BBW Lav Placement

[HarrisKarlin]

I had a new situation come up today, and I was hoping some advice might be given.


I had an actress today who was a more full-bodied woman than I am usually working with, and the role required a tight shirt and a bra that made for a very full bust. In short, I had no cleavage to place a lav in. That, and the shirt was too tight to kill any clothing rustle. I tried far more placements than I've comfortable putting an actress through, and nothing worked.

This was unfortunately the day I forgot my hairpins for a behind-the-ear placement, and I didn't have time to make a run for some.

I ultimately went with a clavicle placement, but between a tiny location, lights, summer weather (i.e. sweat pulling up my tape every few minutes) and a green actress would wouldn't stop messing with her mic no matter what I said, I had a pretty rough scene.

If I'd had those on me, I could have solved it, but I'm curious what solutions others have come up with for lav placements in similar situations, if anyone else has been daft enough to end up in such a situation.

[Karl_Lohninger]

Hi, I feel your pain. I did my fair share of Malibu-bikini-movies with lots of tight shots. I was helped a lot by so-called 'medical tape'. It's the only one that sticks to sweaty skin. The other think you need is patience and an understanding patient ;-) You can run the cable (for this kind of shots I use only Countrymen B6 lavs because of its very thin and flexible cable - but be careful of wind noise with the B6) along the seams of the dress/shirt/stretch-nylon-thingy talent is wearing and mount it along with small patches of medical tape. Full cleavage should actually help you with your job. Don't forget to make a cable loop right after the lav to keep off cable noise.

good luck, Karl

currently shooting in Berlin

[John Willett]

I was talking with a BBC engineer once as he described:- gorgeous actress - *very* short skirt, bare midriff and skimpy top.

He had to wire her with the radiomic.

Every morning she stripped naked (just about) in front of him and he put the transmitter high on the crotch and the mic. in her cleavage, cable hidden with toupee tape.

I still remember his smile as he desribed this as the best two weeks of his life.