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'Being There'


Rick Reineke

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Kudos Jeff. I happened to catch this 1979 movie on TV last night and right in the beginning, prominently credits our friend Jeff.  Great movie all around and the dialog was crystal clear. I'm curious what was used for mics, recorders, ect. I don't recall any good wireless around then, but I was in the music biz at that time. Do you have any production snapshots you can post?

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I have almost no pictures from "Being There" --- I will try and find some from this amazing experience. As for the equipment/gear used, it was standard Nagra 4.2 mono recorder 9I know it's hard for some people to realize that almost ALL movies were made with 1 production track), the microphones used were pretty much the standard Sennhesier 415 and 815. There is one of many significant things regarding that movie, one being that I mark it as the movie where we really discovered the Schoeps microphone. I had one older Schoeps MK-41 that we had used several times as plant microphone but never really experimented much with it as a boom mic, preferring to stick with what everybody else was using which were the "movie microphones": 415 and 815. We did a scene one night in the streets of Washington, DC and we did several takes with the 415 as always, and then did several takes with the Schoeps on the fishpole. The next day at dailies, listening to the takes, we were blown away by the sound from the Schoeps --- it was literally night and day difference. From that point on I believe the Schoeps became our main microphone, As for wireless, rarely if ever used (or needed) --- I'm pretty sure the wireless we did use, if we ever used them, would have been older Audio,ltd. or the coherent Communications Artech line of wireless (very similar to Audio, Lt.d).

 

As for the single card credit --- total surprise for me, I think the first ever where the Production Sound Mixer has gotten an up front single card. I was fortunate enough to work o  the post production mixing of "Being There" and so I got to see all the reels many times. On one day while previewing the last reel with the end credits I noticed that my name was not there --- I got the courage up to ask Hal Ashby if there had just been some mistake, did they forget to put my credit in --- he told me there was no mistake, they hadn't done the front credits yet and I would be getting a single card at the front of the movie. 

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55 minutes ago, Jeff Wexler said:

On one day while previewing the last reel with the end credits I noticed that my name was not there --- I got the courage up to ask Hal Ashby if there had just been some mistake, did they forget to put my credit in --- he told me there was no mistake, they hadn't done the front credits yet and I would be getting a single card at the front of the movie. 

 

Jeff, that is one heartwarming and encouraging story! Many of us have been there without the fairytale ending!

 

Jez

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I think one thing stands out to me, aside from the incredible job Jeff and Don did on "Being There" (and most all their films), as well as the "best mic ever" in the hands of a top notch boom swinger and mixer and all that brings,  is the process of Then and Now. Today we make Product. Then we where telling Cinematic Stories. So many great films were made, stories told, by Directors, Writers, Actors, Craftsmen, all working on a Film/Script they believed in. Wanted told. History shows the abundance and importance of a good story or film from that era, and the best get better with age.  Don't get me wrong, Product has always been made, but man oh man, not enough Stories worth telling are produced today IMO. I love all our new tools and awesome capabilities these days, but I'd rather it be used to produce worthy fare.

CrewC

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9 hours ago, old school said:

Don't get me wrong, Product has always been made, but man oh man, not enough Stories worth telling are produced today IMO. I love all our new tools and awesome capabilities these days, but I'd rather it be used to produce worthy fare.

CrewC

 

Amen. And I consider myself Agnostic. Thank you CrewC.

 

Cheers,

 

Sean O'Neil

Brooklyn NYC

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22 hours ago, Moesound said:

Lest we forget the wonderful credit given to the venerable Don Coufal as well.

Yes , I recall the closing credits for Don Coufal stating, "Boom op (and then some)" .

 BTW, Thanks Jeff. I figured it would have been a Nagra in that time period. I had an 815T for a while, long-heavy beast. i rarely used it, then got an 816P and rarely used that.. then I got an AT 4071, the last time I used that was 2013. I still have it though. FWIW, it's the highest sensitivity mic I've ever encountered (a whopping 90mV as I recall).

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