26 May Sound in Two Roads: Sounds of Shreveport

Here is a recollection from Boom Operator, Jason Cates, about his latest work on Two Roads.

You’d think what you’d remember the most about working on a film would be the actual working part. What happens between action and cut though becomes quite a blur after you’ve gone through the scene a few times. My memories mostly consist of what happened during the lulls between setup and filming, and the rides out to set. Is that to say I forgot everything that happened during filming? Not at all.

The first day was mostly about getting out there. It’s a bit of a trip out to Shreveport from Central Texas. Not too long, but it sure isn’t short. The only real difference this time around was the quite cramped quarters. I had no wiggle room to speak off, and a bag in my side. I was quite relieved when we finally got into Shreveport and I could hop out of the vehicle. When we got to set, we went about emptying the car that we had packed a few hours before in Texas before leaving. Once we got all settled in, Adam, Alex, and myself got to fishing. We weren’t fishing for fun though, we needed a fish prop for the film. That’s not to say it wasn’t kind of fun, especially since I was the one that caught the fish. I’m not too sure when I last fished, but I don’t recall catching anything.

The next day was the first day of filming. It would be the day with the most sunshine, which we did need for a few scenes. Sound work went decently enough on this day. I don’t recall there being too many needs to hold for sound. There was no yelling which is always a plus in my book when it comes to running sound. If only every day had gone so easily. The second day the wind kicked up and the sky was gray. While the gray skies were fine for film, the wind wasn’t ideal for sound. Once the wind would die down, a new sound would come along to mess things up. From airplanes to atvs to automatic gunfire, they all invaded my headphones. Not the funnest day to be running sound that’s for sure. Though the next day I found myself shoved in the back of a Prius for a car scene. If you’re familiar with the structure of the Prius you might be aware of the quite angular slope of the trunk. This meant I had to bend over the whole time I was in the back while aiming a boom mic over the back seat. If I were any taller I’m not sure I would have really fit, or at least it would have been even less comfortable. Nothing really comes to mind for the fourth day of filming from a sound perspective. Just minor annoyances similar to what popped up the day before, at least there wasn’t a trunk involved. On the last day things were pretty simple, mostly just wild sound and minimal dialog.

While I’m not exactly ready to hop onto another project to run sound, I at least learned a thing or two about it that I didn’t know before. Though I do believe I still got quite a bit to learn about it, at least I seem to be moving forward.