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Participation from our friends outside the US


Jeff Wexler

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I am hoping we will be joined by many of our friends and associates who live outside the United States. I am sure the time difference accounts for some of the lack of presence here at this time. I specifically dislike referring to people as being from "foreign" countries as it is all too typical of the American way to just assume that the apparent or not so apparent differences are somehow threatening. Maybe I am just an idealist but I have always found that traveling (and I have traveled all over the world since the age of 8 years old) helps us embrace these differences. I also feel that in some small way, participation in an Internet based Discussion Group by people from many countries, benefits all of us, without having to actually travel abroad.

Regards,  Jeff Wexler

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Hello Mr Jeff Wexler,

I just joined the discussion group,

i am a Production Sound Mixer based in India,Mumbai, working for Films ,Televison and Docs for the last couple of years.

if i say i am a fan of yours , you wouldnt believe me, but you have to,

i am also a fan of your father,Haskell Wexler(my warm regards to him )

this forum was long necessary and will be  very useful for people like us to interact with fellow professionals across the world,

i liked the way you have put the header and makes me feel a part of the forum,

good luck and  this will certainly help us all  filmmakers

warm regards to all my friends

harry

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Things tend to slow down here in the winter. Nobody really wants to be shooting outdoors in those temperatures. But I have done some gigs outdoors in those extremes. I remember one particularly cold winters day, we were shooting on the Frozen canal here in Ottawa (longest skating rink in the world BTW) and the temperature was somewhere around -30. At the time i was using a PSC M4 mixer with LCD meters and after about 15 minutes they went completely black and I had to rely on the meters on the Betacam. The LCD's on my Lectro 211 RX's were about to do the same, so i had to switch them out for my older 195d's because they had the older LED meters. My camera snake froze solid and i had to stick it into the car and let it defrost before I could wrap it. But I gotta say, i think with the colder temps making the air more dense, i think you can get more reach from your mics !! It seemed that way at the time, but maybe my brain was starting to freeze and I just imagined it.

For the most part, when the phone rings, you cross your fingers and hope it's an indoor gig.

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I did a shoot in the high Arctic a few years ago where the daytime high reached -35C (-31F). Like Simon said the cables became quite stiff and though I was able to use BIG loops to wind the cable I really wondered if they were going to break. (it was rather fun to poke the cameraman in the back of the head with the end of a mic cable from 6 feet away). The plastic insert in the cover of my Portabrace bag shattered like glass when I opened the bag to fire up the mixer.

And I agree with Simon, you do get greatly extended reach and greater clarity out of your mics in the extreme cold. It sounds fantastic.

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wow no way! mic cable as weapon, i like it.

hello from pretty much always sunny south africa! im a 4th year honours student at film school - im really glad i found this site as the advice really is coming from VERY high up in the chain - thank you very much mr wexler for putting this together, and i hope to continue to learn from you and your colleagues through this site... and hopefully one day get a chance to meet you!

sincerely, tim apter

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  • 4 weeks later...

Snow and cold weather, good things for sound! The cold keeps most other people indoors, less noise outside...

I have been doing days in the IceHotel in Jukkasjärvi a couple of times, perfect for sound, a constant temp of around -5C and thick snow walls, not a sound get's in from the outside, and you get perfect sound from the other side of the room, at least as long as they have their face your way... if they turn you have nothing at all... Cool place to film anyways. Had a cable shatter for me in -29C a couple of winters ago, but the worst is to get the batteries to work for more than ten minutes. You really need to keep them warm.

Now the fun begins! the days get longer and soon comes the midnight sun!

/Oscar, Piteå in Sweden just south of the arctic circle

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Snow and cold weather, good things for sound! The cold keeps most other people indoors, less noise outside...

Yes, snow is a terrific insulator, isn't it. But how do you stay warm (or maybe you are just able to work in temperatures that would kill mere mortals)

Regards,  Jeff Wexler

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Clothing is everything! I looked for the clothes that other people that work outside in the winter was using (construction workers etc.) and got what I thought to be the best. It's easy to be cheap in the store, but when your freezing your ass off outside, you'll pay anything for that warmer stuff. And even more important are the shoes, get the best you can and make sure they get dried out during the night or you freeze anyway. And get alot of food and drink (warm). Then almost anything goes.

Oscar

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Hi Jeff

Just found your site at last one that deals with real sound.

Regards

Don

(The original Boston UK)

Thank you Don for your words. My hope with this forum has been that we are free to discuss anything that concerns us in our working lives (or our NON-working lives) since even some of the venues that seem to be restricted to SOUND only issues, do not always serve all our needs. That is one of the reasons I like this forum-style group because I can have a section like "Society and Politics" and for those who do not yet realize that politics in life is something more than just voting in November, can just avoid it. Others, who wish to discuss something about a certain job they did (and t isn't about the equipment) and employer hiring practices for exampe, could choose to post in that section.

Regards,  Jeff Wexler

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  • 1 month later...

J with your permission i d like to put an add / small reminder about some place on the net to those of  you  who might find themselves stuck in different side of the pond    thanks for the space

That's fine, Oleg, thank you for posting. I think that it is the longest URL I have ever seen. Thankfully it is clickable hypertext (even though it does not appear to be).

-  JW

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  • 1 month later...
  • 4 weeks later...

Hi Jeff,

Congratulations on the site  and greetings from over the pond. I am  a member of AMPS in the UK  and a Production Sound mixer based in Malvern  in Worcestershire. I will post a picture of my cart  when I figure out how. I am  keen to get a copy of your fathers 'Who Needs Sleep' documentary, but it only seems to be available in Region 1(USA)  DVD format.

Best Regards

Roger

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Welcome to the group --- glad to have you on board. Regarding the DVD of "Who Needs Sleep?" we have only made region 1 disks, I believe, though we have been selling them all over the world. Since the movie does not have formal distribution and everything has been out of OUR pockets, I don't imagine there will be different region disks made (damn those region problems). When I have travelled outside the US I have noticed that quite a few of my techie friends have players that handle ALL regions, but I really don't know much about those.

Thanks for the cart pictures --- always enjoyable for all of us to look at the carts, providing some insight into the work that is done from those carts. I have to say that the abundance of "bag" pix on this Discussion Group is a real eye-opener for me (and re-affirms that I personally do not wish to do ANY of those jobs that require all those wireless and "camera hops" to be carried around my neck for 14 hours).

Regards,  Jeff Wexler

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  • 4 weeks later...

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