ProAudio Review - August 2008 - (Page 22)

BROADCAST | Feature TIPS Continued From Page 20 everything simultaneously with as low a profile as possible. You put wireless on the actors, you plant the set with zone coverage, and you have boom operators. And because we’re in a multi-track nonlinear environment, we can have alternate recordings simultaneously, More importantly, this facilitates a hybridized, non-traditional mix. If you would have recorded it with just two booms it would have sounded damn good in a certain way, but there would be holes during important parts of the action. So with multiple recordings, you have coverage for that. A lavalier with a wireless bodypack can sound very dry and unnatural, but I could blend that with miking the slap in the room so I’m opening up that lav — very seamlessly and hopefully complementary to what I’m getting from the boom. My boom mics are primarily Sanken CS3e. They afford us an enormous expansion of range of the boom operator’s capabilities. If I have a reflection problem I can go higher with the boom. Often my strategy is to use the boom as the primary approach because it offers the most naturalistic sound, but I am never dogmatic about this. I have a palette of lavaliers that span a dozen manufacturers SonoTrim, Countryman, Sennheiser AT, PinMic, et cetera - but the Sanken COS-11 is my dominant lavalier right now. They provide more natural results for a wider range of voice types. By using both Sanken booms and lavaliers I have more coherent acoustic results. As far as placement, I put them on as open a physical rig on the actors’ bodies as possible to minimize any contact noise and to have a more open and unfettered sound. Sometimes wardrobes require you to hide mics under clothing. When that happens, we use equalization, strategic placement, smoke and mirrors — often a solution reveals itself in the moment. You have to keep your mind open to new solutions because every movie you work on, every shot you work on, has never happened before. PRODUCTION SOUND TIPS: You have a reason to be there, and that is the collaborative support and protection of your client. You’re capturing performance and you’re there as an agent of the director and you can’t be afraid. Your presence is significant. But at the same time, don’t be an adversary. Don’t come to a project with a need to be right, to have a fight, or to have an ego issue. We are the drummers in the band. We’re invisible until we’re not there. We’re essential components to the process, and you need to have it clearly in your mind that your presence has value. If you don’t get that, the people you work for won’t. The most important tool that a sound person can have in a high-pressure environment is to be comfortable in their own skin and have clear in their minds the purpose of their involvement. Also, do your homework. Know the filmmaker and his approach for his film. Be a perpetual student of your instrument and know your tools. Never consider yourself at the apex of your capabilities because the minute you do, you’re done. PART TWO: BROADCAST MIXER MARK SKIPPER Every day is an adventure when producer/engineer Mark Skipper signs on for a broadcast mixing gig. As a senior broadcast mixer for clients such as NBC Sports, ESPN, and Versus, Skipper covers everything from professional basketball and football to BMX, Motocross and other "extreme" sports, including the 2007 Dew Action Sports Tour for NBC. Sonics, routing, and metering are some of the areas where the Calrecs excel. A remote production is plug-and-play. It's got to sound great pretty quickly. The Calrec range tends to give me that. The routing on the Alpha is nuts. I can do so many things. I need the ability to mix aggressively, and it helps having such a powerful desk. The metering is really comprehensive, accurate, and translates to air very nicely. EXTREME MIKING: Extreme sports are difficult to cover as an audio mixer. On a basketball court, I have a little white line defining where the guys are going to play. With extreme sports, there is an ever-evolving line on where to put microphones, or how to capture environment sounds, et cetera. It's not a traditional sport, so the way the commentators appear on the air can be different, as well. The majority of our talent wears wireless microphones the entire time and tend to be very mobile. When miking an event like this, there is commentary, crowd ambiance, and then the event itself. As an audio mixer, I'm trying to recreate what it is like to be a spectator. It's a hyper-reality perception I am trying to create, because Aviom AN-16/o modular audio distribution system His job almost always involves navigating a complex routing maze from within a remote production unit, but when there are skateboarders or motorcyclists involved, his role becomes even more challenging. PAR spoke with Skipper about the recording tools that don't just make his work easier, but possible. CAN'T LIVE WITHOUT: French press coffee! I carry my own pot. I also carry a "Q-box" for troubleshooting and a weller iron. There are a variety of pieces of outboard and microphones that I carry, like a handful of Shure mics, but airport travel makes carrying them more difficult than it used to be. So I carry less processing equipment with me nowadays. My ears are the most important piece of equipment by far. IN THE MOBILE PRODUCTION UNIT: Anytime I see a Calrec console in the remote complement, it's a good sign. I haven't found one yet that wasn't amazing. The Alpha Bluefin console is a killer, and the Q2 is a sonic fiesta for someone who loves great sounding analog gear. most spectators are not chasing a rider around and flipping through the air with them, but with the way I present the athletes, the viewers get that experience. They hear commentary and enthusiastic crowds, plus the perspective of being right there where the athlete is. I usually have one or two nice shotgun mics augmenting a camera perspective. If the camera is close to a rider that's at the top of a ramp or crashing onto a rail, that position gives me an advantage because the cameraman is aiming my microphone for me, as well. I put out lots of other microphones…you experience them when a rider goes by or glides on a ramp or slams something in a park. Crowd sounds are really important to the emotional temperature of an event. There's nothing quite like the sound of an excited crowd. You can't fake that. I use mics out on the crowd to capture that raw excitement. Heather Johnson is a San Francisco-based journalist and author whose books include “If These Halls Could Talk: A Historical Tour Through San Francisco Recording Studios” 22 | ProAudio Review | August 2008 www.proaudioreview.com http://www.proaudioreview.com

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ProAudio Review - August 2008 Contents Publisher's Page Broadcast News and New Products Yamaha Pocketrak 2G Olympus LS-10 Linear PCM Recorder Bench Test Marantz PMD620 Flash Recorder TASCAM DR-1 Portable Digital Recorder Tips From The Pros: Location/Production Audio Prosumer Portables in a Pro World Studio News and New Products Apogee Ensemble Solid State Logic Duende Mini FireWire DSP Live News and New Products Avril Lavigne's The Best Damn Thing World Tour Behringer Eurolive B412DSP and B415DSP Active Loudspeakers Gear for FOH Engineers — A PAR Contributors’ Wish List Contracting News and New Products Buyer's Guide Single Slice

ProAudio Review - August 2008

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