For this show, the crew built an amazing therapy office on a soundstage, and each day we'd shoot therapy sessions from behind the walls. A real and genuine therapy experience was paramount for our subjects.
This presented an interesting challenge for sound. In addition to being kept out of the office during therapy sessions, we couldn't interrupt once the session began. To ensure the best sound possible we'd place lavaliere microphones on our subjects and strategically "plant" microphones, DPA 4098s, in secret locations aimed as best we could at our subjects. In total, we'd have six microphones to utilize each session.
We monitored all microphones from behind the walls of the office and used a custom wooden case built by a grip-friend on-set to house 4 black magic video monitors. For the directors listening was crucial as each session would give them realtime inspiration for what would later become an edited TV show. They listened in with our lectrosonics IFBs. Additionally, the camera operators needed to hear, as the conversations unfolding in the office would guide their movements, a close-up here, or a wide shot there, etc. We fed audio hard-wired, almost 600 feet of XLR cable, to each camera and provided operators with headsets to listen in. We made sure, for the edit, that each camera was sync’ed via timecode, and fed 6 cameras BNC timecode feeds.
the co-op was well positioned to handle a job of such gear-magnitude, as our inventory is effectively the inventory of 6 mixers, pooled, shared, and improved upon. we were able to make sure couples therapy was well staffed and recorded while outside of it being able to still supply other clients with great sound.
