Sound designer James Currie has been using a DPA 5100 Mobile Surround microphone to capture the audio for a new feature film entitled "Charlie’s Country," which was shot on location in East Arnhem Land, in the Northern Territory of Australia.
Directed by Australian filmmaker Rolf de Heer and produced by Nils Erik Nielsenand Peter Djigirr, "Charlie’s Country," starring iconic Aboriginal actor David Gulpilil, is a tragi-comic portrait of one man’s struggle to define himself as an Aboriginal in modern Australia.
For James Currie, who has more than 100 feature films to his credit, filming "Charlie’s Country" provided the perfect opportunity to try a DPA 5100 Mobile Surround microphone for the first time. The microphone was recommended by Julius Chan, sales engineer at DPA’s Australian Distributor Amber Technology Ltd, who has given Currie advice on audio equipment in the past.
“Julius praised the microphone and, now that I have used it, I agree with his opinion,” 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.”
Currie adds that the subject matter and nature of the film also dictated his approach to the audio. He wanted a discrete array of tracks, along with clarity and a faithful representation of the sonic world of East Arnhem Land, so that no sounds needed to be introduced from elsewhere.
Charlie’s Countryis now in post-production in Australia where the mixing team are dealing with the 300+ atmospheres recorded on the DPA 5100 Mobile Surround microphone. It is due to premier at the Adelaide International Film Festival later this year and may well be the first Australian production to be mixed in Dolby Atmos.
