A new film from renowned Danish film director, film producer and screenwriter Susanne Bier has seen film location recorder Allan Holmberg making extensive use of a DPA 4017 shotgun mic. ‘I’d used the 4017 on a documentary I’d worked on, called Blekingegadebanden,’ says. ‘The clarity and natural sound of the 4017 was a huge success on the documentary, so I decided to try the mic on this feature film.’

Haevnen (The Revenge) provided an unmissable opportunity to test the mic more fully. ‘My only concern was that the mic pattern may be too wide, resulting in extra background noise and ambience, but after a short talk with Eddie Møller, the film’s supervising sound designer, we both agreed to give it a try. The film contains some improvisation, and we wanted to avoid dubbing as much as was possible, so that was another good reason for using a wider mic.

‘The 4017 performed excellently, and the ‘extra ambience’ I’d been concerned about wasn’t a problem at all,’ he says. ‘In the film’s more silent scenes, with sensitive dialogue, it was a thrill to hear how lifelike and crisply the mic performed. Every breath and change in the voice was recorded, and has made it into the film, making the dialogue and overall feel of the film a nice experience.’

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