Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1500728
were locked-down sets. The others were open to the public while we filmed, which, as you can imagine, made those days that much more interesting. The courthouse was located in Huntington Park, which is five miles south of Los Angeles. It was decommissioned for budgetary reasons years ago, and it's been in disuse since. Most recently, it was used as a, wait for it, a Halloween funhouse. The Construction Department did an amazing job of bringing the building back to its former glory. The building sits between city hall and the police station, both still active, which caused us unending grief with RF issues (more on that later). All the sets had hidden cameras installed. We considered hiding plant microphones in a couple of the sets, but we soon abandoned the idea, as it's one thing to hide a mic from the cameras for a few hours, and quite another for someone who might be sitting only a few inches away, day after day. Most of the story beats take place in the jury deliberation room. The cast and our Hero would start the day here before entering the courtroom, and then later be back to discuss the case or spend their lunch breaks. The other main set was the courtroom. We had several MKH50 microphones on fixed mounts, hardwired to the main cart. As a backup, both the judge and the attorneys had their own lavaliers feeding recording packs, which we downloaded at the end of every day. We also had interview spaces on the north side of the building. They were pre-lit, with booms set up for proper sit-down interviews. The windows in the interview rooms faced the police department just one hundred yards north of the courthouse blasting twenty watts of RF at random times. We had constant issues here, which kept me from recording clean audio at the main cart. This prompted us to run hundreds of feet of antenna cable, from one end of the courthouse to the other; even to the roof, to cover the action in a couple of exterior scenes. We installed an RF Venue 4 ZONE antenna combiner in the cart, which I had to "operate" when the action moved from one set to another. In order to avoid overloading the antennas, I had to switch different zones on and off, depending on where the actors were headed. requiring two mixers at all times. I'm incredibly fortunate Dan Kelly was available. He's a very experienced mixer with many "live-to-tape" projects under his belt. Those typically contend with multiple cameras and elaborate technology, and also, more to the point, few opportunities for a second take. Besides, he's such a calming presence on set, a welcome contrast to my hyperactive, somewhat neurotic self. I had to find a new Utility Sound person as my "usual suspects" were already working on other shows. I decided to try out Jennifer Zhang based on a colleague's recommendation. Jen lived up to her accolades; she's extremely organized and efficient, and always with a smile on her face. We were lucky to have her, considering all the moving parts we had to deal with every single day. Several other Local 695 members helped us along the way. John Maynard was with us for a couple of days during prep, as well as Denis Perez, Raam Brousard, and Ethan Molomut who joined the team on some of the "big" days. Tad Chamberlain jumped onboard for one day as well, to replace Dan. I feel extremely lucky to work with such experienced and dedicated professionals. Location, location, location Our script called for a courthouse, a hotel for sequestered jurors, a restaurant, and a city park. Only the courthouse and the hotel