Scott Harber Delivers 30 Minutes or Less

Directed by Ruben Fleischer, 30 Minutes or Less stars Jesse Eisenberg (Nick) as a small town pizza delivery guy whose predictable life smashes with the ridiculous plan of two amateur criminals Dwanye and Travis played by Danny McBride and Nick Swardson. After kidnapping Nick, they strap a bomb to him and promise if he doesn’t rob a bank for them in a in a few hours, the two masterminds will blow him up. Unsure what to do, Nick turns to an old friend Chet (Aziz Ansari) for help. The two would-be bank robbers must cope with the police, assassins, flamethrowers, and their own turbulent relationship all the while time clicks away on an expiring bomb.   

Fleischer grabbed one of Hollywood’s “Black Listed” scripts and made an outrageous film fueled by some of the funniest guys in LA-LA land. “The movie is an action comedy, but the subject is inherently dark, because of the premise of a guy getting a bomb strapped to his chest,” says Fleischer.  Stemming from his days from working on Borat as a behind-the-scenes shooter, Fleischer has come a long way fast. During his days on the set of Borat, Fleischer met sound mixer Scott Harber – who Ruben brought on to do the production mix for 30 Minutes or Less.

Scott Harber, CAS, has been working in Hollywood since the early 1990’s, landing his first job on one of my favorite shows growing up, Rescue 911. (I’m William Shatner. Join us again next week for more true stories… on Rescue… 911.) Before transitioning onto a mixing board, Harber grew up a punk. Literally. He played in San Diego punk rock bands in the early 80’s and when the first band recorded their first album, Harber became pretty infatuated with the tech side of recording music. He decided to go to school in San Francisco and landed a degree in audio recording engineering. After the dust settled and little work was to be found, a buddy of his told him to come down to Hollywood to be on Rescue 911. Harber couldn’t pass up the opportunity let alone the pay at the time so he moved down to LA and hasn’t looked back since.

Between working on pick- ups for the new Muppets movie, wrapping up Wilfred and scouting for Fleischer’s next movie (Gangster Squad) Harber was kind enough to sit down and talk to S&P about his experience on 30 Minutes or Less.

S&P: Holy crap what is that on your cart?
HARBER: (laughing) It’s a Cantar. Yes. I’m one of those different audio guys in Hollywood. I’ve been using it since 2005 and it’s been good to me. How many other recorders are still in play from that year?

S&P: Well, since I brought it up already – I might as well get it out of the way for all the gear guys. What else did you stack your cart with for 30 mins?
HARBER: I use a Yamaha O1v96 as my mixer and feed the Cantar via and  AES card. For my wires, we used a slew of Lectrosonics 411s and a Venue with mostly Sanken COS-11D with DPA 4071s and Countryman B6s occasionally peppered in. On set, my boom ops usually work the Sennheiser MKH 50s or Sanken CS3Es and we have use Lectrosonics IFBs for sound and Comtek 216s for everyone else, nothing too exotic.  

S&P: Did you have to conjure up any special gear for this show outside your normal setup?
HARBER: Actually, we kinda did. There was a lot of insert car stuff on this film so I made a four pair harness that had a break in the middle of 2 20” extensions that also have break away fan outs on either side. This way I could break off the car easily without detaching the entire harness. This allowed me to rig Sanken Cubs overhead and also mount MKH 50s or Schoeps’ on flex arms down below. Doing this all wirelessly would have been a drag as we also had the actors wired. Richard Guinness and John Nadeau were our key grip and gaffer on the film and they were fantastic in helping everyone out and making good things happen for the car rigs as well as on set.

S&P: Besides Richard – Who else on your crew helped your mix out?
HARBER: I could have not done it without my two boom ops and my third. Michael Piotrowski boomed and mixed 2^nd unit as a Michigan local who had recently moved back there after booming in LA for 15 years. Peter Hansen filled in later when Michael went on to mix a film in Detroit. Brian Walsh was our utility for the run and helped us keep moving together. Everyone on set was supportive – I was fortunate to have such a great crew to work with.

S&P: Michigan? Did you guys shoot 30 Mins in the D?
HARBER: Yeah. We shot the entire movie in about three months in and around Grand Rapids and to the north in Luddington. We did a few pick-ups in Los Angeles later on, but other than that it was all Michigan. I thought I wasn’t going to enjoy it, but it quickly grew on me.  The town and people were great. It could have been a different story if we were shooting in February though (laughs).

S&P: Since you knew Fleischer from your days on Borat – What kind of director is he in regards to sound?
HARBER: Ruben is very concerned about sound on set. If he thinks there are any issues, he’ll ask us if we’re good. He’s very conscious of our concerns and limitations, which relates the way he’s more mature than his years would imply. As a director Ruben also isn’t dismissive to anyone’s ideas and he has related many times that he only wants to use the sound on set. Like everyone else, I try not to ask for another take, but if I do, he’ll give it to me. He’s very traditional in the way he works and tries to set it up so little has to be done on the post mix side.

S&P: It’s nice when a director has your back, but tell us some of your complications on set. Like Jesse’s vest. Any problems there?
HARBER: I’ll say his vest was a lot easier to hide a wire in than a girl in a bikini. It was a loose fitting fatigue and had some movement, but we managed to get through it with a mic sewn into a front pocket. Jessie is honestly one of the nicest and most generous people I’ve ever been around. He’s done a lot of stage work so he jumped right in and asked if there was any way he could wire himself and help out. To the extent of us joking that he is now an honorary member of 695. Also Aziz Ansari has the most dynamic volume range I’ve ever recorded. It took a day to iron that one out as he blew the crap out of us a few times early on. Having multiple mics in the car helped us deal with this as well.

S&P: I’m not letting you off that easy – let me on some sound mixer nightmare dirt.  
HARBER: Haha. I did have a humbling experience early on. We were in the small apartment location and my crew and I watched the rehearsal and everything was fine. At the last minute, they changed it to a wide and tight. So I asked them to stop so I could change what I had going on and add wires. After I changed everything to match their wide and tight, they changed it again. When I watched the dailies for that day, I realized I was going to just wire everyone all the time for the rest of the show to cover everything and not to get blind-sided. This is the way things are now and on some level we just have to accommodate the changes in direction that can unfold quickly.

S&P: Did you run into any location issues?
HARBER: One of our main locations was a metal recycling plant.  Think superfund site with trucks delivering old metal in various states and the piles of this metal being pushed around and then being shredded. The ground was basically iron ore and rusted metal mixed with dirt and oil. Great visually, but it was horrible for the gear. Dust and all the microscopic debris from the metal would find its way into my mixing board. I tried to keep it as clean as possible, but afterward I had to replace a couple of faders on the O1v96.  Thankfully, I don’t mind cracking open a piece of equipment from time to time. I was able to change them in about an hour for only thirty bucks with the parts from Yamaha.

S&P: You went mobile a lot – Is that something you’re used to?
HARBER: I have no problem with that. I spent over a year shooting that way on Borat and Bruno so I can take the Cantar off my cart and swing it around my shoulder and I’m good to go in just a few minutes. And honestly, I like the change of pace. Some of the scenes on the insert car with Jessie and Aziz were absolutely a riot but the driving beats got pretty intense at times. We did a little car skidding and some other risky stuff, but we got through it.

S&P: How was it working with some of Hollywood’s funniest?
HARBER: It really made the show. They would do a few clean runs. Then a take for fun. Then another for even more fun. They would stay to the script but when they started riffing with one another – it was just hilarious. Roger Basquette, the video assist guy, and I would be cackling like old ladies.

S&P: Sounds like an amazing time – you have any favorite moments on set?
HARBER: Actually, yes. There was this one moment when we were in the small apartment set and Danny McBride’s character and Nick’s character were watching the movie Halloween. It was so juvenile, but they started talking about how they were going to fornicate Jason in his mask. It was completely wrong, but every guy has done something like that when he was 14 years-old and it just one of those moments where you spit up your drink from your nose. A hilarious moment to capture on set – just so over the top.

S&P: You have any advice you’d like to pass along for the younger mixers starting out?
HARBER: Sure. Be open to everyone and every situation.  No jobs are below you. Everyone and everything has something to offer and all situations have an upside that you at times may have to look for. You never know who you may meet. I met Ruben Fleischer along the way and I consider myself a better and more fortunate person for working with him on 30 Minutes or Less.

30 Minutes or Less opens in theaters Friday, August 12. Photos courtesy of Sony Pictures.

Tags: 30 Minutes or Less Aziz Ansari Danny McBride Jesse Eisenberg Nick Swardson Scott Harber