Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1277960
Summer 2020 – LOCAL695.ORG 31 Was it difficult to wire because the costumes had to be sweaty or wet? José Antonio Garcia: That was a major battle because they were constantly keeping the costumes wet, spraying them with water mixed with glycerin to look like sweat. I was constantly washing the Sanken lavs because eventually the element gets wet. The humidity and the heat prevented anything from sticking. For most of the actors, I had them wearing the URSA lav chest straps. My wires are Lectrosonics and I was recording on the Sound Devices 688 with the CL- 12 mixer. Sometimes I needed two 688's because of the amount of people involved, eleven in some scenes. Your longtime Boom Operator is Jonathan Fuh, and he prefers the Sennheiser 50. José Antonio Garcia: I love the '50,' my favorite sound. Other brands of microphones wouldn't have lasted two minutes in the humidity and heat. Were you mostly with a bag rig or did you have a cart? José Antonio Garcia: I had both. We sometimes went with the bag, but that was limited to six receivers. If I needed more, I'd take the Venue off the cart and just go with a battery. There is a lengthy boat scene where they go upriver, sort of an homage to Apocalypse Now. There couldn't have been much room for you and Jonathan between the cast and the camera. José Antonio Garcia: There was no room. Jonathan got in there, he never stands down, but you know, he is a filmmaker, so yeah. Most of the time, it was a fight to get space on the boat. I was on the roof. We started with myself and Video Assist, but then we were going under some bridges that were kind of iffy, so I wanted to minimize the danger. I ended up running the video system, and the audio from the top. Always ready to jump in, in case the bridge was too close for comfort. That's very challenging. The entire movie is on location. Did you have any built sets? José Antonio Garcia: Very few. There were a couple of them, an old house they redid very nicely, another was the radio studio set of Hanoi Hannah, a little set built at the same location of the Apocalypse Now Disco in Ho Chi Minh City. How was it working with Spike Lee? José Antonio Garcia: I love the man, he is so energetic, so contagious with his energy. I think it defines him very well that the first day of shooting we did the Black Lives Matter scene. A lot of people think it was an afterthought, but that was day one of the shoot. He flew all these people from the States to Chiang Mai. It was amazing, that's the spirit of Spike, he's very convinced about his beliefs. He really pushed us with his vision and it's very, very contagious. This project reminds me of my origins; documentaries. The way Spike shoots is very similar to a documentary. There was barely From top: Boom Operator Jonathan Fuh; Antonio mixing from the bag.