Graveyard Carz isn’t your typical reality show. You won’t find any scripted scenes or actors, just Mark Worman and his team restoring Chrysler muscle cars to their former glory.

Capturing the daily operations of an auto body shop presents a unique challenge for sound engineer Gavin Cunningham. Read on for a behind the scenes look at the filming of Graveyard Carz and learn more about Gavin’s gear.

Audio-Technica: Tell us a little bit about the day-to-day life of a sound engineer for a reality show. Did you work in TV before starting out with Graveyard Carz? Gavin Cunningham: As the show isn’t scripted, most of our shooting is very run-and-gun, so I use an 8-channel field recorder with wireless lavalier mics on the cast to capture the dialogue. As often as possible, we keep it plugged into a wall to save battery power, however many days we are shooting outside, or the shoot goes through multiple places in the shop and I have to be mobile. Everything I use I have to be able to carry with me. Working here at Division Productions was my first job in television. I got the internship through the local college where I was studying Multimedia Arts, and when I started, I knew I was going to love it here. We are all local editors, VFX artists and filmmakers, and getting to work with such a talented group has been quite a blessing. A-T: On average, about how long does the production team take to set up for a scene? What are some of the challenges when capturing audio in the garage, where there is a lot of environmental noise? GC: We usually have three or four shoots a day with some days captured by a single long shoot where the team is working on a large project. For the average shoot, the camera operators only have to get their rigs ready, which can take about five minutes. If the shoot is for an interview, or an aftershow or a special guest, they have to set up lights, stools, etc., which is more likely to take forty minutes. For audio, almost every shoot is the same setup, and the only variable is the number of lavaliers we run. Getting the recorder out, card in, formatted, prepping the transmitters then distributing the lavs usually runs about eight minutes. In our shop we have multiple rooms that we shoot in where the sound environment can shift drastically. It’s a blessing to be in a room where there is only a refrigerator, which can be simply unplugged, and then the room is often quiet enough that we can settle for it. Too often, we are stuck in a room where there is an air compressor running, or a gigantic paint booth, heating/air unit, or industrial air conditioners. In most cases, we simply have to work with the sound environment we are given. We do unplug what we can, turn off radios and have workers pause for the on-the-fly interviews, but this is a functioning shop. While it pains us to do so, we feel our audience understands that this is reality TV, and for once, what they hear is how it actually is. A-T: We know that a lot of footage lands on the cutting room floor. How long does it take to shoot an entire episode? How much footage is recorded? GC: For any given episode of the show, one can find twenty to thirty different shoots. Each shoot can take anywhere from one to six hours, and there are usually days to weeks between each shoot that appears in the same episode. As we work to improve the show, all the parts of an episode could have been shot over three or four months. However, during that time, we have usually also shot parts of the three episodes before that one, and the three following. Most shoots have thirty minutes to three hours of shot footage, with about two thirds of it having audio (the rest being B-roll). A-T: What's your go-to mic setup for on-air talent? Do you ever individually mic cast members? GC: The audio for most every shoot is recorded exclusively with AT899cW lavalier microphones on each member of the team. If there are guests who are included in a shoot, we usually put a lav on them as well. The exception is when we have a large party of guests, the team goes out with lavs on and the guests will be recorded with our shotgun microphone, a BP4073 on a boom pole, when they are on camera. As I am the only audio engineer on set, I will run both the recorder and the shotgun. A-T: We love your videos showcasing your A-T gear. What is your favorite piece of the A-T kit? GC: I love using the ATH-M40x Headphones. They are comfortable, reliable and the sound quality is exactly what I need when I am monitoring audio on a shoot. A-T: Graveyard Carz is such a fast-paced show, the last thing you need is for a microphone to get in the way. Which A-T microphone is the most important for shooting this way? GC: Since the show takes place in the shop, that means the cast is walking around constantly, going under and over cars, shouting at each other from across the room, talking over one another, and generally causing mayhem. I have to be able to record and monitor audio from anywhere from 2 to 8 different sources at once. Problems in audio can come from anywhere. Suddenly, there is a pop, scratching, rubbing, wind noise or I lose someone's audio entirely. Our audio comes in through the lavalier mic, into the transmitter, to the receiver then into the field recorder and finally into my headphones. I need a microphone that is sturdy, isn’t sensitive to wind but is loud enough that when the audio reaches the recorder, I don’t have to pump the gain and introduce noise into the audio. We are always trying to improve the way our show looks and sounds and because of this we have gone through countless brands and models of lavalier to find one that works. The best lavalier mic I have ever used is the AT899cW. It has caught the least wind, gives clear sound and has taken the beating the crew gives to it. We use it with Audio Technica’s ATW-R1820a wireless transmitter and receiver setup (we have six transmitters and three receivers). The transmitters are solid and their antennas are easy to replace (they tend to get bent up by the cast members) and the receiver unit is reliable. The receiver's monitor plug makes it easy to diagnose any issues and dual channels provide a clean signal, which has always been a struggle in a shop with metal walls and cast members who walk freely from room to room. A-T: How does shooting a reality show differ from shooting a scripted show? GC: Normally on a film set, production waits for the production team. The actors are ready, the set, costumes and makeup is ready to go. The production team only stops to fix issues and to get set up for the next shot. On our show, the cast has another job they have to do. If they don’t work on the cars, then the cars don’t get done. So the production waits for them. If something goes wrong with the car work, we have to wait for them to fix it. Because of this, there isn’t time to stop and fix issues with our equipment or set or lights. We just have to make it work. I have to have reliable audio equipment that I can fix on the fly. A-T: There's something special about that distinctive noise an American muscle car makes when doing a tire burnout. How do you set up mics to capture a burnout? GC: Burnouts are a popular part of car culture, and we capture them where we can on the show. However, since we don’t own most of the cars on the show, burnouts only happen when the owner does it or when they are comfortable with it. Because of this we don’t usually know when they are going to happen. As we work to improve the quality of the show, we intend to capture sounds like burnouts, engine revs and tire sounds with a shotgun backed up with other available microphones; the shotgun close as is safe to the action with the other mics further back catching area reverb, echoes and the sound in the open air to give our engines a beefy sound that stands up to awe-inspiring power of these cars. A-T: In your opinion, of all of the cars that cast has worked on and restored, which one sounds the best? Which car is your favorite in general? GC: Working around these cars, they make some incredible noise. One in particular that comes to mind was a 1970, 426 Hemi Charger, burnt orange with an original exhaust that had great rumble to it. It was a lot of car. A-T: If not working on a TV show, where could you see yourself working as an audio engineer? GC: I got into my job here as sound engineer while in pursuit of getting into the film industry. Once I am no longer working at the Division, I hope to find myself working on the set of a major motion picture. Thanks to Gavin for taking the time to talk to us. Be sure to catch Graveyard Carz, only on Velocity!