Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1057466
27 We also had dialog to record inside the C17 as the jump progressed from a dialog scene directly into the jump. We shot some exteriors of the C17 and interiors on the ground at RAF Brize Norton near Oxford in the UK. This at least gave us a chance to consider what we would be up against. Eventually, the time came to travel to Abu Dhabi. My crew there was Lloyd Dudley and Hosea Ntaborwa. Lloyd concentrated mainly on looking after Tom Cruise's bone conduction headsets and fitting Lectrosonics PDR recorders to actors. Hosea was in charge of comms for the skydive team and recording 5.1 FX in the aircraft. I was particularly interested in sounds of breathing and how that can add tension. Once we played some of these sounds for Tom, he immediately wanted it to be a major part of the soundtrack during the jump sequence. I was not looking for pristine recordings that sounded like they were shot in a studio, instead, I was interested in the raw sounds of the helmet mics and bone conducting units which could give a more realistic documentary- type sound. I was not opposed to some wind noise and realised this could add to the reality. Having original sound adds to the feeling of reality even the audience are only subconsciously aware of it. HALO COMMS The original intention was to use a radio mic TX on TC with a recording facility and have each of the additional divers and camera operator have a receiver connected to helmet-fixed earpieces. When we were safety testing, one of the requests was that we did not transmit anything inside the aircraft but that it was OK to transmit as soon as the divers had exited. I argued that radio mics would be fairly low power and on legal frequencies but then realised that it may have been a mistake to try to achieve recordings and comms with the same device. Additionally, we needed ground contact when the divers reached a lower altitude so that they could be given any safety information about wind or any other issues and radio mic TX may not have enough range. I decided to use Motorola walkie-talkies for comms mainly because they were reliable and we were familiar with them. We used finger-operated PTT (push to talk) with custom-made interfaces to connect to the Motorolas. The PTT was run inside the sleeve of each diver and operated with a finger and thumb. For TC (shown as EH on diagram), we used a bone conduction headset in each ear. One ear was talk/ listen connected to the Motorola via the PTT and the other ear was connected directly to a Lectrosonics PDR. Another PDR connected to a da-capo mic (Que audio in US?) mounted in the helmet. I chose the da-capo mic mainly because I just happened to have some and also because these are what I had successfully used in helmets on Gravity. I had to send mics for safety testing to be intrinsically safe when used in the helmet, which also had oxygen being pumped in. I immediately thought that the da-capo mics may be well sealed as they are waterproof. It was not a particularly scientific decision. Post production was greatly contracted due to the hiatus in shooting. Supervising Sound Editor James Mather had time restraints, thus appreciated all of