Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1399159
Fall 2021 – LOCAL695.ORG 25 choices on most scenes, to allow the score and sound effects volume to be raised. Whether the final choice was to be boom or lav was immaterial, it would be whichever sounded closer and richer. On the contrary, I felt it probable, based on the script and the way Bond films usually sound, that when we cut to the MI6 offices, the score would probably be lower in level and the sound effects sparse. It was an ideal opportunity to prioritise and celebrate camera perspective. We did this with three cabled booms on everything. At all times, we had the three boom poles cabled up and ready to go, with Ben Jeffes available to jump on to the third boom, joining Arthur Fenn and Robin Johnson whenever necessary. We used my all-time favourite film dialog capsule on the booms— the beautiful Schoeps MK41 hyper-cardioids, which I have always felt sound completely natural whether in close or wide positions. I had also just been sent some new prototype preamps by Schoeps to evaluate. They were the CMC1, a miniature version of the classic CMC6. There is no compromise: The CMC1 sounds just as good as the CMC6, and on paper are actually slightly better due to the modern circuitry within them. To my ears, they sounded exactly the same, but were smaller and lighter; a 'win-win'! As far as 'prioritising' the camera perspective, I was still using DPA lavaliers and Lectrosonics transmitters on all the actors. However, I decided to never fade them into the mix track on these scenes. They were there as a fallback in case the Picture Editorial team or Oliver were presented with circumstances that really required close-up dialog on a mid or wide shot. I wanted to create a confidence and familiarity within the Avid cut for Cary and the Picture Editors that would promote the sound I was trying to deliver on the MI6 scenes; an old school fully boomed sound that matched the camera angles. We were able to use cables on all scenes apart from one Steadicam walk and talk through multiple offices. Cabled booms are always my priority, and aside from an 'on-mic' bass cut of 60Hz between capsule and preamp to reduce infrasonic disturbances from any boom handling, all of the MI6 dialog was recorded without any EQ to really deliver the rich dialog I was trying so hard to achieve. Worthy of mention was another big scene we shot on the sound stage in the UK was a huge black tie event that Bond and actress Ana de Armas were attending. In this scene, both actors are able to talk to each other at a distance in whispers, via hidden comms, as they make their way separately through the party in constant covert communication. A lot of this scene would be covered by two cameras in real time, one camera on Bond and the other on Ana's character as they navigated their solo routes talking to each other. This gave Cary the ability to use direct action cuts, but it also meant we couldn't cheat the comms, they had to be real and reliable. We used our tried and tested 'musical' system of huge induction loops around the set, with Daniel and Ana fitted with bespoke earwigs that would be invisible on camera, unless Cary wanted them to be seen. The earwigs looked exactly the same as the items a real Secret Service agent would be using. I fed Daniel's lavalier into Ana's earwig and Ana's lavalier into Daniel's earwig, using auxiliary outputs on my Audio Developments AD149 mixer. This gave them the ability to communicate covertly and discreetly with each other in separate rooms exactly the same way two real agents would. It was a complex scene, and had we not have been able to deliver this audio solution, it would have compromised the approach Cary and Linus wanted to use with the cameras. I am very happy it all worked so smoothly. One of the rarer sound workflows we used on No Time to Die was the VFX paint out. It was a big scene with Rami Malek shot in a huge, beautifully designed set with very hard lights, precluding the use of booms. It was a performance-driven scene with pages of narrative as Rami encountered different characters. Cary chose to shoot on three cameras with two of them using very long lenses to get in close, but the third camera shooting extremely wide to capture the architecture of the set in all its splendour. After a rehearsal, I knew that Rami's costume was not going to allow us to get usable production dialog with a lavalier regardless where we placed it. Our booms could never get close, and even if we busted the wide shot, the booms would create shadows on the closer angles. I didn't have much time before shooting, so I quickly called Arthur over and asked him to go and talk to Rami and his hairdresser and ask if we could place the lav in his hair. Arthur was, of course, concerned that we would see a cable running down Rami's neck to the pack and I said, "leave that to me." I immediately went to our VFX Supervisor and explained the issue. I told him that I'd watched the rehearsals and the chance of us ever seeing the back of Rami's neck in the final cut was low, but if we did, could he agree to painting out the lav cable. The VFX Supervisor was extremely quick to agree to this at the last moment when time really was of the essence. All it took was for me to explain that his decision could potentially stop Rami and Cary having to ADR the whole scene. I think I was also helped by the fact this was the only time I asked for a paint out in the film. I went over to Arthur, Rami, and Craig and Fukunaga Robin Johnson and Arthur Fenn double boom the scene.