After much deliberation I decided for efficiency and flexibility purposes, I was going to film using a two-person crew. I would work the camera and I felt it critical to have a sound technician to round out the crew so I brought my friend Adam Smith on board. One of the things I wanted to avoid with God’s Own Country was the technical deficiencies that plagued Nigerian/African movies (low sound, no sound and sound dropouts). A golden rule within independent cinema is that people can forgive bad images but they absolutely cannot forgive bad sound.
I arranged a meeting with Adam to discuss the exact sound issues we would be facing in Nigeria. Below is the list we came up with.
Complexities:
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A consistent source of power was not guaranteed (In practice it was suppose to be 2 days on one day off, but in reality it was more like the other way around.
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The use of a generator was not highly recommended because that in itself would create a whole other quandary of sound problems
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The voltage system in Nigeria is different from North America
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Because I was going for a documentary run n gun (it was key that we set up in the heart of locations unannounced) look to capture Lagos’s vibrancy, minimal equipment was encouraged
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And oh yeah the equipment would have to be concealed.
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(More on his technical sound packages on a later blog)
After breaking all that down I looked over to Adam and I expected him to walk away with his hands in the air, instead a wry smile came over his face. That’s when I knew the sound was shored up. Till this day I don’t know if he hopped on board because of the challenges or maybe it was because of the free plane ticket I like to think it was the opportunity to be a trendsetter and see and hear the Nigeria/Africa they never show you…
Take me next time!