MTV’s Kept reality show relies on Sony DVCAM and wireless mics

Jerry Hall is the star of a new Transatlantic reality TV show, shot earlier this year and due to air at the end of May. Despite the Texan credentials of its leading lady and the first transmission being in the US on VH-1, the shoot took place in Hall’s adopted hometown, London, with a brief foray to Paris.

The show, called Kept, describes the reward on offer for one of 12 American men who compete for Jerry’s attentions. The winner gets a year of rock ’n’ roll lifestyle, complete with luxury apartment, credit card and fast car. The fifteen pretenders to Hall’s affections were based at Hampton Court Lodge for the duration of the shoot. The lodge, an impressive period building just yards from the entrance to Hampton Court itself, had to be completely rigged for TV surveillance. It was comprehensively wired for audio and video, with the correct lighting and robotic cameras all over the building.

In order to take in all the action on any day, there were a total of five camera crews. Each team consisted of three people – a cameraman and assistant and an audio mixer.

Field capture

Working together with director Glen Taylor, the director of photography Tim Harland had to ensure that the five crews between them captured all the best footage available. The crews were ready to latch onto single contestants or follow pairs or groups who decided to tackle a task together. They also needed kit that would stand up to the challenge.

Part of the production team that flew over from the US to oversee the making of the show was the MTV Networks technical team, including audio supervisor Peter Gray, DoP Harland and MTV Networks technical manager, Javier Romero. They supervised the hiring of camera crews, which were all recruited in the UK, as well as putting in place the necessary technical infrastructure.

“Part of my job is taking the desires that the production team have and selecting the best technical equipment,” says Romero. “For example, with the audio we had to determine beforehand how many contestants and how many frequencies we would need at once and how to capture that in the field.”

The camcorders that the technical team elected to use on location were DSR-570’s, which were hired through Bexel in the States and brought over to the UK. According to Romero, “they’re a good, solid, basic camera to shoot on – inexpensive and they shoot a fairly good image. They’re a known quantity in the US and do really good work.” The camcorders were put through their paces during weeks of demanding location work; “they really worked out fine,” says Romero.

Some of the sound equipment for the location footage was also brought over for the shoot, but Romero hired all the wireless kit from Total Audio Solutions in the UK. “We chose someone who had used it extensively, which saved a lot of time and headaches.”

For all the location coverage Total Audio provided Sony’s waterproof wireless mics, the ECM-88, working into WRT-8B transmitters, which were received by WRR-862 Dual Diversity receivers. Back at Hampton Lodge, they used MB-8N receiver racks with computer monitoring as duplicate receivers. This meant that the audio could be received either in the control room or directly at the back of the camcorders.

40 frequencies
Peter Knowles, managing director of Total Audio, says: “The challenge was the coverage of large areas over a long period of time.” In all, there were 40 frequencies, giving a sizeable potential for interference, which they managed to avoid by using Sony’s inter mod system. The transmitters’ frugal use of two AA batteries also meant a generous 14 hours between battery changes.

“The advantages of using the Sony system is that it’s ultimately reliable,” says Knowles. “We didn’t have any technical problems at all, which is highly unusual.” Gray, the US audio supervisor, was impressed by how smoothly the audio systems performed.

After completing all the tasks and having all their actions filmed for public consumption, the 12 contestants were whittled down to just one. The footage was flown back to the US, where the series has been post produced on MTV’s in-house Avid equipment. Kept is scheduled to go out on VH-1 from the end of May in the US and is planned to transmit in the UK later this year.