Faced with location recording in the rugged terrain and extreme climate of Mozambique’s Gorongosa National Park for an upcoming National Geographic elephant documentary, David Ruddick knew he had to choose his kit carefully.

For the recording of War Elephants, Ruddick was joined by Dr Joyce Poole, an elephant behavior expert, and her brother Bob Poole, a wildlife cameraman for National Geographic – and a Sound Devices’ 552 Production Mixer.

For the documentary – which aims to help re-establish safe tourism in the park now that the country’s civil war has ended and ivory poaching has been recently abated – Bob Poole rebuilt a Land Rover and made an ‘elephant proof roll cage’, Working to prove Joyce Poole’s theory that the Gorongosa elephants could learn that not all humans in vehicles visiting the park are bad, instead of driving away or honking a horn or screaming in fear as an elephant charges, they would hold their ground and stay calm. The theory says that the elephants learn that the vehicle and people inside are not a threat and will go about their business of being elephants. The theory worked – but there were tense moments and close calls involved in proving it.

Ruddick’s first setback was discovering that he would not be able to ride in the elephant-proof Land Rover. Instead, he would drive a second vehicle that would follow. He set up the 552 in the passenger seat with two shark fin antennas attached to the wireless receivers and had transmitters on Joyce and Bob and plant mics in the car. The mix was then sent to the camera via a wireless link.

‘The film presented many obstacles for recording great dialogue,’ Ridduck recalls. ‘Relying on wireless transmission from the hero car to my vehicle and also sending a stereo mix to the camera, and driving at the same time could get very challenging. When we were filming elephants, we had to position the sound vehicle in just the right place to have good wireless range and be out of the shot, and leaving an escape route for the vehicle in case we met a rogue elephant who wanted to smash the sound vehicle. I had a lot going on but having the 552 riding shotgun next to me made mixing and recording second nature. The 552 is built like a tank, sounds great and is always reliable in demanding situations, it didn’t miss a take.’

Further challenges wer the extreme temperatures and terrain.” ‘This was one of those jobs where sound equipment took a beating,’ Ruddick says. ‘We drove over 1,500km on incredibly bumpy 4X4 roads, as well as driving down elephant paths so anything that was not well made (including cars) fell apart. Temperatures were high and dust was always a problem. The one piece of gear I could always count on was the 552. It never flinched.’

The 552, like all Sound Devices equipment, is designed to withstand the physical and environmental extremes of field production – even as extreme as presented by War Elephants. It uses molded, metalised carbon fibre top and bottom chassis panels for durability and weight reduction. Additionally, its front panel is gasketed for improved resistance to moisture.

‘There are many great features and qualities of the 552, but I really was impressed with just how fantastic it sounds,’ says Ruddick. ‘Being able to record nice clean ambient sound directly on the 552 was very liberating. Having a perfect back-up recording to sync dialogue when things went wrong (and they went very wrong more than once) changed my whole outlook on direct-to-camera wireless recording. The director on this shoot was adamant that he wanted my best mix recorded to camera. I did what he asked but boy was I glad I had the back-up recordings when I found out that the wireless link had issues (broken cables and bumped levels). The National Geographic elephant shoot in Mozambique was a success. The Sound Devices team created an incredible piece of equipment. The 552 is amazing – in the world of documentary sound, it has no equal.’

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