Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/778398
C A S Q U A R T E R L Y W I N T E R 2 0 1 7 37 round. I just had to carry it in the desert for 24 days with David and Zach ready to help when I started to puff and wheeze. I actually had a little portable camping table that I would set it on when it was possible. I delivered 16-gig flashcards to our DIT with 48 kHz, 24-bit poly files at a 23.976 frame rate. Those cards would then be sent to E-Film back in LA and I would keep a copy on my backup drive. Flashcards would then be brought back on set after a couple of days to be reused Now, when I started this article, I was talking about sim- plicity. It was a remarkable experience to be able to use one microphone on many scenes, due to one camera coverage and being able to play perspective. The desert is a uniquely quiet environment and that allowed us to play many master shots on the boom. We were able to use the full gain of the preamps on the Deva and still have quality, intelligibility, and perspective. We did have the actors wired as a second- ary recording for post as the wardrobe was mic-friendly. But for my taste, the boom was preferred. There were occasions where my boom operator, David, could not believe how well the Sanken performed in spite of the distance from the actors. The question would be: "Did you use the wires there?" and I would say, "Nope, all boom." There were times I would look at David's placement and not believe the proximity I was getting in this quietest of natural environments. For some of our sequences, Ewan McGregor was by himself walking, mumbling in the desert, and really it was all Foley FX. At these times, the crew footsteps were too obtrusive but it was important to get these practical Foley-type FX and mumbles as well as breathing. Ewan and all our actors participated fully in wild-track recordings of Foley efforts and breaths. What a treat it was to have actors so invested in what I needed to accomplish and our director, Rodrigo Garcia, fully on board to facilitate this. Our Steadicam operator was Colin Anderson. I've worked with Colin many times and he is good humored and very sensitive to the needs of the sound department. On some of our walk and talks, his crew would be reminded of the need to walk quietly since I was picking up every grain of sand being overturned. As we progressed in the project, Colin would constantly be servicing the Steadicam rig because the fine sand would become imbedded in the arms of the rig and begin to squeak. The slightest movement would be picked up in this noiseless environment. I had quite a few people on the crew ask me about ringing in their ears, and I hated to tell them it sounded like tinnitus. "Waterwork" in the town of Julian, close to Borrego Springs Camera and Sound Departments