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On Prepping


Jan McL

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I very much believe that good soundies are all about their preps.  Check it all, play extended "what if" games, know where everything is and rehearse putting it all together.  A pro soundie will be called upon to "wing it" about some aspect of a job soon enough, no matter how well prepped they are, so it is really important to not have to waste time on-set with stupid things that could have been taken care of back in the shop.  The bigger, more highly pressured the job is, the more important "deep prep" is.  

philp

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  • 4 weeks later...

'Deep Prep' is a keeper and tee shirt.

Love too, "Plan, Prep, Test, Shoot~~~~This order of things has been decreed by many deities.  Never violate this decree."

Hi, David!

Bravo both.

A young colleague recently posted about his trepidation as he contemplated working with Scorsese. During the course of one's career timeline, one must get one's head around star fear and that is worthy of prep work.

I often create objects with language during prep since my background includes poetry, art and performance. Meditations and aspirations in more permanent and comely form than post-it notes.

Prep the next show as I'm shooting the current project taking good notes relative to what's to be done during a hiatus.

Shown is a specific recent aspiration:

matching headroom ftw chris durfy.jpg

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I generally keep a case packed with a lot of extras for the inevitable, because of that whole "winging it" thing we have to do so often. A good example of why I'm glad I do this is that time when I was called in to do an interview "with maybe some light singing" as they put it. Turns out it was a full on opera with two singers and some musicians that would switch rooms! The client said that my on-the-fly mix was what they used in the video, guess it was good enough!

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Prepping fully relies on those from the top down knowing what they are doing,

how they will do it and rarely how it will impact on the sound department in our particular case.

I've had many surprises, 1 day of prep for a 3 year series, no days of prep for a 1 year series,

trying to prep for a difficult 7 week shoot having been told camera tests are on location then that

camera tests are on the boat not on location where all my sound equipment was based.

(a week later there we are in a jungle at night after a day of shooting still trying so sort out a t/code offset!)

Huge commercial shoot requiring 9 radios and two booms, I ask frame rate and file specs needed and am told

phone the post house in NYC !

I phone, tell them what I'm recording, "but that will take ages to sync up!!!##**"

No they will be interleaved "what's that?"

I send a sample of 5 tracks, just 10 seconds long  "wow amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Yep for a sound department prepping is beach-combing, networking, guessing and rely on our resources  and experience!

mike

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Oh David and Philip you dear men!

I started boom operating in 1966 so here we are, a few calender later!!

Prepping for a shoot today, just loaded my vehicle, phone rings!

Might not happen today (we are to film the sister of a very famous singer in a recording studio)

The sister has been recording all week, the agency do not know which version of the song they want

and the sister may not have the vocal stamina to sing all versions (all this for a major airline promo)

I might do lunch with an A/C mate instead!!!!!

mike

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Mike W.  -   Beach combing is exactly correct!   

 

Other departments are more integrated with everyday tidal shifts in production during prep.  Art dept, transport, camera, locations, props, wardrobe and more all most of the time prep at or near the production offices.  We typically prep at our storage spaces, and don't spend much time in the office.  We are "out of the loop" many times because we simply are not invited till very late in the game. Scouts are hugely helpful but rarely invited.   But the reality is we prep extensively for free - and are expected to own crystal balls.  We read the scripts, ask what pertinent questions we can think of about potential problems, then by following clues consulting with other depts individually and responding to out of left field inquiries from production, we go ahead and make our plan.   Of course it all comes down to money.  But,   we give it away.  

Edited by johngooch
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  • 1 month later...

Access to most recent iterations of 5 important regularly-sent emails has helped streamline prep.

Each email chain is adapted/refined each time I use it, going on 10 years now I imagine.

The collected subjects are rememberable (easy searching) to me:

  • Expendables Order
  • Workflow
  • Sound Questions
  • Accounting
  • Checklist

As I refine negotiations / communications skills, these constitute good notes of the process.

Whit Norris suggested I think more like an accountant when I dealt with money/paperwork. Bingo! Upped the game. Fewered the fretted phone calls to zilch.

Slowly prep to work with a high end pro chick soon.

Once I've had a chance to see the script and pilot, if there are dresses think I will send her assistant (via 2nd AD) and the costume designer an email followed by snail mail containing various-sized samples for ankle and thigh. In testing have found this material ideal for securely mounting transmitters in a very small space. Fabric slides well over it, it doesn't slip/slide, and provides a layer of breathable cloth insulation between skin and warm machine. Photos for potential emailing below.

 

IMG_9512.thumb.jpeg.841c0ae81c3ef1bf2c96

IMG_6955.thumb.jpeg.935076fb0e431d357a24

 

IMG_3126.thumb.jpeg.1426a61efc564566c1b7

Have some time to plug a bit back into creative mode with this that preserves the 2 minutes Vincent D'Onofrio spent whispering Yeats lines in my ear as a nervous day playing boom operator.

Imperfect Strangers

We are imperfect strangers
Caught in the familiar surprise
Of random Yeats' lines, and
Not-imperfect friends.

You quote parts of poems from memory
And would quote them whole
But there's no thing whole in you 
Now life's in fractions.

Gentle's the facet
Before I tilt my head
Toward landscapes
Rent with rage and fear.

You know the proper 
Ears will hear.
Actors wear masks.
It's what they do.

     All our masks are belong to we.

Bodies gangly, loose, livid;
Chest too sharp,
Say the thing un-apropos
At the drop of a cat:

     A specialty of sorts.

Our bodies livid;
Mouths too sharp
Not to wound
Even and especially

     Us.

Edited by Jan McL
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A bit of useless information regarding Tubiform. It was invented by a company in my home town of Oldham. The company was called Medlock Manufacturing eventually taken over by the Seton Products Group and the product became world famous as THE tubular bandage used by virtually ever hospital in the world.

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So you use Tubigrip in place of something like Neopax for a smaller footprint?

Yup. Was in potential skinny pants hell and Tubigrip saved us. Whoot.

Now to see if it will save us from the dreaded short skirt/sexy dress...

A bit of useless information regarding Tubiform. It was invented by a company in my home town of Oldham. The company was called Medlock Manufacturing eventually taken over by the Seton Products Group and the product became world famous as THE tubular bandage used by virtually ever hospital in the world.

Thanks for the info Malcolm! Unsurprised it originated in your country since it came to my attention via Steve Coogan who requested it in advance of production as his preferred transmitter mount.

I think it's time for somebody to make a deal with the manufacturer and begin to deploy packaged for sound people.

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Yup. Was in potential skinny pants hell and Tubigrip saved us. Whoot.

Now to see if it will save us from the dreaded short skirt/sexy dress...

Thanks for the info Malcolm! Unsurprised it originated in your country since it came to my attention via Steve Coogan who requested it in advance of production as his preferred transmitter mount.

I think it's time for somebody to make a deal with the manufacturer and begin to deploy packaged for sound people.

Jan, in your experience what sizes do you use mostly and do you just pull it on or do you use the wire former that they use in emergency rooms?

Also do you have one layer next to the skin and then one folded over the transmitter?

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Jan, in your experience what sizes do you use mostly and do you just pull it on or do you use the wire former that they use in emergency rooms?

Also do you have one layer next to the skin and then one folded over the transmitter?

Can you restate the question now bolded? Don't quite understand.

The "D" seems to be good for a regular-sized male ankle. Got larger sizes to test for thigh use.

I encourage the actor to put it on while getting dressed and provide wardrobe with a supply toward that end, along with letting AD team know soonest that the actor will be wired so the message will get to wardrobe before dressing ensues since the shoe is removed in the process.

It's put on the appendage in a 'U' shape that forms a pocket into which the transmitter is inserted. The 'U' long enough to have enough fabric to "close" at the top.

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