Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1197261
Planning made it all possible but once the sequence starts, it's like a theatre show and you can't stop, if some- thing is not as expected that's where the jazz comes in and it's a buzz to improvise. It was important that the cast could feel like they were in the drama as much as possible so crew around the camera had to be minimal and agile. Some of the sound crew wore army uniforms so they could blend into the background when the camera moved around in their direction. For the drama, we had to feel 'locked-on' to the lead characters with a continuous connection. This is prin- cipally the dialog and breathing of the actors. The next dimension was to extend beyond the frame into the sup- porting cast and crowd who all have been given authentic roles within the story. We placed additional microphones on and around the set to capture sound of the other sol- diers' activity and recorded in stereo along the axis of the camera to expand the soundscape out beyond the frame. There was a section where the camera was rigged on a wire cam. These are often used in sports stadiums with four massive lifting cranes at the corners, computer- controlled winches and generators by each one, to control Colin Firth, General Erinmore Trinity camera rig in action with Grip Gary Hymns and Operator Charlie Rizek the movement of the wires. In sports, equipment noise is not much of an issue and this setup was too noisy for us to get clean audio. The providers pointed out that there was no dialog in this five-minute section, so maybe it wasn't a problem. I had to explain to them that, even though there was no dialog, there was still breathing and there were footsteps over many different surfaces. The breathing was as important as dialog because it conveyed the state of the terrified characters as they ventured into no man's land. The breathing was subtle and full of detail, conveying a lot about what our heroes were going through as they inched forward out of the relative safety of the trenches into the exposed landscape of no man's land, diving into shell holes, stumbling past fallen comrades and on toward the enemy lines The sound of their breath conveys so much and keeps us connected to the characters' experience Breathing is very difficult to recreate in a dubbing studio because the actor is trying to consciously do something which was unconscious at the time. It's never as convinc- ing as the original performance. We swapped out their generators for the quietest ones they could get and we hired in acoustic barrier sheeting George Mackay, Lance Corporal Schofield behind enemy lines.