Gosford Park

[soundtrane]

Anyone know any stories about this film in terms of the production sound? 

Amazing film of course, but it makes me very curious as to how it was all done.

-vin

[soundtrane]

Mr. Glossop was boom operator on "A Clockwork Orange"... What an interesting professional life Mr. Glossop has led!

-vin

[BVS]

I did hear it was all done on radio mics and multi track......

[Richard Lightstone, CAS]

Since it was Directed by Robert Altman, wireless and multi-track would be the SOP.

RL

[Roger Slater]

I did some second unit days on Gosford Park and was there for the big banquet scene. The movie was recorded in the traditional Bob Altman way, with everyone wired.  At that time (pre DEVA 4 and 5), Peter Glossop was recording on a pair of DA88s to get 16 tracks and as I recall was running 12 or 15 Audio Ltd Wireless channels, plus a couple of booms.

Roger Slater AMPS

[mikewest]

What a great challenge managing all that!!

One problem is audible in the film.

A scene where the American film producer (who was a producer of the film)

is wearing a stiff fronted shirt (called a dickie in England).

Evidently a great source of clothing noise!

Buy well done Mr Glossop  - not many people would step up to the line!!

mike

www.mikewestgatesound.co.nz

[Noah Timan]

Anyone know any stories about this film in terms of the production sound?

Amazing film of course, but it makes me very curious as to how it was all done.

Hi Vin,

I boomed for Peter Glossop many years ago...he was/is a great mixer, friend, mentor and inspiration.

Peter was one of the real pioneers of the workflow most of us utilize today in terms of providing a mono mix and then isos for every microphone used -- not just for Altman movies but on every show.  Of course, in those days there were not all these convenient little five pound boxes that do all of this naturally, so his rig was fairly heavy.  He had devised a splitter to route all of his microphone inputs and bussed them to two separate mixers, one feeding a Nagra IVSTC and the other feeding a TC-enabled DA-88.  His commentary as I remember was, "I'll make my mix, and if they don't like it, they can re-mix it themselves."

I remember calling him after seeing Gosford Park in the theatre to congratulate him.  He mentioned that for most people not used to the Altman workflow, the show would have been a terrible nightmare, but since there were many similarities to that workflow and how Peter was already working, it was easier to manage for him.  He did mention many belabored efforts to get booms in, but that Altman was always, despite promises to Peter of not doing so, sneaking in a second camera that would jettison the boom.  (I'm sure it sounds familiar to many of us by now).  I seem to remember a story of Altman really promising Peter that they'd be able to get a proper microphone in for the scene with the piano and yet again there was the second camera suddenly on set -- they finally managed this by arting out a mic on a music stand, I believe.

I remember being blown away by the production track in Gosford Park, knowing the challenges, for the way that Peter was able to create real and appropriate camera perspective by judiciously mixing non-speaking actors' lavs in with the featured dialogue to match the shots.  This takes a very careful hand and a lot of attention, and the way he was able to accomplish this pretty successfully all the way through a long film was pretty amazing.