JWBaudio

Best sounding/most expensive - DPA 4060s, though probably not worth it running G3/G4 Solid choice is always the COS-11, I've been pleased with their sound and they have nice price point. Plus they're pretty standard in rental kits if you need to pick up extra wires for a job. If cost is a big consideration the B3 would be my choice, I think they offer some of the best sound for the price. B6 - a lot has already been said. I keep a few in my kit for the 'nothing else will do' situations, and when those came up I was happy to have them, but the sound quality isn't great, it overloads pretty quickly, and those little caps have a tendency to disappear faster than you can order them.

Can you possibly post a photo of the rig? Sounds like rubbing against the capsule. I’d love to see how it’s mounted.

Not really for sound department, but overheard - “ it’s ok, we’re not doing the highest 4k”

There was a presentation in Chicago on entertainment law (w/ focus on filmmaking), so figured it would be a good time to pose the question, since it's one a lot of people seem to have. Legalese and contract negotiation can drive people crazy, especially if you or production is being a stickler on phrasings and comma placement, but I figure it's better to have everything on my end as 'correct' as can be - and on paper, incase it's needed later, especially dealing with things like payment/credit. And yup. Made a killing on merchandising.

As far as work for hire/contractor agreements: Spoke with an entertainment attorney today, and the official recommendation (without having specifics) is to file/issue the production co. a cease and desist letter which lays out that they haven’t fulfilled the contract terms and therefore copyright remains with you (the Recordist/creator of the work) and they have no right to use. That opens the door for further legal remedies, all the way up to being able to prevent release of the project until contract terms are satisfied.

do you mean a 9v battery eliminator?

+1 Everyone knows they're just for reference so nobody cares too much about the audio quality, they're virtually indestructible (which is good when people leave them around like cups of coffee), battery life speaks for itself, as does price point, and the range is a big + for me, it's nice when people at the far reaches of set can hear that we're in the middle of a take incase lockdown wasn't called by them or what have you, & everywhere has them stocked by the dozens for last minute rentals. Noticed it tends to work best for monitoring in follow vehicles as well. (In my experience). If they can hear the dialogue, job done.

Only once on an indie. Production felt very, *ahem*, sketchy from my first day on set, and DIT never asked for anything so I quietly held onto everything. Crew was supposed to get paid on the last day and only a handful actually got paid, I wasn't one of them. So they got 2 weeks past wrap, realised they didn't get any audio files from me. Tired to convince me to transfer them immediately and the would pay 'soon' Haha. Ended up meeting in person to exchange files and payment. Turned out fine. But it's like half depressing the trigger on a bomb, only to be used as a measure of last resort.The key is to not announce your plans ahead of time to hold media until payment, just quietly go about your business until they realise they're missing the stuff and come knocking. Not something I would do for cancelled days though, that's a completely different ballgame. Did you have a cancellation policy in the contract? Or at least one in writing somewhere like a website or email exchanged with the client? Without anything written somewhere I can't really see many options. Had a client cancel a couple weeks ago, the day of, with crew already at location, then tell me they wouldn't do the 100% cancellation fee because they didn't feel it was 'fair'. I only got paid because it was in my contract (which they obviously didn't read). Some of the other crew unfortunately had no course of action.

Sample of what this SHOULD look like from a recent contract: "1. Services. Crew Member shall personally provide all services to Company as may be requested by Company in connection with the Film, as well as all services that are consistent with the duties of first class individuals of Crew Member’s position in the motion picture industry, as that term is commonly understood, during the pre-production, production, and wrap of the Film, as applicable. At all times during the term of Crew Member’s services hereunder, Crew Member will promptly and faithfully comply with all of Company’s reasonable instructions, directions, requests, rules, and regulations. Crew Member will perform Crew Member’s services conscientiously and to the full limit of Crew Member’s talents and capabilities when and wherever reasonably required or desired by Company and in accordance with Company’s reasonable instructions and directions in all matters, including those involving artistic taste and judgment." So I know what they're getting at but, going back to what Philip said, it sounds like they might just not be knowledgeable enough/have the resources to call on to write a competent contract. Maybe send back some suggestions to help guide them along. As to the producer just firing you at the end of the day, unlikely, but it's a Right to Termination clause, something in a lot of contracts I've seen, but it's always been followed up by couple sentences saying in effect that if that happens I have to compensated for services rendered up to that point. So if terminated at they end of the day, they would still have to pay me for that day. Take them step by step on Monday explaining what isn't working for you, provide some examples of good wording. Offer to work with them on getting a good contract together, send them samples of some good ones you've seen, gently reminding them that contracts are there to protect companies as much as contractors, so it's mutually beneficial for them to have a better contract moving forward. At the end of the day, stick to your guns, if that are that rigid on contract, in my experience they'll be just as rigid on set, and that's not going to be a good work environment.

This is strange to put in a contract...I would take that to mean there can be no renegotiation after both parties sign, because it seems a weird thing to make retroactive. I mean, obviously a rate had to be agreed before the contract was sent? Plus language is strange. Who knows. The rest of it just sounds like they have no insurance and are trying to cover their own backsides - something to be cautious of.

+1

Totally agree, it’s less about the request itself and more about convincing productions to just use my gear rather than try and provide their own. And it’s worked so far on a few projects.

Never taken a job without my equipment, just a whole bunch of stuff that can go wrong with that. That said, and I don't know how common this is, but I did go so far as to add a clause into my contract for indies, that essentially says if production is providing equipment then I get a build day with the kit, just like camera gets, and I have to sign off on it being up to the job I was hired to do. Then I'll let the UPM know if something is missing or there's an issue and go from there. Even if you look over a gear list ahead of time and it looks like everything you need, there could be operational issues that you could only tell by testing and setting things up, and I don't want to deal with those issues on day 1, nor would production I imagine. And yea, own headphones and harness are always with me.

This is an excellent idea, though yes, with the current interface I imagine this would be best utilised via Wingman rather than switches, knobs, and menus settings. Come me to think of it, a separate screen in Wingman for managing outputs and some other settings, especially AES would be outstanding!

+1 No benefits from the pole itself. Never seen it done in person. The rigs I've seen pics of have used a C-stand or similar to hoist a bunch of Rx above the crowd, again back to clear line of sight to reduce interference...Perhaps that is what Lewis meant. Do you have links to these articles you mentioned? At that point though I think it would make more sense to SMa mod the Rx. Senni and Sony units can be done pretty cheaply & easily. I recall some photos of @waimbonk's rig from Instagram.