Location Sound- Nadine Richardson

10/01/2025

Another install from my blog- shooting Trust. The story of John Paul Getty and the kidnapping of John Paul Getty III.

I was Production sound mixer on Trust for FX which aired in 2018. This is the story of the Getty family and the kidnapping of John Paul Getty III. Posted below is a still from the new trailer as this was recorded with the Schoeps Super Cmit a digital shotgun microphone. With its increased directivity it worked well as Harris Dickinson in this scene was topless for his dialogue at the poolside with Donald Sutherland, therefore we could not put a radio mic on. All dialogue recorded on wide and tights with the Super Cmit which worked really well next to the water especially as the area is under a flight path and planes were frequent.

We were shooting at Hatfield House which is a Grade 1 listed country house on the Eastern side of Hatfield, Hertfordshire. Old Jacobean era with high ceilings and ornate rooms was a joy to shoot in but had its challenges for sound.


Audley End was the filming location of the Getty Mansion. Again another 17th Century house with high ceilings and stone walls were a challenge. Thankfully for me in this instance the lighting department were using large helium balloons to light the main halls which acted as an acoustic aid for all the scenes we had there.

The most rewarding time was spent shooting in locations in Rome, Italy.
Each location had its challenges again, however with this time radio frequencies as one can not licence channels. I took out to Italy the Wisycom MRK 960 rack receiver which has amazing scanning functions and I was able to see what TV bands were available to use to give me the high radio mic count I needed.
We shot at the Piazza Santa Maria in Trastevere; with the high vantage points Danny Boyle wanted to shoot at I had good range with the Wisycom system.

We also shot at Palazzo dei Conservatori in Capitoline Hill-

and negotiation scenes, where Donald Sutherland spoke Italian, at the Roman ruins of Villa Adriana in Tivoli. Each location I had Italian and English dialogue to record and with the help of the Italian script supervisor I was able to get all the Italian dialogue recorded clean by putting markers for myself in the script where I knew I recognised the dialogue. Especially difficult when they all spoke quite fast!

Another beautiful location was the Via Agricola Estate just outside of Rome-

Here I worked with director Susanna White on the wedding scene. We recorded all the music on location throughout the shoot, and here I recorded a choral and piano duet in the small chapel. Recorded on the Schoeps CMC6/41 in stereo and schoeps spot mics for some atmospheric sound.
These are just a few of the places we shot in Italy and all of them with history and beauty. What a treat.
https://nadinerichardson.blogspot.com/

06/12/2024

A bit from my blog as I realised I have not spoken on my work on my page-

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness won Movie of 2022 from People's Choice Awards.

Well done to them and great to be part of it. I was the Production Sound Mixer on the film and it was a treat to work with Sam Raimi who is a legend at what he does.

As a Sound mixer it is my job to oversee all aspects of sound and make decisions on what to use. I used Schoeps Super Cmit microphones as the sets were large and this gave me the best opportunity to gather the dialogue.
They are digital microphones that can be very helpful on large sets with their increased directivity. We worked mainly in domed stages with high ceilings so it helped to have great suppression of the diffused sound.

One of the more complicated and yet amazing sets at Longcross Studios was the New York City street set which was a huge build spanning around 200m in length. In construction I had a Voice of God set up at the top of each of the buildings- point source and horn speakers were installed throughout the whole length of the street. This meant running cables throughout the length of the street, and doing this by accessing each building from under the ground. The cable was laid underground and had to be installed in advance of the set going up so lots and lots of cable! This enabled Sam Raimi to communicate with the cast anywhere across the set.
I also had to think in advance how to cover the whole of the set with RF for the radio mics and boom microphones we needed to capture the dialogue. The four cameras being used were often spaced along the length of the street and could be hidden in shop fronts, behind vehicles or at different ends of the street from each other. I needed to have coverage along the whole length so I set out Wisycom combined antennas throughout the length and back to me 100m away to be able to capture any dialogue in any location. Phew!

New York City street set and the horn speakers installed. Pic

https://nadinerichardson.blogspot.com/

13/11/2024

Thanks to The Broadcast Bridge for this write up about myself and others on how we achieve the sound we do on set. Supported by Sennheiser, here is a link to read it-

We talk to five experts about the creative and professional challenges encountered every day by location sound recordists across a wide range of genres of production.

23/02/2024

Had the chance to work with the new Wisycom MTP 61 on my last couple of jobs and I have to say the range on them is remarkable. You can obviously put them in record which is fantastic, and jam sync them all from the Wisycom LBC61 battery charger and data transfer bank which makes it fast. Very helpful when the most important dialogue is done in a stunt vehicle at high speed. Long range boosters for comms and rigging of three different types of mic in the vehicle to capture the dialogue.

11/12/2023

Crew appreciation day!
Kyle Pickford
Jim Hok
Mo Concas
Owen McClure
Main crew and the many trainees, second unit crew, dailies.
Thank you to tireless work on all the recent Marvel work we have done together and various other films and telly.
Working hard as always!

04/06/2021

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STLLjDdn4N8
A review by Mark Kermode of the film I worked on. Shot in Tottenham with a lot of interest from some fruity characters. Hand held camera most of the time to get the feeling of a person constantly on the move as a manic story unfolds.
Ben Whishaw is fantastic so if you are interested to watch it go to Curzon online.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10suikzwcjw

SURGE starring Ben Whishaw will be released in UK Cinemas and on Digital 28th May 2021, by Vertigo Releasing. SURGE Outline: Joseph (Ben Whishaw) is trapped ...