Rycote Uncovered: Rycote HC Shotgun Mics and Cyclone Windshields Elevate Indie Series Forces of Nature with Cinema-Quality Sound

Simon Baumann 

Creator/director

Action-drama Forces of Nature shifts the paradigm of how a television series is made. Available via video-on-demand and streaming later this year, it pits hip-hop dance champion Hurricane against an organized crime syndicate with Europe-spanning reach. The twist is that instead of professional actors, the production casts ordinary people whose characters are imbued with their real-life skills: dance, martial arts, combat experience, architecture, and more. The storyline is minimally scripted, with performers encouraged to play themselves. Since it is an independent effort with a small crew, creator/director Simon Baumann and technical lead Niclas Raab effectively are every department. For location sound recording, they required microphones as tenacious and versatile as they are, leading them to choose the HC-22 and HC-35 shotgun mics from Rycote, protected by Cyclone windshields.

What makes this production special for you?

Simon Baumann: For me, it’s that 90 percent of the talent are normal people from the streets, with maybe only ten percent being traditional actors, which we used for larger-than-life characters like the crime boss. We started shooting in Germany, but went to Italy, then Hong Kong. We were out for a total of 85 shooting days. Another aspect was that most of our locations weren’t sets — they were real places in actual use most of the time

Did that figure into your choice of Rycote mics?

Niclas Raab: What impressed me about the HC-22 and HC-35 was how very precise they are in a directional sense. “We used the HC-22 a lot for when we could close-mike people. Then we found ourselves going to the HC-35 more and more because we were often in places where regular people, not involved with the production, were conducting their business four or five meters away. 

Simon Baumann: I’m quite familiar with what shotgun microphones can and cannot do. Between my background and Niclas having studied film at the University of Munich, we were experienced with a lot of different mics. We were surprised that the Rycote ones were more directional and better at off-axis rejection than many more famous brands.

Niclas Raab: We even shot at an active commercial airport with planes passing by less than 100 meters from our location and had no problems. Likewise, some scenes were shot in an airplane hangar which had significant room echo. The mics didn’t pick it up. Rycote has certainly become our weapon of choice on this production.

Simon, describe a little about your background and pathways into making this sort of renegade-style series?

Simon Baumann: I studied animation at CalArts and when I was in Los Angeles, worked on a number of major productions including Thor and Men In Black 3. One thing I learned was that large crews and insulated sets can actually create a disconnect for the talent. Sometimes you want that, but for what we were doing, we wanted the opposite of that. I read about Stanley Kubrick filming Eyes Wide Shut, and the story goes that many of the tighter, more intimate scenes had, like, three people in the room including Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise. So, I wanted to keep Forces of Nature small.

Taking the guerilla approach you did, when was protecting your mics via the Cyclones most important?

Simon Baumann: We shot a scene in a snowstorm. It was close to the Alps outside of Munich, the wind was whipping, and the actors were freezing. It was an uncomfortable scene because the gangsters are about to kill somebody with a chainsaw. The Cyclone screens let us weather all of that, no pun intended, and still get clear sound.

Do you think your production might inspire other creatives who might think making a film is out of reach?

Simon Baumann: Hopefully. The upside of proceeding the way we are is that we own all the I.P. Many people who do wind up stuck somewhere in the development stage and don’t get to shoot a single day. But the downside is that if you’re not working for the big studios, money is a struggle. One thing that’s made a huge difference in recent years is the gear. We’re shooting on Blackmagic cameras, for example. They’re really good, but tons more affordable than digital cinema cameras like Arri or RED. I think Rycote falls into that category when it comes to shotgun mics and protective equipment — you could spend a lot more and not get that big an increase in performance your audience is going to see and hear.

Niclas Raab: I’m not saying don’t try to be Christopher Nolan if that’s your dream. But there’s a freedom to going, okay, we have a camera, we have a mic, we have a boom, we have a field recorder. Let’s go make something. For us, Rycote is excellent for that. It works. That’s it.