09 March 2003
By MATTHEW LOWE
Amorous cicadas are driving up costs for movie makers who have taken to blasting the insects out of trees with garden hoses.
Actors are often drowned out by the noise produced by large numbers of male cicadas trying to attract a mate.
If cicadas can be heard above the actors during filming the stars are often dragged back into a studio to re-record their lines,
driving up production costs.
Recent big budget movies having to contend with the problem include The Lord of the Rings and The Last Samurai, which is
currently being shot in Taranaki.
The frequency of the sound generated by male cicadas, which reaches a peak from February through to early April, is in the
same range as human speech.
Location sound recordist Ken Saville, who worked on The Lord of the Rings trilogy, said he often uses hoses to get rid of the
insects.
"If you're doing a love scene underneath trees the last thing you want to hear is cicadas."
Peter Avery, project manager for Film Venture Taranaki, said The Last Samurai had been affected by the insects.
David Madigan, who worked on Whale Rider and Xena, has labelled the noise "the wall of death".
"They can render dialogue impossible to use. It is very difficult to get rid of them and I am often seen running around beating
trees with a microphone boom.
"On Xena we were shooting in an orchard where day after day I lost masses of sound. I got in the mode of bumping cicadas out
of their environment, which is usually successful, but I ended up breaking a boom in sheer anger because of the noise they were
making."
