And another thing...

[Mick]

One of the other offshoots of the digital video era is the facility that DP's now have to shoot 'cross coverage" thereby making it tough for boom men to do a good job when two cameras are facing in opposite directions, sometimes on opposite sides of the line (another directing trend). If the actors are two far apart to cue then it's either two booms or a boom and a wire, neither of which is a problem, but it seems to me to be another step away from camera/sound co-operation. No longer is there a discussion about shooting wide and tight or even a good humored apology. It's taken for granted that we "deal with it". Again, no real problem, but it exemplifies the rapidly changing face of film and TV and the time honored procedures that accompany the making thereof, or at least they used to. Gone are the days of lighting and shooting in one direction and then turning around and shooting in the other. I'm sure for our most recent entrants into the business that this has been standard operating procedure as usual and don't think about it, but for us bofs used to film it 's another nail in the coffin of the comfort zone. I'm not mourning the old days, far from it, just reflecting on the amount of change in this business in such a short time. There are some improvements, no really there are....there's....well hang on let me think....maybe given time i can.....

Just kidding. Very happy to be back and doing a job I've loved for many years. I'm blessed and completely unentitled to coin some current vernacular. Now if I can just get the director to call "cut' occasionally....

[Philip Perkins]

I think you are mourning the good old days, but there are a lot of us mourners.  But it the biz isn't going to change back to working that way, thus, yes, we deal with it.

 

philp

[Jay Rose]

As a postie, I definitely -don't- mourn the old days. Digital has made my life faster and easier and with far less distortion and no perceptible generation loss...

 

...and so much less investment in things like flatbeds and dubbers... or even sync blocks...

[VASI]

http://695quarterly.com/previous-issues

IATSE 695 Quarterly: Spring 2009 Issue.

An excellent article "Two Camera Hell" by Jay Patterson, CAS.

 

What's the "real problem"? A director who don't know when to cut (in the editorial room or in his/her vision about X scene). How to cut if he/she use a dolly? Ha. How many wide scenes with dialogue you see in a tv drama? 95% takes only two or three lines and after goes to medium or close up. How many scenes you see to go from close up to wide again? Ha.

[Mick]

...and another thing that has changed, perhaps not for the better, is the lack of concern for overlaps. I haven't heard from post that this is a problem, but given the propensity for improv and unscripted inserts, well, maybe their job is more difficult as a result, maybe not. Whatever the outcome I'm liking it. No more diplomatic requests to the actors and let 'er rip. Good times. Just listened to the Doobies singing "The Doctor" Great track.

Mick

[David Silberberg]

This post reminds me of a job I boomed where they were using two hand held cameras to film multiple pages of dialogue. When the actors got to the end of the scene , the director wouldn't cut, instead he'd say, "ok take it from the top." So the takes would go for 20 + minutes. It was excruciating to boom these long takes while working over the top of 2 tall camera-ops, dancing behind them. After the 2nd day I really wasn't sure I could manage it . Mercifully, the director altered his approach after one of the actors , a very fine actor, became upset when we ran out of time to light and shoot his close-up. "If I had known you were shooting it this way I would have acted differently . " He liked to scale his performance to the width of the frame.

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