Linne Beck has a love for sound. As a teenager the Netherlands native created electronic music, recording sounds and altering them digitally. The stint in the music world gave her insight into audio recording and mixing which led her down a path studying an arts and technology degree at university. “Through that time in college I came in contact with making films,” Beck says. “Other people from the program were into visual effects, cinematography, or photography, but I was into recording and designing the sound.”
Completing her degree, Beck found herself freelancing on short films, commercials, and other projects to build her experience and reputation in the sound community as well as connecting with and learning from other sound professionals through events organized by the Dutch Film Sound Association (DFSA), of which she is a member. Soon, she was using her connections to travel across Europe to places like Germany, Belgium, and France, not only as a mixer, but as a boom operator – a craft she thoroughly enjoys to this day. “I just love the precision boom operating requires and also being on set with talent observing their performance. The versatility has provided Beck with plenty of job opportunities. “We have a market where it’s essential to work different types of productions and it fits me. Sometimes I go from boom operating to mixing the next day.”
Zaxcom has been part of her workflow since day one. “At the beginning of my career I started to build my Zaxcom package from 2017 onwards on a small scale and I love that my investments from back then still work perfectly with my more recent equipment purchases.” She also prefers the flexibility of her Zaxcom gear, which now includes the Nova 2 and several Digital Recording Wireless receiver and transmitter models. “With Zaxcom I can quickly and easily switch my setup to meet the needs of different productions. I don’t necessarily need to rent or purchase multiple sized recorders since with the Nova2 I can go small (and light) over-the-shoulder for documentaries or set it up on a cart with more equipment for bigger productions like films, commercials, and virtual reality.”
As a boom operator Beck will sometimes rent production her Zaxcom TRX742, a wireless plug-on transmitter that supports mono analog, stereo analog, AES, and AES42 microphones. “When certain scenes benefit from a wider perspective, I suggest to the sound mixer to rent the kit from me since the TRX742 offers stereo transmitting and recording options.” When days call for it, Beck will also use the Zaxcom ZMT4 transmitter as a second option for wireless boom or plant microphone. “The ZMT4 gives me a multitude of options on set and it saves me from having to buy a second dedicated plug-on transmitter,” she says. “I always love it when a sound mixer I work with also uses Zaxcom because I know the sound I am delivering on set will be of high quality because of their digital modulation.”
Below, the production sound mixer and boom operator shares insights into three projects she worked on using Zaxcom.
Heineken x Max Verstappen
Directors: Bradley Bell & Pablo Jones-Soler
Location: Amsterdam, the Netherlands
In preparation for the glossy Heineken commercial that stars four-time Formula One champion Max Verstappen as the “best designated driver” for a night out, Beck consulted the advertising deck to prepare for the ambitious shoot. Among her initial concerns was communication with the talent and the number of personnel who would need to listen to the production audio. “It ended up being five people who wanted to communicate and hear the talent,” she notes.
Beck prepared an audio package that included the Zaxcom Nova 2 equipped with a MRX414 slot receiver, an additional QRX200 receiver, as well as ZMT4, ZMT3, and TRXLA2 transmitters. A TRX742 was used for wireless boom and paired with the Zaxcom transmitters were DPA 4063 and 6061 lavs. The Schoeps MiniCMIT was deployed as the boom mic operated by Sjoerd Kats, who used the Zaxcom QRX100 for IFB communication. For the directors, producers, and 1st AD, Sennheiser IEM receivers were used to listen to the talent while walkie-talkies provided direct communication. To sync timecode to camera, the Nova 2 sent timecode through an Atmos UltaSync One that was jammed via BNC cable.
Production took place over two long shooting days with several company moves to practical locations and process trailer work for the driving sequences. Bar scenes stirred a small hurdle which required the directors to listen to the sync sound during playback. “This would normally not be a problem, but in this case, there wasn’t any sound coming out of the monitors on set as we were plugged into the Sennheiser transmitter to send it to the IEMs. The video playback engineer was situated further up on the road in another building but after talking on the phone with him, he set the correct settings to send sound to the monitor.”
For the process trailer work a Zaxcom Bluefin antenna provided a signal boost to receive the transmitters inside the car. The sound team also had to act quickly when it came to wiring the talent. “I couldn’t get out of my seat to place a microphone on Max Verstappen because they wanted to drive away and start rolling quickly after he arrived, so my boom operator had to mic Max the moment he stepped on set.”
Watch the hilarious Heiniken commercial in the video above to hear the sound work.
Gagosian Premieres | Sessions – Jason Moran
Director: Léa Khayata
Location: Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam
Founded by Larry Gagosian in 1980, the Gagosian is an art gallery with multiple locations across three continents. As part of its showcase, the gallery hosts musical performances set in the backdrop of an art installation. One such special occasion was with pianist and composer Jason Moran who performed a contemporary jazz reinterpretation of the 1919 song All of No Man’s Land Is Ours inside Ellen Gallagher’s solo exhibition of the same title at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam.
To capture the soulful performance Beck’s audio package centered on the Zaxcom Nova 2 while combining a wireless and wired approach for the recording. “I wanted to preserve the full dynamic range of the Steinway piano so I thought a wired connection was better,” she says. Beck placed two Schoeps CMC6 MK 2H mic inside the piano with a wired connection while another wired Schoeps CMC1 MK41 was placed on a stand about 16 feet (5 meters) away from the piano to capture the dynamics of the room.
Additionally, a Zaxcom ZMT4 transmitter was placed on the talent to capture him singing, something the sound recordist admits was a last minute change. “At the beginning, it was supposed to be piano only but at the start of the day, Jason walked up to us and said he was going to be singing as well. The producer and I were a bit surprised, but luckily, I had a ZMT4 and a DPA 4063 lav with me.”
For the two-camera shoot, Beck recorded a two-track stereo mix that combined all the microphones and provided 6 ISO tracks for post. She also recorded the performance using ISO Attenuation, a feature on the Nova 2 that allows the ISO tracks to be attenuated by a user selectable amount of 6, 12, 18, or 24 dB. This allows the audio to be recorded unclipped even if the dynamic range would normally be too large. The gain reduction is stored in the metadata of the WAV file so the amplitude of the ISO track can be restored when necessary. “I recorded the stereo microphone set twice, one hotter version engaging the card limiters of the Nova 2 whenever Jason played loudly, and a second version using -12 dB ISO Attenuation to preserve the full dynamic range of the performance,” she explains.
Listen to Jason Moran’s interpretation of All of No Man’s Land Is Ours in the video above.
Maxima – TV Series
Directors: Saskia Diesing, Joosje Duk, Iván López Núñez
Location: Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Maxima is a six-part drama series that depicts the life of Argentinian born Máxima Zorreguieta (Delfina Chaves) and her whirlwind romance with Willem-Alexander (Martijn Lakemeier) who would eventually marry and become the Dutch Queen and Dutch King of the Netherlands. The alluring story, produced by Millstreet Films in co-production with FBO and Beta Film, is based on the bestselling Marcia Luyten novel Máxima Zorreguieta: Motherland.
When the fourth episode arrived on the production schedule, Beck stepped in for series regular sound mixer Floris Werver for two days. “I knew Floris from the Dutch Film Sound Association (DFSA),” she notes. “It was quiet last minute but thankfully I was able to substitute for him.” Beck credits her Zaxcom kit for the effortless transition. “Floris and I have the same Nova 2 recorder and Zaxcom wireless so it was easy for me to step into the workflow and transmit quality audio. I was also able to give the boom operator, Pieter van Huijstee, the same Zaxcom transmitter as he would have used with Floris.” Filling out the sound package was the MRX414, QRX200, and QRX235 receivers, multiple ZMT3 and TRXLA2 transmitters to wire talent, and a TRX742 for wireless boom. A ZMT4 was used to transmit audio on a second boom operated by second assistant sound Mazin Akif.
Episode four sees a dramatic turn where a heartbroken Maxima (Delfina Chaves) returns home to Argentina and begins to question her past. The sound team recorded multiple scenes with Maxima working at an office in Buenos Aires. The Wereldmuseum (World Museum) in Amsterdam filled in for the Argentinian location. Mats were placed on the ground to reduce footsteps in the lively location, while Beck and Huijstee advised Akif where to place the second boom. Beck approached her mix with the sound of the location in mind. “I always intend to start the sound mixing at the microphone selection by listening to in which way different microphones perceive the environment and talent’s voices at specific boom placements,” she says. “For example in a scene in this office I decided to use the more focused Schoeps MiniCMIT on an actress in the back of the shot while using the more open sounding Schoeps CMC6 MK41 on the actress in the foreground. That way the microphones complemented each other rather than competing in the mix.”
You can follow or check out more of Linne Beck’s work on Instagram or her website.