In an effort to support first-time and indie filmmakers through the height of the pandemic, DPA Microphones partnered with Rycote on a “Pay-it-Forward” giveaway in late 2020 from which three lucky winners acquired a full cinema mics kit from the brands. The contest’s prizes included DPA’s 4097 Micro Shotgun, 4017 Shotgun and 6060 CORE Subminiature microphones―along with virtual mentoring sessions, an array of Rycote accessories and other equipment loaners. The recipients, Lijie Cheng of Singapore, Jacob Deming of the United States and Sergey Martynyuk of Austria, have been hard at work putting their new gear, and skills, to the test.

Lijie Cheng, Singapore

Production Sound Mixer Lijie Cheng was excited to upgrade his microphone arsenal upon winning the competition and has already utilized them for an upcoming web mini-series, Maybe Marriage, and a short film, A Man Trembles premiering in this year’s BFI London Film Festival. He is also planning on utilizing the mics on an upcoming feature Dreaming and Dying by Nelson Yeo, filmed in his native Singapore.

Jacob Deming, United States

Deming, the owner of CORPSOUND AUDIO, which specializes in live performances and events, plans to utilize the DPA microphones he won for the upcoming Northwest Association for Performing Arts’ Percussion Championships when they resume. He has already put his DPA microphones to good use, capturing the performance of one of the leading contenders, the Sherwood Winter Percussion. Deming used DPA’s 4017 Shotgun Microphones and the brand’s 2011C Twin Diaphragm Cardioid Microphones to properly mic the musicians and capture accurate sound for use in post-production. The mics, he says, are particularly useful for audio capture and keep up with the movements of the musicians as they perform their choreography.

Sergey Martynyuk, Austria

As he awaits production on his 3D virtual reality (VR) project to come out of postponement, Sound Engineer Sergey Martynyuk is currently heading up the sound production team for the upcoming Austrian film, Love Machine 2. A comedy and sequel to the award-winning Love Machine, the movie follows the comedic trials and tribulations of the cast. With dialogue at the forefront of this production, clarity of sound was of the utmost importance. In addition to the gear from the kit, Martynyuk, also chose to use DPA’s 4060 CORE Mini Omnidirectional Microphone with MicroDot for plant mic’ing applications.