After a 30-year hiatus, Mad Max: Fury Road brings post its particular brand of post-apocalyptic adventure back to the big screen. The fourth film in the series, it is directed, produced and co-written by George Miller, with production sound in the hands of Ben Osmo.
The ward-winning Production Sound Mixer chose DPA’s d:screet 4063 Miniature Microphones to record dialogue during the shooting of action scenes that involved fast and furious chases across the Namibian desert. He also used DPA d:screet 4062 Miniature Microphones for cabled recordings of various vehicles – secured in each vehicle by DPA magnet mounts.
‘I love DPA mics because they have a transparent sound and are the best for wind noise,’ he says. ‘For this film, Leon Hart at Amber Technology, suggested I use d:screet 4063 Miniature Microphones because they matched the voltage outputs of my Lectrosonics SMV and SMVQ transmitters. I have been using DPA lapel mics for many years because they have the most transparent sound of any lapel mic currently on the market.’
On Fury Road, vehicle noises often drowned out the dialogue, particularly if actors were in the vehicles or standing near them, so Osmo close miked everyone to get usable guide tracks: ‘We used low sensitivity d:screet Miniature Microphones for the eight principle cast members who were inside the War Rig cabin, and these provided all dialogue and all transmitted sound FX,’ Osmo explains. ‘We also placed a lot of hidden DPA d:screet mics in the cabin for FX and for catching the action. We also positioned them around the engine bay, near the exhausts and transmission and up on the top of the War Rig, and they were used in other vehicles and on the supporting cast.’
Costume specialist Andrea Hood was responsible for placing the mics inside the actors’ costumes: ‘She was an immense help because she sewed the mics into costumes and made small pouches on the key costumes, especially those worn by the wives and Furiosa,’ Osmo says. ‘We came up with a couple of interesting positions to place them in Max’s jacket and inside his t-shirt. We couldn’t tape them to his outfit because it was covered in oil and dirt, so Andrea sewed them into the back of his shirt. Location Assistant Brendan Allen and Andrea came up with suggestions of where we could place the DPAs in his jacket and we trialled them all, with me listening for rustle and wind noise. Finally we decided to place two miniature mics on each side of his jacket so that when he turned around he would still be on mic. The high wind fluffies were also used and these were instrumental in keeping the wind at bay.’
Filming an action movie in a place as inhospitable as the Namibian desert also presented issues for the sound equipment, but Osmo got round this by placing most of the hardware in temperature-controlled road cases or inside his van. But the radio mic transmitters and DPA and Boom mics were always out in the elements, all being hidden inside costumes or blimps.
‘We never lost a mic due to the environmental conditions – they performed very well,’ he says. ‘Overall, the DPA d:screet 4063 Miniature Microphones were definitely the best choice for dialogue. I’ve been using them for a few years and they are fantastic. In fact, since finishing Fury Road I have used DPA mics to record two television mini-series in Australia – Return to the Devil’s Playground and The Kettering Incident. Both these projects have required minimal ADR. The feature film, The Sapphires, also had live vocals blended with playback and the mics worked very well at capturing this.’
After his recent film schedule, Osmo is working on TV commercials before he begins his next cinema project.
More: www.dpamicrophones.com
