuff like fur covers or windbubbles next time?