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Over the shoulder on a movie-of-the-week


Jeff Wexler

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"Revenge For A Rape" with Mike Connors (remember "Mannix"?), shooting in Vancouver, Canada, 1975 (runaway production way back then?)

I had Rob Young as the Boom Operator --- Rob is a really good guy who went on to be a very accomplished mixer doing such movies as Clint Eastwood's "Unforgiven."

Regards,  Jeff Wexler

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Guest repete86

I would be willing to manually wind a nagra if I had one.  I'm pretty new to film audio, and have just been working on student films so far, so I don't have any equipment of my own other than a few recording devices that would probably spell disaster for any set I try to take them on, a boom and homemade shockmount.  I do have a Teac reel to reel 4-track, but it's way too heavy and impractical for a set.

EDIT:  I just tried using my Teac, and it sounds amazing.  I don't think I'll go back any time soon since it's the best I can afford at the moment.

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Post the picture of the Nagra when the lid stopped the reel and it looked like a pile of spaghetti, and you sat there as everyone watched you wind it back onto the reel, oh that was me....  really inspires confidence !

LL

It happened to everybody sooner or later.  With the 7" reel cover the space between the lid and the reel was very narrow.  If your hinges got bent from setting the machine down a little briskly too many times......  I took one of mine apart in a hotel room one (all) night to shim some bent hinges out--it required taking most of the boards out of the machine to get at the hinge bolts.  Of course, you COULD do that with a Nagra.  Any such action I ever took with a DAT ended disastrously...

Philip Perkins

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I think we all had the "pinched lid" fiasco at some time or anorther, but I agree with Phillip that there is almost no way to look into these problems or repair anything with msot of the new gear we use these days. When I was a lot younger I used to work on my own car, even pulled an engine or two and did pretty major work. I remember one time when I bought a new Honda and the salesperson asked if I wanted the extended warranty; I was already to say no because I knew I would be working on the car myself probably. As I lifted up the hood and looked into the engine compartment, I immediately said YES, I do need the warranty! The engine compartment was almost unrecognizable with all the black boxes and everything, I was worried I was even going to have to read the manual to figure out how to check the oil.

Regards,  Jeff Wexler

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Hey, Rob, glad you got a chance to see the picture. We really were YOUNG (no pun intended) and we had a good time on that little movie. I don't know who else on that crew is still working. I do know that Peter Schindler (who was a 2nd AD on that) went on to be a producer --- I got Peter started in the business and when he became a producer I did several films with him. Peter is now firmly in the TV world and is working, I believe, on "Criminal Intent."

Hope all is well with you and thanks again for the good work way back then.

Regards,  Jeff Wexler

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Post the picture of the Nagra when the lid stopped the reel and it looked like a pile of spaghetti, and you sat there as everyone watched you wind it back onto the reel, oh that was me....  really inspires confidence !

LL

Had that happen to me while hanging over the edge of a cliff above the Kootenai river in Montana. My first real big movie shoot doing 2nd unit on The River Wild. We were hanging out with primary actor David Straitharn on this little rock ledge for at least 45 minutes waiting for a cloud to pass to match the first unit shot. When they were finally ready to roll I look down and see the spaghetti in my nagra case completely spooled off the feed side. (must have somehow bumped it into record or play with all of the safety rigging on me) I go and open the lid to fix the issue and the wind grabs the tape and it flys out and away from the cliff now draped many feet flapping into the wind. So there I am, green as can be on a massive 60 or so member 2nd unit crew with a pen on my empty reel trying to spool the tape back in while they shoot the shot they waited 45 minutes for MOS! Even the riggers were laughing at me and one of them tried to assuage me by telling me it would be a good story to tell some day. I think he was right. :)

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hey,

when i was in first and second year at film school, we used nagra 4.2's - even I know about that stuff! isnt it weird how it happens at the worst possible time it could possibly happen? still, there's something kinda zen about winding that tape back on... even if its in the height of embarrassment. :)

we use nagra ares-bb+'s now.

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hey,

when i was in first and second year at film school, we used nagra 4.2's - even I know about that stuff! isnt it weird how it happens at the worst possible time it could possibly happen? still, there's something kinda zen about winding that tape back on... even if its in the height of embarrassment. :)

we use nagra ares-bb+'s now.

What are you recording on them, and what are you transferring to?

Philip Perkins

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My rig at film school (half school gear, quarter mine, quarter rental) is:

sennheiser mkh416/octava mk012 hyper/lavs into: sound devices 442 mixer into: nagra ares BB+ onto: flash at 24bit48kHz.

The files are transferred to either Pro Tools LE or Nuendo 3, for sound edit and mix.

We shoot short films on 16mm and 35mm, right now Im in pre-prod for my fourth year graduation film, which will be a 24 minuter narrative.

Have you used the ares before philip?

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My rig at film school (half school gear, quarter mine, quarter rental) is:

sennheiser mkh416/octava mk012 hyper/lavs into: sound devices 442 mixer into: nagra ares BB+ onto: flash at 24bit48kHz.

The files are transferred to either Pro Tools LE or Nuendo 3, for sound edit and mix.

We shoot short films on 16mm and 35mm, right now Im in pre-prod for my fourth year graduation film, which will be a 24 minuter narrative.

Have you used the ares before philip?

No--just seen them at shows.    Can it do time code?  I wasn't aware that it could record other than compressed files.

Philip Perkins

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no, it doesnt do timecode, but, yes, it does record uncompressed, BWF.

on the plus side, its incredible for mobile work - it weighs just about nothing, and its power requirements are really good. it can run off AA batterys for a decent amount of time (or 4 pin power for longer)

on the down side - two track only, and its a bit confused as to what it wants to do:

its level selection is done with an up button and a down button, so you cant make precise and fast changes. thats not a problem when running the recorder with a mixer, but nagra seem to want to aim it at run-n-gun, hence the phantom power, and included strap, and light weight etc.

all told, i really like it. but, im not a pro like you, so who am i to say... :)

timecode wise, it doesnt do it like i said, but its sync is rock solid. ive recorded around 10 short films with this recorder, and ive never known a sync problem (we use old-school clappers at film school)...

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