Film & Editing Blog - Behind the Scenes

I'm lying in bed this morning in my hotel in Cusco with another lazy (as lazy as I want to be) day ahead of me and I'm thinking about the background sound effects and sound scape for a short movie script I've been preparing. Anyway it occurs to me that Cuscu being such a crazy place, and I mean that fondly, has an amazing soundscape perfect for a number of upcoming filming projects! So I decide to go into town with my sound recording kit and leave the camera behind - my eyes need a break so time to make my ears work harder for a change!

Taking a couple of Zacuto rod connectors with spuds, and a rod and handle from the JAG35 I make this compact little rig. The Shotgun mic is a Sennheiser K6+ME66 affair and I'm using a custom made Neutrik XLR-XLR short lead. The recorder is a Marantz PMD661 Solid State Recorder with the following setup: PCM-16 16bit 48kHz mono channel. For headphones, I had to travel real lite so I didn't bring my big cans, instead I'm using Sennheiser CX300 mkII's which are fantastic! They normally go for about £70 but amazon were doing them at 70% off a while back! I wish I'd got two pairs!

Right, adios! I'm all set so I'm going to wonder into town now and see what Cusco has to offer in the way of backing soundscapes! :)

Sometimes size and weight are a real consideration when filming outdoor adventures. And this is certainly the case for filming Machu Picchu tomorrow. I'm in the hotel getting ready for tomorrow (and enjoying the fact that there is a shower and a real bed after many days of trekking). The challenge is to take our hybrid field runner Digital SLR filming rig and strip it down to the bare minimum while still being able to record professional sound and video. It has to be light and small so it fits into a typical day sack and be carried around for a day in very very hot conditions.

You Need Great Video AND Audio For The Best Results

The great thing about our filming rig is that it's versatile. So we've dropped the shouder mount, one of the handles and attached the Marantz PDM661 pro audio recorder with Senheiser K6+ME66 shotgun mic under the belly of it all. This rig still has 3 points of contact (eyepiece, handle and follow focus) which allows us to capture great quality images and also audio while being compact and easy to handle and carry.

The camera is not shown in the picture but what you do see (big black piece with two metal tips) towards the left of the picture is the battery grip mounted. By removing the camera at the grip point the camera could be quickly freed to become a stills camera making this setup even more versatile!

It's all about the final shot

In the film industry there's a saying that "The world is held together with gaffer tape and cable ties" and there's certainly a lot of truth in that. What this rig demonstrates is that sometimes you have to adapt and change the way you use kit to make sure you get the best results no matter the conditions. Thinking out of the box is part of the fun when it comes to solving the challenge of getting the right footage. In the past we've:

• Wrapped cameras in clingfilm to protect them from dust while filming on building sites
• Mounted cameras to people to capture sport
• Mounted rigs out of sunroofs, rear & side doors of moving vehicles to capture action
• Then there was the time I put a camera inside a fridge freezer... but that's another story - got a great shot though ;)

It's hot hot hot! We've started our trek along the Inca Trail and I'm carrying the filming equipment I described in my behind the scenes blog post. It's hard work and in this shot I've stopped to film the participants crossing a bridge over the river. I don't know if it's the same river I saw earlier in the day but one things for sure this amazing landscape has been forged by water and glaciers. I've done a lot of walking in my time especially in Wales, Italy, the Lake District and Scotland but I'm blown away by the sheer scale of this place. When you're up high you can see for miles and it's just mountain after mountain! Awesome!

It's our first proper day on the Inca Trail. Yesterday we warmed up at the Inca site Sacsayhuaman and today we're heading off into the wilderness so to say. No more hotel beds or showers for the next 4 days. It's campsites and walking all the way along the Inca Trail.

We asked our driver Marcus to stop so we could take in this amazing view of the valey on the way to the site. I got some great footage using the 5D mark II on the Zacuto/Jag35 rig. Our guide Willow snapped this picture. It really shows the scale of things. Especially when you consider we started at Cuzco (Qusco) which is over 3000m above sea level!