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Racing for Sound

Jan 1, 2009 12:00 PM, By Michael Goldman
Photos By Emanuel Coltellacci

Capturing audio from chaos.

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.

Two units

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.

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© 2009 Penton Media, Inc.