There is a mothballed courtroom at Surbiton town hall, London that is now hired out as a film and TV location. Probably recognisable from many British productions, a current feature project was filmed there and we were luckily enough to be able to get access after shooting to be able to record the room and all its ancient creaks and movements with no one else around. We gathered plenty of room tones, footsteps, moves and general shuffling around the space which is golden material for a sound editor to really sell a scene and give that background presence that Foley struggles to provide. We spent the entire day recording heaps of material with a variety of microphones. We used…

• 2 x DPA 4060 spaced omni in a fixed position the whole day.
• 1 x Neumann 191RSM in various positions picking up close spots and wides as well. Some of wides we had 2 x Line Audio CM3’s in combo with the Neumann for a 5.0 surround setup.
• 1 x Sennheiser MKH 416 spot feet and doors
• Zoom H6 XY

Got some really nice material, especially footsteps in, out and about the courtroom with various shoes and down the marble corridor/hall outside. We were spoilt for big chunky wooden doors and the general creaks and movements worked well although could of recorded more in hindsight. There was so much material we could of spent a whole week gathering it all but alas only 1 day.