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AUDIO GRAND TOUR 2
SOUNDSCAPES When we spoke to Russell he was already prepping for Season Three and promised us something very new from the audio side of things but he couldn’t tell us what, only that it required him to buy more audio gear. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves: what was new for Season Two? “We’re generally getting more sounds now, for example when we shoot a specific car or all of the three presenters,” he says. “We’re starting to record more stuff in the cars – engine effects, exhausts effects, interior effects – so they can build up the soundscapes in post. They were happy with that in post so we will be doing that again in Season Three. “It means a few more DPA microphones, the 4062s and 4061s, so we’re running more tracks on the on- board recorders in-car but they are really just for effects. We obviously still have the personal mics on the presenters and the hard wired one up in the visor of the car, but now we’re permanently running ones in the engine bay and the exhaust pipe. We’ve lost a few of those because of weather, mainly water and rain. Last year we started putting them on the
car porn show like The Grand Tour and more than ever clued up in the AV department. Russell sees that their viewers appreciate the added sound design of Season Two. “I think we’re very aware of it and post are very much aware of it; hence we have been trying to provide as much as we can. Even if you have a quiet moment in a car and they cut away to a shot of a presenter, you’ve got that extra tickle of exterior noise or engine noise. You subconsciously layer it in the background and it adds a whole atmosphere to the shot. “We do try our best to get as much as we can, sometimes you can’t because of time but everyone has started to realise more that it’s a collaboration so each department is helping each other get as much as they can. It’s prepping not just for dialogue but for a sound design.” The re-equipping for Season Two carries on with a new solution for timecode across the 19 devices that adhere to it. “We use Tentacles and Timecode Systems Buddies now,” Russell continues. “We marry them up because sometimes it’s better to use one system or the other or both together which is what we seem to be doing these days. They also allow us to set up these ‘Up and By’ stations which are mobile stereo recording systems. We can place them in really good areas and then leave them unattended to a point; because they all run off Bluetooth we can check them without getting too close to them. I’ve built one of those recently so we can have it on-set, it’s there
Russian Arms and we have carried on getting away with it; it’s quite tricky on those. We’ve actually built up a weather and wind protection system by incorporating Rycote products and our own initiative so we can grab sound and keep that Doppler effect and save them time in the edit. A lot of that tracking movement is Russian Arms these days, it’s very much the vogue and it’s a shame not to get the sound for it so we try our best. We’ve been very lucky considering what’s been asked for.” END USER The modern Amazon Video viewer is wise to the event of a sumptuous
ABOVE LEFT Post crash. ABOVE AND BELOW Before the crash of the all electric Rimac super car. There was audio of the crash but no video.
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