cavalia

As a busy “sound for picture” mixer based in the Los Angeles area, John David Franco gets first call to supervise sound recording on a variety of jobs, from mixing hundreds of national commercials to film and television shows to sports and special events. Some of the most challenging jobs, however, involve bringing live performance and music to the screen. Whether it’s his award winning work for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame or recording the entire cast of the Lion King for a commercial, each job brings a new adventure. Like the time he got the call to supervise video sound for an intimate concert by Cheryl Crow. Recording a performance for around 50 invited guests wouldn’t normally pose a challenge, except that besides recording the concert on (what was at the time) a group of new unreleased Sony HD DVD based broadcast cameras, the concert would take place at around thirty thousand feet…that’s right, a live, in-flight concert aboard a jumbo jet flying from Chicago to LA.

So you can imagine with a reputation for delivering great sound under challenging circumstances, he gets a lot of interesting calls for work. Recently, he was referred to just such a project. The production company of Cavalia requested his expertise. Cavalia is a dramatic equine centered world touring tent-show featuring visual effects, music, breathtaking acrobatics, skilled riders and rarely seen demonstrations of horse whispering. It’s similar to Cirque du Soleil, but with over thirty magnificent horses. The show would be recorded in Three Dimension High Definition Video and required sound that would be equal to the resulting dramatic 3-D big screen presentation. While the show’s music would be recorded in studio, they needed to record the live vocal and sound elements of each performance to later assemble with the music and 3-D HD video footage.

Franco recalls, “I had mixed a season of LA equestrian events for television culminating in the Olympic Equestrian Trials, so I had experience recording around horses. I had also been retained as a consultant for LA’s finest horse racetrack to design a microphone array to capture the sounds of the racing horses on the track, providing a trackside sound experience to patrons in the clubhouse.

“The technicality of the Cavalia job was pretty advanced. The video engineering involved in aligning and synchronizing the eight cameras that would provide the 3-D images was intense. But our 3D Technical Director, the renowned Pierre Hugues Routhier from Quebec, had the video portion under control. One take of each performance was all we were going to get, so I knew we only had one chance to get it right. Since we were working with highly trained horses that have a limited amount of performance time each day and a tight three-day production schedule, we would have no real time full rehearsals. All the departments would gather together before each act and view a wide-angle video of a past live performance and rig for the next shot from that.

“My recording gear would have to be dependable and responsive, so rather than recording to a Mac based computer system with a fire wire audio interface as I normally would, I decided to go with an all-in-one device. I chose the Fostex DV824 DVD Ram recorder as the centerpiece of my rig because of its highly stable UDF platform, on board Sempte time code and BWAV poly file format. It can record 8-tracks of up to 24bit and 48 Hz to high capacity12cm 5x DVD Ram media as well as the internal 40 gig. hard drive.

“Before I had purchased it, I placed a call to Fostex in LA and spoke to Rick Cannata, the Fostex Regional Sales Manager, who explained why the machine has become such a popular choice for post-houses, as well as television series and film. Rick answered all my questions regarding non-linear recording and invited me to contact him anytime, should more questions arise.

“Because I wanted the machine immediately, my local Fostex dealer arranged for me to pick it up at the Fostex facility. There, I met up with Masaki Shimmachi, an Engineering Manager who (to my surprise) took a few minutes to guide me through a brief introduction to the DV824. This was an unexpected but welcome bit of customer service. Granted, it was a rare occurrence because customers normally pick up their machines at dealers or get them shipped direct. However, this experience and a couple of phone conversations since then has made it clear to me that Fostex values their customers, supports their products and employs friendly and knowledgeable people.

“For the Cavalia show, I set up the DV824 to record in DDR mode, which burns simultaneously to both a DVD Ram disk and one of the eight partitions on the internal hard drive. At the shows wrap, I would turn in the DVD Ram disks and burn archival safeties off the internal hard drive before I reformatted for the next project.

“By using a standard USB keyboard I was able to label each track, take and scene title quickly. I was even able to enter or edit the data later, after the take. The Fostex menu system was so intuitive that my sound crew immediately felt comfortable with it, preferring to by-pass my keyboard and input the scene data using the provided input keys on the face of the machine.

“I really appreciated the headphone monitoring matrix that allowed me to listen to stereo pairs/mix, mono and solo tracks. I was able to follow the performers using the solo function by sweeping through the tracks as the riders passed in front of the FX mics.

“The eight tracks allowed me plenty of options to record FX microphones and wireless lavalieres hidden on the riders to capture their vocal cues to the horses. We had originally intended to use small head worn mics, but they were rejected because they would not be part of the live shows and the appearance of this performance video had to match the live show in even the smallest detail.

“Hiding wireless mics is tough enough on an actor who’s movements are minimal, but in Cavalia I was faced with micing performers who would be bareback riding, running, jumping, whispering and shouting all in one take with no rehearsal and no second chances. So deciding how to securely mount, hide and position the wireless mics for good sound demanded thoughtful consideration as well as a few tricks I’ve learned throughout my career, but we got it all clean.

“The final result of our efforts yielded some amazing sounds that will bring the 3-D audience closer than ever before to the ranges of emotions shared by the riders and their horses. They will feel the exhilaration, speed and athleticism of the pair during the trick performances, as well as sense the intuitive relationship they share with each other during the horse whispering sequences.

“The Fostex DV824 performed perfectly the entire shoot. I never lost a take or had a problem with this machine. I trusted the DV824 alone to record every take and it all sounded great.

“I had been trying out various location recorders for a while, searching for the one I liked best. But with all the spin out there it’s hard to discern what the truth is regarding various machines’ performance, reliability, product support and available feature set. At this level of the game most recorders produce a very similar quality of sound file. It often comes down to personal preference and feature set, especially when talking to someone considering a 12k-20k investment to fill a need for a cart-based location recorder. The Fostex is a more affordable option that performs solidly and lets you use your money in other ways to more dramatically impact your overall sound quality.

“The DV824 has a clear menu and display, transport style function buttons, DC powering capability, and probably the best cost-per-track ratio in an all-in-one recorder with similar features. Oh yeah, and it’s ready to go, eight tracks to DVD Ram with time code right out of the box with no additional equipment to buy and no missing advertised functions. Since using the DV824 on the Cavalia project I have decided to make it my new default recorder for commercial jobs, which make up the majority of my work. Because of it’s broad acceptance in Post Facilities I think it is already a recording standard and it will be around for some time, so I plan on purchasing a second one in the very near future.

“The Fostex DV824 offers me the same qualities I strive to offer my clients, dependability, consistency and good clean sound, all while still being easy to work with.

John David Franco is a freelance Sound Mixer working in the Los Angeles area and can be contacted for hire at francosound@me.com