Thinking About The Moment

New Zealand sound recordist Rob Mayes who divides his time between Christchurch and Tokyo, recently worked on the Ridley Scott-produced Don’t Think, a Chemical Brothers feature film shot at the Fuji Rock Festival, which was released worldwide this month. Mayes says he was there in the capacity of location sound recordist, but ended up also acting as one of the core cameramen for the concert shoot, on top of his sound duties. In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, Don’t Think director and Chemical Brothers’ collaborator Adam Smith explained: “I put four Canon cameras into the audience, instructing no-one to look at them. I sent the operators loose, letting them find people that were absolutely in the moment.” “That’s me he’s talking about,” Mayes wrote on Facebook after reading the article. Mayes also runs boutique music label Failsafe Records.