Car crash recording day was yesterday. It was a fun day.
The business situated downstairs from Infidel Studios where I am set up is a scrap car place, and as there is a car crash scene in the film Duncan asked the guys downstairs if we could record some car smashing sounds. In the end we ran with a single crash where one of the guys rolled a Ford Falcon down a hill into a stationary Toyota Corolla. It was a good collision speed for what we are after for the film, with a nice 2nd knock on collision into another stationary vehicle. Here’s a short video of it happening (please excuse the compressed iPhone quality video):
I’m really happy with the sound we got. We ran 8 channels of recording:
- XY pair of SM57s, near exterior;
- Boomed Sennheiser MKH 418 S Mid Side Shotgun, near;
- Sennheiser MKH 8050 mid distance;
- Pair of spaced EV Co4s onboard;
- Contact mic onboard.
The contact mic was attached to a plastic centre console section and sounds a bit plasticy and lame. It would have been better to get onto the metal of the body somewhere. The onboard Co4s caught some great bottom end, while the external mics got some good impact and debris. It could have been good to get some wider, more distant mics in too, but they weren’t needed for this project and this way we could keep isolated from external noise somewhat.
Here is a picture taken post collision.
