Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1314367
Fall 2020 – LOCAL695.ORG 19 Willie's small sound cart Fortunately, Willie and his crew had time to prepare how to mic the masks. Willie said, "We did research with Trew Audio and also Location Sound, and found that the Sennheiser lavalier was the one that had the lower sensitivity. There was a tube that came from the mask to their body, and we would mic the very end of the tube, it worked fine. This was based on all of us testing and testing." Rene adds, "It had to work with the masks, you couldn't hear the actors clearly with the boom. This is probably the only time Chris accepted the use of wires on his show." Every few days in prep, Chris would have meetings called "results meetings," with every department attending. "The wardrobe department would let us have the mask and the helmets to take with us," explains Willie, "Rene and I would be doing tests, as Chris allowed us to work a couple of days testing while they were doing camera tests. It made it so much easier because without that, you start a shoot and you're cold. We had time to figure it out, which was really most important." Nolan filmed with 70mm cameras and Willie and crew also assisted in engineering blimps for the IMAX camera. It knocked the camera noise down slightly, but Cinematographer/ Operator Hoyte Van Hoytema would hoist the IMAX camera on his shoulder doing it handheld so the blimp proved too cumbersome. Doug Shamburger would have the actors re-enact their movement and dialog immediately after a successful shot to capture a clean performance, wild. Willie Burton prefers the Zaxcom Deva, with a Fusion, two Deva 5.8's and a Mix-12. His wireless are Lectrosonics, with a varied mixture of microphones; Sennheiser MKH 50's, and the Schoeps CMIT 5U, whatever is best for the situation. I asked them how it was working with Christopher Nolan. Their first comment is that Chris does rehearsals, which allowed them the opportunity to figure out how to boom the scene effectively. Willie elaborates, "You just have to be prepared with Chris. Chris works hard, he's always there and you have to pay attention to what he's doing, 'cause he'll change things. Thanks to Doug and Rene, who were always there diving in. We could be shooting in one place, the next thing is, oh, we're over here. But we had everything that we needed. One thing I can thank Chris for is that he took me to scout on all the locations we were filming, all the department heads and now how cool is that!" "I had this large sound cart, this huge sound cart," continues Willie, "but by being able to scout the locations, I sized down to a very small cart and now I would never go back to my large one. It's small and very simple, we could pick it up, move it around, it really paid off." "There's no way you can't know what's going on 'cause you're standing right next to the man," explains Doug, "I'm talking rain, sun, he's standing, we're all in the rain, he's got his hood off and the rain is pouring down, while he's looking at these little monitors, these little Casio monitors—was the only vid- eo village to speak of, and that was around his neck. When you're right around camera, he's standing all day, so if anything, you feel like a sol- dier, and you're gonna stand right there next to him shoulder to shoul- der with the dolly grip, the DP, a Camera Operator, the First AC, all the immediate people that are primarily involved. It's just an old school way of doing it, but it's quite effective. I felt that's the way movies should be made, not fifteen- to twenty- minute takes where no one can reset or adjust. Chris's takes run three minutes, four minutes, five minutes, and then we make our adjustments afterward, and improve upon the next take." Rene continues, "There was no video feed, but Willie was often close enough that he could see the action." Doug jumps in, "There's a sense of camaraderie working on a Chris Nolan movie. He's a foot soldier, he's right in the trenches with you. There's just such teamwork. You're out there, you may be on a boat with a camera, the camera operator, focus puller, we're handing mags over to load the camera. We're all tugging on the same rope trying to make this quality project and it's just really a unique set of circumstances. Chris Nolan sees, he sees it all and he's watching how we all work collectively. "No one's disconnected or looking at their phone," says Doug. "You're totally one hundred percent vested in every given moment throughout the course of a twelve- to thirteen-hour day. He's right there with you, and he's got a good sense of humor too. We laughed a lot. Throughout the course of the day, he's not uptight, but he's no nonsense. Chris jokes around, with a dry sense of humor, but he's still right there, making it. It was really an adventure." Willie sums it up: "Obviously, it's a challenging film and when you're working with Chris, it's very challenging. But we all lived up to that. Some films are simple, you're mixing two or three faders and that's all you do. I like the challenge of figuring it out to get the best possible sound and I like the way Chris works. He's definitely demanding, but that's how it should be. I think as a department head, you go to work to give one hundred percent, that's how Chris works, he won't ask you to do anymore than he would do. You do a movie like this (unfortunately, I haven't seen it), but the end result is the most important thing that counts. For me, the performance is in the voice, and when it clicks, it's very musical."