Had a fairly unique (and fun) experience this month. After a succession of interesting but very similar corporate communication videos I joined Genie Film on a short film shoot out in Geneva. The story was themed as an Alice in Wonderland spin off – not the easiest production to pull-off without a healthy budget especially coming directly after Tim Burton’s spectacular 3-D feature. Fortunately, the team at Genie are good at pulling in realistic budgets to maintain high production values and do justice to their entertaining stories. This meant the costume & set-design people were able to really go to town on the giant cupcakes and flamboyant period costumes – check out some of the photos. The old maxim of never working with children or animals went out of the window, although to their credit, all behaved impeccably (even the crew!) on set even after several gruelling 12 hours days.
From a sound perspective, it was nice for me to be able to shake free from the camera and record independently. No, we didn’t shoot on film but on Canon’s highly acclaimed 5D Mark 2 DSLR. I was a little sceptical at first but then amazedat the quality of the footage when we sat down to watch the first day of rushes.No surprise that experimental film-makers are picking up the Mark 2 ahead oftraditional film cameras, having recently been used on the season finale of ‘House’.
So, I was able to roam free and concentrate on matching the quality visuals withcrisp, clean film-quality sound. A combination of my Sennheiser capsules, theMKH50 and trusty 416 with occasional lavs where necessary, mixed through theSQN and into my HD-P2 did the job well. The HD-P2 is a great little device, certainlynot as sturdy as the more expensive Sound Devices alternatives, but equal onfunctionality and usability. I found the preamps a little weak initially, but used withthe SQN, as is preferable anyway, this more than compensates.
The main problem I encountered, as ever, was the noisy skyline. Having beenlooking forward to escaping the constant buzz of London and setting up in thegrounds of a secluded Genevan estate, I was pretty disappointed when I realised thatthe wealthy locals would be out flying their little planes over the Swiss Alps all week.“Just waiting on a plane…”