I was driving home from a film shoot last week, and was listening to ‘Last Word’ on Radio 4 when I heard the sad news that Olga Kevelos had passed away. I had met Olga earlier this year while working as sound recordist on a piece about the ‘Land Girls’ for The One Show, and was immediately struck by what a varied and fantastically interesting life she had led, as well as by what a friendly, intelligent and interesting woman she was.
We were filming for Real Life Media with Olga and two of her crewmates from the second world war when she and other young women took over running the barges up and down the canal system of Britain. They were known as ‘Idle Women’ - a title derived from the ‘IW’ emblazoned on their badge, but which actually stood for ‘Inland Waterways’, although the work they were required to do was intensive and hard by anyones standards.
We spent the day on an original barge used during the war, and Olga and two of her contemporaries talked about old times, and reminisced for the camera. It wasn’t until lunch that I found myself sitting next to Olga, and she began to tell me a little more about herself and her life. When I asked her what she did after the war I wasn’t entirely prepared for the reply I got; to paraphrase her slightly she said ‘After I left the Land Girls I became interested in motorcross - it started as a way to see my boyfriend at weekends at first, but I soon realised I enjoyed it and was quite good at it too - I won two gold medals’ … I didn’t quite know what to say - here was this sweet, twinkly eyed old lady with coiffured hair telling me that she had been a motorcross champion? I thought she might have been pulling my leg, but she continued; ‘I then ended up on Mastermind as a contestant’. When I asked her what her specialist subject was she replied ‘Ghengis Khan’… From what I can tell from other people who knew her much better than I, this was typical Olga - feisty, intelligent and with a cheeky sense of humour.
I only met Olga for a day, but in that time I was impressed by her drive and ability, the variety of her life and her obvious intelligence. There is more about her life and achievements in the obituary from the BBC which can be heard in the player below - for my part I am proud to have met her and learned a little about this extraordinary woman.
The clips of her talking about her time in the ‘Land Girls’ in this obituary were taken from the interview I recorded with her that day, and may well have been the last recorded interview with her. Below is a photo of us filming with Olga and her colleagues from the IW - Olga is the brown haired lady sitting in the middle on the boat.
For a while now I have worked as the Sound tutor at the Met Film School. The Met Film School is based in Ealing Studios which makes it quite handy for keeping in touch with what is being shot on the UK’s most successful film studio. Ealing Studios has a pretty illustrious past, being home to all the great Ealing Comedies such as the Lavender Hill Mob, and The Ladykillers. The studios are still much used today, as evidenced by the fact that John Landis is currently working there on a black comedy based on the graverobbers, Burke and Hare. Whenever I see John around the studios i have to maintain my professional dignity and not go running up to him blabbering how much i loved Trading Places, An American Werewolf in London, Coming to America, Thriller or any of the other numerous films he has made that had such an impact on me in my childhood especially.
Teaching at the Met is a really enjoyable experience - i particularly enjoy teaching sound for a few reasons - firstly i was lucky enough to be taught Sound at one of the best places possible - The National Film & Television School in Beaconsfield. I really appreciated being taught my subject thoroughly and by a range of people who not only knew what they were talking about, but had many years of professional experience behind them. When teaching filmmaking, sound often comes a poor second to the more glamorous subjects like camera and directing. There are not as many good quality sound courses in the UK as there perhaps should be, and running the sound courses at the Met Film School gives me a small chance to put that right. I have tried to imitate much of the excellence of courses such as the NFTS, Ravensbourne, Bournemouth and the Tonmeister course - all of which regularly produce high quality sound people of all types. We try and give the students a good understanding of how sound can impact on a film, its uses and how it can entirely alter the perception of a scene, as well as giving them practical skills and techniques to allow them to achieve this.
I really enjoy passing on a little of the excellent training i was given, and hopefully make a small contribution towards improving sound standards in UK filmmaking. I am now the Head of the Location Sound Department - this is probably due to there being no other tutors in this subject area! HOD by default you might say, but between the post production sound tutor, Alistair, and myself i think we offer an excellent learning experience in sound, along with all the high quality courses offered at the Met Film School.
Every now and again I get the chance to work as sound recordist on films that maybe have a slightly more serious purpose than other things i have worked on - the Action for Children adverts that I worked as sound recordist on would be a good example; a film that will hopefully inspire and provoke people to do something positive. I loved the Action for Children adverts, as working on them meant i met many of the children involved, and hearing their stories firsthand was a moving experience. I take satisfaction from the knowledge that the help these kids received from Action for Children has improved their lives, and by telling their stories another child who needs some help, will hear it and find the courage to speak up.
Recently I worked with Agenda Collective on a film for the Red Cross’s current campaign for raising awareness of ‘Refugee Week’, which celebrates the important contribution of refugees to UK society. The want us to look look beyond labels to the true identity of the refugee in modern Britain; ‘Only by looking beyond the status and label of ‘refugee’, can we overcome prejudice and help people restore their sense of identity and belonging.’ It resulted in what i think is a fantastic looking and sounding film - the ever excellent pictures of David Proctor DOP, Ryan Hopkinson’s lighting, a lovely score by the composer Richard Canavan, Peter Kings directing, editing, grading etc etc and of course Matthew Share, Sound Recordist. Agenda continue to raise their already extremely high standards; i think in parts the film looks the equal of a feature film, an effect helped by the high quality primes and Zeiss Superspeed lenses Dave used. Anyway, the video is shown below so i’ll stop boasting and let you make your own minds up.
I have recently had the pleasure of filming with good friend and colleague Peter King, and the Agenda Collective. We shot a series of adverts for Three mobile entitled ‘Broadband Nan’ -
We also made an internet film with Gok Wan for Three. I always enjoy working with the Agenda Collective as they are without exception, talented and knowledgeable filmmakers. Director Peter King has an impressive CV, with his recent film ‘Karosta’ being described by Nick Broomfield as ‘beautifully photographed and observed with a wonderful humanity’ and ‘a fantastic portrait of the demise of the soviet empire’. DOP David Procter has had his own successes recently winning best UK short and film of the festival at the 16th Raindance Festival with his film ‘Red Sands’. Whenever I work with them I am impressed by their talent and attention to detail; they have the most impressive kit, ideas, and execution, and I just wish all production companies had their attitude towards filming. They are a pleasure to work with.
The latest Action for Children advert is currently being shown on television. It is another interview with a child that has been helped by the charity Action for Children. I was the location sound recordist for the interviews with the kids talking (see earlier post) and Christopher Wilson - a colleague from the NFTS - did the sound design; I think the adverts are great, and all in a good cause too. The animation is lovely and really suits the subject matter. Working as sound recordist on something like this can be a tricky job, largely due to the sensitivity of the subject matter, and the fact that the interviewees are children. Fortunately these kids have been helped by Action For Children, and i was proud to have worked as sound recordist on this campaign.
I have recently been working as sound recordist on several films for The One Show - 7pm weekdays on BBC1. It is one of many Adrian Chiles fronted programmes currently on TV, but my parents like it a lot so that’s good enough for me. As usual I don’t get much chance to see the stuff I have worked on, but the days spent working on these have been really good fun. The formula for the films is a celebrity presenting an interesting story from around the country, often with a topical or local theme. I have spent several days working with genial ‘King of the Jungle’ Phil Tufnell which has been great; I grew up watching cricket in an era where Tuffers was the best spin bowler in the country by a country mile. I remember him almost single-handedly bowling out the West Indies, I remember him being disciplined for turning up at the team hotel first thing in the morning straight from a nightclub with some ladies in tow, but most of all I remember him being absolutely peppered by Courtney Walsh and Curtly Ambrose in the West Indies…the poor chap was nearly decapitated that day.
I have also recorded the sound for a One Show piece about a Shakespeare imposter presented by John Sergeant, who is a lovely chap and has the best stories, but has problems negotiating public places without cries of ‘you should never have quit that ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ you know John…I voted for you!’ echoing after him. Poor chap.
The latest of Mike Patersons great films about the work of particle physicists hunting for the Higgs Boson has just been put on the web - you can see it at www.colliding particles or watch it in HD below…
We travelled to Paris earlier in the year to speak to Gavin Salam who is a theorist at the French National Centre for Scientific Research in Paris, and his PhD student, Mathieu. Gavin completed his PhD at Cambridge in 1996, and went on to hold postdoctoral fellowships in Milan and at CERN. His research has mostly been centred on the area of quantum chromodynamics, the theory which describes the behaviour of quarks and gluons. Together with his PhD student Mathieu he has been working on the theory side of Project Eurostar - the project designed to find the Higgs Boson that the films focuses on. Gavin was an excellent host, and one of the advantages of working in Paris is above average lunches and dinners
As you can see in the film Gavin plays the piano. Mike was interested in exploring the relationship between the work of a particle physicist and the mathematical patterns and processes inherent in music, so we filmed Gavin playing the piano in his flat in Paris.
This presented a couple of problems from a sound point of view - the acoustics of the flat were not too bad to the naked ear, but with the microphone i had intended to use - the Rode NT4 stereo mic - the late and early reflections present when i listened on headphones didn’t sound nearly as nice as i had hoped. It was tricky to position the mic effectively over the piano (i tend to use a mic position either with the XY axis of the mic facing across the strings along the open top of the piano, or a similar position underneath, giving a nice wide stereo image - i would love to hear of any other techniques people find effective for this setup) without getting some strange reflections from the walls and objects within the flat, or being in shot.
I then tried my Sennheiser MK60 short gun mic out of it’s Rycote windgag, with just a foam windgag on. It is my ‘go to’ mic in so many different situations. It has a nice open sound considering its excellent rejection off axis, and this rejection allowed me to get a cleaner recording of the piano. The music you hear played in the final film is recorded using the MK60 with the boom positioned under the piano, just out of shot.
I think it sounds rather nice, although that probably has more to do with Gavins musical talents than my mic selection!
The physicist Dr Brian Cox is a physicist at the University of Manchester gives this rousing talk at a recent TED conference on why the work at the LHC is so important;
Here is a fantastic interview conducted by Jonathan Agnew with Paul Trevillion - artist of the classic ‘You Are The Ref’ strip - to discuss ‘You Are The Umpire’. Enjoy.
BECTU have kindly updated their ratecard for freelancers working in Broadcast. This is a good guide to the daily rate freelancers like myself can expect for their work. I hope that the fact that the ratecard was published on April 1st is not an ominous sign, although the lack of adjustment to rates over the last 20 years might suggest otherwise.
Anyway, I don’t publish my daily rate on this site as a matter of courtesy, however maybe it would be a helpful guide for some if I reproduce the relevant section below…
Microphones
A microphone is a transducer that converts acoustical sound energy into electrical sound energy.
The three most common types are;
* Dynamic (or moving coil) microphone.
* Ribbon microphone.
* Condenser (or capacitor) microphone.
The Dynamic (Moving Coil) Microphone
* Robust.
* Widely used in the sound reinforcement industry (particularly suitable for hand-held use).
* Usually fitted with wind shields (bulbous, foam filled wire mesh which attenuates wind noise and ‘p-blasting’ from the vocalist’s mouth).
* Often provided with built-in bass attenuation to compensate for the ‘proximity effect’ (or bass tip-up, an effect of directional microphones when sound sources have their bass frequencies boosted when they are close to the microphone).
* The design produces a ‘peak’ in the upper-mid frequency range (around 5 kHz) and a rapid fall-off in response above 8 or 10 kHz; this means the sound quality is restricted compared to other mic types.
Dynamic Capsule
Used for;
* Vocals; the boosted upper-mid frequencies help to improve intelligibility.
* Drums; dynamic mics can withstand high sound pressure levels (SPL’s), which might damage other mic types.
* Guitar Amplifiers; amps can also benefit from the ‘presence’ lift caused by the upper-mid frequency boost.
Typical dynamic designs include Shure’s SM57 and SM58.
The Ribbon Microphone
* At best, is capable of very high-quality results.
* Can record frequencies between around 40 Hz to around 14 kHz.
* Smooth frequency response (frequencies are recorded without the microphone boosting or cutting them).
* Delicate; can be physically quite large; the larger the ribbon, the larger the area to pick up sound waves and, therefore, the greater the electrical output .
Used for - Acoustic instruments, classical ensembles.
The Condenser (Capacitor) Microphone
* The diaphragm can be very thin and light (a few microns thick) and so has less inertia. This means that the diaphragm can respond to higher frequencies more effectively than the dynamic microphone.
* The typical frequency range is around 12 Hz to 20 kHz, but can exceed the range of human hearing at both the high and low ends of the spectrum.
* Due to the microphone’s preamplifier, condenser mics offer the best noise performance and the highest sensitivity of any studio microphone.
* Can be made with virtually any response pattern.
* Robust enough to handle many studio and live applications.
* Needs powering, either by a battery or phantom powering via a desk.
* Cannot handle high SPL’s, unlike the dynamic type.
Used for;
* Any instrument where high frequency response is required (for example, cymbals or acoustic instruments).
* Vocals.
Designs such as the small diaphragm AKG C1000S and the large diaphragm Neumann U87 are typical condensers.
Mic & Line Levels
Mic level is -56 to -40 dbm. Mic outputs are normally quite low; around a millivolt (1 mV) and is the typical output directly from a microphone. You need a preamp to amplify a microphone to line level – eg a mixer.
Line Level
Nominal level of around 1 volt - around 60 dB higher than mic level. Commonly used as the output level of a mixer – remember this when setting camera audio input levels.
A microphone’s directionality or polar pattern indicates how sensitive it is to sounds arriving at different angles about its central axis.
(Microphone facing top of page in diagram, parallel to page):
Omnidirectional
An omnidirectional microphone’s response is generally considered to be a perfect sphere in three dimensions. In the real world, this is not the case. As with directional microphones, the polar pattern for an “omnidirectional” microphone is a function of frequency. The body of the microphone is not infinitely small and, as a consequence, it tends to get in its own way with respect to sounds arriving from the rear, causing a slight flattening of the polar response. This flattening increases as the diameter of the microphone (assuming it’s cylindrical) reaches the wavelength of the frequency in question. Therefore, the smallest diameter microphone will give the best omnidirectional characteristics at high frequencies. Omnidirectional microphones, unlike cardioids, do not employ resonant cavities as delays, and so can be considered the “purest” microphones in terms of low coloration; they add very little to the original sound. Being pressure-sensitive they can also have a very flat low-frequency response down to 20 Hz or below. Pressure-sensitive microphones also respond much less to wind noise than directional (velocity sensitive) microphones.
Cardioid
The most common unidirectional microphone is a cardioid microphone, so
named because the sensitivity pattern is heart-shaped. A hyper-cardioid microphone is similar but with
a tighter area of front sensitivity and a smaller lobe of rear sensitivity. A super-cardioid microphone is similar to a hyper-cardioid, except there is more front pickup and less rear pickup. These three patterns are commonly used as vocal or speech microphones, since they are good at rejecting sounds from other directions. Since pressure gradient transducer mic are directional, putting them very close to the sound source (at distances of a few centimeters) results in a bass boost. This is known as the proximity effect or bass tip-up.
Hypercardioid
Hypercardioid patterns are similar to cardioid patterns in that the primary sensitivity is in the front of the microphone. They differ, however, in that the point of least sensitivity is at the 150 - 160 and 200 - 210 degree positions (as opposed to directly behind the microphone in a cardioid pattern). Hypercardioid microphones are thus considered even more directional than cardioid microphones because they have less sensitivity at their sides and only slightly more directly behind. Hypercardioid microphones are frequently used in situations where a lot of isolation is desired between sound sources.
Shotgun
“Shotgun” microphones are the most highly directional. They have small lobes of sensitivity to the left, right, and rear but are significantly less sensitive to the side and rear than other directional microphones are. This results from placing the element at the end of a tube with slots cut along the side; wave cancellation eliminates much of the off-axis sound. Due to the narrowness of their sensitivity area, shotgun microphones are commonly used on television and film sets, in stadiums, and for field recording of wildlife.
Bi-directional or Figure of 8
“Figure 8″ or bi-directional microphones receive sound from both the front and back of the element. Most ribbon microphones are of this pattern. Often used in radio.
A pleasant day spent on Brighton beach filming promo videos for a nice couple of chaps called Nick and Mike, who together are known as The Yeah Yous. I worked as sound recordist on location in Brighton, and we were lucky enough to have a bright sunny day. It was a fairly straightforward day of filming from a sound point of view - i had a playback kit to allow the band to play their songs accurately enough to allow the song to be dubbed over later, and also took a stereo guide track of the performances on the day to allow the sync to be as accurate as possible.
I used my old favourite stereo mic - the Rode NT4 - carefully hidden on set, and with a bit of tweaking to minimise the sound of the sea i got a surprisingly nice recording of an acoustic performance on the beach. Not hi-fi for sure, but it had a nice character and ambience - waves crashing in the background, and few reflections.
But it was one of those days i appreciate being a sound recordist - being paid to stand on the beach and listen to a band playing over and over. Like a mini-festival for a small crowd/crew. Anyway, the results of the day can be seen and heard below. Good luck to the Yeah Yous as they were a nice couple of chaps, and seem talented too.
After posting Paul Trevillions fine interview with Jonathan Agnew on Test Match Special recently, i was delighted to be contacted by both Paul and his agent, Peter Willis. They were both pleased with the way the TMS interview had gone, and were kind enough to invite me to the Guardian/Observer offices on Wednesday 3rd June for a Q&A session arranged with Paul and the umpire John Holder and chaired by Vic Marks of TMS and The Guardian to celebrate the launch of You Are The Umpire.
It was a fantastic evening - well attended by numerous fans clutching copies of the book, and all of us trying not to seem too sycophantic, but i personally was very excited to be able to stand and have a pleasant chat with the contributors. I found John Holder particularly to be a hugely intelligent and perceptive chap, with some fascinating insights into the world of cricket, especially for an armchair fan like myself. As he pointed out, he has the best place in the world to watch cricket from!
Below is an audio recording i made of the evening, which with kind permission from the contributors and The Guardian you can listen to. It’s a lovely collection of memories and observations from Paul Trevillion and John Holder, so enjoy. Its a bit long so i’ve chopped it into two sections. It’s perhaps not up to my usual standard of recording, done as it was on a small handheld flash recorder placed in the front row. Still, enough there to enjoy hopefully…
Another shoot for the Luxury Channel – this time at the Walpole Awards in London. The Walpole Awards for Excellence are ‘to honour individuals and companies who exemplify British Excellence by their work and achievements across design, craftsmanship, business, culture and sport. The awards are presented annually at a reception hosted by British icons, most recently Joanna Lumley, Stephen Fry, Simon Callow and Natasha Kaplinsky at The Banqueting House, Whitehall.’
I got to record a fascinating interview with Vivienne Westwood – an interestingly opinionated woman.
I have been working with a couple of my old colleagues from the National Film and Television School – Anna Higgs and Gavin Humphries. They won the pitch to film the video for Turin Brakes’ new single through their production company Quark Films. It was a three day shoot and another of my fellow alumni from the NFTS was the DOP – Edu Grau; an excellent cameraman who I am sure will go far. As you can see from the video above the premise of the film was an obsessive relationship between two girls. It was nice to work with the people I studied with at film school, in the real world, and a good tune too.
The film can be seen online through their website but was originally broadcast on CNBC, and fits neatly into the Luxury Channels remit of producing quality films about high-end luxury goods and lifestyles. In practical terms it meant that we got to spend the week filming on some of the worlds most luxurious super yachts, which was just jaw dropping. I have never been witness to such a plethora of golden taps, ermine hand towels and on-board private helicopters.
The Monaco Yacht Show is held every year in the prestigious bay of Monte Carlo and is a high point in the year for yacht shows, as Monaco harbour is very deep, and thus allows some of the larger boats that are simply too big to go to other shows to exhibit there. And the boats really are big - the prefix ‘Super’ is not misleading at all. We saw a variety of boats, from the smaller, faster speedboats such as the Riva, to larger ocean-going yachts that are dreamed up by enthusiasts for speed and handling, to the bloated, cashmere heavy hulks struggling against the weight of the all the gold on board. We visited a good selection of each, and despite knowing little or nothing about boats, and having little or no money, I was soon sizing up the boats like a pro, and spent some time deciding what I would spend my imaginary millions on. I decided in the end that a J-Class (the type of boat raced in the Americas Cup the 30’s) would be my boat of choice; it has the sleek lines, build quality and racing pedigree of a proper boat, without all the crassness of a Super-Yacht, yet was still luxurious inside. That or the beautiful Saudade by Wally. And maybe a Riva as a launch boat - they are just so reminiscent of that 60’s euro-cool that I always associate with David Niven and The Pink Panther films.
Grinning like a twit at the helm of a superyacht
The Riva Aquarama also has two V8 engines, and so during filming I paid particular attention to recording the engine sound as it sounds so fantastic. The twin V8’s gave such a deep, chest bellow simply when idling, but when we were ripping across the water at about 60knots they were in full roar. I got some great wildtracks as a result using a combination of my Rode NT4 stereo mic, and trying different axis and perspective with the sennheiser MK60 boom mic. We were moving across the water at such a rate that a full Rycote and windgag system was almost struggling to contain the wind noise. I say nearly - the people at Rycote such as Chris Woolf certainly know what they are doing as there was not a bassy wind rumble to be heard…hats off to Rycote.
this boat had a helicopter on the back...for when you need to pop ashore i suppose?
Ah bliss. Three days filming a corporate video in the South of France. While corporate work is not always the most exciting, the pleasure of filming at the Domaine de Lavagnac overrode any other considerations. Ambitious plans for a golf course and private residences are afoot, and I can see the attraction, I have to say.
While we were there we stayed in fantastic accommodation at the Domaine Saint Hilaire owned by Jonathan and Anne James. It is a truly beautiful place set in the wine fields near Montagnac. My wife and I returned there for a blissful week later in the year, and spent a very pleasant time picking grapes, and enjoying the wonderful results in the form of their own wine. It really is good stuff, and I cannot recommend a stay at the Domaine St Hilaire enough. It’s a fantastically well-run place in the most beautiful part of France, and the quality of the accommodation and the hospitality shown by the James’s must be experienced.
A traditional French breakfast of cat; 'chat avec muesli'
I have just returned from 10 days in Philadelphia, where Mike Paterson and I continued to shoot for the online film ‘Colliding Particles’ that he and I have been working on for some time. It is very much Mikes brainchild, and I am just fortunate enough to be asked along to do the sound. I really love working on this film as it has given me a chance to indulge my geek fascination with physics, and have been lucky enough to see some great things so far, such as the inside of the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva:
Inside the LHC...
For this episode we travelled to Philadelpia for the International Conference on High Energy Physics (ICHEP) which was being co-hosted with Princeton at Philadelphia University. The conference is a chance for scientists involved in particle physics and related subjects to get together to discuss the latest developments, and present their findings to their peers. It is also a chance for them all to get together and have a good chat - probably where much of the real work gets done. One of the contributors from the Colliding Particles film, Prof. John Butterworth, was presenting a talk on his work to find the Higgs Boson, so we went along to film that, and to try and show how the conference system works. You can see the latest episode here or watch the lower quality version below.
It was a good trip - Mike is excellent company, and the conference while largely unintelligible to us both, was good fun and we met some great people. The organisers and hosts were very generous with their time and hospitality, and Philadelphia is a great city. I highly recommend the sushi.
I have just completed the sound recording for a new advertising campaign for what was previously the National Childrens Hospital. It is for their name change to ‘Action For Children’, and involved travelling around the country to interview various kids who had been helped out in some way by Action For Children. Action for Children supports and speaks out for the most vulnerable children and young people in the UK, and some of the interviews were an eye opening experience. A lot of these kids had lived far more and far harder in their relatively few years than I ever would hope to. It was a fairly humbling experience listening to them talk about difficulties I had barely even imagined. Action For Children does some really good things for them, and it was gratifying to hear the improvements the charity had helped many of them to achieve.
The advertising campaign hits tv screen soon, and can be seen here or below;
It was another chance to work with a friend from the National Film and Television School, Chris Wilson. I was studying sound recording at the same time as Chris was completing his final year of the Post Production Sound course, and we worked together a few times. He is a talented chap, as shown by his successes so far.
I spent the day at the BBC working on Eggheads for BBC2. I like working at Television Centre – you always have the feeling that you might take a wrong turn and find Wogan necking with Anne Robinson, or fall into Noels gunge tank or something. I might be suffering from an overactive imagination, but that’s the effect it has on me.
A lovely week in Madrid working with James Tomalin of Oxford Digital Media, and Fred Davis of the Said Business School. Although it was an educational film, it was a lovely trip to a beautiful city, and the food was good too. The principle difficulty workwise was the change in radio mic frequencies necessitated by working in Spain. In the UK we are licensed (well, those of us who pay for our licenses!) to use channel 69 for wireless radio mics. I thought this was the case in Spain too after checking online, but when I got there I had dreadful problems with RF signal breaking into the link between transmitter and receiver, and spent a lot of time trying to find clear frequencies. A good excuse to try harder with the boom, and it sounded better as result.
I have been lucky enough to be asked to work on a film funded by the STFC about the work currently being done in Geneva on the Large Hadron Collider built at CERN. It is a fantastic opportunity to go and film in one of the most incredible pieces of engineering ever. I won’t try and go into the complexities of the work done there too much, but will settle for an explanation given by one of the scientist we interviewed whilst there; ‘It’s like wanting to know how your watch works – you want to know what is inside, so you smash it open with a hammer and see what comes out’. A nice analogy for hurling particles around a 27km loop at just sub-light speeds before smashing them together at a potential 14tev…
Mike Paterson filming inside the LHC
On a practical level it meant that director Mike Paterson and myself got an amazing tour of the facility by various highly qualified scientists involved, and even got to go inside some of the experiments such as Atlas and ALICE which in a few months time will be unpenetrable due to the magnetic fields generated. As you can see below the sites are all incredible pieces of design and construction, which hopefully will lead scientists to a deeper understanding of the state of particles moments after the big bang. The discovery of the fabled ‘Higgs Boson’ is the ultimate aim for many of the experiments, but it is important to also recognise the other advances this undertaking has given us – the internet and CAT scanners are just two examples.
While I was there I caught up with an old school friend of mine from Cherwell School in Oxford, Jamie Boyd. Jamie is part of the Atlas experiment, one of the largest experiments at CERN designed to find (or not!) the Higgs boson. He seems to have a nice life at the base of the Swiss Alps and it made me wonder why I hadn’t paid a little bit more attention in school!
The films are being made by Mike Paterson, a good friend of mine and an excellent filmmaker. All the films are available at www.collidingparticles.com so please be sure to have a look, and subscribe to future episodes.
I am still working with Richard Manton and Steve Fish - we have started shooting on the new series of ‘Lewis’, the ITV follow-up to ‘Inspector Morse’. It’s a bonus for me, as many scenes require shooting in my hometown of Oxford. The concept of cycling to work is an attractive one after several weeks of driving to London 6 days a week.
The show stars Kevin Whately as Inspector Lewis – now filling the role in Oxfords police force that his previous boss and friend Inspector Morse once filled. Kevin Whateley is joined by Laurence Fox as Hathaway;
As well as a great supporting cast including one of my teenage heroes Rebecca Front -
It’s a great show to be working on, and the crew are all good friends from previous series
Having finished working with Dick and Steve I am back to solo PSC location sound recording. I miss the daily contact with a big crew, but it is nice to be the one in control of the faders again!
First up in a job in Holland for the International Criminal Court. We spent four days filming inside the court itself and around Den Haag. We needed to recreate a desert scene (part of a piece about the ICC collect evidence for their trials) and so went to a place called Soeste, which is a series of sand dunes inland, about 40 mins north of Den Haag. It was a beautiful day, and the scene worked really well.
The only problem was the sand – it was so fine that it got into all my kit, and I fear for the damage it might do. Professional audio equipment does not generally like sand very much, and it can really gum stuff up – I had to thoroughly clean the boom as every time it was opened or closed I could feel tiny granules scratching the pole. I will have to attack the kit with a soft paintbrush and some canned air.
Getting into the International Criminal Court with a digibeta camera, radio mics, and vast amounts of filming equipment was not the easiest of obstacles. We had to have most of our kit searched, logged, weighed, and then transported to the shooting location. We were slightly limited with what and who we could film, as the court has been the location for the Slobodan Milosevic war crimes trial amongst other things, and so is fairly security conscious. It is due to host the Sierra Leone war crime trials later this year.
Look out! The sun can be damaging to unprotected skin...
Spent the day (my birthday) up to knees in Somme-like mud filming scenes for episode 2.3 of Primeval in which a sabre-tooth tiger is running amok in a theme park. So far we have battled (filmed) sabre tooth tigers, raptors, co2 breathing worms, and a futuristic shark hybrid. All in a days work you know.
I have been doing a lot of booming, which is a different skill in a drama setting like this, opposed to say documentary. Whereas for factual you are more concerned with getting as much as you can as well as you can, in drama there is a more nuanced approach. Headturns can catch out the unwary boom op, lines and actors movements need to be learned before shooting, and dropping into shot causes the entire crew to fix you with a steely gaze of irritation when a retake is called.
Dick Manton uses Sennheiser 416 mics for exteriors, and lovely sounding Schoeps capsules for interiors. With the addition of a Micron transmitter for a wireless boom, the whole setup is not too heavy, but with the boom fully extended, and long dialogue scenes it can get become slightly like a test of endurance. The voice of Dick over the wireless headphone link telling me to ‘steady there’ is a sure sign the shakes have started.
The 'Primeval' cast
Primeval will air on ITV1 in January 2008, and stars Dougie Henshall, Andrew Lee Potts, Hannah Spearritt, Lucy Brown, Ben Miller and Karl Theobald
I have just started work as Sound Assistant on the ITV show Primeval made by Impossible Pictures, the company behind ‘Walking With Dinosaurs’. It is the Saturday night ITV answer to BBC1’s Dr Who and is based around the adventures of a team of scientists who have discovered ‘anomalies’ that allow a variety of CGI dinosaurs to be transported to the present (as well as occasionally sending people the other way, into the past/future). For practical purposes this involves running around booming scenes in which a variety of actors fight/run away from/look scared at nothing. This nothing will later be transformed into a variety of terrifying dinosaurs and creatures by the clever people at Framestore – the same visual effects people currently handling the new Batman Film – The Dark Knight Returns. It can be quite an entertaining experience watching actors acting at an empty space, but there are also a fair amount of scenes involving stunts and special effects. So far I have seen people riding motorbikes around a shopping centre, vast amounts of slime hurled in peoples faces, and watched in a mixture of horror and admiration as the steadicam operator, Roger Tooley, clipped himself and the rig to the lead actor Dougie Henshall (who plays Cutter) and slid down a zipslide, filming all the way.
It’s great fun, and I have the pleasure of working with Richard Manton and Steve Fish – sound mixer and boom op respectively – who are both excellent sources of information, experience, general knowledge, and great stories. I am very lucky to be working with soundmen of their skill and experience, and hopefully some of their talent will rub off on me. It’s a change of pace for pace for me – drama schedules are usually based around an 11hr shooting day, with 12 day fortnights worked by all. The crew end up doing long hours, and someone is always doing something on the set. It’s not always you so many hours are spent being whiled away together. I am more used to working in small fast moving shoot environments, so I’m taking a bit of time to adjust.
Dick Manton, grabbing a snack in the Cretaceous period
I have spent the week filming a documentary for Five which explores the classic and revered architectural guides of Nicholas Pevsner through the eyes and mind of architectural historian, Gavin Stamp. The film was produced by independent production company Wag TV.
It was a pleasure to work on, as I have lived in Oxford for most of my life, but was given a tour and explanation of the architecture which revealed a very different city to the one I am so familiar with. So many fascinating aspects of the architecture were explained, and it made me look at my hometown with very different eyes. The crew were extremely nice, and a pleasure to work with. Cameraman Neve seemed to be enjoying making a beautiful city look even better.
A rare and affectionate behind-the-scenes tour of a fascinating architectural landscape.’ - Sunday Times
‘A serious exploration of architecture… this was absorbing television.’ - Daily Telegraph
‘Exactly how I want my architecture served up!’ - The Guardian
‘Sensitive and understated.’ - The Sunday Telegraph
It was the first outing for my brand-new-secondhand, fully paid-for kit of SQN 4S series III mixer, and Sennheiser MKH60/MKH70 boom mics.
I was really pleased with how it went – the mixer is an old favourite, easy to use and very reliable. It may not have all the nice flashy LED’s of the SD442 (or indeed the virtually total lack of background hiss) but I can use it without looking as I know where the buttons and faders are, which can make small adjustments whilst booming a lot easier!
Unfortunately the nature of many of the pieces to camera meant that it was largely radio mic stuff. ☹. The presenter (a smartly dressed man at all times) wore a stiff shirt with tie and jacket. This is almost my least favourite outfit for fitting radio mics to (after the worst – waterproof outdoor jackets), as there are so few options. Hiding the capsule under the collar has the advantage of giving the mic a little air which helps the overall sound, but it is tucked under the chin too much, sounds quite throaty, and can be a little too off-axis if the presenters turn their head too much. The option of looping the cable up the back, around and under the collar, with the capsule buried in the tie knot makes more sense in terms of central positioning, but again can be regarded as a little too high and close to the throat. Also, dependent on the fabric of the tie, this can be a scratchy option, and if the capsule slips back up into the tie it can become quite muffled. I opted for the best sound, but most problematic solution which was to work the capsule into the jacket/shirt around the mid-chest area. This is hard as this are of the body/clothing moves a lot when walking and talking, and the capsule is hard to conceal here.
I spent the day working on a Portuguese television advert for ‘Modelo’ which involved Cristiano Ronaldo posing as an airline pilot, flanked by hordes of attractive air stewardesses. It was a strange day really, as I got to watch firsthand the current world footballer of the year doing tricks with a football whilst wearing flat-soled leather shoes on a tarmac runway. Dammit he was still too good. And smug. But you can’t really blame him, as he drives his sports car away with a few of the stewardesses still inside with him. In his position I would be beyond smug I think. Anyway, I turned up to the shoot with a small Sound Devices 442 location mixer, a couple of sets of AudioRMS 2020 radio mics, a 416 in Rycote, and an HHB portadat with timecode; I was the entire sound department on my own. When I was introduced to the camera team, I was introduced to over 15 people! It must be a reflection of the skills of the average camera op I suppose – quantity not quality
Anyway, I must remember to take more kit to advertising shoots. Everyone takes all their toys, lays them out proudly on the ground like a male-peacock displaying its finery, and then struts about the set, jerking their necks and warbling. Nobody ever uses more than 10% of this equipment, but that is just missing the point isn’t it?
I am a freelance sound recordist with over 8 years experience in television, film & radio with numerous broadcast credits. I trained in location sound recording at the National Film & Television School in Beaconsfield, and am also experienced as a dubbing mixer; I have a small studio for post production dubbing and mixing.
I also teach Sound in various forms at the London Met Film School in Ealing Studios, and at the National Film & Television School, Beaconsfield.
I am based in Oxford but work largely in London; I have my own full location recording kit, transport and a clean driving licence and am available for work across the UK and worldwide.
This site contains a blog about my work as a location sound recordist, as well as articles related to sound and film, lots of information about careers in sound and pro audio equipment, advice on filming and sound techniques, a glossary of audio terms and lots lots more. Please drop me a line and let me know what you think, or if you want to contact me for work please click on 'Contact' or call me directly on 07980 910873.
@IanEason - i was indoors so the connection was excellent - bluetooth bouncing off walls etc. I used it as my main link to camera - flawless #2009/08/05
n way with respect to sounds arriving from the rear, causing a slight flattening of the polar response. This flattening increases as the diameter of the microphone (assuming it’s cylindrical) reaches the wavelength of the frequency in question. Therefore, the smallest diameter microphone will give the best omnidirectional characteristics at high frequencies. Omnidirectional microphones, unlike cardioids, do not employ resonant cavities as delays, and so can be considered the “purest” microphones in terms of low coloration; they add very little to the original sound. Being pressure-sensitive they can also have a very flat low-frequency response down to 20 Hz or below. Pressure-sensitive microphones also respond much less to wind noise than directional (velocity sensitive) microphones.
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