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Officious ACs


Philip Perkins

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After working on video shoots for about 10,000 years, I am suddenly constantly running up against former film assistant camerapeople now working on HD video shoots.  Lately I have been working with ACs who are decidely non-collegial about anything having to do with the camera, which they believe they "own".  Except that I am required to treat the camera as my sound recorder.  Many of these ACs now attempt to insert themselves between me and my connections to the camera--as in I come up with my snake and they put their hand out.  Dude--I 've been hooking myself up to video camcorders for a lot longer than you, and by the way these are MY cables not yours.  Many ACs resent the cableage going to and from the camera, and demonstrate their contempt by being pretty rough on the connections.  I don't like cableing up to the camera either--but the AC doesn't have to own (and repeatedly fix) those cables.  My new policy is that only I will make and break the final XLR and TC connections w/ the camera--they are free to use the quick disconnect whenever they want to (and thanks for not throwing the now open end of the multicore snake on the floor or ground!).  There has been some attitude about this policy, but I'm tired of fixing my snakes.  I'd love to go Hollywood and not have any audio going to the video camera, but that has been an impossible sell in this market, even on high-end jobs (lazy post, I say).

Philip Perkins

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Hi Philip. I hear ya. I've been lucky on most of my latest TV movie shoots on HD. The first AC is a guy from the Hong Kong industry, and a very careful and professional fellow.  I've seen him give my boom op shit for letting the cabling hit the ground on set ups. Not all ACs are as careful however. Any tips on cleaning and maintaining those Neutrik quick disconnects? I've been using air and a shot of Caig deoxit.

Chris Newton

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This happened to me on a HD shoot:

AC keep unhooking my beta snake every time the camera moved, but since he couldn't figure out how to undo the breakaway he decided to pull out the XLR's. I finally got sick of coming back & reconnecting so I ask him to please do so rather than dropping the cable on the floor. Next the director asked for another camera angle, but since we where running out of time they decided to just shoot it from the same place and use a long lens, so we make tha shot & call it a day... Only the stupid AC had unhooked my cable and never put it back in place so the last take we did (which happened to be the one the director liked best) was MOS.  Thank you Asshole!

PS. Yes, I was running double system...

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My recent favorite was on a Dateline shoot where the B camera operator kept raising my overhead booms.  I said to him that I don't adjust his frame and focus, so don't touch my mics !  Sometimes I wonder who the camera ops think they are !

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This happened to me on a HD shoot:

AC keep unhooking my beta snake every time the camera moved, but since he couldn't figure out how to undo the breakaway he decided to pull out the XLR's. I finally got sick of coming back & reconnecting so I ask him to please do so rather than dropping the cable on the floor. Next the director asked for another camera angle, but since we where running out of time they decided to just shoot it from the same place and use a long lens, so we make tha shot & call it a day... Only the stupid AC had unhooked my cable and never put it back in place so the last take we did (which happened to be the one the director liked best) was MOS.  Thank you Asshole!

PS. Yes, I was running double system...

I've gone to a lot of expense to have quick release pigtails made for HD cameras, and there is still a tendency for ACs to pull the XLRs every time (the cable conversion from multicore snake to the xlr breakouts is the weakest part of the system), even if I show them how to use the quick release.  I guess another issue is that they are wanting to bundle up a whole wad of disparate cables, and then yank them tight with velcro straps.  On multiple camera shoots there are cables going to a lot of places--this bundling often causes trouble.  Guys, I'm sorry you don't get to assist on film cameras much anymore, but this is just a phase we all have to make it through together.  (So stop breaking my cables....)

Philip Perkins

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