ericwallace

This red audio overmod issue is something that has been driving me nuts watching episodes of a show I recently worked on. Yes...these overmods went to broadcast because they didnt want to sync the masters we recorded.

from one of the rare non-mixer boom ops on here: In specific cases like this with a hostile dp that's operating, sometimes you need to get on the first ACs good side. When the dp wanders away from the camera ask the first to help you out with a frame line on a certain part. They are (usually) more than happy to oblige. If nobody is willing to help you then you just gotta start by playing it safe with your mic positioning and slowly getting more aggressive. Experience will help you know how safe you need to be. Also, forget lighting books. You'll pick up most of that on set. Start playing more pool. Being able to intuit angles of incidence is invaluable for dealing with mirrors and other reflections.

I usually ask for a half days rate as a compromise.

Way back in my student film days the mixer I was working was working out of a bag. We were shooting at a college and happened upon an A/V cart in the projection room of one of the old lecture halls and "requisitioned" it for our own use. Back in those days we used pretty much anything with wheels as impromptu sound carts including wheelbarrows, shopping carts and whatever we could find on set. It worked pretty okay inside and moderately good on smooth pavement. Basically it was better than nothing. The real issue is that it can get tremendously top heavy and because of its shape, has a tendency to be unstable towards its wide side especially on any kind of slanted ground or uneven surface. Also, they tend to be on the heavy side without actually giving you terribly much shelf space. You could probably make one work if you did some serious modifications to it (better wheels, proper shelf lips to keep your gear from sliding off, etc) but in the long run you'd be better with building your own cart or getting a PSC or magliner one.

Not sure if this has been touched on but generally the union only "turns" stuff that should have been done under a union contract in the first place. If its someone shooting a feature with 5 crew members and a $30k budget they don't care. If its a production shooting with 100 crew members at Silvercup on the other hand...

I would definately do some tests with the RED if I were you. As far as I know the red doesn't have a normal SD video output(this may have changed with a recent firmware update). The usual workflow that I have seen(on lower budget shows) for SD monitoring is: using an external down convertor box to go from HD(SDI i think) to regular SD and then they send that out to a canotrans or modulus or some such. This is the ideal situation obviously.

I been kicking this idea around for components that get hot on a cart for a while and I think it might work in a bag as well. My idea is to mount some heat sinks(like: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835114091 but custom made perhaps) to things that are overheating. This might be a decent quiet system in a bag provided that you have low profile heat dissipators and that you at least have some sort of airflow.

I've done it from time to time. They're nice for when its exceptionally hot since the 7506s are incredibly uncomfortable once you start sweating. There are some big drawbacks though. The big one is fatigue. Your ears fatigue from having sound going straight into your ear like that but the bigger problem is physical fatigue. My ears felt numb and painful after having something stuck in them constantly. I think a set that was molded to my ears my work better in that regard. The other thing is that they can isolate a little too well. This isn't a problem for everyone but I like to at least be able to have some sense of my immediate surroundings with my headphones on.

Hi fellow sound folks, I got my card fairly recently and am looking for any and all work in the Local 52 jurisdiction. I will go anywhere for any union job of any budget for any amount of time. I am based out of Brooklyn but have a car and am willing to travel anywhere. I really need to get my hours. References available. Last minute work is fine. Thanks! Eric "Wally" Walendzinski

http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20090330/FREE/903309977 The stalled film and television tax incentive program received a $350 million cash infusion in the new state budget to keep it going for another year. But the stop-gap measure fell short of industry expectations, and could jeopardize New York’s lucrative television business. The new funding will help keep most of the shows that are already produced here, like Ugly Betty and 30 Rock, at least for another year. But the program’s uncertainty in the future is sure to scare away new series, which are budgeted for multi-year runs. “This is very disappointing to us,” said Alan Suna, president of Silvercup Studios in Long Island City, Queens. “While it’s good as a bridge, it doesn’t really address the most important problem. It doesn’t enable New York to attract any new television series at all.” New York received a flurry of production work when Gov. David Paterson tripled an existing tax break to 30% of production expenditures last April to compete with similar offers in other states. In 2008, a record 19 pilots were produced here. The state allocated $685 million to fund the program through 2013, but the incentive was so successful that it ran out of money in less than 10 months. Uncertainty over the incentive program has already cost New York its entire pilot season and the hit show, Fringe. Warner Bros. Television decided to relocate Fringe to Vancouver last month, when executives there heard the tax credits were in jeopardy. Even with funding now available for another year, the show’s producers are sticking with the decision to move. “(The commitment to fund the program for one year) sends a message from the state that they are with us today, but may not be tomorrow,” said Alex Zablocki, a candidate for NYC Public Advocate, who collected over 14,000 petition signatures to save the program. “During uncertain times, the last thing workers and small businesses need is more uncertainty.” Such uncertainty over the future of the program has put the breaks on a number of expansion plans at Silvercup. Mr. Suna said he had plans to build additional studios at a few different locations. “Had the tax credits become permanent as we had asked, Silvercup would have expanded immediately.” Kaufman Astoria Studios doesn’t have the luxury of halting its expansion. The Astoria, Queens-based facility is building a new 18,000-square-foot stage with 22,000-square-feet of dressing rooms and offices, scheduled for completion by the end of the year. “I might have given a second thought to investing $22 million into this stage,” said Hal Rosenbluth, president of Kaufman Astoria. Mr. Rosenbluth plans to go after feature films to fill his other stages right now, because he doesn’t think TV shows will come to New York until an incentive program is either made permanent, or has more longevity. Not everyone was disappointed with the budget. Union members who work on the productions felt relieved. “From a crew standpoint, this is a positive,” said Beth Kushnick, set decorator on Fringe. “New York will be busy with film and television for another year and we’ll have jobs. In this economy that’s a positive.” Still the fight isn’t over. Industry officials will continue their lobbying efforts to make the program permanent. The tax incentives have been wildly successful in bringing productions to New York. According to a 2007 Ernst and Young study, the state and city combined have issued $690 million in tax credits and collected $2.7 billion in taxes from movie and television productions. In 2007, it helped create more than 7,000 jobs directly and over 12,000 jobs indirectly.

Great post. I'm convinced it takes a special breed to work reality.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/03/nyregion/03film.html?_r=1&ref=nyregion&pagewanted=print March 3, 2009 A Plea to Keep Cameras Rolling in New York By CHRISTINE HAUGHNEY Even the film and television industry, one of the few fields generating profits in the throes of this recession, says it needs government help to stay in New York. At a news conference at Kaufman Astoria Studios in Queens, dozens of film and television workers gathered on Monday to ask politicians to expand the incentive program offered to their industry in the past few years, not scale it back as planned. The program, which offers studios tax credits from the city and state for up to 35 percent of the production costs — 30 percent from the state and 5 percent from the city — has been so successful that the state has already paid out the $690 million that was to last through 2013. That money was expected to generate nearly $2.7 billion in state and local taxes through the end of the 2010 fiscal year, according to a report by Ernst & Young. The program’s advocates say it could create and preserve 19,000 jobs and generate $200 million in additional tax revenue for the state in the next 12 to 18 months alone. But the state, facing its own fiscal restraints, is limiting its portion of the program’s future financing. At a breakfast held by the Association for a Better New York last week, Marisa Lago, president of the Empire State Development Corporation, suggested an alternative program that would cut the state tax break to 20 percent from 30 percent and limit the total amount distributed to $100 million a year. “We are committed to this vital industry, and we are working to ensure that New York remains in front of the cameras,” she said. “Funding to this important program has not been cut, but exhausted due to its immense popularity with the film and television industry.” Workers say the program has been crucial in recruiting efforts. “If it weren’t for the credit, this show would not be shooting in New York,” said Richard Masur, an actor and former president of the Screen Actors Guild, standing on the set of the television program “Life on Mars.” He said that there had already been a fall-off since the money had run out. There were 19 television pilots filmed locally in 2008, but none even planned for 2009. Douglas C. Steiner, chairman of Steiner Studios, said that when he met with budget officials at the major movie studios in Los Angeles last week, they told him that studios would not consider New York as a filming site without firm incentives. “They’re not going to bother budgeting for something they don’t know is for sure,” he said. The film industry itself is not the only beneficiary of the tax credits. Beth Kushnick, the set decorator for the science fiction drama “Fringe,” which is relocating to Vancouver in May, said the show had 200 workers here, most of whom would lose their jobs. Last week, when the program rented a restaurant on Broadway to use for a set, workers bought food and picked up extra props at local businesses. She added that the program tried to make a donation to the block associations of the neighborhoods it filmed in. For a shoot in Brooklyn on Monday, the program made donations to a waterfront planning association and a soup kitchen in Greenpoint. The incentives benefit film productions throughout the state. The filmmaker Ang Lee’s work on a movie about Woodstock near Albany brought about $8 million in revenue to that area, said Sam Freed, the New York president of the Screen Actors Guild. He said the incentive helped keep it in the area, even though the filmmaker had attractive offers to film it elsewhere. “That film was on its way down to North or South Carolina,” he said. And then there is the global effect. Maxine Kaplan, president of the Prop Company — Kaplan & Associates, said that two of the seven workers she employs are from Tibet and depend on their salaries to send money to relatives overseas.

On one of my first mixing jobs I had a similiar scare. At the end of the day handed in the DVD from the 702 and brought the CF card home to backup on my computer. When I got back I wanted to listen to a take during the day only to find that none of the files would play. They were all corrupted. Needless to say I was a wreck the entire night and basically got no sleep while I was trying to figure out what the hell was going on and if could I recover the files. Things seemed bad. The next day I went to work and thankfully the director still had the DVD in her bag. Turns out that the DVD was fine but I had accidentally pulled the CF card before it was done being closed. Suffice it to say that I don't take the recorder turning off in time for granted anymore.

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I 3rd the NeoPax recommendation. They're simple, very adjustable, and pretty secure. The downside is that they're a little pricer than some of the really generic ones you can get but it's worth it imo. -e