Wireless mic and security

[j1clark@ucsd.edu]

A few months ago an audio track from a set captured Christian Bale in a state of distress... While I think most people seem to think this was taken from some recording of the on-set equipment... the thought occured to me on the topic of wireless mics and sets... and e-paparazzi scanning a set then listening in on the various frequencies found.

Is this something that is old news to most people who do audio on set, or is it just the case that audio snooping of sets is not a big item on the paparazzi list of things to do????

 

[wabbit]

Zaxcom has encryption but most other w/l do not. Considering the range I don't imagine it would be too productive to try to scan for production w/l unless they are shooting on location in a very public place (ie downtown NYC).

I don't know much about the paparazzi but I doubt this would be a productive use of their time.

I do find that whole affair interesting in that the production mixer should have ended the recording immediately upon cut. Recording after cut is a major invasion of privacy unless some sort of BTS deal was worked about beforehand (and I have never heard of anything like that ever). It is a major act of trust to let yourself be wired. I have inadvertently overhead many private conversation right before IMMEDIATELY killing their mic. Anything else is not professional & will hurt your career.

Cheers

 

[j1clark@ucsd.edu]

Zaxcom has encryption but most other w/l do not. Considering the range I don't imagine it would be too productive to try to scan for production w/l unless they are shooting on location in a very public place (ie downtown NYC).

I don't know much about the paparazzi but I doubt this would be a productive use of their time.

So, it seems that there's 'security' because it is never thought of, at least by people who would exploit such eavesdropping...

 

[JordanBlock]

The return on investment for the paparazzi would be pretty low. You can sell pretty much any picture of a random star, but no one is going to buy an audio recording of the same star delivering a random line from the script.