Brooklyn, New York (June 5, 2025)—The filmmakers behind Slumlord Millionaire, an independent feature documentary that opens June 6 at New York’s Firehouse Cinema, used Sennheiser gear to capture production audio.
The film, which will premiere on PBS later this year, explores issues of housing justice and the impact of rapid urban gentrification on tenants. Co-directors and co-producers Steph Ching and Ellen Martinez used Sennheiser products to interview their subjects, some of whom turned the camera on themselves, to capture the authentic atmosphere of the multicultural neighborhoods where they filmed.
“New York is such a beautiful soundscape,” says Ching, who captured production audio on the project along with Martinez and Antonio Cisneros. “The beginning of the film starts with sound over black, and that was very intentional. We wanted to bring viewers into the experience of being in New York City and highlight the people who live in these neighborhoods. We wanted it to feel like you’re walking in Chinatown, hearing the vendors talking or people playing chess, so we used that throughout the storytelling.”
The Slumlord Millionaire crew connected with Sennheiser before going into production. “We wanted to have the best gear and be able to capture the best quality sound and we’re so grateful that [Sennheiser] came into the project,” Martinez says.
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It was imperative that their equipment was light, reliable and plug-and-play. “I was pregnant during production, but the equipment that they gave us was easy to use, mobile and portable, which was crucial. It was just perfect for us,” she says.
Martinez and Ching had a variety of Sennheiser lavalier, on-camera and boom microphones available to use individually or in combination. Their equipment included two AVX-MKE 2 lav sets, each consisting of a bodypack transmitter, MKE 2 lavalier microphone and plug-on receiver. “The battery life was great. There would be times where we’d mic one of our participants, then we wouldn’t see them until the end of the day—and the mic was still working,” Ching recalls.
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The filmmakers also leveraged the MKE 600 shotgun mic and the low profile MKE 400 for on-the-go capture. Monitoring was via a pair of HD 280 PRO closed, around-the-ear headphones.
The mics were not only portable but also dependable in diverse situations and locales, Ching shares: “We filmed in a lot of different types of locations, but we didn’t have any issues in terms of sound capture.”
