Hmmmm….would I rather work in the woods with snakes, ticks, spiders, and chiggers, or in the city where there’s noise traffic, running water, hot Georgia asphalt, an occasional fire ant, real bathrooms, and at times air conditioning?  Believe it or not, it’s a toss up!

I must speak in terms of recording sound as the Boom Operator, as well as from a film worker standpoint.  You must understand that sound is a strange animal.  It’s wild and wooly, and has the eyes and ears of a California Condor.  Microphones hear everything!  Yep, they’re like cameras.  By that I mean cameras ‘see’ everything.  They see most all spectrums of light, whether they’re super bright or pitch black.  Black images are not very interesting to look at, nor are super white pictures, but the camera will photograph them and you will look at them and respond in a certain manner.  The art lies in providing you with the images that evoke the desired emotion and thought pattern.  That’s what Director’s of Photography do, they make those decisions relative to what story they want to tell as it relates to the show.  It’s an art and skill that requires years of training and experience.

Well, believe it or not, sound is very similar.  The microphone hears everything!  At times we even joke, or really it’s the other crew members who chide us with “Those guys can hear grass grow”.  A Twitter Follower of mine recently shared with me her husband’s perspective on sound.  He said “You can hear a mouse pissing on cotton”.  I love that, and it’s just about true.  We go to great lengths to eliminate all unwarranted sounds that might infect the quality and quantity of the actor’s dialog.  We want them to sound like world class performers, after all The Walking Dead is a global phenomenon of a show.  It’s the greatest survivor story ever told, and we want their dialog to match the extra quiet post-apocalyptic world in which they traverse.  We’ve been fortunate enough to have been Nominated four times for “Best Sound”, and we’d one day like to win the award.  Wishes us luck.

The microphone hears every nuisance of sound in the environment in which we shoot, whether it’s in the middle of a forest or in the midst of the small town of Senoia, GA.  As a camera man utilizes reflective surfaces and lights to balance out the light in a scene, we the sound crew employ every imaginable tool we can think of to balance out the sounds.  If the actors are speaking loudly in a noisy location then we have what we call a very strong signal to noise ratio.  Meaning, they’re level is great enough that it overpowers the ambiance, and thus is completely acceptable for the sound track.  In this case we may not have to do anything but pad down our pre-amplifiers.  Padding down means to dial down the pre-amp gain, usually by 10db or more.

If, on the other hand, it’s a very quiet scene where the actors are whispering, and the surrounding sounds are overly annoying, then we will have to invite them to speak up, use radio mics, or do our best to reduce the background distractions.  Sometimes they do not want to speak up as they feel or believe it is not appropriate for their character.  Radio mics typically do a better job of increasing the signal to noise ratio.  There are many other adjustments that can be made to an environment which I am not going to go into today.

Now back to the original question.  Would I rather work in the woods with pests, or in the community with the other annoyances?  It depends on the scene, the day’s work, and my attitude.

On hot days I love the woods, as it provides shade.  On rainy days I prefer the stage, or an interior location in a comfortable and clean structure.  On cold days, it it’s not too cold, working outdoors can be very pleasant.  At night I usually prefer working outside, as it helps me stay awake.  After we’ve worked outside for days on end, then I rather prefer nice and neat interiors.  It really depends on me mood, but the reality is, I and/or we just buck it up and go to work!

In terms of sound, I love the woods because it’s usually so quiet.  Other than the sticks and leaves which the actors kick and crunch, it’s relatively great for recording appropriate post apocalyptic sound.  In the community it can be real pleasant.  For starters, it’s clean.  Most of our locations over the years have been….filthy.  And they still are whenever we venture out into the decrepit zombie world.  Working in a new and organized neighborhood is very nice, as the interiors are new and air conditioned, and the exteriors have real and soft grass!  The bugs are relatively non-existent, and there are real bathrooms available.  But working in the city has it’s drawbacks.  The concrete streets get real hot during August, and because there’s no shade, I have to deal with the direct light from the sun casting shadows from my boom pole.  I’ll talk about this another time.

The problem with shooting a post-apocalyptic TV show in the city is….it’s noisy.  Yep, auto and truck traffic is consistent throughout the day and night.  It’s right there, just a block from where we shoot.  And this unwanted sound can over power the dialog…at least to our standards.  Unfortunately there’s not a lot we can do about it, so we just deal with it….attitude wise.  Thankfully we utilize the best post production facilities in the world at Warner Brothers Studios in Hollywood.  They do an incredible job of processing the extraneous sounds, so that you don’t hear them.  Relief.

So, to answer the original question….it all depends.  Chiggers vs Concrete?  I’ll deal with both of them!  The Walking Dead is a great show, and I love being on it!