ALLEROED, DENMARK ― In an effort to support first-time and indie filmmakers through the height of the pandemic, DPA Microphones partnered with Rycote on a “Pay-it-Forward” giveaway in late 2020 from which three lucky winners acquired a full cinema mics kit from the brands. The contest’s prizes included DPA’s 4097 Micro Shotgun, 4017 Shotgun and 6060 CORE Subminiature microphones―along with virtual mentoring sessions, an array of Rycote accessories and other equipment loaners. The recipients, Lijie Cheng of Singapore, Jacob Deming of the United States and Sergey Martynyuk of Austria, have been hard at work putting their new gear, and skills, to the test.
Pictured: (top left) a scene from the set of Love Machine 2, on which Martynyuk worked; (bottom left) Jacob Deming at the Sherwood Winter Percussion performance; (right) a behind-the-scenes look at Cheng’s rig from the set of Maybe Marriage.
Lijie Cheng, Singapore
Production Sound Mixer Lijie Cheng was excited to upgrade his microphone arsenal upon winning the competition and has already utilized them for an upcoming web mini-series, Maybe Marriage, and a short film, A Man Trembles premiering in this year’s BFI London Film Festival. He is also planning on utilizing the mics on an upcoming feature Dreaming and Dying by Nelson Yeo, filmed in his native Singapore.
“I was so impressed with the 6060,” he says. “Normally, for mics with smaller capsules, it’s hard to achieve the same sound quality as a bigger mic. Since the 6060 is so small, it can be hidden in plain sight, which makes the sound more open and natural. That helped a lot with a particular costume on Maybe Marriage, which had a very complicated wardrobe. As for the 4097, I loved using it for car rigs, as spot microphones and spontaneous voiceovers. Also, with today’s social distancing protocols, I can’t be too close to the talent when I mic them with lavaliers, so with the 4097 and a transmitter, I can just hit record, pass it to them and they can do their own recording. That’s been very helpful, I now have a 4097 with transmitter always at the ready should I need some spontaneous mic spots or plants. I love the 4097 and 6060 so much that I plan to buy more.”
Jacob Deming, United States
Deming, the owner of CORPSOUND AUDIO, which specializes in live performances and events, plans to utilize the DPA microphones he won for the upcoming Northwest Association for Performing Arts’ Percussion Championships when they resume. He has already put his DPA microphones to good use, capturing the performance of one of the leading contenders, the Sherwood Winter Percussion. Deming used DPA’s 4017 Shotgun Microphones and the brand’s 2011C Twin Diaphragm Cardioid Microphones to properly mic the musicians and capture accurate sound for use in post-production. The mics, he says, are particularly useful for audio capture and keep up with the movements of the musicians as they perform their choreography.
“It was absolutely imperative to have a range of microphones for the different situations that we operate in out on the field,” he says. “With other brands, I’ve seen mics perform for a year and then watch them age. I’m impressed by DPA’s consistency day-in and day-out. The content that I’ve put together using the DPA gear will not only showcase the sound and talent of the music group in front of the judges but is essentially what I will lean on when it comes time to expand my business to other marching band/music customers. Right now, I’m developing our state-of-the-art judge’s audio package, which synchronizes the judges’ comments with the performance. Having this footage and audio is a great way to showcase the quality of content that I can provide.”
Sergey Martynyuk, Austria
As he awaits production on his 3D virtual reality (VR) project to come out of postponement, Sound Engineer Sergey Martynyuk is currently heading up the sound production team for the upcoming Austrian film, Love Machine 2. A comedy and sequel to the award-winning Love Machine, the movie follows the comedic trials and tribulations of the cast. With dialogue at the forefront of this production, clarity of sound was of the utmost importance. In addition to the gear from the kit, Martynyuk, also chose to use DPA’s 4060 CORE Mini Omnidirectional Microphone with MicroDot for plant mic’ing applications.
Martynyuk says the DPA lavaliers have changed his workflow dramatically. “Since the film’s dialogue is so important, the DPA 6060 CORE Subminiature Mics have played a very, very valuable role because of the crystal-clear sound,” he says. “I love using the 6060s on the actors because of the compact size that makes them easy to hide in wardrobe, and I love using the 4060s because I can hide them on set. I also used a 4017 Shotgun Microphone and now incorporate two 4097 Micro Shotgun Microphones.”