Production Sound & Video

32 PRODUCTION SOUND & VIDEO – Summer 2021 of two Sound Devices 788t and a 702t, Sennheiser 60's and 50's combined with Lectrosonics SM transmitters. "I have the same cart that Geoff Patterson designed. Geoff built a cart for me, David McMillan, and another for Steve Bowerman. All of us got used to working with Geoff and this cart. It's done me well over the years with all the modifications that I've put on it." Craig has kept all his mounts and extra custom rigs he used when he was booming, including his own Fisher boom offset that he designed for himself. Location Sound liked his design and had twenty of them manufactured for sale. Fisher booms were prevalent in the early part of his career. "The whole staging of television shows has evolved. They've gone from an open proscenium style to copying practical locations, or worse, with some sets built three feet off the ground." Craig has been mixing the popular Netflix series Grace & Frankie since it began and will be starting the eighth and final season in June. Earlier this year, Craig mixed the series Solos for Amazon which starred Morgan Freeman, Helen Mirren, and Anne Hathaway, under strict COVID-19 safety protocols. "I had to send so many feeds out as we had actors that were off set, actors who were on set, all of them were in pods, needing their own feeds, headsets, and microphones. We had a lot of situations that were basically on the fly. I had to double up iso's a lot, that doesn't happen on Grace & Frankie. It's basically one or two mics and that's the end of it." The majority of Grace & Frankie is on stage at Paramount Studios. Occasionally, they shoot on the beach and Craig will wire the cast. "The biggest concern is not the waves but the wind, you don't want to dampen it too much to kill your top end, but you find a way of getting through it." The driving scenes are all shot on stage against green screen or LED panels. "We try to pare down a lot of stuff and keep it as simple and fast as possible to get our days done. Shawn will just put a rig in the sun visor, two mics each side, very simple. It's pretty straightforward in terms of getting sound." Craig offered advice for those coming up or starting out. "Understanding your equipment, microphones are not perceptive entities, they are mechanical devices. I once explained to a young director why the actor needed to bring his voice up. You just have to work within the technical parameters of the microphone. One of the best things to do is to understand the psychology of leading a crew, especially for up-and-coming Sound Mixers because that was the one thing that I found as a Boom Operator, each mixer had their own way of interacting with their crew. It helps to understand so they can work to their best ability, having a door open where they can come to you. You don't want to humiliate a Boom Operator or anyone else. The last thing I want to do is go on set and take a decision out of the Boom Operator's hands. Psychologically, it's a disaster, it creates a very bad situation if the person gets intimidated, second-guessing themselves. You've got two people that have to get everything done, and the best way to do it is to leave them on their own, or at least guide them in a way that's not intimidating or bullying." Craig considers his career as a blessing and he has plans of going back to university to study music when he does retire. As Craig explains it, the last year of lockdowns has given him some practice. "A flight test of landing a 747 that I've never been able to fly on a runway called retirement without crashing and burning. It's been an interesting forty-three years." Laura Rush wiring Emil Hersch on Alpha Dog Lily Tomlin, Martin Sheen, June Diane Raphael, Ethan Embry, Brooklyn Decker, Baron Vaughn, Sam Waterston, Jane Fonda, Peter Gallagher

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