Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1057439
70 F A L L 2 0 1 8 C A S Q U A R T E R L Y Times have changed and are further changing in regard to a production company's methods for shooting running-vehicle scenes. Two extremes exist. b y D e v e n d r a C l e a r y C A S The first one being a climate-controlled studio technique employing either green screen, rear screen projection, or "poor man's process," which uses just a black backing and moving lights to create the illusion. The second is a practical scenario. This practical scenario is what will be discussed in this article. This is where the actors drive themselves. A cameraman or two and a director may take up every spot in the vehicle, forcing the sound mixer to find a potentially unmonitored solution. My colleagues and I have seen a decrease in the use of process trailer utilization. But thankfully, it hasn't completely disappeared. Whatever the excuse may be, tight production schedules seem to be the cause and producers seem to be leaning toward Cart-to-Car filming running scenes in a way that is streamlined in their view but not necessarily ours. While process trailer work may not be 100 percent safe in itself, it's a whole lot safer than this corner-cutting method. Regardless of how much I may want to just rant, a productive answer is: production sound mixers have been required to come up with a variety of solutions to this style of shooting. Of all the solutions that will be discussed here, I am open to any and all ideas on how to solve this, EXCEPT putting yourself in the trunk of a car. That is not productive nor safe. Below is a description of some possible methods to capture great sound from a moving vehicle. PROCESS TRAILER It's easy to have a love/hate relationship with process trailer work as a sound mixer. When observing this method relative to car-to-car or any type of free-driving, it's easy to look upon process trailer work as being at least somewhat civilized and safe. There are two ways a sound mixer can approach this. The first approach requires loading a portable recording setup into the cab where, in the passenger seat of the "Shot Maker" rigs, they provide a decent-sized shelf for placing your equipment. The next step is running various connections out of the cab via the rear window or a provided rat hole. Options for connections include either (a) just RF cables for antennas rigged outside, nearer to the picture vehicle that's being towed. Or (b) hardwired analog microphone cables plugged directly into plant mics. Or (c) hardwire analog cables wired to a cluster of wireless receivers placed inside the picture car. Or (d) digital network cables that also could be interfacing a cluster of wireless receivers. With (b), (c), or (d), the important detail is having the ability to provide a break point for these connections where the tow hitch is located. The advantage of options (c) and (d) is that the performance of the wireless connection between the talent worn microphones will be monumentally more reliable than receiving antennas rigged outside of a metal car that can behave like a mild version of a Faraday cage. This particular challenge is of upmost concern in addressing running shots and becomes a reason to lose sleep at night. The second approach toward process trailer work includes loading the entire sound cart onto the deck of the Shot Maker rig. This is one of two descriptions which motivated the title of this article to include "Cart-to-Car." Many of my colleagues do employ this method but to make it possible, you obviously have to have a sound cart small and light enough. The upside to this method is that your entire audio workflow is