Shotgun Microphone

The long slotted tube in front of the capsule is an interference tube: sound arriving from the sides largely cancels itself by the time it reaches the diaphragm, which narrows the pickup angle. Boomed above the frame line and pointed at the mouth, a shotgun gets close to the speaker without appearing on camera and keeps the voice well above the room.

The common misunderstanding is that directionality removes room sound. It reduces what arrives from the sides, and reflections coming off a wall straight down the tube arrive anyway, which is why shotguns can sound hollow in small hard rooms where a cardioid or a lavalier would be cleaner. Distance still beats pattern, so how close the mic gets matters more than which one it is.