Production Sound & Video

The most difficult modification I undertook was that of the "Talker" equipment. Anyone who has seen a period Navy film would recognize the device that looks like a switchboard operator's mouthpiece worn around the neck and a pair of old school headphones. This device allows any "Talker" to move around the ship plugging in where required and transmitting the orders from the Captain or receiving information from all different parts of the ship. This unit had to function in a duplex style as the script called for multiple overlaps of info coming over the headphones and orders going out via the mouthpiece, as would be the case in a battle scenario. Again, however, these had to remain period and look unaltered. They would be front and center on camera as they were worn by some of our principal actors. Oh, yes, one more thing: the Talkers operate both inside and outside of the ship so they would be getting soaking wet from the special F/X water sprayers, Ritter fans, and misters. After taking them apart and drilling access holes, I wired a Countryman B6 in each mouthpiece, added a ton of acoustic foam for wind protection, wired new headphone drivers, sourced some old-looking cable to replace the existing and created an exit for my signal cables at the chest harness so that each actor could wear a transmitter for the mic and an IFB for the headphones. These IFB's received the same mix as the director/producer so that the actors were aware of their place in the scene and luckily, the 1940's headphone pads still cut out a lot of background noise from our SFX equipment. The sonar operator had another set of headphones that were sourced from an old aviation store and luckily they worked, so I only had to modify the plug for an IFB. The sonar room also had a Bitch-Box and a dedicated Omni mic. I placed more painted Omni mics hardwired into the pilothouse at the entrance and exits as it was such a tight set a boom could never get into those spots. Movable plants were used in many locations depending on the scene. Actors were wired in their helmets during battle stations and on their clothing when not. Betsy, my Boom Operator, spent most of the show on an ENG pole with a Neumann KM185 as the pilothouse was so tight (a Schoeps CMC couldn't handle the moisture), and when not in the pilothouse, she was getting soaking wet using a Sanken CS3E with full Rycote zeppelin with sock, windjammer, and rain-man on the fly bridge. We played a lot of sound FX throughout the shoot (many different gunfire sounds, airplanes, sonar pings, etc.). Some were from editorial but most were sourced from free FX libraries and I modified them on the fly for pitch, speed, volume, and multiple sample layering for loudness. This was done with Steinberg's Wave lab and they were cranked through my 2k watt six-speaker system mounted all around the ship. I treated the workflow like a mashup of production audio and live sound applications. I gave multiple feeds to multiple IFB channels, sent production audio to the Comms Mixer, received ISO channels back from the comms for recording and to feed into the dailies, and played the sound FX live. I used two Sound Devices 788t recorders, (timecode and sample rate locked), the first as a dedicated production audio recorder, the second recording the hardwired Omni mics, the handheld voice actors mics and the sound FX scratch track for reference. One unforeseen advantage to all of these channels of audio and discreet feeds was that the Director was also given a PTT mic that we could route into any set or any Bitch-Box or phone or even into the headphones of the Talker all of which was invaluable as the communication when all the Special FX, gimbal, and Sound FX were going was somewhat difficult. It was a very ambitious project and required a lot of forethought, but once dialed in, it went very smoothly. Thanks to the producers' and director's desire and my crew's great work. L-R: Hero Helmets awaiting mics and trans- mitters. (We controlled all props that were wired for sound at all times); full test of Talker equipment in battle stations gear IFB 1 TBS IFB 2 Sound Phone IFB 3 Video Village Talker 1 Headphones Mic PILOTHOUSE SET BITCH BOX(SPK) BITCH BOX(MIC) SOUND PHONE TBS OMNI MIC PORT OMNI MIC STARBOARD CIC SET BITCH BOX (SPK) BITCHBOX (MIC) SOUND PHONE Talker 2 Headphones Mic Talker 3 Headphones Mic Mic in Talkers Aux 1 Send Mic in Omni VO Mic feed B/B Speakers out B/B mics in Aux 1 &2 Send PTT 1 PTT 2 PTT 3 Directors PTT Dir. PTT in VO PTT in COMMS MIXER VOICE ACTORS SOUND MIXER Greyhound comms Photo courtesy of Apple TV+

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