by Paul Ledford CAS
You get the phone call to do a space movie
and after the first rush of excitement,
the mind conjures the thought that a
space movie on the moon means ten
spacesuits on stages. Spacesuits mean
helmets, and the need for a no-fail two-
way communication across all actors,
stunt actors, and many key positions on
set. It is a must for safety, a must for
the workflow to make our day, and then
there is the sound capture thing. The
basic concept is not new here, but every
year, we have new equipment with new
techniques to bring forward to fulfill
the needs while working around new
equipment from other departments that
also need to be factored in or resolved.
Clear-Com
FreeSpeak
onCrater
I have had my share of good turns at
single- and double-billed shows with
spacesuits, along with a most disastrous
project of multi-crew spacesuits that
proved to be two weeks plus of pure
stomach aching hell. That toxic trial
provided many lessons and I was a bit
reluctant to repeat that same experience
given this Disney production of
Crater
had the bulk of days in spacesuits with
five teenagers and lots of wire work in
the air. While not a huge cast count by
most production standards, this could
not be a show up, hook up, and go
project. It gets complicated quick and
the charting of signal flow starts to
cross over the lines early on.
