Jeff Wexler

I hate the whole process of securing work, employment, even with people who I have done a lot of work for in the past. Even when I know they want me and Don on the job (and of course I do have enough ego to think that we ARE the best for the job), I know that there is still the negotiating thing where production tells you that "we have a little bit of a budget problem on this one", etc., etc. Weighing this up against whatever my personal state of need (and I never feel like I don't need the work --- I have not been very successful in providing the means for any kind of retirement), and my own inherent insecurity, often causes me to be less strong in the money area. I think the one bit of advice about negotiating, which many of you already know, is that you have to be fully prepared to lose the job before you can really secure the job at a good rate. So often I am NOT of the mind to lose the job over the money issues and too many times I have just caved in and agreed to a lesser deal (and this is even on really big projects where it really has no impact on the budget one way or the other --- other than the psychological factor for a production manager feeling they have done a good job getting top flight crew people for less). Regards, Jeff Wexler

The Education Committee of our Union, I.A. Local 695, is considering making DVDs of as many of the presentations and events that we are putting on. Since the whole education thing is still fairly new, we've only been at this for less than a year, we are still trying to figure a lot of things out. It is a lot of work putting these events on and then it is even more work (as Andy Rovins and Crew Chamberlain can confirm) to produce a good video presentation. It should be quite possible once finished video is available to post on the website that DVDs can be made as well. I will try and keep you all posted on this. Regards, your host Jeff Wexler (and still co-chairman of the Education Committee)

Glad to have your input. I am really hoping it can be a fairly loose unstructured section that encourages the kind of personal expression, whatever may be on one's mind, and can be of interest to others even if it is a rant, preaching to the choir (as you mention) or whatever. - JW

The call time today on "Rush Hour 3" was 7:30 am at Culver Studios. I got to the studio early, as usual (since it is only 15 minutes from home, lucky me), had some breakfast (For Stars Catering --- first class) and then midway through setting up for the day's work, Jaime, the 1st AD, called us all onto the set. Brett Ratner, our Director, was sick and would not be coming in today, so we were told we could all go HOME! I half expected that Jaime might say that Brett wasn't coming in but we would still shoot, shoot something, because I was at that moment thinking about whether we could shoot without the director. I know it rarely happens, but the reality is that the director (and in this case with Brett) really relies on the crew to the extent that we could in many cases, carry on without the director. I am happy to have the day off, with pay, but I'm sure we will pay for this day in some way in the future... I will just enjoy the time off as it is, and back to work tomorrow at 7 am. - JW

This is a new section, or Board, added to our Discussion Group. The idea is that this section will have posts on any subject, even just rambling thoughts and observations, from any of our members who have the time and inclination to write, with the hope that others may find these musings interesting. This section can serve as a group BLOG of sorts and really can be used in any manner that seems appropriate --- we will let it evolve and see if it has a life of its own. Each post will still have to be made as a "new topic" although the posts need not really be any specific topic. It goes without saying, considering the time we may or may not have working in this business, I don't expect there to really be "daily" entries as the Board name implies... we'll see how it all works out. Sincerely, your host, Jeff Wexler

 Of course you knew I would have the answer, that's what Aries do, have the answers. Your birthday is April 16 & mine is the 17th, the same day as the RAMPS party at NAB. We should talk about it in February or so. Eric We'll talk in February, for sure. My birthday is the 18th (and looks like we have a lot of Aires here). And, back the original topic, the new theme, the POLL says we're dead even: like --- dislike, so I don't know what to do now but just wait and see. - JW

Welcome to Dan Dugan --- good to have you on board Regards, Jeff Wexler

I knew you would have the answer --- and so, we are brothers after all (our birthdays are quite close together I believe). Again, I ask, are we going to do something extra special for r.a.m.p.s. party next year? - Jeff Wexler

I'm still reeling from the Word Clock thread myself (but fortunately for me it is a purely academic issue with my setup --- but I need to stay informed). I also agree that if we focus on the format too much we will miss the main focus. But as Eric points out, I am an Aires and that's part of the problem. - Jeff Wexler

Philip is exactly right here, the direct outs are almost always post input trim. There are still people who don't understand that if the trim is wrong, the signal being brought down by a fader sending to a mix bus only sends a bad signal at a lower level to the mix --- it really isn't any different with the direct outs: if the gain trim for the mic is off the mic preamp is going to distort anyway --- to the direct outs or on the way to the mix bus. - JW

Somebody here who actually knows how to do the POLLING thing could set one up for voting on this theme. I really like it but hey, I'm only one guy (but it is MY group, right?). - JW

Sorry, Eric, I believe the problem IS with web tv. I have checked the new user interface on several different browsers on several machines and everything seems to display properly. The "boxes" below our names are actually stars (a graphic icon) that represents the member status (in most case, 5 stars, Hero member, etc.). Also, the QUOTE button is still there, to the lower right hand side of a post, but the "Reply with Quote" is gone. Hitting the box that says "QUOTE" is the same as replying with quote. I have to say that I am really liking the look and performance of this new template so I am going to stick with it for now. Regards, Jeff Wexler

You will have to tell me where the empty gray boxes are appearing --- I'm not sure what you mean. I am sort of liking this format/template and it seems to perform a little better. It is about as lean and clean as you can get and still function. We'll keep it for awhile unless there is a lot of dissatisfaction. Regards, Jeff Wexler

Trying out a new theme for the Discussion Group. Let's see if anyone likes this or not. Regards, your host: Jeff Wexler

Also, note that Adobe says that Soundbooth is for Intel equipped Macs (and Windows PC's): "Will there be a PowerPC version? No. Apple is quickly moving its focus towards Intel Macs, and no longer sells Power PC systems in many places. By focusing on Apple's future, we have been able to bring this powerful application to the Mac platform much more rapidly, and with a stronger feature set. Visit the Adobe Intel Mac FAQ for more information." Regards, Jeff Wexler

statement from Adobe (emphasis is mine): "Designed from the ground up to deliver high-quality sound to web and video workflows, Adobe Soundbooth enables creative professionals to quickly record, edit and create pristine audio WITHOUT REQUIRING TRAINING IN SOUND PRODUCTION." All kidding aside, this could be useful software (though maybe too limited utility as it seems to be designed to assist in using audio primarily integrated into websites). Regards, Jeff Wexler

At the very least, Union membership is the necessary work permit to allow you to work on jobs covered by the collective bargaining agreements. Our Union, the I.A.T.S.E., has not been very successful at preserving the traditional workforce and jobs, but in all fairness this is not specifically nor totally the union's fault --- the employer is always looking for any way that they can re-define the job and hire fewer people. Regards, Jeff Wexler

As you say, it is really all the same work and I don't think we need any more categories for posts that relate to ENG type work. What I do like to see is that within a post or in its title, I like to know what sort of work we are talking about. Also, it is helpful when individuals make it clear what sorts of jobs they are typically doing --- this group is NOT exclusive to "film" of course and I would never want to limit participation to people that do one type of work. There is a lot to be learned by all of us sharing experiences with all sorts of work. Regards, Jeff Wexler

I think the Roll number still has meaning but you are quite right that it no longer represents the primary means of locating thec original recordings --- and, as you point out, even the meaning of "original recording" and "master recording" has changed fundamentally with file based workflow. quote - So now Roll not only has no meaning,(because there are no actual Rolls) it's usefulness is rendered moot. So my point was why does it remain the primary sort field and media locator in AVID and Pro Tools. Both Avid and ProTools have a long history that pre-dates all of the file based production sound deliveries, and as you pointed out, everything was brought into these systems in a linear tape based manner (where the sound roll really was some sort of roll of something). The fact that it is still called a sound "roll" is quite similar to editorial systems still referring to "bins" (as I said before, real film bins have not been used since the days of the Movioloa). quote - Some Recorders allow you to enter a "Tape or Roll #", some don't use the field at all and some automatically fill the Tape field with a number (usually the Date) which the user can't alter. (Tascam and SD machines do this) So it may be beyond the control of the mixer to make sure that there are no duplicate "Tape" or Roll fields This is a problem --- anytime the recorder will only do things one way and you do not have control over the numbers and where they are being put. As for the Deva, a Roll Number has always been available as 3 of the primary numbers right in the file header. This was true with the Deva I but of course what we were really naming a sound roll at that point was a dedicated hard disk partition that "held" all the files that were that given sound roll. Regards, Jeff Wexler

I think there is too much going on here with the whole roll number thing. First off, I think that ALL the non-linear recorders do provide some place to put an identifying number which is quite prominent in the primary header or metadata, and this number I believe should still be referred to as a "roll number" but could, of course, be called when referred to, anything you want to call it. Also, all TC systemes in use that I know of make provision for the DATE to be in the user bits and as readilly accessible as the TC. Most jobs, but not all, will only require 1 "sound roll" for each day, particularly if this sound roll resides on a high capacity hard drive with variable folder size (here we call the sound roll a "folder") or a large hard disk partition. So, no problem so far but when it comes to the DELIVERY media to post I do realize that some of the points Courtney and others have brought up become relevant. What I don't understand, though, is let's say this sound roll actually has to be delivered on 2 disks (because of the capacity of the optical disks vs. the basically unlimited capacity of the hard drive) what is the problem? The same "sound roll" number is part of ALL the files that are on these disks or carriers, along with the date (sort of like the file creation date which incidentally also most probably exists in the file), so that seems to be more than sufficient to identify all the sound takes no matter how many disks were needed to carry them to post. I think all the proclamations about how meaningless the SOUND ROLL is in the non-linear world are somehwat off the mark --- certainly some adjustments to procedures, file naming and so forth may be required to accomodate all the systems presently being used, but retiring the sound roll number I don't think is one of them. Regards, Jeff Wexler

I learned more than I really wanted to during the course of helping my father with "Who Needs Sleep?" documentary. There are literally hundreds of medical studies that have been done that document exactly what the effect is on the body when the normal waking / sleeping rhythms are disrupted, something we all know happens ALL the time working on movies. This, along with the volumes of data that show that sleep deprivation and what is called "sleep debt" weakens the whole immune system and makes it impossible for even typically very healthy people to fight off infection and disease. Brent Hirshman was killed quickly in a car accident but we are all at a much higher risk of developing debilitating or ultimately fatal diseases brought on by chronic time shifting, long hours, fatigue and sleep deprivation. The crucial thing about "sleep debt" is that you can't pay it off --- the effects of this sleep deprivation takes its toll even long after you are off the job and may be getting a good nights sleep (at night, of course). See the movie if you can --- there is a lot to be learned about how our work affects the quality of our lives (of course it is obvious that if you work a lot of long hours you will be able to buy a bigger boat, retire sooner, and maybe live long enough to enjoy life). Regards, Jeff Wexler "Who Needs Sleep?" available at: www.whoneedssleep.net

Welcome to Marty Atias who has just joined up --- good to have you here. Regards, Jeff Wexler

But only for 30 days ... then you'll have to buy it. Just kidding. Great collaboration Take and to all who work to solve these bugs... this is a true value to these discussion/forum group communities. - Jeff Wexler

Hey Crew, it's like the whole family is working together, just not on the same shoot! Good to hear everyone is working and it sounds like you're all having fun. We are not having so much fun in Paris (Paris is great but the work is not) but we'll be coming home soon at the end of this week. As for the Google Group, I will keep it up and continue to play around with it, but I think the consensus willo be that this Forum-style group, even with its faults, is still pretty terrific and has a good feel to it. Thank you Noah for your comments on the form of this group vs. Google, and also I am pleased that Eric was able to set things up the way he likes them to be displayed (something you cannot do with Google Groups). Regards, Jeff Wexler

Like the PowerBooks and then the MacBooks, some Minis do have drives already installed that READ DVD-RAM disks, no problem, but many do not and there is no way to determine this before actually purchasing. This is because, as mentioned before, Apple does not document what specific optical drive is installed because they do not officially support DVD-RAM anyway. If you need a drive that can both read and write to DVD-RAM, may require software as well as the proper drive installed, most probably, by a qualified technician. I have heard that the Mini is pretty tightly packed and may not be that easy to work on yourself (but I have never opened one up myself). Maybe Billy Sarokin has dealt with this already since I think he has had a Mini on his cart for sometime now. Regards, Jeff Wexler