Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1259912
C A S Q U A R T E R L Y S P R I N G 2 0 2 0 79 A2 so she could listen as she wired and then I'd give the thumbs up to the AD after final line check. Working and temporarily living in Manhattan every summer was a blast. But there were numerous times when I had to roll with the punches and admit that perfectionism is just an excuse to procrastinate. With no time to waste, decisions had to be made and we, luckily, often reaped the benefits of innovation out of necessity. GORDON RAMSAY'S 24 HOURS TO HELL AND BACK (2018) – FOX …IF YOU CAN'T TAKE THE HEAT, GET YOUR ($#%*!@) OUT OF THE KITCHEN! I joined Gordon Ramsay's 24 Hours to Hell and Back during its second season. In each episode, chef Gordon Ramsay travels to restaurants in need of reinvention and renovation. The episodes broke down like this: Day 1—travel day, Day 2—load in and build (often without scouting), Day 3—shoot for 24 straight hours, Day 4—wrap and load out. Prior to the full crew arrival, a skeleton crew secretly surveyed the location, hidden-camera style—classic Reality TV 101. Chef Ramsay would arrive to restaurants in disguise, then he'd reveal his true identity after sampling the food. "Ear, ear, ear" is all I hear! The in-ear needed to go through concrete walls and magically bypass metal kitchens into deep, dank food lockers while my transmitter was up to a quarter- mile away. I was immediately taken aback when I heard Gordon needed "the ear wig with a long, straight cone." I didn't own that particular Phonak, so I regrouped and had it outsourced. With the help of Ernie Munoz, I wrapped my head around how to deliver the cleanest signal with minimal intermod. My team and I set up multiple ear zones across each restaurant—typically entrance, dining, office, and kitchen—so with the flip of a switch, I could dial in the ideal antennae zone for Gordon. Utilizing Dante, I mixed on the Yamaha QL5 and installed my iPad story stations in video village (see the prior Project Runway section for setup). In addition to my Venue rack with blocks 19 and 21, I had five roaming mixers rolling at all times on 633's. They'd send a scratch track to their camera so I could tap into the wireless Teradek audio from the engineer's rack. This allowed me to monitor each scratch mix. But more importantly, it became my saving grace when booming was necessary because I could then record the hard-lined boom from a 633—sent from a wireless microwave—straight into my PIX 970. For the "Hell on Wheels" portion of the show, where footage was shown to the restaurant staff and disgusted customers, an audio file was sent by email just minutes before we showed the video live. I had to ride the unmixed jump cut audio from hidden cameras to a huge crowd without hearing it beforehand. There were no second takes, ever. And the real kicker for me was that beat generally happened blocks away from our restaurant. Thank goodness for fiber! I set up a walkie-talkie system in a backpack by which our EP could communicate with Gordon so he would never have to remove his in-ear. I freq'd the ear on, say, walkie Channel 16 and programmed that to the same frequency as my Comtek base station back at the main site. My PL engineer made the mad dash back-and-forth to turn on/off the proper transmitter as we approached either set. Producers relied solely on R1a for that beat and 633's recorded all audio as backup. 24 Hours was truly the hardest run of my career. I was elated that our final episode was shot in LA. What a relief to return home after so many trying situations. When the show was over, I saw what I'd written on my kitchen chalkboard earlier that year: Local, Supervisor, Vendor, Network, and Union. I met all five goals on that one show. HONORABLE MENTIONS Being audio supervisor of The Real Housewives of Orange County for two seasons was a trip. First of all, the sound mixers were basically like producers. To help direct scenes in a story-driven direction, we were required to pre-fade listen to cast members who were not being filmed while simultaneously mixing a scene where other cast members were being filmed. Secondly, the majority of all-cast events were your standard docu-soap scenario, where booming was nearly impossible (except when someone was infamously thrown into a pool). I used the occasional MM transmitter for planned excursions with water activities and a Zaxcom TRXLA3 for self-recording off-site field trips. The finale parties were a breath of fresh air because I was able to take off the 688 bag to rock a proper multitrack station—and the hors d'oeuvres were always on point. Other projects I've worked on have their highlights, too. Like laughing at Tosh.0, traveling with House Hunters International, getting inspired by Shark Tank, watching fierce women skate on Rollergirls, flying on Air Force aircraft shooting commercials and learning from the one and only, Oprah! LOOKING FORWARD Now with a good grasp of the unscripted world, I've added a sixth goal to that chalkboard: Scripted. Diving deeper into the scripted world would expand my understanding of production sound. By incorporating my experience with mixing Adam mixing Match Made in Heaven for WE tv.