Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1487667
planes landing and taking off. This required an aerial unit located in Seattle, Washington to begin shooting coverage several weeks prior to the start of principal photography, and continuing their work concurrently with our own. Scenes with 1940s cars were going to be filmed as well. Plenty of opportunities to grab on-set production sound effects. I knew we were going to have to capture any sound effects on the fly, as holding up production was not an option. I set about to build a quick deploy stereo sound effect recording rig based around the Sound Devices Mixpre3 II that I already owned. The size of those Mixpre 3s is so small and light that they are easy to deploy quickly. Up to 192 kHz recording capability, Mid side, and jamable time code made it the perfect choice for the assignment. To supplement my Audio-Technica BP4025 condenser XY stereo microphone, I added a newer Sanken Short M-S Stereo Shotgun mic. The smallest K-Tek Stingray bag and a Sound Guy solution belt clip made for a very tidy rig. A Triad-Orbit tripod and a sandbag made for a stable mic mount to set up on set. With all that, we were ready to go. During battlefield scenes, explosions were so loud we used a couple of Shure SM 57 dynamic mics attached to Lectrosonics plug-on transmitters sending a signal back to the venue receivers and on the back of my main sound cart. The story of Devotion and our director's wish for a period accurate soundtrack afforded us many opportunities throughout filming to record many on-set sound effects. It is always a team effort. My crew consisted of Patrick M. Wylie, Boom Operator, John "Hank" Martin, Utility Sound, Alex Lowe, Pro Tools Music Playback Operator and Graham Kicklighter, 2nd Unit Sound Mixer assisted us with additional plane recordings. Devotion is a Sony/Columbia Pictures/Black Label Media production releasing exclusively in theaters on November 23.