Cinema Canada (Jul-Aug 1975)

the best performance of the day goes through. The soundman’s not terribly happy with his mike placement, he has a better position or he’s got a puff of wind in the mike during the take, and the big moment comes when the director looks at him and the cameraman and asks: ‘‘How was it?”’ Implicit in the soundman’s reply: ‘‘O.K. for sound,”’ is a terrific amount of experience and total knowledge of the business. His experience of whether something can be done later about that slightly poor quality or how much asking for are-take might prejudice the shoot. Would it be worth it any way, since he must be sensitive enough to the performance to know that it has come to a peak. Then, how much a re-take would prejudice the budget of the film.”’ ‘“You can teach anybody in an hour to operate a Nagra and to select a microphone, to get it out of the wind and in close, that’s the easiest thing in the world. There’s too much mumbo-jumbo about the technical side of things. But to operate sound intelligently ... the ability to operate as well with the bums on Jarvis Street as walking into the Prime Minister’s office. It’s important not to wear a filthy pair of jeans into the Prime Minister’s office, nor a clean shirt and tie when talking to bums on the street. A man might come in and he might blanket a complete set to get rid of sound reflections, but prejudice the day’s work to sucha degree by causing a delay that he won’t work again. Sure, he’s going to get better sound but he’s not going to work the next day.” Because of the portability of new documentary sound equipment and the kind of working conditions where everyone contributed creatively to the shoot, the industry is attracting many more intelligent people, according to Spence-Thomas. Gone are the days when the sound engineer shut himself into a corner with his push buttons and dials and said ‘“‘don’t ask me any questions, I’m just a technician.”’ He sees the role of the good documentary soundman more in being where the action is than in pushing the on or off button. Good communication among the small crew is vital, everyone should be ready to accept the other people’s help and ideas. ‘*The industry is attracting more intelligent people also because it’s a hell of a fine way of life, not because they necessarily want to be technicians.’’ Patrick deplores, however, the cropping up of some sound people with absolutely no knowledge of electronics beyond the operation of the tape recorder. ‘‘I wish that a lot of soundmen had more electronic knowledge. My background in that field I’ve found tremendously useful. When something goes wrong on top of a mountain in Vietnam, if you have some knowledge, even if you only know where to kick the recorder or where to bash the camera with a hammer to get it started. If you can get it going one way or another, you’re going to help a lot of people out of ajam and save a lot of money. But the operation of the equipment should be second nature. Once that happens, then you can make some films.”’ ‘‘Every film that I’ve done, you get so emotionally involved, you really do, you give so much of yourself. Then to see the film maybe opening in a big theatre with no publicity and being killed at that level ... Frankly I’m fed up with working conditions on features. You’re always asked to defer overtime work incredible hours. You end up at the end of the day completely exhausted, unable to do proper work, then you drag yourself out of bed the next morning. It just isn’t worth it,”’ sighed Patrick. ‘I get much more satisfaction now from a small, documentary film, which is properly financed, properly handled, properly budgeted. We have some good directors, but the organization on feature film sets is terrifying. What I would like to see more than anything else in Canada is for us to train some really good Assistant Directors, some really good Production Managers. So that if the sound department says, look I’ve got to have my own vehicle, they’d know what you’re talking about. Or, say, for the scene coming up tomorrow I need two radio mikes. We really need them, so you won’t be shouted down on that score. I’d love to do a feature under the proper conditions.”’ Technically, at least, what’s the proper gear these days to record a feature track? ‘‘It would be awfully nice to have 2 Nagras, especially on a remote location, I’d always try for that. Then I would say 2 Sennheiser 415’s, that’s a small directional mike, an 815 which is even more highly directional, 2 Sony ECM lavaliers, an AKG D202 cardiode dynamic in its boom mount, the most useful mike ever made for film, excellent front to back ratio and yet a very wide pick up pattern, really the best mike to boom with, use it for almost everything; then a radio mike, a good set of tools and there you go ... that’s the ideal set up, obviously.”’ And before the party starts, any last hints as to how to bea good location soundman? ‘‘Do a terribly careful check first of all of the script and see what’s going to be needed, that you ve got everything that you need. Every night clean the machines, degouse the heads, check frequency response, head alignment, recharge your batteries. Check the tape stock, make sure that it’s consistent quality and have a very strict routine of looking after finished tapes. Always seal the boxes, always put little bits of tape on each reel with its number, so even if it gets mixed up in the box, it can be located later. Recorded tape is as precious as camera negative. A lot of people tend to forget that. And get instant feedback on problems during transfers at the lab. Leave instructions to have them call you collect at the hint of the slightest trouble.”’ Such precise care and expertise has earned Patrick Spence-Thomas the just reputation of being a cracker jack soundman and a hell of a nice guy to work with. Having taught numerous series of workshops for the Toronto Filmmakers Co-op, he’s also known to lend a helping hand whenever a young filmmaker is just starting out and cannot afford to go to a big sound studio. He still offers a 50% discount to soundmen wishing to do their own transfers, just to prove a point, we suspect. He even has encouraging words for those contemplating the setting up of their own small studios, if they’re willing to work hard and become just a little bit better than everyone else. In Patrick Spence-Thomas’ case it’s obviously teaching by example. So ‘‘become a soundman, and do it right away. With the new technical advances, it’s a joy.”’ Cinema Canada 55