Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1535953
30 PRODUCTION SOUND & VIDEO – Summer 2025 mics (Shure and Sennheiser) when we were shooting with a cabled look, and Lectrosonics HHa, and even UT400 mics when shooting a wireless handheld look. We typically set up four to six plant mics (Sanken COS-11's and Sennheiser MKH50's) for the audience depending on size to help post with timing. A typical day on Hacks finds us with all cast wired and working with one or two booms depending on how giving the frames are. We have a wonderful camera department, and Ryan works well with our operators in finding solutions even if we have four mirrors and five glass doors in a shot, and yes, that's happened. Midway through the first season, both sound and camera suggested that perhaps we were making a show about mirrors. We're a three-camera show, and often that precludes running a second boom, but, when necessary, Claire jumps in and kills it every time. A Sound Utility with refined boom skills is a huge asset, so hats off to Claire. My favorite days are when we are double swinging old school and I barely ever get past fader #2. Even with all the help from the camera operators, there are plenty of instances when the lavs just need to work. We always make a point of getting to know our costume department as early as possible and start making plans for anything that may require some additional work. Everyone on the Hacks costumes team has gone out of their way to help us work things out, back came in handy during some of our golf course days when the only vehicles available to run us up and down the courses were gators. One of the highlights of the show for me has been working with our wonderful cast of talented performers and just really great people. Our leads, Jean Smart and Hannah Einbinder, keep us laughing at the sound cart, and are also some of the kindest people I've ever worked with. The opportunity to work with Jean doing her stand-up comedy scenes has been a one-of-a-kind experience. We laugh a lot on this show, and then some days, we also get to play with sound reinforcement in a legendary L.A. or Vegas venue or some hole in the wall comedy club. Jean had requested that her mic be live for all stand-up work, and who am I to tell Jean no? After some discussion with post and our showrunners, we landed on the understanding that Jean needed to hear herself, the audience in larger venues needed to hear her, and that we wanted as little of the "house system" getting into her microphone as possible. Fortunately, Claire has years of live sound experience and along with Ryan did an incredible job at positioning speakers so that they could work for various camera angles and lenses while giving Jean and the audience all they needed by keeping the bulk of the house out of Jean's microphone. We chose standard dynamic Claire Mondragon booming a scene at the Grand Canyon