I have been lucky to have worked on a variety of parts of this industry and though I might not be working as the head sound on a massive Marvel movie or TV show I have done a fair bit of Location Recording and Boom Operating in some pretty high end shows. I have been blessed to be entrusted with the audio in various roles.
Film sets are a really magical place. I don't know any comparison. There is a complete mish mash of people with different points of views and backgrounds. When sets are working well then all departments are funnelling their expertise into a single focal point (quite literally) and we give the most amount of space to things that are more difficult to control, like performance weather and location.
So that's the ideal situation which has to have a very lucky set of things to come together. Firstly crew, the best crew that I personally have ever worked with have always had two things in common, a strong desire boost the quality of the final product even at the cost of their department and a passion or shall I say a nerd like excitement for their field. Let me explain.
I don't believe that one has to be a push over and shoot themselves in the foot at any confrontation but I prefer a crew member that can visualise the final product and ask themselves will this other departments need bring up the quality greater than what I want in this moment.
An example of this in my field is asking for multiple takes on a wide for Sound. Do I stitch up the AD, director, actors and camera team just for another go of audio. On rare cases yes but often I find other opportunities to fill the things I need in other takes, coverage, wilds and the such.
But that's an easy example, almost a no brainer. Let's say we have a wide shot and a mid shot and two actors being very physical and throwing in improvisation to boot. (Which often happened on the set of Heart Break High S1) well I need to run the check list, are the bugs salvageable? No they are being to physical. Well does the wide boom give us enough to repair that audio and keep audio continuity? Unfortunately not a wide Boom can't match a working close lav even if it isn't being trashed. Can I get wilds? Well maybe, but only if the actors can either match their performance on the print take and the editors only use said print take and or if the director knows exactly what they need from the audio in this scene. Can we go into ADR? Sure if the actors are able/available and the budget can accommodate it. OK so what about a compromise. Can the camera team lock off their wide, create a plate shot in order to edit out the booms in post? Well maybe depends on the background and the post budget. This is a regular train of thought when ever sound department is met with just one example on set. What's the answer then? Well depends on the final product, the heads of department can have a quick chat and after the director and 1st AD approval we decide.
This is where the industry shines and in an ideal world this is what it is like but like with anything there is a spectrum and even day to day difference in that kind of work flow. Even I can be a culprit of being to rigid about a scene from time to time. Nothing is perfect and that's kind of another reason this industry is so interesting. We create with limitations.
So clearly I could talk about this topic for a while and maybe I will on another post!
Feel free to check out my website and see what gear I have and some of the projects I have been lucky to be apart of my home page www.notchillisound.com.au
Till next time
This is Raf booming by the way! He is a legend and I got to work with him on a show called Strife S1 where i was a 2nd Boom/Lav Tec. He is the nicest boomie I have ever gotten to work with and also really talented too.
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