Recording Sound in Extreme Weather

[Shaws32]

Hi All.

I'm putting together an article for P3 Update for December's issue and the topic I've been given is Recording Audio in Extreme Weather. It's a short article, only 250 words and they are mainly looking for product placement so I have enough content to write it. But this article has me fascinated by the topic and I am interested in hearing people's stories about weather related problems they've encountered and how they were able to solve them.

Most of my work has been bag work around LA so the weather's consistently nice. I have worked in extreme heat in the desert where dust has caused the most problems... and I've worked in the rain... but I would love to hear from all of you who have been able to work on shows like Deadliest Catch with cold and salt water... or from people who have worked in extreme cold conditions like the Arctic... or maybe struggled with extreme moisture and humidity in warm, tropical locations.

Any stories you feel like sharing would be awesome! I would love to learn from your experiences.

Some of the things I'm putting in the article so you don't think I'm just trying to have all of you write it for me...

RAIN

Condoms (non-lubricated!!) to protect transmitters.

'Mighty Fix It' (Rescue) Tape to wrap connections where the lav plugs into the TX... I've had sweat from bodies during a fitness video run down the back and short an SMv...

Remote Audio's 'Rainman' as a way of helping keep moisture and the sound of raindrops off a boom mic

Silica Packs - to absorb moisture and help keep gear dry

M.T.O. Unlimited - Sound, Audio, and Slate slickers

DESERT

Dust is the main problem I've experienced... getting in everything. Connectors. Inside gear.

Compressed air - to blow dust out of gear.

Touch screens can be 'touchy' if left sitting in direct heat

UNDERWATER

Voice Technologies VT500WATER

COLD

Heating packs???

[RPSharman]

You have to be careful that compressed air doesn't shoot the dust further into the equipment. Sometimes a paintbrush is a better choice to dust off the gear.

Any solution to keep sweat and moisture from the SM connector is good. Sweat has destroyed a couple of mine over the years.

A full wind system is a must in windy places.

[geordi]

Toughest situation I was shooting in was all about wind and traffic. The location was this brick "cave" archway, with a staircase leading to an open-to-the-sky exit at the top of the cave. The walls also narrowed somewhat from the entrance to the back, in addition to being about 20 feet tall on both sides. In short, it was a funnel. With prevailing winds at only about 5mph, but gusting to 15... The architecture of this location increased that to 10, gusts to 20 easily.

Rycote S-series zepplin / windjammer around the boom mic... Might as well not have been there at all. I added a Sennheiser windjammer that I had gotten used from B&H the last time I was in there - It actually pulled the wind out to a somewhat minimal level, which allowed the dialog to work a lot better... When it wasn't being overrun by the traffic. *sigh*

Midnight on a Saturday, you'd think that the city's truck traffic would be off sleeping somewhere for the weekend. Not so much. Trucks, and every vehicle without a muffler in the city decided it was a beautiful night to go for a drive, right past our set.

Anyone got a tech solution for traffic, short of having production design setup a car accident in the middle of said road?

[Angelo Waldron]

You have to be careful that compressed air doesn't shoot the dust further into the equipment. Sometimes a paintbrush is a better choice to dust off the gear.

Yes.. compressed air will drive the dirt in requiring more costly repairs. If it's been out in the sand or dirt, best to have someone that's familiar with this type of cleaning.

Actually saw a DP cleaning a camera with compressed air. Result was a call from rental house with a large repair bill.

[WhyOne]

Extreme Cold: MOW "Death on Everest - Into Thin Air" ABC 1997, on location for six weeks on the Pitzdal Glacier in Tyrol, Austrian Alps. Working between 9,500 and 14,000 feet. Daytime temps between 0°F and 20°F, nights were -10°F to -40. Three items of note:

1. The Hot-Rod Nagra. Both of my Nagras (IV-S & 4.2) had been lubed for cold by Dan Dugan in SF, but Dan and I neglected to take into consideration that both machines had been "Duganized" for years - tensions increased way above Nagra specs. Day one of shooting, first roll on the machine, at about 8°F, as I was toning up I noticed the supply reel was standing still! Closer inspection revealed that the capstan was still pulling the tape off of the reel, past the heads, and packing nicely on the take-up reel. Immediately reached for my timecode buddy (Denecke GR-1, sn: 04) and read the timebase of resolved playback..... rock solid! Apparently, the high tension and the extreme cold kept the bi-metallic brake against the supply roll. Fortunately, the 3M-986 became super-slick, allowing the capstan to pull it off the supply roll. After confirming sync and timebase, I decided not even to tell the telecine house (in England) that there were any issues. When I returned to the states, Dan was incredulous (you all know he is or was the head of the west coast Sceptics!) and insisted on testing. He froze the unit, and sure enough, below about 10°F the supply reel locked up but the capstan continued to pull off the tape......

2. Lead Acid Batteries. Big argument/discussion with the camera department (out of Barrendov, Prague) about batteries, and these guys were pretty sharp (our loader was the guy that invented the reflex optics that Arri bought and put into the Arricam - brightest reflex system ever). They insisted on taking the spent batteries at night into a warm structure for charging. I parked all of my gear in the cold for several days before shooting, leaving the chargers hot in the cold. My batteries and charger were at below zero the entire time. In the day shooting, camera went through their batteries fairly rapidly, mine were fine. Night shooting - well, we were all happy it was Arri at 12VDC as opposed to Panavision at 24VDC, and my bricks continued to work ok at -40 powering the Arris.

2. Cables. At zero and below, cables became stiff and fragile. Stepping on a power run would break it. Sound fared much better, using Canare. Though the cables stiffened slightly, I had no issues, even at -40. Canare cable saved my cold *ss!

Everything worked, all hardwired Schoeps, had a great time, ended up with a CAS award....

Jay P.

[Shaws32]

Jim - I had a similar experience this Summer out at Zabriskie Point... shooting a documentary with Slavoj Zizek. The wind was gusting at probably 20-30 mph, blowing right through the Zeppelin. I did the same thing by putting my MKH60 in one of KTek's socks and then inside the Zeppelin. That took care of most of the wind. The DPA 4063 lav I had completely enclosed in a furry scrunchy and that was actually really quiet. In the end, I was pretty pleased with how clean both sounded. Thankfully, we didn't have any trucks out there!!

Jay - thanks for sharing about the cold. I love the picture in my head of the "argument/discussion" with camera department over the batteries. Congrats on winning that discussion! I hadn't thought about the cables becoming brittle but I'm glad I've been using Canare Star-Quad for my XLR runs and most of my patch cables.

Good advice about the compressed air as well. Do you guys ever negotiate with production up front to have them pay for cleaning the gear after a shoot if you know you are going to be out in the desert for an extended period? Or do you just consider that part of our own maintenance cost?

[David Waelder]

1. The Hot-Rod Nagra. Both of my Nagras (IV-S & 4.2) had been lubed for cold by Dan Dugan in SF, but Dan and I neglected to take into consideration that both machines had been "Duganized" for years - tensions increased way above Nagra specs.

That's a remarkable experience. Normally I hate working in the cold but I do envy you work on that film. I'm a fan of Krakauer's book.

I've often worked below freezing but I only recall one instance of working in extreme cold. We were doing a mine safety film in Timmins, Ontario in January. Working 2000-feet underground the temperature would be reliably about 60-degrees F. But surface temperatures would be about -20 or -25-degrees F. Availability of underground elements forced us to shoot deep in the mine for a few hours, bounce to the surface and shoot there, return underground and then back to the surface again. We went on like that for about a week. I was using my Nagra IV-L (a current machine at the time) while the cameraman used an Arri SR and also brought along a Nagra SN. None of the equipment had any special lubricant or treatment of any kind. We were smart enough to think of it but there had been no time. To may amazement, everything worked perfectly all the time. No issues with the camera or either of the recorders. Batteries didn't last as long, of course, but they did OK. I did all the loading either down in the mine or inside a building so I didn't have to deal with either brittle film or tape. (I did all the loading, both tape and camera.)

David

[MatthewFreedAudio]

I mixed a feature called "Memorial Day" last summer with additional scenes this past January. It was all shot in Minnesota where weather extremes throughout the year are par for the course.

Our hottest day was inside a 150 year old church where the temperature was up to 120 degrees. Our days in January ranged from -30 to +5 Fahrenheit, not to mention a few feet of snow.

The whole movie I did with Sound Devices mixers and recorders and they never once failed (can't say the same for the RED cameras they were shooting on). The LCD displays on the 7 series recorders were a bit slow on the cold days but they still worked. Cables definitely get stiff and fragile but if you're careful they will be fine. Best thing to do is NOT take things from cold to warm to cold again, that's just asking for condensation and mechanical problems. Once the gear is accustomed to the temperature it will be used in, leave it there. Condensation, when frozen becomes ice. Ice expands and can cause bad things to happen with our expensive electronics.

I also just finished up a long shoot in Alabama where salt air and water were a factor. We used Lectro MM400c transmitters with Countryman B6 lavs on the talent, Lectro VR receivers, and a 788t on each boat (fishing show). The primary pieces of gear all survived very well (788t, Lectro VR systems, PSC shark fins, Lectro Dipole antennas). The mounting hardware didn't fare as well. Some pieces had to be removed with hammers and crowbars due to severe rust that occurred within the 80 shooting days. Anything not stainless steel, Chrome, or painted will rust quickly in those conditions.

My two cents.

[studiomprd]

" I am interested in hearing people's stories about weather related problems they've encountered and how they were able to solve them. "

do some reading on this site, and you will note several folks here from cold places, typically asking about gear in extreme cold, so you could PM them...

" negotiate with production up front to have them pay for cleaning the gear after a shoot "

yes! after Waterworld, and after each season of Baywatch! (second units)

[Shaws32]

That's hilarious. I guess my article is already written!

you mean something like this?

http://www.p3update....oduction-sound-

[studiomprd]

These magazines typically update (via a rewrite) popular topics periodically.

[Prahlad Strickland]

did you write your article, would love to read