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Joshua Anderson

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Everything posted by Joshua Anderson

  1. I'm not even sure I understand what this thread is about anymore. From Jan's initial post, through Richard's public shaming for advocating public shaming, I have learned that my kindle (that I never have time to read anyways) looks like a kindergarten library compared to James'. If I understand Jan's first post, I think she's saying that a sound mixer who might be frustrated with low ball job offers doesn't need to spend the energy on educating every person who calls. Instead, they can take the frustration as a sign that that they are ready to step into bigger if jobs. How does one find that market and get into it has never been a clear route or one that translates to everyone. But I thought Jan was just trying to point out a positive spin on what can sometimes feel like a frustrating moment. But maybe I'm missing the root of the discussion through all of the flowers. Josh
  2. That's the way it is whenever it happens to me. For me, the surefire test is rolling the head slate on every roll and seeing if the machine adds the "A" to the file name to prevent having two files with the same name in the same folder. But looking at the folder name in the folder options menu doesn't actually confirm whether the roll change took place.
  3. I've had this happen on both of my main 788s and definitely with different firmware as I have standard procedure for formatting my CF cards because of this occurrence: I rename the mid level folder (usually incrementing the roll number by one) Then I format the CF cards Then I go back into the folder options menu and hit edit the mid level folder. I don't change it, but I confirm the roll that I had just set on the previous step. When I slate my roll, I create a file that is named the same on every sound roll. If the machine adds an "A" to the name of the file, then I know that the 788 has saved it to the previous roll folder. When I go back into the folder options menu, the folder will be named for the correct roll, but I will have to re-confirm it and record another slate file to check. This doesn't happen too often, but enough that I keep that procedure to see when it does. Josh
  4. Where's the "turn it off, turn it back on" part?
  5. Thanks José and Marc. I was happy to hear the amount of layering and work the Post side did in their design. I think they got to have some fun manipulating some of the tracks and emphasizing other sounds to simulate what the main character would hear. Unless they cut around it, Marc, your eagle eye will probably notice a schoeps in my current job, if you watch it. The director liked the table mic look and I didn't like wiring 9 actors because of the large window reflections. But I might look into getting a cheap courtroom deposition or conference table mic and see if hollowing out for future hidden plants makes sense. On Daredevil, I got the Locations department to allow us to pry open an existing conference table mic to try to fit a Cub mic inside. I think we placed it in the scene (flashback law firm scene), but I don't think it ever became the best option for us for any particular shot. Josh
  6. I've used various lengths on different inputs. Sometimes I've used short 4-8 inch cables. Sometimes 18-24 inch cables. But the decision was based on the connectors not the reception. Comteks are pretty robust and can definitely be used in the manner you're looking to do.
  7. On cameras, on speakers, in cars, on clamshell monitors. In all those situations, the Comtek had a small adaptor cable and that was also it's antenna. Worked just fine.
  8. I still do a head slate, Whit, but I also refer to it as the file no one will ever listen to. Occasionally another crew member will want to get in on the slating like people in Post will hear this secret recording I make. I still like to do the head slate. At least at that point in the day I know that if all other pieces of the sound department fail, I can read the actors' lines into the slate mic as I watch their lips move. Emergency situation. [emoji12]
  9. Obviously, whoever is mixing TMNT 2 should pick up at least 20.
  10. Make sure the cameras have the version 2 of their fan. It looks a bit different on the front of the camera, like a little hilltop. The fan percentage on a Red Dragon with the second version of the fan is quieter than the same fan percentage on the first version of the fan. And not all AC's know that there are different versions of the fans. Unfortunately, the fans are supposedly necessary to the look of the picture. "Something, something, gammas, something or another." But not just to keep the camera from destroying itself with over heating. Or being too cold. Right now, our AC's are making sure the cameras are don't get too cold, either.
  11. I don't use a CPA, so take this with a grain of salt. I always use a schedule C. I'm not incorporated, but my understanding is that as a sole proprietor, all income passes through the "business" and becomes my income - this subject to self-employment tax. From: http://www.irs.gov/instructions/i1040se/ch02.html "Personal property. Do not use Schedule E to report income and expenses from the rental of personal property, such as equipment or vehicles. Instead, use Schedule C or C-EZ if you are in the business of renting personal property. You are in the business of renting personal property if the primary purpose for renting the property is income or profit and you are involved in the rental activity with continuity and regularity. If your rental of personal property is not a business, see the instructions for Form 1040, lines 21 and 36, to find out how to report the income and expenses."
  12. Maybe it's a stupid question, Jeff, but do you hand in drives at the end of a film that Post uses for all sound work? I'll hand in a drive full of a few episodes to Post a couple of times during a season, but I think they'd use the audio that came from the deliverables without asking for anything else. So the deliverable can become the master.
  13. Jon, it's funny that you mention the transcend cards. I've been using 8 GB 133x Transcend cards for 3-4 years. No problems ever. Before starting this job, I thought about getting 16 GB cards so I wasn't against the wall sometimes with disc space. Production picked up 4 Delkin 16 GB cards that were on the approved list for 788Ts. I used them the first day, but they didn't sit well with my 788s: sometimes the 788s would look like they weren't seeing the external drive after I put in the CF cards. I would power cycle the recorders and it would be fine. But on the second day, I decided to go back to my Transcends and put off figuring out 16 GB cards. The problem cards ended up being 4 of my Transcend cards, on day 5. I still ended up using other 8 GB Transcend cards until Production switched my Delkins for 16 GB Sandisk cards. So far so good. I don't have any intention of switching out my 788s. I looked at the newer 970, but I like having 2 independent recorders, plus the 970 weighs a lot more and doesn't have any limiters. Josh
  14. There's a remote audio speakeasy that's rackmount able - the R1, I think. It takes 12v so if your connecting to a video cart that already runs off of camera batteries, you might be able to easily add it. The other speaker that I think sounds really good is the jawbone jam box. The larger one. If you run it with the mini plug input, you shouldn't have to worry about unwanted people connecting via Bluetooth.
  15. I didn't have any warnings on my recorders. But, I've never shut down my recorders before pulling CF cards out. I've had these machines since 2009-2010 and have been pulling cards as part of my reload process since 2011. So far it all seems like an aberration. But it made me think about how I can be more certain of the media format - if it's possible. Thanks for the history lesson on the 744. I skipped that machine, but always admired it. Josh
  16. I agree and think it's akin to the discussions we have on set with our Boom Ops. If we both go for the line, we may be fighting each other. My Boom Ops want to give me good stuff to work with and I want to put them in positions to provide good stuff (maybe by taking lines they don't need to stretch for because we know how the coverage will work). It's certainly better to have conversations with Post before there are any problems, but a troubled conversation is better than no conversation. I try to reach out to my Post Supervisor in TV-prep. But it is a shame that I have to wait 5-8 episodes before meeting Audio Post. On Smash, I tended to provide 2 mix tracks during musical numbers. One with music for dailies and comteks, one without music for editorial (when we would live singing with earwigs). I remember someone in Post asking me early on in one of our seasons if it was necessary for the assistant editors to look past this second mix track (maybe it affected transfer times or their post transfer re-synching work). I said "Yes! That second mix track is for you. If I don't give it to you, you need to rebuild everything without the music track that I married into the main mix track." I'm glad they asked. I enjoyed being able to give them that, and I believe they found it very useful. But it would have been lost had we not spoken. And Jan, I agree, it does seem to always happen that the transition works best during the rehearsal and you end up "trying to remember" what you did. Except when there isn't a rehearsal, then, of course, everything goes wrong on the first stab. Josh
  17. I was wondering if it was a "digital" thing. Like you're saying, I've only come across it one other time when I had a card (or recording) lock up. I run 2 recorders and I split an analog feed to them, so if one machine has a lock up it won't affect the other (rather than sending out of one recorder into the other). But this issue was spread across both CF cards - twice, as it happened again on the second roll of the day. Part of me thinks it's related to the download after the cards have left my hands, but in this digital world I have no practical way of confirming the integrity of the CF card. And like I was saying, it's become the source of audio for the entirety of the shows I work on.
  18. Unless I'm missing something on my 788Ts, after I cycle to the CF drive, it automatically switches back to the Int drive once I hit record. I was wondering if other machines were also so internal drive centric. My point was that in the workflows I typically work in, no one goes back to the Internal drive. I will send Post a drive of about 4 episodes on an external drive, but by that point dailies, editors and Post audio will have been working with the files from the CF cards. My question was two-fold: If the CF cards are that central to the workflow, why not monitor them in record? But at the same time, we don't listen to anything like a confidence head anymore in the digital world, so does it matter? In my situation last week, I found that I was handing in CF cards that were corrupted. My Internal and External drives were fine and there wasn't any indication that there had been an error on recording. Maybe the cards went bad when our loader transferred the files on her laptop to the shuttle drive for the Transfer House. But I can't say with certainty that I handed her uncorrupted CF cards - because I listen to the internal drive. The sound was all good in the end, so there wasn't an "issue." Or is there an issue, because I then have to rush backup drives to Post so as not to delay dailies delivery to Executives by anymore time than this issue has already caused. Josh
  19. If a Lav is on the chest, it may be approximately 12 inches away from the mouth. If the boom is a few inches off the top of the head, it may also be approximately 12 inches away from the mouth. Our goal is to not be exactly an equal distance (or really not lined up with two similar of a wavelength). When we hear it, we adjust. I have a discussion with my boom op about the fact that we're fighting each other. Either he changes his distance or I change the mix (less wire, more boom; or the opposite). There are times when we have to treat the set like triage. The other night I had an actor with a line scripted as whispering outside in Manhattan. I had an 815 at the top of their head. I only put the boom in mix as we only did one take. We had a lav cooking, but I did not monitor it. Maybe I could have goosed a little more lav in, and I may have started to do that on a second take. But on the first take (without rehearsal), I wanted a true idea of what the boom would get. We, of course, were slammed by traffic on parts of the line. At some point though, as you talk about bringing booms up 16-20db to pull that line out, that traffic that got us the other night would have been all over the lav as well. We can't change physics completely. It sounds like you're on jobs where the producers are being unrealistic as to the post work versus the post budget and time. I don't believe every job (as I have not encountered that on my last few TV shows) wants a hyper realistic sound to the dialogue. That particular desire sounds like it requires an honest conversation with your on set team. I don't think it's a general rule for all TV shows. A very small film I mixed is coming out this weekend - "Last 5 Years." It's a musical that took on the challenge of having 90% songs sung live. In the conversation with the UPM and the Music Supervisor/Re-recording Mixer, I had to present my case for a 4 man crew like we had on Smash. During the first week, we shot a song on a lake in Staten Island with two actors on opposite ends of a dock, singing a song together. We had me, a playback mixer and 2 boom operators. The next day, the Music Supervisor came to me and said that he was glad the UPM took my request for that 2nd Boom. That scene exemplified everything I brought up in that conversation. We didn't have to do a live song on 2 radio mics or have to decide which vocal would get a boom and which one a wire in some sort of unfair sonic prioritizing. And just to quell the argument that 2 lavs would have worked: 2 boom operators adjusting with the head turns and vocal dynamics will always be better. Josh
  20. An unscientific guideline: If you mix an equal amount of two mics that are an equal distance from the source, you'll get phase. In the field, we'd adjust the levels of the faders and/or the distances of the mics to the mouth. And go by ear.
  21. If you take the approach of making the lavs work and then just hoping the a wide boom gets mixed in during Post, you may have the problem Henchman is talking about. Unless you're playing that boom in the mono mix with the lavs, you won't know if adding it later is just adding phase. But 1 day to Post a 42 minute show is ridiculous. How/when did Post get so reduced and marginalized? I still do hope that what I hand in is ready enough that stripping out my mix and rebuilding the entirety with the ISOs would be way more time intensive than building off of the mono mix I send in. What I want to work on set is what I think will work in the edit. I don't think of those two goals as being contradictory. Josh
  22. Out of the 3 media I record (Int, Ext, CF), I can only monitor the Int during record, but I hand in the CF media for Dailies and Post. So why not monitor the CF while in record. But since there isn't a playback head on a digital recorder, does that matter? In my case, there wasn't an error on my machine. At some point my CF cards corrupted, but I don't know if it was during the recording or after I handed them to the loader to put into the shuttle drive that gets sent to the transfer house.
  23. I had an issue with 4 CF cards the other day and it got me thinking about how we monitor the files. I use 2 788T recorders. I feed a split analog audio feed to them. If one recorder has freeze up or an other issue, the 2nd recorder is getting it's audio independently. Each sound roll then is 2 CF cards. On this particular day I had issues with 2 Sound Rolls - so 4 CF cards. I also record onto external drives and was able to get those to post to clean up the dailies. What struck me though as I've been trying to find the weak link is that I don't (and can't) monitor the media that I actually hand in. My recorders (and maybe others are different) only let me monitor the Internal Drive in record. I can play back and check files from the CF slot and the FireWire port, but I can't listen to them in record. With 1/4inch and DAT, we would listen to the playback head. Since I hand in CF cards that go to Dailies and then Post, I'm not actually listening "in confidence" like we could in the past. Just a thought I had about what we're actually monitoring in the digital domain. Josh
  24. I also think it's great Henchman brought Mike into the session. The few times I've been able to do that have been great experiences for me. A lot of times it seems the Post Audio gets hired after we've gotten into shooting. Then it's like playing catch up in establishing that communication. But's great when that communication is there. Josh
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