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I just watched David Letterman's new show on Netflix. There was a scene of him walking with Congressman John Lewis on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, AL. It's windy, there's an f-ing drone nearby and Letterman has a 10 inch confederate beard, and a pull over tshirt and jacket. I imagine he has a hairy chest to boot. The sidewalk is narrow, and I think boom op prohibitive, so it had to be a hidden wireless mic. It was perfect sound. How the hell did the sound tech pull that off?

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A frame from the scene in question:

 

letterman-and-lewis-1jpg-31464db57edcf784.jpg

 

Letterman’s beard doesn’t reach his sternum, which is a good place for a lav. I’d have to guess they used a lav mounted in that area with wind protection fur.

 

I wouldn’t rule out a skilled boom op, perhaps with a CS-3 or 416.

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The beard is an awesome place to hide a lav behind! But I imagine I'd prefer a little longer beard than the one he has in that pic?!

I did a couple of years ago a web series in Wellington which was a twist on LotR and our "Gandalf" had a fake beard which was even longer than the one I had then myself! The sound positioned behind that was divine. 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Didn't really sound like booming from below to me when the cars passed.  Probably a good boom op with a spotter booming from above, that's how I'd go about it.

 

Letterman was probably a lav using a Rycote overcover. I've had very good results with those in the wind, and maybe something modular like the B6 with a 'very crisp' cap to compensate for the extra muffling?

 

Interested in finding out.

 

Anybody know who the recordist was?

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2 hours ago, Christian Spaeth said:

"Guess how it was mic'ed!" That would be a cool TV game show, or internet at least. In the end - surprise! - the real mixer will show up and tell everyone how they actually did it.


This would probably be a great YouTube-show for us sound geeks, I don't think it would have much mainstream appeal.

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1 minute ago, Christian Spaeth said:

 

So then you shouldn't have read this thread until the guy who worked on it says how it was done...

 

Well, you got me there... but this isn’t a game show, and tbh this thread isn’t one of the more exciting ones. Was kinda impressed by Letterman‘s beard, though

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Long time listener, first time caller...

I reached out to the sound mixer on the interview in question, two-time Emmy nominee (2008 & 2009) Brad Bergbom, and asked how that interview was recorded.  He said;

"In a nutshell, each person had a Sanken cos 11 lav mic with a Lectrosonics transmitter, recorded to a Sound Devices 633 recorder which I carried behind the camera. The mics had as much wind protection as I could hide.  If you listen closely though, you can still hear the drone in some shots.

Always a roll of the dice as you know. We got lucky. Congressman Lewis was in the tie knot. Dave was between the buttons. (A kind editor got rid of the noisy stuff)."


So...there it is.

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