Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1545202
C I N E M A A U D I O S O C I E T Y. O R G 67 MATTHEW NICOLAY: One of the problems with this process is that we never had the luxury of having the helmets, the gear, and the cast all at the same time. I suggested the possibility of holding a full rehearsal on a Saturday. Not surprisingly, no one liked that idea except me, so that just wasn't going to happen. ALEX LOWE: Most of the wireless transmitters were in use at first unit. I brought a rough version of the communication setup to the Peacemaker production office. It was pretty much two stand-ins, not the cast. We only had the helmets because the suits weren't ready. We had all the necessary components to make an effective demo. In the end, James Gunn and Ed (1st AD) understood what we were trying to accomplish. MATTHEW NICOLAY: The day before shoot day, Kurdice Neal and I coordinated frequencies of the wireless transmitters. KURDICE NEAL: I had a two-hour pre-call at the stage. The costume department gave me the "hero helmets" and I went to work placing the transmitters and microphones in the helmets. There was a room at Trilith Studios next to the stage. It was an assembly line. Extras and stunt performers get suits first, then Alex's utility would hook up the IFB earpiece, then the boots, then gloves, last but not least, helmets. MATTHEW NICOLAY: One by one the cast arrived to get their helmet, do a sound check, and head to set. That's when we had our one-and-only problem. ALEX LOWE: On the day, we quickly realized our #1 frequency was going to be the boom. As I'm a playback operator, it's not something that I'd typically think of. I had lined up all the channels according to their corresponding cast member. There was no need to send the boom through the workflow. Thankfully, Lectrosonics is so intuitive, we quickly found a new frequency and adjusted. We had to wire and put in earpieces away from set and the rest of the cast, one by one, so we didn't have a chance to test it before the whole cast was on set and ready to film. There were a few costume adjustments that we worked out. A quick "Everyone can hear us?" and then it was "Roll camera!" MATTHEW NICOLAY: I thought, "Straight up, if we get a first take without any technical problems it will be a miracle!" I pushed the record button and the scene played out. Ed called "cut" and I waited for one, two, SIX people to say, "I can't hear anything," but it never happened. I exhaled; we had done it. ALEX LOWE: Take one went as if we'd been doing it all week. And then for the next two weeks, we'd add some cast. We added another VOG for the stunt coordinator that fed a Comtek setup into the stunts. And, as with most productions, we made adjustments along the way. As with any setup, I walked away learning some new tricks, things I would adjust for next time. The whole show went really well. The cast were super pleased with their comms setup, and I feel it helped to add a sense of realism to their performance. You could see the surprise on their faces when they were in a group, "So you can hear me? I don't hear myself, but I can hear everyone else." And then they just took it for granted and the jokes started coming out when cameras weren't rolling. A win. MATTHEW NICOLAY: Having won the day on stage, there was one more battle left to fight. The production would have a few practical locations, and we would have to take our hazmat suits out into the real world. Michael Wynne CAS took on the not easy task to sub for me in the last few weeks of the production. I did extensive prep sessions to make Michael's transition as smooth as possible. ALEX LOWE: I designed my system to be mobile and work in any environment. Moving outside to an open field made absolutely no difference. However, Michael Wynne had a pretty significant learning curve to undertake. MICHAEL WYNNE CAS Additional Production Sound Mixer On Peacemaker S2, I had the benefit of falling into the signal flow and mix workflow established between playback Alex Lowe and Matt Nicolay for the "zombie helmet" scenes, with the primary difference being that we were at an exterior location rather than a stage. Coming on later in the show to take over for Matt for the last two episodes was no small task. It was quite apparent that the crew was very dialed in, including his team that I had the pleasure to work with. Our director, James Gunn, was very focused, and let's just say he really appreciated when things worked without a hitch! Playback track allocation