Giant Robots and the Tesla Coil

You might be wondering what my tesla coil has to do with giant fighting robots.  The answer to that would be the film Real Steel.  After posting my tesla coil for sale on Craigslist, I was contacted by Rob Nokes, a sound effects recordist and editor.  While not looking to purchase the coil, he was interested in recording it for his work on Real Steel, a film about boxing robots, and to possibly use in the TV series Bones.  He brought his recording equipment, and we worked for about two hours to get a variety of robot-crunching/circuit-popping sounds.  I configured the coil to produce various arcing sounds while Rob worked the microphones.  I don't expect to have my name next to Hugh Jackman or executive producer Steven Speilberg, but I might just listen a little more closely when the robot boxers face off and throw a few punches.

Setting up a few microphones

Recording various effects