TASCAM’s DR-10L and Portacapture X8 Field Recorders Bring Creative Expression to Filmmaker Ursula-Ann Siataga

With a focus on exposing and addressing a variety of accomplishments and challenges, filmmaker Ursula-Ann Siataga has a passion for supporting the Pacific Islander community. Her work takes her to a wide range of production environments, so the ability to be ready to go on short notice is crucial. To ensure the technical aspects of production never get in her way, Ursula-Ann relies on the versatile capabilities and robust performance of the DR-10L Ultra-Compact Audio Field Recorder with Lavalier Mic and the Portacapture X8 8-channel 32-bit float Portable Audio Field Recorder—both from TASCAM.

Upon completion of the Social Documentation graduate program at UC Santa Cruz, which was designed to merge social sciences and documentary film, Ursula-Ann began her documentary film work on social justice and social change. She is very proud of her 26-minute documentary My Fa’aSamoa. After moving back to the San Francisco area to be in service to the Pacific Islander community, she found ways to address health and academic disparities by using film as a medium to do so. Among her most recent credits is the forthcoming podcast titled Taulogologo News, on which she used both the DR-10L and the Portacapture X8. She discussed her experience with her TASCAM gear.

“I’ve been working with the DR-10L and the Portacapture X8 for roughly 10 months,” Ursula-Ann reports. “My focus is on dialog for documentary and podcast production. One of the DR-10L attributes that I really appreciate is its ability to record without frequency interference of being wireless. This is so important when we are in production interviewing someone, either indoors or outdoors. I also find the DR-10L’s range of acquiring sound to be exceptional. Recently, we were outdoors filming our interviewee who was wearing the DR-10L lavalier mic and walking through his old neighborhood. The interviewee’s longtime friend—who had no mic— saw him and walked up to greet him. They had a powerful conversation that we captured solely using the DR-10L with only one mic on our interviewee. The DR-10L was able to capture crisp sound bits from the friend as if he were also wearing a lav.”

Ursula-Ann is also quite fond of TASCAM’s AK-BT1 Bluetooth® Adapter. “I’ve only used it once so far,” she said, “but hope to use it more. The ability to have the Portacapture X8 positioned on one end of a scene while I can control the sound using Bluetooth via my phone is next level. I’m excited to continue exploring this feature on future production gigs.”

The ability to quickly grasp the various operational functions of the DR-10L and Portacapture X8 made a favorable impression on Ursula-Ann, “For me, TASCAM products have been easy to learn and use—particularly the DR-10L. I just put one AAA battery in the recorder for 10 hours of operation, and I can use either a microSD or microSDHC memory card as the recording medium. Beyond that, I adjust the settings using one button and click the On button to start recording. When complete, I take the SD card out and transfer the data over to my computer, with no need to convert the file into another format to start editing.”

As she prepared to shift her focus back to the day’s current production demands, Ursula-Ann offered these parting thoughts, “The DR-10L and Portacapture X8 are versatile and easy-to-use recording tools that make a great choice for applications such as film and podcast production. I’ve been very impressed with both their capabilities and ease-of-use, and I intend to use them in my future documentary film projects. These recorders are terrific, and they enable me to focus on the project as opposed to their operation. That’s hard to beat!”

To learn more about Ursula-Ann Siataga, call 415.410.5314.