Racing for Sound

DP Barry Russell and Location Sound Recorder Pascal Van Strydonck In the desert at a challenge area near Marrakesh, Morocco, known as a chase point. Van Strydonck climbed up the rocky cliff in order to situate Lectrosonics UCR411A receivers to hear the contestants arriving before the camera team could see them.

Among the most basic tips Pascal Van Strydonck has for field audio professionals who might one day find themselves in strange places working on physically taxing, action-oriented, reality-based broadcast fare is this: “Remember to carry food with you or bring a PA fast enough to grab food while you are racing around. You need to keep your energy up on physically grueling events.”

When Van Strydonck, a Montreal-based location sound recorder and audio consultant, uses terms such as “racing around” and “physically grueling,” that's exactly what he means. His advice — and he has lots of it — emanates out of his recent experience supervising location sound during production of a reality series covering the 2008 City Chase competition finals in Marrakesh, Morocco. The event, which began in 2003 featuring competitions across the globe that then culminate in a world championship involving teams from dozens of countries, bills itself as Fear Factor meets The Amazing Race. It has been broadcast globally in recent years on National Geographic Television International's adventure channel. This year, Van Strydonck and Director of Photography Barry Russell (see sidebar on p. 16) were hired by Director Petro Duszara and Producer Martin Nieto from the production company Expedition Racing League Productions to record sound and picture from the finals for 2009 broadcast in various markets.

Russell and Van Strydonck had to climb on top of an SUV in order to follow
City Chase participants on the second day as they raced camels across the
Moroccan desert.

During the event, 12 teams raced to complete complex and grueling challenges to earn points (snake charming, quad racing, camel riding, rope rappelling, quiz taking, etc.) in and around the Marrakesh area — through the city's teeming and winding stone lanes, past busy shops, and across its desert outskirts. The obvious challenge faced by the production was how to keep up with the teams and record quality audio. Eventually, Duszara, Russell, and Van Strydonck decided to create two main production teams to crisscross the course, taping and recording the competitors and their environment.

“The A and B units each had two cameramen and a sound guy, and the three of them working together was very important,” says Van Strydonck, who brought to the gig years of experience working sound for live Cirque du Soleil shows in Las Vegas and location sound in Montreal. “The camera crew was very open and understanding to the fact that sound was of as primary a concern as the images. But the environment was very difficult and exhausting, so we had to watch out for each other to make sure we weren't run over or pummeled on the streets. I would often guide my camera guy through a hard passage or doorway, and he would also tell me where to watch my head and things like that.”

Each team carried two Panasonic AJ-HDX900 HD cameras and a Sony HVR-Z1U miniDV system. One HDX900 camera on each team used a Lectrosonics SR receiver to provide a wireless camera stereo link; the other camera used a Zaxcom RX900S receiver for that purpose. Van Strydonck and his colleague, Andrew Mazepa, served as location sound mixers for the two sound teams, with Von Strydonck using Sound Devices 302 and MixPre compact portable production field mixers while Mazepa used a Sound Devices 442 unit. Each mixer unit was outfitted with a Lectrosonics UCR411A receiver on a single block, giving Van Strydonck and Marzepa instant mixing access to signals from all 12 teams on the fly. The idea was to record all audio wirelessly directly to camera tape using this transmission setup.

Shooting at Djemaa el Fna in
Marrakesh, Morocco. From left, jib operator from the local crew, Director Petro Duszara, Steadicam camera A operator Nik Petsilas, and Van Strydonck.

“We were feeding the two transmitters out of the portable mixers — [two Lectrosonics LMa transmitters for Van Strydonck's two mixers and a Zaxcom TRX900 transmitter for Mazepa's unit] — and it worked quite nicely,” Van Strydonck says. “The Lectrosonics SR receiver connected up to the unislot on the back of the Panasonic HDX900 using an SR adapter for Panasonic that Lectrosonics makes, and that way, I had nothing hanging on the camera — it was all powered internally. This way, we were never tethered to the cameras and could roam freely to get the best angles for booming. With the LMa and SR transmitters, I would say we got very reliable links to about 150ft. away from the camera. Now, of course, Morocco is not an RF-busy environment, so that is part of the reason we got so much range. But there were times when we got amazing range out there. It also helped that the [411A] receivers have the ability to let us preprogram just the selection of frequencies we want to use. Matt Robinson [West Coast sales manager for Lectrosonics] coordinated all 16 RF frequencies we used so that we didn't have to toggle through 256 frequencies by hand — that was a big help.”

Van Strydonck reports this approach was very reliable, but of course, it did limit the production to recording two tracks to videotape per sound team. When more voices were needed, they often used booms and then mixed down the wireless tracks on the fly to give the postproduction team the most possible options. Van Strydonck says he expects to work the 2009 race, and by then, he hopes to use a double system in order to have the option of capturing multiple ISO tracks — much like would be done on a movie set.

“They decided to feed the camera directly this year — two tracks straight to camera with the wireless links,” Van Strydonck says. “Next year, I think we'll have a double system and improve upon that with an eight-track ISO mix, while still feeding the camera also. But, to be honest, with our speedy mixing capabilities, we could take whatever action was in front of our camera and mix it into the camera pretty quickly.”

Van Strydonck miked only the most vocal member of each team with Sanken COS-11 lavalier mics — 12 mics on one competitor from each team and one on the show's host were in action during the race — and then supplemented that system with booms. “We didn't want to mic everyone because there were too many people, and it would mean too many mics and batteries and things, which is one reason the booms were so important,” he says.

The lav mics had to be cleverly hidden on each person's body using medical-grade tape since they were being shot HD; they also had to be cleverly protected once they were placed on the body, since the competitors were sweating profusely throughout the race. Van Strydonck wrapped them in Scotch-Guarded nylon and placed them in rubber sleeves. The nylon had to be replaced periodically, but the mic capsules remained dry. The sweat issue also got Van Strydonck concerned about the importance of transmitter belt packs worn by participants throughout the event. He outfitted them with Lectrosonics UM400a wireless belt-pack transmitters, strategically configured and strapped to competitors with NeoPax waist belts, but he will likely switch to entirely waterproof systems next year.

“The belt packs are little sleeves made of neoprene fabric, and I put every belt into a Ziploc bag with two small openings for cables and antennas,” he says. “The whole thing was Velcro'd to them — placed basically on the hip of the participant, just under their arms. Crazy as it seems, the small of your back is where the sweat gets channeled down, so a beltpack in that area gets flooded more than under your arms. In the future, we'll use [Lectrosonics] MM400C belt packs, which just weren't available at the time we started this production. I've used them in the past for water shows, and they have special connectors that are water-resistant, so you only have to treat the capsule for the lav mic, but not the transmitter.”

Van Strydonck straps a Lectrosonics UM400a transmitter to one of the 2008 City Chase participants.

The end result was no serious equipment failures or dropped signals. Although changes in development, such as a double recording system, will improve audio quality on the production in the future, he says the entire project — despite its grueling nature and physical toll on the crew — went smoothly. His advice for those undertaking similar tasks, therefore, largely revolves around the word “research” — before you ever head out on location.

“The first thing I did for this project was go online to all the different forums and blogs out there, like Jeff Wexler's user group [www.jwsound.net] and others — all sorts of different people who have been in contact in recent years discussing different ways of approaching things,” he says. “People who have worked on Survivor and [The] Amazing Race and triathlons and things all routinely interact on those forums, so that can be a valuable resource. [Van Strydonck also offers advice via his own blog at www.pascalvs.com.]

“Then, it's a matter of planning. Have plenty of spares, do your homework — know the climate and the hours you will be working, and remember about carrying food and all that stuff. And you have to really understand RF. It is invaluable on something like this, but on the other hand, RF is becoming more and more of an issue in certain environments. [Due to signal interference], it might not even have worked if this race were in a location like New York or Toronto. If possible, you do want to do any reality-based TV show like this wireless to the camera, but either way, you still want to involve booms. There is a real art to booming that many people don't understand. And, the other thing is, don't forget you can still find ways to record at least some ambient sound and sound effects on the fly, even if it is a reality-based show and you are running and mixing as you go. There is a lot to be said for catching up with sound effects on location, and that always makes your editors happy.”

DP Barry Russell was well used to documentary filmmaking in his career, but nothing in his experience quite prepared him for the exhausting guerilla-style shoot he supervised for the 2008 City Chase in Morocco with Location Sound Recorder Pascal Van Strydonck.

“It was intense,” the Quebec-area cinematographer says. “When I think of all the locations we were running around and jumping over stuff — it was quite difficult. There was one part where myself and Pascal got stuck knee-deep in mud while crossing a river bed trying to follow a camel race. We took a wrong turn and ended up sinking into the mud. We laughed our heads off, but the fact that [the sound man] was not tethered to me as the cameraman was a great help for getting this kind of coverage.”

Russell decided to use Panasonic AJ-HDX900 and Sony HVR-Z1U cameras once producers told him the project needed to be shot in HD in the PAL format for European distribution. The HDX900 allowed his team flexibility to shoot multiple HD formats, the Z1U allowed them to tape action where larger cameras couldn't venture, and both cameras recorded to tape — which was important to Russell in this kind of environment. Plus, both systems had been road-tested by Russell on other projects in the past.

“For HD, in PAL run-and-gun style, there weren't too many options,” he says. “We needed multiple formats, and I wanted to stay away from cameras that use [solid-state card-based recording media]. We were running around too much and had no room for error or reshoots, so I needed hard, tangible tapes at the end of the day. I shot a live event for a DVD two years ago for a band in Montreal using the same combination, and I got good results in post, so I decided to do the same thing here.”

Russell says about 90 percent of the race was shot using the HDX900, with the Z1U used in tight quarters and by a French aerial team capturing wide shots of the race course.

“We mostly shot with the HDX900, including two Steadicams and one jib, and two others on a tripod or shoulder cams,” he says. “The Z1U was great in the air, where the rig required a lighter camera, and we had two others that we utilized as floating cameras during the race.”

Russell echoes Van Strydonck's theme that such production work is not for those out of shape or faint of heart, and he heaps praise on the crews that worked the race.

“Following the competitors was the tough part,” he says. “They were top-caliber, and at the end of the day, our camera people were almost dead from following them around. We usually shot four or five events a day, with each camera team leapfrogging the other. Our Steadicam guys especially were unbelievable — running the city as we followed them through very narrow streets and traffic. It was chaos, and yet they did a great job.”

Emerging recently from an online editing session, Russell says he was particularly pleased with the imagery that resulted from that hard work. The project's timeline allows him plenty of post flexibility to color correct the footage with, he says, a goal of making it look more like serious documentary footage than a sporting event. If he could do anything different, he says, it would be to increase prep time on location.

“I got to Morocco maybe eight or 10 days before the race, and I kind of felt we lacked time to really scout the location and prepare for some events,” he says. “There was also some rain, so the location scouts didn't always tell us what things would look like under sunshine. For something like this, I would want more scouting time on location in the future. But that said, I'm very pleased with how things turned out.”
— M.G.

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