Mike Westgate, sound recordist on Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence, The Bounty, and a number of Jacques Cousteau films has become an HHB Portadrive enthusiast, employing the hard disk location sound recorder on Sir Anthony Hopkins’ latest movie, The World’s Fastest Indian, which completed shooting in New Zealand just before Christmas 2004.
In gathering location audio Westgate strapped the recorder to the back of a stunt rider who topped 100 miles- per- hour (160 kilometres-per-hour) to complete a number of scenes.
In ‘The World’s Fastest Indian’, the Welsh acting legend, Hopkins, plays the true-life role of Bert Monroe, an illustrious motorcycle enthusiast from New Zealand who established a new world speed record against all odds on the salt flats of Bonneville, USA in the 1960s. The ‘Indian’ in the title refers to the classic American motorcycle, and Monroe’s feat is made all the more remarkable by the fact that he achieved it whilst aged in his seventies!
An enthusiastic user of the Portadrive since its launch early in 2004, Westgate had no qualms about using the recorder to capture the wide range of music and sound effects required by director, Roger Donaldson for the movie.
“During the shoot I was required to record a 5 piece dance band plus a vocalist, so I decided to create a real-time stereo mix of the instruments, while recording the vocalist on a third track so that it could be processed or mixed to picture later. The Portadrive’s pristine 24-bit audio became absolutely essential, since Tim Prebble’s audio post team back in Wellington wanted some elements to be captured at higher bit rates to achieve the best possible quality,” said Westgate.
For sound effects, the multi-channel capability of the Portadrive proved invaluable. By using a high quality stereo microphone for onboard vehicle recordings, and a selection of appropriately positioned mono microphones for other sound effects, the Portadrive enabled Westgate to work quickly and efficiently by capturing multiple sources simultaneously.
As for dealing with the high-SPL (sound pressure level) sound effects associated with vintage motorcycles travelling at full speed, the Portadrive took everything comfortably in its stride.
“For the very high level on-board motorcycle recordings, I needed to use low output moving coil microphones in conjunction with the 15dB internal pads of the Portadrive’s microphone pre-amplifiers. I must confess feeling some pangs of concern as I watched my Portadrive fly past strapped to the back of a rider travelling at over 100 miles-per-hour, but in typical HHB fashion the results were quite outstanding,” remarked Westgate.
The World’s Fastest Indian is currently in post-production, and will debut at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, with international release scheduled for autumn 2005.
Managing Director of HHB, Ian Jones, who receives “fascinating stories from all corners of the globe,” said,"Mike's is the first 100 miles-per-hour plus recording that we've heard of!"
The HHB Portadrive delivers multichannel 24-bit/96kHz recording on a tough, removable hard drive with simultaneous recording of rushes to an external drive, sophisticated on-board mixing, comprehensive timecode facilities and flexible, session-based file transfer with Mac and PC workstations. HHB is distributed in Australia by the Technical Audio Group (TAG). Info: www.tag.com.au.