Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/987068
25 the countryside. The car setup included all the common rigging and lighting, and to record audio, Curley tapped the bag version of his Pony Cart and placed a Sanken CUB- 01 boundary mic above the visor and wired the actors. Besides traditional drive-and-talks, cops would pull over vehicles or multiple cop cars would swarm in. In the latter case, additional wires were needed and the boom would join in to pick up sound. "There was a lot of adapting as we went along," explains Curley. "They eventually changed the driving shots to green screen for more control because many of the roads were extremely bumpy and shook the frame." Luckily, it wasn't all exterior location work as the sound team found itself inside the Helena, Montana, Capitol Building for a scene where Jamie Dutton (Wes Bentley), a lawyer, tries to defend the family position. The sequence had Jamie speaking at a lectern in front of the governor and other officials. To cover its sound, booms were played overhead and the podium microphones in front of them were turned on and recorded to a separate track as an option for post. Additionally, Curley turned off the PA system inside the chamber so it would not interfere with the lavs or boom mics. One of the larger interior scenes of the pilot took place at a cattle auction. As John enters the building, the camera tracks him around the auction area where hundreds of extras sit and on up to a second floor VIP room. He grabs a seat and watches a little girl sing the National Anthem as others approach him with their own concerns. The scene was filmed at an actual cattle auction location in Utah and Curley brought in a live audio person to set up the PA speaker system and stage mics. More than six hundred feet of XLR cable was run for the setup. Curley hid behind a door underneath the VIP room and was able to mix in the National Anthem, crowd and cattle noises into his mono track, along with the natural reverb of the auction. Upstairs, multiple lavs and a boom recorded the dialog between the characters. Mixing, Curley prefers to run a limiter "just in case," as with digital, "the only thing that can't seem to be fixed is overmodulation." "Running the limiter makes me aware of my gain structure. If I find myself hitting the limiter more often than I should, I turn the gain down. It keeps me honest," says Curley. He also tends to not play with parametric EQ basing, his philosophy on the idea that it's better applied in a controlled environment where it can be easily removed if it doesn't work. A low-frequency roll-off around 80 Hz or as much as 120 Hz is added to the mix if something noisy is nearby like in many of the scenes that feature a helicopter. John Dutton uses a helicopter as a mode of transportation around the ranch. Dialog driven scenes took place either directly outside before boarding or through headsets during flight. To record usable audio, the team employed two methods: one with the helicopter turned off completely and the other with the engine turned off but the rotor still churning. Wide and tights are the norm for most productions, but the sound team faced super-wide shots to show the striking landscape coupled with extremely close shots that followed the action. "We were getting the audio, not the way we'd like to, but something I learned over the years is that you address your concerns and ultimately you have to let them decide." To curb larger audio issues, the wide camera would be turned off once they achieved what they wanted visually. Curley pushed the gear to its limits, often running 10 ISO tracks with some scenes featuring eight different speaking parts. Double booming was the norm and actors were wired the majority of the time with the exception of some stunt and action sequences. The mixer arrange his wires in dialog order so he could visually see the progression of the scene on his faders. "It's easier not to get confused this way instead of going back-and-forth across the board. If I haven't brought up a fader, I know the dialog will still be coming." Production preps its next three-camera shot as White looks for a place to boom. Photo: Courtesy of Paramount Network