'Gladiator II': an eight-camera shoot with DPA miniature microphones

Sound engineer Stéphane Bucher used miniature microphones from DPA to capture the sound of 'Gladiator II', whose signals were processed from a complete rig called Maximus.

Stéphane Bucher, with an extensive history hand in hand with the production company of Luc Besson and experience in other Hollywood feature films such as The Last Duel o Napoleon, was commissioned to Ridley Scott to shape the sound of Gladiator II, a mammoth action and conspiracy film set in the Roman Empire. The eight chambers simultaneous images in charge of capturing the 12 great battles of the film show the technical complexity of a shoot that did not skimp on production resources.

To address sound capture, Bucher made the decision to go for a fiber network and the use of Dante to be able to operate sound management at a distance of more than 300 metros. On rig on set he was nicknamed Maximus, in honor of the protagonist of the first film Gladiator, and contained all the wireless microphone receivers, boom microphones and a recorder back-up.

In order to capture the voice of the interpreters, the engineer opted for solutions from DPA microphones. The chosen tool, a miniature microphone DPA 6061 with windbreak URSA Plush Sleeves, hid in the tiny metallic horse of the armor of the character played by Paul Mescal. Under normal circumstances, a traditional boom system would have been used, but the eight cameras at play meant that there was no angle from which the sound of the traditional way.

"To give an example of the deployment of this solution, there is a sequence in the film that clearly illustrates the need for this type of tool: the moment when General Acacius (Pedro Pascal) returns victorious from the battle of Numidia. Well, this sequence was filmed in a single shot with 8 cameras placed along the entire 300-meter route. We had to install the Maximus with the first pair of antennas in the middle of the route, and then the RF over fiber system with the second pair of antennas near the arrival point. Thanks to the reception rack. Wisycom MRK16", I was able to control the different areas and obtain a good reception signal from the wireless microphones," he explains. Bucher.

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