RPSharman

I did one show with a crazy necklace they wanted the lead to wear. We had several walk and talks scripted. The character was frantic and walked briskly. I basically said that I would be happy to do whatever they wanted. If they wanted ADR and the necklace, I can do that. Happy to do it. But if they want to not have to ADR, then a different solution was required. They chose not to ADR.

You need to have a real conversation with the costume designer and involve the producer if necessary. The compromise of an unseen undershirt in order to get better sound tracks should be made. Honestly, we're a department head too. Why are people so afraid of other department heads? We are their equals. If you need undershirts to get sound, then have them put on undershirts FFS!

This is a pretty crazy topic. I think anyone who has been in the business for a while knows the resale value of the gear they have. Just agree to a number on each piece of gear, and move on. I did it when I needed to have a value for my gear. But there are many values. The value as a package. The value as a package for immediate sale. The value of a package for a less urgent sale. The same for each individual item. The problem in your case will be that one of you might have a couple of 211s that are worth $800 total, and another of you might have an SRC that's worth let's say $2800. They do the same thing. If you show up with 211s and turn in good tracks, or your partner shows up with an SRC and turns in good tracks, your rental will be the same. So really those pieces of gear have the same "value" in terms of your business. The best way to handle this, in my opinion, is to split proceeds 3 ways and share the gear your have already (assuming you all have a pretty comprehensive package). New gear acquisitions can be purchased by the company as required to improve the business. Good luck.

Yes. WB requires use of their equipment for WB produced TV shows shot on the WB lot, but that's it. They used to offer the mixer the higher daily rate, sometimes a 12 hour guarantee, and often little "kit rental" as compensation. No more, however. If you are on a WB TV show, you're on a weekly rate with no kit rental or guarantee. But for someone without a lot of gear, just moving up, or looking to simplify their career a bit, it's a very good opportunity.

That too!! Mix assist on recorder 2 going to input 8 on recorder 1, or if you are doing 3 machines, inputs 7 and 8. You will still only be giving up 2 tracks. Let's face it, as good as we might be, we really can't mix much more than 8 tracks any better than mix assist, especially if moving hands from one mixer to another. So the mix assist will likely do a better job. And realistically, unless there's a lot of overlapping, the mix assist tracks on the primary recorder are in fact all the ISOs from the other two machines. My only hang-up on this arrangement is the work at the end of the day using the computer to combine the files to a single POLY for post. Last thing I want to do after recording 15-22 tracks!! But if the mix assist tracks are good, the extra cards can be handed off and archived.

Yup. This. I have my trusty 788T on the main cart with my PSC Solice, but lately have been using it with the CL9 on my mini rig. It's pretty great. But I have also been using my 664 on other stuff, which is also pretty great. There is the option of a used 442 to get you up to 10 input tracks with great pres and limiters. I have one of those too, and the 664/442 combo is a pretty good one. I feel like my ideal setup on high track count would be inputs 1 (mix) through 8 (7 ISOs) on 664 being fed from Solice, 788T/CL9 feeding 4 additional ISO tracks to 664 and recording 4 additional ISOs, if required. The mix output of 788T mix would go to an open input 8 of Solice so as to make the main mix on the 664. Or something like that. I've had a few drinks :-)

I agree that headphones and harness should have been included in VER kit. They don't supply camera without giving the DP or the 1st AC the rental list for approval, so they should have supplied you with the sound equipment list, and you could have added to it all the extra things they should (and you would) include. That might be back-ups, etc. On the day, bring your own headphones and harness, because as your wrote... ick!

Great article. The very skilled and elusive Mary Ellis.

Hang on. You want to make phone calls with your iPhone? There's your problem right there. Don't let the product name fool you.

Sound Devices seem to have gone away from expensive specialty products, with little profit margin, for a small market to a more profit-driven model of high end pro-sumer products. While I am thrilled they have found a way to become more successful as a company, I don't really expect them to continue to service the high-end production sound recording market. It's very disappointing for me.

I had reports from post on a job I did. They used another production mixer in another country for that portion of the job, and reported they had seen huge notch filtering in the files. I contacted the mixer, and he reported as you have that they were all off. No explanation as to why there were these filters applied.

Hi all - I am having my first go at producing a film. Total budget for production is $75k. We have not raised any money for post or festivals or anything. We are shooting at a friend's parent's house in Fairfield, CT. He is the writer, and producing along with me. The director also co-wrote and is a friend. We are flying as a group of friends out to the East Coast and staying in the house where we will shoot 8 or 9 of the 12 day schedule. We have a single camera from Chivo's DIT, who is also showing up for free to help out (the DIT, not Chivo himself). Another friend has lent a sprinter van full of G&E gear which we're driving out from Kansas City. I am bringing the sound gear, and my friend and boom op will mix. We are mostly 2 characters, so he will boom too, as will I if needed. But I'm hoping to just be producing, as that will be enough work! Our entire budget is basically paying cast and feeding everyone. My gap in my sound gear is batteries. I don't do a lot of portable work And I really don't want to contend with flying with a bunch of batteries. Wondering if anyone here would like to rent me (or even better lend me) 6x NP1s, a 4-bank charger, and 2x XLR NP1 cups. Just running a 664 and 2 wireless most of the time. We have 3 days where I might run 3x 411 and an SRC. I am also wondering about iPowers and whether to fly them, but I will have chargers for those at the very least if someone wanted to include a dozen of those in the package. I have checked in with Gotham too, but thought I'd ask here. Shooting Feb 5th - 19th Additionally, if anyone wants to pop out for a day or two to lend a hand on the few days where we have bigger scenes, the help would be greatly appreciated. Not sure we'll have any money to spare, but if we do, we are paying a few people CT minimum wage ($125-150/day more or less) and we could probably do the same. But it might also have to be deferred - Don't all line up at once!! I know this is something everyone wants to do ;-) We also need a Gaffer and a Key Grip, if anyone knows of any cheery young'ns who have G&E experience, but would like to get an HOD credit. Must be local enough to Fairfield, CT so we don't have to stress about people driving tired. Although I am going to make every effort to be 12 on 12 off. There. That's the pitch. Sorry, guys :-(

I agree. I usually offer to split the fee with the seller, if they are asking for "gift" payment or want me to cover PayPal fees. I feel like people selling gear should be responsible sellers, and should include any fees in their pricing. It's a professional transaction, and should be handled that way.

USC soundie. There are a couple of alumni here, including me. I'd be happy to sit down and have a coffee with you to discuss things. If you're serious about starting your career in production sound, it would be a good ideal to do a lot of reading through this forum. There are lots of discussions in here about gain staging, among hundreds of other interesting topics relating directly to production sound.

Speaking about properly budgeted narrative projects here.... It baffles me that any picture editor would want to work with split tracks. They'll be choosing either between the lav mix or the boom track, or doing some poor mix of the two. I can't imagine a director sitting there and listening to some muddled editor-mix during their temp process. What a mess. Why wouldn't they just prefer a proper mono mix from a professional sound mixer, who will most of the time deliver a solid mono mix? It seems very unlikely there are ANY editors in this day and age that are not getting all the ISO tracks into their NLE. If they need to pull something, it's very easy to do. Why fix everything all day with split tracks, as opposed to just fixing what needs fixing? I am under no illusion that my mix track is what they use once it gets to the mix stage. Why on earth would they use it? All it would do would be to reduce they hours they can bill for breaking down and remixing a scene. They have all the information I didn't have. They have the knowledge of which takes/performance was chosen. They know which cameras were used and how the scene was edited. Cutting into close-ups right away, or hanging in the wide, or going back and forth. Added lines. Different ambiance. We don't have any of that information on set. We can only make an educated guess based on years of experience, and make it sound how we hope it should sound. I do that because I want the director to get used to my mix from a creative standpoint, because I was there in the space on the day. But the RRM can recreate that, if the director requests it, and probably do a better job given that they can have many goes at it. We only have one go. While often we can get it dead on, it doesn't mean the RRM won't remix it. It might just sound exactly as we had it when they do. What saddens me is when a good mix is ignored for some poor re-mix of a bunch of radio mics, because they were in too much of a hurry to listen to the mix and see that the PSM was able to fill the boom gaps with selective lav use. They could have done the same as me on the remix, as opposed to abandoning the boom track because there were a few gaps, and the dialog editor flagged it as a "lav scene". (See some old thread somewhere where a RRM said they never listen to the mix, and instruct their assistants and/or dialog editors to either deliver the boom if it's good all the way through, or deliver only the mixed wires with no boom. Tragic.)

I use the 4011C when I need a little mic. It’s great. I bought it for low ceilings at close proximity to actor, with beams making it necessary to have the middle pattern. Makes a great plant too.

Ugh! Thanks, Crew. Similar symptom.

Happens outside of 600, and started prior to the T-Mobile roll out. I am going to start taking better notes when it occurs, now that it is happening more often than I am comfortable with.

Asking the collective... I have 2 Venues over blocks from 21 to 25, powered independently. I am getting occasional bursts on my wireless, that are happening too often not to be worried about it. It's happened on SM (both on actors and wireless boom), HMs, UM400a, so not P48 issue. Happened with various boom ops with different poles. Sounds like someone cueing a walkie next to a transmitter. Not a "hit", but a burst of increased volume. Spoke to Ron at PSC, as my cart is powered exclusively through PowermaxUltra, and he can't think of any possible scenario for this. The board is also PSC. A Solice. Not consistently on one input channel. Anyone else experience such a thing? It was most pervasive on a show shooting near a beer distribution depot, so possible high power 2-way radio steppage, but we shot a lot at night when depot was dark. Robert

I watched a screening of a movie I had mixed. Big close-up of Andy Garcia with at least an inch of microphone sticking out of his tie. It was a crazy set, but with so many people looking, you’d think someone would have seen it. Including me.

It is most often comments from other crew that spur these issues. It’s another reason I prefer to have my crew wire at the follow cart, which is usually somewhere appropriate for wiring, and whenever possible in the presence if another person. Always in the presence of a parent or studio teacher when a minor. At least for the first few times. After that, a costumer is fine if the parent and minor has previously indicated it’s ok. I once had a costumer walk away when I was wiring a 15-year-old girl. We had worked together a while, and the girl and I were fine, but it wasn’t the point. I was very upset, because a bystander, who might have witnessed the fairly compromising arrangement, could have seriously misinterpreted the situation. I had a stern chat with the costumer, who I had also been friends with for months. She completely recognized the issue and apologized. We had all let our guard down due to familiarity, but it’s important to remain professional overall for the sake of the collective.

Lots of threads, as mentioned. I like to have a good mix so the director isn’t distracted on set by weird sound, and so the editor can cut a nice temp, and because I was there on the day and have a sense of how the performance in the space sounded in real life, and because my mix may go through to test screenigs, and because I want the director to love the sound he is used to by the time he gets to the mix. I just watched a show that sounded like shit. I feel like it must have been nice on the day. Good elements. But the ISOs were used and took all the character out of the dialog tracks. While I know that most shows at a certain level always remix frim the ISOs, if there’s a good mix in place beforehand, the editor and director will hopefully ask the RRM to make it sound like what I did.

In my case it was #1’s choice to not be radio miked. So since booms were in for him, we did it with everyone. Others were quiet, and were lav’d as required, etc. #1 was wired in his coats, which were ok for the bits we needed, but not always ideal. Booms in frame just become another valuable tool, but don’t replace good judgment in terms of background noise and capturing performances with the correct techniques. As noted above, moving backgrounds behind the boom can be tricky, trees and such, but not impossible. And these wides are typically quick shots editorially, so not a huge issue usually. Booms in green screen should never be an issue, as a garbage matte is drawn around the subject. It’s only if there are live elements in the background that the boom crosses would you get into hot water.

We busted the frame throughout "Counterpart" - Due out on Starz in January. We began doing it in a limited capacity from the get go, as we were doing split screens and motion control for one actor playing two parts, but then it became necessary to do more often. I brought it up with VFX supervisor, who told me that booms in frame would have "zero financial impact", even in moving masters (which we never really did anyway). I took this to post supervisor who said he'd "let me know". But when he didn't get back to me right away, I just did it anyway. Never heard a word beyond them being very happy with the sound. Operators and DPs were on board immediately. Directors were skeptical, but loved being able to do wide and tight without anyone complaining. I recently tried to get editorial to give me screen grabs with booms in for an article I was thinking about writing, but the assistant editors had taken the boom out with the Avid tools before even sending them for the temp, so without searching the VFX QC list, and "undoing" it to see what was there, they had no way of finding the footage for me. That means that basically nobody ever saw the booms beyond raw dailies. I will discuss this with every show from now on. The time saved in production and post will more than cover any cost associated with boom removal.

I have 2x USB ports on my laptop. If I take a CF card from each recorder, plug them into a reader in each port, can I pick the destination folder to be on one of those two cards? Of will I need to create a destination folder on a third piece of media or on the laptop hard drive? Realistically, I would have the data transfer person on set load the program and just do this all for me, but only on long projects. On short jobs, I'd want to do it on my own.