Filmmaker Rolf de Heer and the DPA 5100 mobile surround microphone
Alleroed, Denmark (July 10, 2013)—Sound designer James Currie has been using a DPA 5100 mobile surround microphone on a new feature film, Charlie’s Country, being shot on location in Australia.
Directed by Australian filmmaker Rolf de Heer and produced by Nils Erik Nielsen and Peter Djigirr, Charlie’s Country, starring Aboriginal actor David Gulpilil, is a tragi-comic portrait of one man’s struggle to define himself as an Aboriginal in modern Australia.
For Currie, who has more than 100 feature films to his credit, the film provided the opportunity to try a DPA 5100 for the first time. Julius Chan, sales engineer at DPA’s Australian Distributor Amber Technology Ltd., recommended the microphone.
Currie says, “We decided, before embarking on this production, that our basic post position was going to be Dolby 7.1 with a possibility of going to final mix with Dolby Atmos. A 5.1 microphone for recording atmospheres was therefore an essential item in the structure and vision of the soundtrack. The DPA 5100 mobile surround microphone was the instrument that allowed us to work with confidence and to approach the post production of Charlie’s Country with a strong degree of certainty.”
Filming in East Arnhem Land, which is deep into Aboriginal tribal land, came with its own set of issues. Currie describes the area as ‘Australian frontier territory’ and says only madmen and obsessive filmmakers would consider staying there for any length of time.
“Charlie’s Country includes scenes that had to be filmed in the rain…. The DPA 5100 microphone gave excellent results and coped with all conditions remarkable well,” Currie reports.
DPA Microphones
www.dpamicrophones.com
