Exploring Audio Landscapes of Teenage Years, Continued
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In the world of filmmaking, capturing audio in complex scenes like those in BBC's critically acclaimed series, 'Adolescence', is no easy feat. The production sound team, led by Rob Entwistle and Kiff McManus, faced unique challenges in setting up a sound system that could keep pace with the moving vehicles and actors within single continuous takes.
To tackle these challenges, a mobile and coordinated mixing setup was deployed. The heart of this system was an 18-seater van, transformed into a mobile mixing station, equipped with all necessary gear to remotely control and monitor sound from multiple points on set. This mobile hub facilitated communication and sound capture as the camera and actors moved continuously across scenes.
The team's preparations began months before production, taking into account the script, the locations, and the camera movements. During filming, local recorders, mixers, and mics were set up in each vehicle, including the police van, police car, and plumbing van, due to their higher ceilings. The police car was miked with DPA 6061s, while the police van and plumbing van were miked with DPA 4099s.
In addition, plant mics were hidden in various locations, such as curtains, banisters, and even the parents' bedroom. During the scene where the Miller family goes to the hardware store, two members of the sound team were sent to capture the dialogue on location.
Entwistle, the production sound mixer, had to anticipate lines of dialog starting before seeing who was talking, and the students who were miked up weren't professional actors. This required a great deal of mental gymnastics to capture the chaos of the school episode, but by Friday, it was perfect.
In a tricky scene in Episode 4, Chi Limpiroj and Joanna Barcik helped with the sound setup as Stephen Graham's character moves between indoor and outdoor locations. The school episode proved the most challenging for Entwistle due to numerous actors, overlapping dialog, a fire alarm, and a fight in the schoolyard.
Post-production mixing was just as intense, with active panning necessary to keep the sound locked to the shifting camera perspective and maintain spatial realism. The sound design team, including supervising sound editor James Drake and re-recording mixer Jules Woods, manipulated audio elements such as dialogue clarity, background vehicle noises, and music, sometimes using subjective point-of-view sound approaches to enhance the narrative experience.
In summary, the sound setup for 'Adolescence' involved a fully mobile and coordinated mixing setup, the use of a van as a mobile mixing station, intense coordination and planning for capturing sound in real-time across moving vehicles and actors, post-production mixing with active panning, and creative sound design choices to enhance immersion and narrative.
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- The sound design team in the production of 'Adolescence' utilized active panning during post-production mixing to keep the sound synchronized with the shifting camera perspective and ensure spatial realism.
- In addition to the mobile mixing setup, plant mics were hidden in various locations, such as curtains, banisters, and even the parents' bedroom, to capture ambient sounds during filming.
- During the broadcast of 'Adolescence', the audience will experience immersive and realistic sound, as the sound team has been carefully mixing and manipulating audio elements like dialogue clarity, background vehicle noises, and music to create an enhanced narrative experience.
