Old Lyme, CT (November 26, 2014)—Skid Row Marathon, a documentary film about the Midnight Mission’s running club, was captured by Sennheiser microphones from start to finish.
In early 2013, director Mark Hayes read a story about a Los Angeles Superior Court judge, Craig Mitchell, who started the Midnight Mission running club, consisting of former substance abusers, ex-convicts, homeless people and others who have fallen on hard times. “The sweet spot of this story is the judge, who is also a big runner,” explains Hayes. “[W]hen he is not working, he is helping people who fell into hard times get a fresh outlook on life by training for and running marathons.”
Hayes and his partner, producer Gabriele Hayes, contacted Christopher Currier of Sennheiser, who recommended a microphone package consisting of the MKH 416 shotgun microphone, HD 25-II headphones for monitoring and EW 112-PG3 G3 wireless systems. Mark and Gabriele were told by the judge that they would have to run with the club: “Thankfully Gabi is a runner, so she would run alongside them with a camera and an MKH 415 microphone mounted on top to capture all the action,” Mark says.
Twice a week, the group would complete a seven mile run and then gather on a street corner to check on how everyone was progressing—both with the running and in their personal lives. “To capture these important conversations, Gabi would have an MKH 415 on a boom pole connected wirelessly, and I would be shooting with a camera with an MKH 416 on a shoe mount,” Mark explains.
One of the most important audio segments the team captured was an early interview with the judge. “Once again, we used the boom pole with the MKH 416, and also a lavaliere microphone [MKE2-EW Gold] on the judge’s collar, connected to a G3 wireless transmitter,” Mark recalls. “After we finished the shoot, we took the audio back for editing and it just sounded fantastic.”
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