Production Sound & Video

When negotiating for two Boom Operators, I try to describe this to Producers, informing them I will be able to deliver twice as much usable production dialog, and ask them if they can afford not to have two Boom Operators? More and more shows have two Boom Operators in their credits which is really encouraging, especially on episodic television whose per-episode budgets are rising, and expecting feature-film levels of creative quality from every department. Wireless Microphones We used to watch the way a scene was blocked and make a decision whether radio mics would be necessary. We simply cannot make an accurate judgment despite watching a scene being blocked of when the second camera is going to shoot coverage during a wide shot where we cannot get a boom close enough. This is why many of us now choose to wire the cast as a matter of course, so that when we are presented with an impossible scenario for the booms, we are ready. Even though we dislike having to radio all the cast all day, there are benefits. We don't have to slow the shoot down and ask to mic the cast after the cameras set up angles the booms cannot cover. It also means less negotiation with on-set costumes when from the get-go, everyone knows the actors will be lav'd at all times. The question now becomes 'how' rather than 'why'? This is why the modern sound crew is more often a four- person team of the Production Sound Mixer, two Boom Operators, and a Utility Sound Technician (UST). This splits the workload and allows the UST to work closely with the cast and the Costume Department on the wiring, as well as carefully watching monitors during shooting to check if any lavs are being exposed. Frequency Coordination Gone are the days when all departments could rock up onto a job and simply expect their radio equipment to work. The Sound Department is using many more radio frequencies, including wireless booms, as well as radio mic'ing everyone. Frequency use on films sets used to only be necessary for a couple of departments, however, we are coping with the Camera Department using remote focus, iris control, and remote heads. The Video Department is transmitting and receiving their images via Teradek, the Grips are using crane comms, the Lighting Department using Wi-Fi to remote control their lamps, and Special Effects Department walkie-talkies. Even before the Sound Department encounters bandwidth issues on the locations we are shooting in, the film crew has an enormous amount of wireless, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi equipment trying to be shoehorned on the set. The Sound Department is the only department that really understands the subtleties and technical challenges of wireless frequency co-ordination. Unmanaged frequency plots will result in each department attempting to solve their numerous interference issues by increasing output power on their devices, mistakenly thinking that will cure the problems without realising they are causing inter-mods (interleaving modulations) across other department's equipment. The way we approach this during prep is asking Production to contact each HOD, and have a person in their department to collaborate with the rest of the departments regarding radio frequencies. We send an Excel spreadsheet to each department and ask their allocated person to input all of the equipment frequencies they are intending to use to Delivering lav tracks gives the Picture and Dialog Editors choices that will really help in post production. However, radio mic'ing the cast for every scene creates a much higher workload for the sound team, along with running a second boom full time. This can easily turn into an impossible task for the Utility Sound Technician if they are being expected to boom all day, and also put lavs on the entire cast. Lectrosonics Wireless Designer Wireless mics

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