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Laurence

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About Laurence

  • Birthday July 25

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  • Website URL
    http://www.abramsnet.com

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  • Location
    So. Cal.
  • About
    - IATSE Local 695 Boom Operator

    - Freelance website designer
  • Interested in Sound for Picture
    No

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  1. Yes indeed, and gravely missed on cold nights! (That was a "ballast" in Hollywood.)
  2. Good discussion about the contract is what we need but that Facebook page is something different and it worries me. The Vote No folks on the forum represent mainly just 1 Local's minority opinion but they've made it very unpleasant for anyone to express a different viewpoint, let alone a more accurate one. The message that we should stick together and always try to get as much as we can is something we all agree with, but their spin on this contract and their attack on the other 12 Locals and their leaders is anything but a show of solidarity. Bottom line... this contract meets the goals that the 13 Locals set out to achieve... it contains more gains than anything in the last 25 years years... and it gives us a much stronger foundation for our contracts going forward. To blow it up now and put everything back on the table for discussion would be truly self-destructive.
  3. I'll say if you're a 695 member take advantage of the only free one-on-one Fisher boom training available anywhere!
  4. Yes there is but it's definitely limited. Multi-camera sitcoms is the primary place to see them. Local 695 has been running one-on-one training sessions for quite some time and that has actually rekindled awareness of the Fisher and caused some to start showing up on episodic and features but it's still rare. Most of the sitcoms are union so it would take him some time to work his way through that but if he's good, and if he knows both Fisher and fishpole, and he has a cool kiwi accent, he'll probably do fine.
  5. Dave Pullmer... yes! I've been doing that to all of mine since my first pair in the early 90's. Takes a few minutes to rig it up and problem solved. Highly recommend it.
  6. The majority of Brando's lines in Apocalypse Now were done in ADR.
  7. Jeff and Philip offered a good list of reasons that the Fisher was becoming used less going into the 90's. Not mentioned yet as contributors to the increase in location shooting and the need for more nimble production crews with less gear were... faster film stocks (requiring fewer lighting instruments), HMI lighting (which drastically minimized the size of the lighting package by eliminating arc lamps), and perhaps more than anything, the 70's generation of lightweight sound cameras (Panaflex, Arri, etc.) The sound department response to all that was to make more use of early radio mics, spurring that technology to go through significant advancement, too. Add it up you get a lot few Fishers on location and a generation who sound people entering the business with the impression that the Fisher's time has gone. Which it has not. Only it's application has changed.
  8. Most studios built their own booms, different on every lot. A few individuals tried, as well, including Local 695 member Jim Fisher. At the time he was working in the sound shop at Republic Studios (now CBS Radford.) From a rented a space across the street, he set out to build a better boom. Other than for period movies, that boom is virtually the only one in use today. Below is a link to a 2012 Local 695 quarterly magazine with a reprint of an article from an earlier 695 magazine, published 1953, about the history of "the mike boom." At that time, a "boom" was something with a form factor of a Fisher, not the collapsible hand-held "stick" you use. I believe those didn't exist until the 70's, like the re-purposed painter's poles we used at Warner Bros, but that's a digression. Read the 2012 article here http://www.local695.com/Quarterly/4-4/4-4-november-1953-microphone-booms/ and be sure to click the link to the scanned version of the 1953 article. The image below shows two booms built by Republic, the ones J.L. worked on by day while developing the Model 2 Fisher at night.
  9. "Put down some boards!" I remember it well. And it gave the camera a lot more flexibility by not limiting the design of the dolly move to what can be built from sections of straight or curved track.
  10. We knew Jeff Wexler was honored with a Career Achievement award a few years back but this is even better. There's now a video store in Los Angeles that only stocks movies that were mixed by Jeff Wexler. Is that cool or what. Congrats, Jeff! Take a look... https://goo.gl/p70CPk
  11. I keep good work records and in my experience, the MPI accounting of hours has been completely accurate. But the other thing you need to watch for is whether the employers are accurately reporting hours. If they don't report, the hours don't get recorded. There too, I've had good luck but from what I understand, that doesn't always happen. Employers have shortchanged hours and whether intentionally or not, no one but you would know or be inclined to do anything about it. So A) Keep good track of the hours you work, and Check them periodically on the MPI website, and C) Whether you suspect that the source of a problem might be MPI or the employer, call MPI immediately if you doubt the accuracy of reported hours.
  12. Everyone wonders how anybody on the crew could go back to work the next next day and face the craziness of that movie... and many crew people did not. On the inside of the Camera Room door they kept a list of departed (but still living) camera crew and it went from the top of the door all the way to the floor and then started another column. Must have been more than 50 who quit... and that was just the camera crew. But ptalsky, you go back there month after month so you understand. It's fun to tell stories about how absurd the production was but it was truly an amazing experience to spend so much time so close to those animals. While booming shots I had them literally pawing at my jeans (cubs, I'll admit) and that's something you just never forget. Many of us lived at the ranch in trailers for part of the time and when we were off work we could just wander around and watch the cats whenever we wanted... and each night we'd fall asleep to their sounds mixed in with those of the elephants and the wild coyotes off in the hills. Yeah, it was crazy... but it was pretty cool, too.
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