Written by: Robert Sharman
Upon my return from Georgia (the country — not the state) where I was shooting a war picture titled 5 Days of August, about the recent war between Russia and Georgia, I stopped into Coffey Sound to say “hello” to John and some other friends. John kindly asked me if I would write about my experiences on the film for Sound & Picture. I think there was some curiosity about shooting in a country with virtually no filmmaking infrastructure, as well as the fact that we shot with four RED cameras all day every day. I also think there was some curiosity about working for director Renny Harlin.
Let me start by saying it was a great experience working for Renny. It was refreshing to work with an experienced director who knew exactly what he wanted, knew exactly what he was getting and knew exactly how much time he had to get it. I had heard that working for Renny had been challenging in the past, but before I shipped out, I spoke with Paul Ledford (who mixed Renny’s last film 12 Rounds) and I was told it would be demanding but enjoyable. My boom guy, Richard Bullock, and I soon found working for Renny Harlin to be exactly that. His patience in dealing with translation problems and issues regarding the local crew’s limited experience was remarkable. Renny was a true professional and fun to be around both on and off production time. Although it was quite clear that sound was not near the top of his priority list, Renny was very respectful and appreciative of our desire to get him the best possible tracks for his film. As this article goes to print, I am booked to mix Renny’s next film, a historical biography called Mannerheim.
5 Days of August had an impossible schedule of 36 days, cut down from an impossible schedule of 48 days. Given that this was a HUGE war movie with tons of stunts and practical effects, not to mention the almost daily use of dozens of military-contributed tanks, other military vehicles, helicopters and hundreds of extras, we all had to be on our game. My experience working on the Crank movies (as utility sound for Steven Morrow on Crank and as the mixer on Crank: High Voltage) was part of why Renny, and producer Mick Flannigan, felt I would be a good fit for the job. We would be using four RED cameras 90% of the time, never fewer than two cameras, and most of the movie was to be shot with available light to accommodate the short schedule. There would not be a lot of time for finesse and the locations would be demanding. They needed someone fully equipped, yet completely mobile. Working for Steve Morrow on several films before moving up to mixing also helped me to learn and adopt the “strive for the best while going with the flow” attitude. It really is a critical philosophy in today’s filmmaking and was critical on 5 Days of August.
For this movie, I decided it was a good idea to eliminate the MacBook/Boom Recorder setup I had relied on four ISO tracks over the last few years; too many bits to worry about and tie me down. ISO tracks and wireless were going to be critical, with lots of cameras, lots of noise, lots of action and a very fluid “script.” It seemed a good idea to buy a task-specific, 8-track recorder to streamline my workflow. I chose the 788T from Sound Devices for the task, since I already owned a 744T and was very happy with it. I elected to add the CL8 interface also, to allow a faster transition into portable mode. I knew that whenever Renny said something like, “Let’s grab a camera and jump in a pick-up truck to go get this shot before sunset” that I would have to be ready. And with the help of Richard, we were always there and ready, even if there was no dialog to record. Our unexpected presence on set to gather ambient effects did not go unnoticed and I believe was a critical part of gaining Renny’s trust and the respect of Renny’s wonderful 1st AD, Mary Ellen Woods. It really helped having that trust and respect when we needed just a rare extra minute or two to improve a sound situation.
As for mics and wireless; my wireless system is a Lectrosonics Venue, blocks 21/22, with six SM transmitters and COS-11s for the actors and UM400s for the booms. Additional receivers for the dreaded 7th or 8th microphone or for portable and car situations, are the UCR411s. The small size of the SM transmitters was very helpful, especially for our lead Georgian soldier. We were able to put the mic and the SM inside his helmet, which eliminated clothing noise from all the action and all of the military gear and rifle straps across his body. It also helped us because of the American actor’s character choice of being very soft-spoken to mimic many Georgian men. For interiors of vehicles, shooting car to car, especially the armored military ones, I employed Vark Audio’s amazing external magnetic antennas for my UM400 transmitters. These antennas were new to me on this film, and I can’t believe I ever lived without them. When we were able to boom, we relied on the MKH50 almost exclusively, using a full Rycote system outside in the often-substantial wind. Occasionally, I pulled out a pair of 416s to record tanks and helicopters in stereo, but there were always so many of them that it simply sounded like a lot of noise. Whenever possible, I tried to get recordings of individual vehicles and helicopters for the post guys to layer in, but there never seemed to be the time. The editor, Brian Berdan, informed me that the effects I was able to capture were very useful in the temp, and would possibly be included the final mix. It makes going that extra step really worthwhile!
Power was also a concern. My main cart is powered by the PSC Powermax and a yellow-top, Optima marine battery. When I decided to slim down even further by removing my larger Mackie 1642 and replacing it with my DC-modified Macke 1402, I was never worried about power. All of my gear is capable of handling the 220/50 power in Georgia. The generators were quiet and reliable, but were rarely on. Most of the time we relied on a Honda 2000 for video village and myself, but it was like pulling teeth to get the gaffer to pull it off the truck. One of these great little generators is now on my “to buy” list! Being self-reliant was important, even though most of the time power had to show up eventually to power the monitors and Renny’s voice of God speaker.
This speaker was a challenging responsibility of our department, given that Richard and I were working extra hard as the only members of our team with feature experience. But it was VERY important to Renny, so therefore very important to me. Our utility person, Nino Tevdorasdhvili, was a local, and although had trained as a mixer in a university environment, and had worked on several small projects recording sound, she had never worked on anything quite like 5 Days of August. We also employed an additional PA to assist in helping video village and our department move, which included the speaker. Renny used and abused an up-to-the-task PG58 with a UH400 transmitter for the God mic. Our speaker was the new JBL EON515 with a UCR411 attached, which at 450-watts packed the punch required to be heard over large sets full of idling military vehicles. Although a speaker isn’t part of recording sound for a film, it was a crucial piece of gear for my department on this film. It had to work perfectly and it did.
Sync to the RED cameras was achieved using four Ambient ACL203 boxes jammed from my recorder at 23.976 fps. Three were mounted to the A/B/C cameras and the fourth was either mounted to ‘D’ camera or floated to jam additional bodies or Stedicam. We also handed out three TS3 slates for the primary cameras. Nino constantly had to babysit time code as the operators and assistants often removed the boxes. She did an excellent job, but like much of the Georgian crew, she was often distracted by watching this very “personal” movie being made. It was after all recreating a war that had only taken place 14 months previously. Initially, we mounted Comtek receivers to the cameras, but after several cables and a couple of receivers were destroyed, and it was discovered nobody was listening to the camera audio, we removed that element. The assistant editor, on my recommendation, used Sync-N-Link for Final Cut Pro to sync dailies, which he found to work extremely well considering our ability to keep the time code to camera accurate. Our high success rate made the times he had to manually sync less of an issue, and we never “got the call.” Daily sound files were handed over on a CF card to the data wrangler, as well as a DVD-RAM containing the mix only. All files from both machines were backed up to a fire wire drive and turned in to editorial at the end of the show.
All in all, the greatest challenge on this film was the locations and the total lack of local resources. Even simple things were hard to come by. Everything had to be brought in. The G&E package came from Bulgaria, along with much of the crew and all the transportation with the exception of my truck and the camera truck. Those were hired along with the driver/owner and we had to design and build our own shelves and cabinets and lighting inside. We spent the first week of production shooting in a small mountain village, which required we sleep on a train! It was an old Soviet-era train heated with coal, so we always worried about asphyxiating. The showers and bathrooms were outside and it was a cold run of about 100 yards, which was made worse the few days it rained. The remainder of the shoot we stayed in a very nice hotel in the capital city of Tbilisi, but the locations remained tough. The catering was terrible and craft service virtually non-existent (as were bathrooms sometimes). Poor interior air quality, which was accentuated by the 85% smoking rate, made simply breathing a challenge. Exterior locations were not without air pollution caused by burning of tires for black smoke, and they had very limited accessibility. Ramps and elevators simply did not exist, and more often than not, neither did paved roads. But I would do it all again in a heartbeat. This is what I love about making movies, and why I know I will be doing it for life.5 Days of August is currently having the final mix performed at Warner Brothers Sound, under the supervision of Christopher Aud. The expected release date is spring next year.