Behind the scenes with Ricardo Garza: Capturing sound on Naked and Afraid

Ricardo Garza mixes location sound for Naked and Afraid, Discovery’s hit reality series in which two contestants meet for the first time in a remote wilderness. There, they strive to last out the elements and complete challenges for 21 days while clad au naturel. As the sound maestro behind the scenes, Garza ensures every whispered strategy and triumphant shout is captured, despite the torrents of rain, mud-soaked plains, and wild winds that threaten production, as Headliner discovers…

During filming the long-running series, crew members have truly seen it all; plus, there’s the unpredictable weather, water, and wildlife to grapple with. Garza has found his Lectrosonics wireless to be the staunchest survivor of his 10-year tenure on the show. 

It pairs WM water-resistant and HMa plug-on transmitters with tried-and-true UCR411a, SRb, and SRc receivers. Of course, Garza is not among the naked on the production, and with this wireless rig, he is also not afraid.

“At first, I wanted to do post,” he recalls of his days in audio engineering college. “I realised quickly that I enjoyed interacting with people more than being in a dark studio many hours per day. I also really liked being outside.”

As the saying goes: be careful what you wish for. When the opportunity to work on Naked and Afraid came up, he found himself very much out in the wilderness.

In lieu of garments in which to conceal mics, the signature necklaces that are the contestants’ sole garment serve an important function: they contain a microphone with a wire that connects to a wireless audio transmitter hidden in their satchel, which also contains a personal diary/camera for use when the camera crew is not there at night, and a map.

“There’s a mic hidden inside,” he nods. “It goes to a WM transmitter hidden inside those pouches they carry.”

Fans of the show know that “those pouches” endure exposure to everything nature can dish out, but the WM transmitters have shrugged it off more consistently than their wearers. “Man, those things have been so reliable,” enthuses Garza. 

“They’ve got dunked, dirty, they’ve been rained on, stepped on, dropped, and have just kept going.”

An extreme case of how unpredictable the show’s locations can be occurred in South Africa. “We were doing what we call an insertion – establishing the duo in the new season’s environment,” Garza explains. “It was the dry season, so we weren’t expecting any rain. 

"We were on this huge plain, a little grassy, but mainly this clay-like earth that’s native to the region. A torrential downpour blew in out of seemingly nowhere, and that clay turned into mud. I always carry a rain poncho with me. But it was also so windy that my poncho kept blowing up, water was going sideways everywhere. My rig was just doused in a matter of minutes.”

Garza is still amazed the incident didn’t end the production day outright. “The mics inside the necklaces kept going down and I kept swapping them out,” he says. 

“The WMs, though, lived up to their waterproof reputation. My 411s, I just kept wiping them off with towels, but I couldn’t stay ahead of the water. I thought, ‘I’m going to lose audio any second now.’ But I didn’t. They just kept going.”

Speaking of water, Garza employs the HMa to go where neither a boom nor wireless can: “Sometimes one or both survivors go swimming and take off their necklace mics. There are some of those times where we can’t get a full boom in there without it being in frame. 

"So, I’ll take an HMa, put it on a shotgun mic, which I have on a little pistol grip, and get in the water with them. I’m able to stay out of shot but get far into the water. You’d swear the dialogue was boomed or from a lav mic.”

With Naked and Afraid traveling nonstop, it’s hard to find an interval to upgrade or experiment with new equipment. However Lectrosonics’ reliability has meant that so far, Garza hasn’t felt the need.

“It’s pretty amazing,” he beams. “If you look at the camera department, they’re constantly spending thousands of dollars on new gear. The cameras get the crap beat out of them, too, obviously. But over here in sound, our Lectro just keeps ticking.”