Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/634968
37 gains, they thought something was wrong, so they raised all their gains … on the board, their power amps, what- ever they could pot up. The bad news for them is that the recording of the blast did not clip. It sounded pretty cool in fact. But I should have warned post more forcefully. You can imagine what it sounded like in the transfer bay. As groundbreaking Sicario is as a film, it was relatively simple for me. It was shot by the 'governor,' Roger Dea- kins. Roger operates himself and takes responsibility for every frame, so there are no 'splinter units,' six camera action shots, B units, tandem units, simultaneous wides and tights, etc. There wasn't even a B camera. Filmmak- ing is a much saner endeavor when there is one camera and a smart, knowledgeable director. We pretty much knew exactly what every shot was. Roger would give a frame line that was terrifyingly accurate. I'd watch on the monitor, as he'd bring the mic down right to the edge. I can't tell you how many times I've seen insecure opera- tors tilt up until they see the mic and say 'that's good.' Not Roger. The onus was totally on Jay and frequently on Andrejs as Second Boom. This was my first time working with Jay as my principal boom. He'd been my Third/Sec- ond Boom for years, but his mentor and the person who always made me look good, the legendary Joe Brennan, had just retired so it was time for Jay to bump up. He was nervous but I wasn't. He'd learned from best. The difference between a good boom person and a great one is their command of the set. It's easy for a younger boom op to be intimidated by the camera crew, especially when a world-famous DP is also the operator. Numerous times I heard Roger tell Jay there was no way he could get the mic in, in a particular shot, and every time Jay would go for it and find a way. The finale of the film, where Benicio del Toro catches up with the cartel head while he's eating dinner, was lit with bare incandescent bulbs. Roger just laughed as Jay worked his way in, telling him there are a hundred bulbs and a hundred shadows. But Jay pulled it off. We actually used two booms and a couple of plants. So, as I said, the job was relatively simple for me … but very rough on my crew. And then there was the arroyo. Three full nights of shoot- ing dusk until dawn as the Delta squad enters and returns from the cross border drug tunnel. The tunnel itself was a set at Albuquerque Studios … thank God. The arroyo was a steep-walled sandy canyon with only a few points where there was safe access to carry in equipment. I went in handheld mode for these scenes. To complicate matters, those scenes were shot with either night vision or infrared, so there was very little, if any, light. Our eyes got so used to the dark that the display on my Nomad was blinding. Fortunately, there are software commands to turn down the display and LED brightness. There was one 9 light on a Condor two hundred yards away from the set. The generator for that was placed by the Rigging Electric, Lamarr Gooch, who always cares about sound, so it was inaudible. But, power was needed in the arroyo so electrics brought putt-putts down for DIT and video village. Fortunately, I was saved by our Greens Department who were able to scramble up a dozen hay bales and would follow the electrics every time they moved their generators. They'd build a wall of hay surrounding the putt-putts on three sides with the sandy wall of the ar- royo as the fourth. That did the trick. I had an amazingly quiet location to work with. Once again, I had it easy while Jay had to scramble around in the pitch darkness with the boom, Zaxcom 992 transmitter and Schoeps CMIT. Andre- js was busy with the aux cart, wiring actors and changing batteries. Most of the wires were in their helmets, which worked very well. At least until Emily decided to take her helmet off mid-scene. Almost the entire film was recorded with boom mics, Schoeps CMIT and CMC6/41. Plant mics were mostly Sanken CUBs and the Audio Ltd HX/Schoeps 'stick.' Above: A goathead. Right: Jay Collins, Boom Operator, and Billy Sarokin in the New Mexico dust.