Working for the Beeb

Recent graduate (and Sennheiser award winner!) Mark Timms sent us some news from his current work on the BBC series 'Doctors'.

Working alongside top Production sound mixers such Tony Wass and Andy Redfern, Mark says...

"I’ve just finished my fourth week on doctors now for the BBC and it’s lots of fun, very hectic as they shoot a lot of material each day but you get used to it! I’m the sound assistant and second boom operator, so I’m in early prepping the kit for a 10-11 hour shoot then de-rigging in the evening. The team there are great though and it’s a good environment for learning and making contacts."

He adds that 'There's still loads to learn but knowing my stuff with the Sound Devices 664 mixer and having location sound experience got me in so couldn’t have done it without the help received on the course at Bucks'

As if that isn't a good enough start in the industry, Mark has also been working as a runner at one of Soho's premier Audio post-production facilities Warner Bros De Lane Lea. Of his experiences there so far he says, 'I was able to sit in on several ADR (Automated Dialogue Replacement/Dubbing) sessions, including one with Brian Blessed for the Lego Dimensions game, and one crowd session for a film called How To Talk to Girls at Parties. I learnt a lot about how ADR is done at that level, I also spoke to the mix techs about what they do and they walked me through their set up which was great to see.'

Go Mark!!!

LOCATION SOUND

Dan Snow shoot

 Like many of the teaching staff at Bucks, I still get to be involved on professional productions from time to time. Eg. this recent corporate film shoot, a conference opener for IoD – with BBC presenter Dan Snow. I was the Location Sound Recordist, providing all sound equipment required and working alongside a small camera crew to capture the presenter’s pieces-to-camera.

The call time on location was 6am at IoD's HQ in central London, an early start even by filmmaking standards!

As for most shoots like this, I used a radio clip mic on the presenter. This enabled an even pick up of Dan’s voice as he walked around the building (up and down stairs, in and out of rooms, etc) and it’s normally better than trying to use a boom microphone for ‘walkie-talkie’ shots like this.

 It was shot using a Steadicam, used to track the Canon C300 camera smoothly around the location.

A steadicam in action

This needs to be perfectly balanced to keep the movement smooth, hence we needed to do away with the cable i normally run between the SQN sound mixer and the camera and instead use a wireless ‘camera hop’... basically a radio transmitter hooked up to the mixer and the receiver mounted onto the Steadicam rig. When working like this you need to run a backup recording, we used a Zoom H4N recorder.

The shoot was done and dusted by about 9am, at which point we enjoyed a bacon sandwich from a nearby cafe and went home. A good day at the office!

Location sound recording techniques like these are covered during the Sound Design modules of the course that make up 25% of the teaching in years 2 and 3. We have multiple location sound kits for students to use – all spec'ed to a broadcast standard with kit from Sound Devices, Sennheiser, and Audio Ltd etc

Al Green

Sound Design lecturer

My SQN 4S mixer and location kit