Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1521715
Summer 2024 – LOCAL695.COM 25 multiple hidden cameras (this went way beyond the old two- camera "wide and tight" situation), and his insistence on using authentic sound captured on location, it was immediately clear that we would not be able to have Boom Operators on set and therefore, would need the ability to position microphones to match the sound from the perspective of each camera. In order to do this, we had to design a system whereby we could have multiple microphone positions available to us and the ability to switch microphones around those positions as quickly as possible, according to any changes the director made. Key to this system was that Jon wanted the actors to feel free to interpret their actions and dialog within the environment and that meant no film paraphernalia would be apparent on all sets and locations. Cameras were to be hidden and disguised and the Camera Operators and assistants would work remotely in order that the actors would inhabit their environment with the most freedom possible. Indeed, the set was to be considered live from the moment the actors left the base camp. From this point, no crew were to be present and all equipment was to be concealed and ready to roll as Jon, seeking to capture natural and spontaneous moments, could call action at any time. The central location for the film was the Hoss family home, a house replicating the actual Hoss family home which stands at the entrance to the Auschwitz camp. Production Designer Chris Oddy gave us a floor plan of the house and from that we designed a system whereby, bearing in mind that those ten cameras meant there would be no possibility of Boom Operators carrying out their usual roles, we would "mic the house and garden." Back in the UK, Johnnie Burn and his team set up a number of tests in order to find the best microphones/techniques to match sound to picture. Ambisonics mics were one idea, and, given their smaller physical footprint, strategically placed radio mics were also considered. However, given the amount of RF on set with the camera department operating remote focus and iris controls on ten cameras which required their own network of Teradek and wi-fi routers stationed around the whole set, various walkie-talkie frequencies coordinated for different departments, etc., I didn't want to be reliant entirely on RF in a situation which could see us with anything up to twenty mics in play and where the finer details and nuances were so critical to Jon's idea. With Jon wanting to run long takes, I couldn't afford to have any interference issues. We decided the best approach would be to (replicate the work of a Boom Operator as closely as possible) and so we decided to suspend cabled mics from the ceilings throughout the house and complement these with plant mics if we could successfully hide them on set. After more discussion with Johnnie, we decided that our approach would be to divide the larger rooms into quarters and cover each quarter with a mic position. Smaller rooms would be halved and corridors would be divided, according to their length. The house was on two floors plus one further room in the attic meaning to cover all those spaces, we had to allocate almost fifty mic positions. We chose Sennheiser MKH50 and MKH8060 as our go-to mics with the addition of a couple of Schoeps CMIT's that were made available to us locally. Of course, it would have been ideal to have had a mic for every position to give blanket coverage in the house and garden but given the budget of the movie, there was no way I was getting fifty mics to play with! So, we went with what we had and simply selected the appropriate mic positions, according to the scenes we were shooting on any given day.