Philip Perkins

Not beeping much anymore--the equipment I have now doesn't make it easy, and the files are all discrete and individually named anyhow. The Nagra was beep-friendly (osc. button right next main function selector), and for DAT I often used 2 clicks of the slate mic in the panel. Nowadays I figure it's pretty obvious where I cut since the file ends. For anything I think might be confusing I'll "talk to the recorder" about it. I still think line-up tones are good and useful--as a separate file marked TONE/SLATE at the start of the day. The posties can hear me say what the sample rate, depth and frame rates are, hear a countoff of the running TC, and it gives me a chance to say hi and wish them a good day. On commercials with billions of similar takes a head slate when I first roll before I say "speed" is, I think, a good idea. Philip Perkins

We've been over this so many times, I guess it doesn't matter any more. But shooting in film DID make people more attentive to what they were doing. Exposing film was expensive and irrevocable, one was ready before it was rolled, paid fanatical attention during the roll, and seriously considered whether more takes were needed. The responsibility laid on each department was MUCH greater to avoid causing the need for retakes due to their error. In MY film school we not only shot film (and not much either), we processed and printed it as well--so we REALLY thought about what we were doing.... There was an aspect to the crafts of filmmaking that was much more akin to that of live theatre than the way video is shot now, and I must say I miss that. Philip Perkins

So they say they are "pre-negotiating" each job with you, or will be, but the after the job they are busting the deal and wanting to pay you less? I have a group of clients for whom my rate floats around a bit depending on what sort of job it is, but that sort of thing is spelled out ahead of time. Changing a negotiated rate after the fact without good cause (like you were very late, screwed up big, were drunk, etc) is illegal and unethical. I understand the current state of the biz about rates changing per the budget of a given job, but you have to stand up for yourself about them CHANGING the deal AFTER the job is done-- I mean--how would they react if their car mechanic or home-repair contractor did that? Philip Perkins

Yeah, burn a candle for the Solice, everyone expects that it's the last of the Mohicans. Philip Perkins

It will be interesting to see what happens with film-style location panels in the near future. The Cameo was the only digital mixer I've ever heard of designed for this market--all the others (Yamaha etc) have been borrowed from PA/music recording sectors. I wonder if any of the film-style mixer manufacturers (Sax, PSC, SD) will step to this task, or if the future will be hybrids like the fader panel add-ons like Zax, SD and Aaton have for their recorders? Philip Perkins

beautiful, as always. Philip Perkins

Don't take this stuff personally. You got everybody on a cranky day and the oldsters (of which I am one) ended up working out on you a little because some assumptions you made in your posts set them off. This is a really good place to ask and get answers to film/video audio questions with a fairly low noise factor and a high level of experience in pro-level production sound (as opposed to, say, the sound section of REDUSER). Everyone who has jumped in here could be expected to question your sound expectations if you were their director on a film, but everyone would also go along with whatever you wanted to do if you insisted on it and it didn't endanger anyone. We know that ultimately it is our job to record the sound for the shots you create for your film, and that it is YOUR film. ....and now you know, if you didn't already, that production sound people ARE strange.... Philip Perkins (CAS)

Why not create an auxiliary unit w/ the retired guys and let them stay members of the force on that status? LAPD is perpetually undermanned anyhow, why waste a great resource? They could think of these guys like reserve force etc.. The city makes money on their labor (on movies), and them doing that work frees up active duty officers to do regular police work. Working with even a medium sized crew on city streets without cops is a stupid production choice. Philip Perkins

My vote: keep it simple. Make your set as sound friendly as you can--soften surfaces, including the ceiling if you can, shoot in a quiet place. Rent the best mic/mixer/recorder you can afford OR hire a professional sound person with their own gear and let them boom the shot. Make sure the room has enough ceiling height that you can have the composition you want and still have room above the actor for the boom to work. Listen to the audio yourself as it is shot and make notes as to what words or phrases weren't covered well, and then get wild lines of them right then and there--same room, gear etc.. with the actor still in character. That should give you enough material to cut the performance together and have it sound good. Philip Perkins

It depends on the camera (does it keep the TC count going during the battery change or does it go back to zero) and on how fussy you are about how tight the sync is (even professional video cameras lose frames during battery changes). If you CAN reestablish sync via a new 3 2 1 etc then do it, but on most concert/verite work I've done there is never time once the show starts so we do the best we can. Philip Perkins

This is my world also. On shoots with video assist there is still SD video available, but wouldn't bet on for how much longer this will persist--critical playback is always of the HD signal on HD monitors even if VA is there. Otherwise, on HD shoots there is NO SD video available very often now--they don't want to rent and hassle w/ a downconvertor just for me. That said, there are some cool small HDMI monitors now ("SmallHD") and one can get an AJA HDSDI to HDMI convertors to velcro to the back--cheaper than the current fave 7" HDSDI native monitor (TV Logic). In any case, a new moni for me really needs to take HDSDI, and we aren't going to see monitors that do this at the price we were getting decent SD monitors for anytime soon. Philip Perkins

...and on a video doc they allow use of the camera mic AND the soundie's mics at the same time--VERY handy in dialog cutting on those chaotic docs. We managed to fool pluraleyes pretty well on those chaotic docs too--lots of voices etc...ie it works best when you need it the least.... Philip Perkins

I don't know about the lights--too many types around and lots of new technology. Mics, if they are name brand, for sure. SD recorders seem to hold their value very well. Philip Perkins

Titan. Editrace. Virtual Katy. Philip Perkins

I was asked that recently by a gaffer who's been in the biz about the same number of years as me, and all I could think to say was "Well, all this digital stuff wasn't MY idea...." Philip Perkins

It's not crazy, but sometimes the beat of the music isn't clearly enough defined in the low end to provide a ref for the dancers, OR the real music that will be in the film doesn't exist yet and they only have a rough tempo map. Philip Perkins

Sure you could--all those wonderful for-profit film schools just ended their terms and all those folks are now looking for work to pay off their student loans. Philip Perkins

In 1968 I was in a band that always ended its shows with "You're Gonna Miss Me", with an extended feedback solo in the middle.... Bliss. Philip Perkins

Something to generate a steady beat at a very exact tempo. A specialized metronome, in other words, and in a more sophisticated setting one that could change tempos in real time in response to programming (ie score following). Philip Perkins

Yes indeed. Out of sync sound sucks when watching a monitor, but it's crazy-making if you are watching real people and hearing a delayed Comtek. Philip Perkins

I have one I bring for VA when doing F23 and F35 etc shoots, until I noticed that no one seemed to care that the sound was way ahead of picture. I still throw it in the van but it rarely comes out any more. The Shark is a pretty user unfriendly piece of gear in my experience--easier to use, although a bit bigger are old Alesis reverbs (Q2, etc) that you can program easily and save+name presets in. Philip Perkins

If you don't mind me asking (it's ok to mind), why do you want to have your gear owned by a company instead of you yourself? Is it something the people you are working for want, or is it for insurance reasons, partners, taxes or what? Philip Perkins

I'd love to hear everyone's reactions (am a fan of PSC) but won't be in LA then, otherwise.... Philip Perkins

I'm glad to hear that this is an accepted workflow in LA. "Losing the argument" here means primary audio to the camera, and record-run TC. I won't go into my rant about lazy editors who don't understand their tools (oops, just did!), but this happens pretty often around SF, with a few enlightened exceptions, and bless them. My experience with those Sony SRW decks is that they are way loud for having on the set, even when rolling, and the fan noise does the "Red Effect", ie masks noises that won't be audible until the fan goes off to roll (like HMIs in flicker-free mode close in to talent, etc..) Philip Perkins

I found that transferring the CF to the computer and then burning took longer, but it does allow you to get the card back in action, esp on a job where you can let the computer burn on its own while you continue to work. I was hoping that an app might be faster than the Finder, but maybe the limitation is the USB bus speed. The Plextor was WAY faster than the laptop's own DVD drive. Philip Perkins