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Shooting in basketball courts


MikeWeinstein

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I worked on all the basketball scenes in "Blue Chips". None of those were looped that I'm aware of, but they were all wearing radios and iso'd to their own track. Each film camera also had a 416 w a transmitter on it and was also recorded to its own track. Everything was shot live in a full game in front of a full house crowd.

CrewC

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Who has lines? Do the players have any? Is it worth getting their efforts? It might be a good idea to pull the players aside after each shot or on a break and have them say wild lines - but this depends on how many people are there (crew-wise, lots of noise can be created in a basketball court). That's cool that you have the art and wardrobe to help you - some sound crews don't have that luxury (Yes, I'm speaking about TRON).

I'd read the script and think of wild lines and wild efforts you would want from the players and coach and even fans in the stands so you can really fill out the soundtrack. Very often there are slo-moed scenes or elongated scenes that take longer in the movie than they would in real life so it's nice to have wild lines from crowds or coaches or players etc. to fill out the track and make it more interesting.

One piece of advice I have from working on a basketball flick myself is that you should listen carefully to the ball bounces if the character has lines while he's bouncing the ball. It's nice to have them in the clear so you're not locked down to having to edit in a bounce when the picture might otherwise get cut to suggest there isn't one in the final edit - then you're trying to edit out a bounce and it's pretty tough. I'd keep track of all dialogue lines and if you've got clean takes on them - pretty elementary sound advice but you'd be surprised how much that echo build-up in that gym is going to make it into your omni radio mic.

And, because I played college ball myself, I'd bring a beach towel or bath-towel because I had to do this when I wanted to practice at night and not make a bunch of noise - a towel on the ground will allow the ball to bounce like normal but it will sure deaden that 2K-4K SLAP and the resultant first refs off the walls. Use this if the character has to stand and bounce the ball while talking to coach or a cheerleader.

I'd take CrewC's advice! I remember Blue Chips sounding good, even though it was made when I was 9 years old :P

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We have a basketball-playing character on my show. If the players talk, we use a waist strap for pack (below the waist of the shorts) and vampire clip lav to sport bra. Obviously female players. We usually boom the other stuff in close-ups if the echo isn't too bad. I like a little echo. It's a gym. Sometimes we boom the players instead too if it's handheld catching ad-libs and such, or if it's very physical. Follow the lens.

On a male, you could use Kensai (sp?) tape to overcome sweat.

We use the ball on masters, then on coverage we lose the ball in the BG. Nobody misses it on camera. The players blur around as we shoot the coach, spectators, or pick up specials on players. Foot noise sort of blends and allows for editing. Ball noise can double-bounce in the edit and can be loud and distracting. Editor can pull the ball noise from the master if they miss the noise in the coverage.

It's really pretty easy. Actors just speak up naturally in that environment, or do so with proper direction.

Good luck.

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Many good points made here.

I've done a fair amount of basketball shoots and sometimes the squeaks from the players shoes can be really loud and the echo hangs for a long time. Having the players shoeless (when you don't see feet) can be a big help. I've used those hospital socks with non-slip rubber soles on players.

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I worked on all the basketball scenes in "Blue Chips". None of those were looped that I'm aware of, but they were all wearing radios and ISO's to their own track. Each film camera also had a 416 w a transmitter on it and was also recorded to its own track. Everything was shot live in a full game in front of a full house crowd.

CrewC

I didn't mix the picture "Blue Chips", that was Kirk Francis's film. He worked w a great team of boomer Mychael Smith n Kay Colvin, who is an all around champ. Kirk also took to Indiana for an additional 6 or 7 local 695 members to do the round ball scenes. He should have got an award for that alone. Anyway, I was a mixer w Kirk. 4 Boom Ops total, and 3 additional cable persons. We recorded onto 2 Nagra 5's which were state of the art 4 track reel to reel digital tape recorders. Kirk did one and I did the other. We had 6 channels into 4 tracks each. We dumped down to my stereo tc Nagra IVS for telecine. Trk 1 Kirk. Trk 2 Crew. Seemed so wild back then. Simpler these days. Shot the games in real time from start to finish over 3 or 4 nights. It was like doing live theater which was fun for film people. The work was in figuring out a system to do it and then setting it up. Sorry for the digression.

Every job is a challenge and has different factors but they are all doable if you have time and cooperation. Good luck sound4picture.

CrewC

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I didn't mix the picture "Blue Chips", that was Kirk Francis's film. He worked w a great team of boomer Mychael Smith n Kay Colvin, who is an all around champ. Kirk also took to Indiana for an additional 6 or 7 local 695 members to do the round ball scenes. He should have got an award for that alone. Anyway, I was a mixer w Kirk. 4 Boom Ops total, and 3 additional cable persons. We recorded onto 2 Nagra 5's which were state of the art 4 track reel to reel digital tape recorders. Kirk did one and I did the other. We had 6 channels into 4 tracks each. We dumped down to my stereo tc Nagra IVS for telecine. Trk 1 Kirk. Trk 2 Crew. Seemed so wild back then. Simpler these days. Shot the games in real time from start to finish over 3 or 4 nights. It was like doing live theater which was fun for film people. The work was in figuring out a system to do it and then setting it up. Sorry for the digression.

Every job is a challenge and has different factors but they are all doable if you have time and cooperation. Good luck sound4picture.

CrewC

I love reading stuff like this -- so inspiring! Anything is possible if you put your mind to it. Thanks Crew!

~tt

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