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deadly mic-technique


Doug Brandon

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I was on location today and the scene at hand involved three teens on a raft, about thirty feet off shore (zombie bait), the water only about waist deep. The mixer (not named on purpose) insisted I take the boom pole, with CABLE and walk out into the lake, skin to water, and boom the scene (not wireless--his excuse being "low budget companies will dissipate before making good on insurance claims from things like the wireless setup falling into the lake"). Keeping a light tone, but serious, I said, "Hell no! I'm not walking into a lake with ANY kind of electric cable." At first he thought I was kidding, however he soon realized I wasn't.

At this point, 2nd unit had been in the water, up to their midsections, for at least an hour. 'Til this point there had been no sound. There have also been no cables, only a shoulder mounted film camera and various grips and misc whoever needed to get wet. When it came time for first team to move in, we learned they had decided not to use the boats, that it was okay to just wade out into the shallow water (perhaps to save time). I had a problem with the mixer. He was serious about me standing skin to water, twenty five feet from shore, waist deep, unstable bottom, with a cabled pole.

It seems likely the metal body of the microphone or the ends of the XLR cables may be associated with the ground wire traveling through the audio cable, connected to the ground on the mixer board, connected to the ground of the hollywood-style generator which is also accepting the grounds from the enormous lights illuminating the lake.

These generators, from what I understand, are not grounded to the earth, although I'm sure it's possible in some fashion or another for them to do so. If the mixer board (which I feel should be run on it's own battery source in the first place) had been plugged into house power, which I know is grounded to the earth, then I'm quite sure my body standing 'skin in the lake' could easily have made an acceptable means of conductivity had there been some kind of short circuit in the system (and especially so if the part of my skin touching the metal were wet.)

I called my friend Dana Wood (retired local 695 chairman, former Director of Engineering for SONY Studios) to discuss the issue. He agreed with most of what I had to say. First off: he thought going into a lake with any kind of electric cable, no matter what the voltage/amperage, is probably not a wise idea. Second: if the entire sound cart had been on it's own independent (battery) power, then accidental electricution would have been highly unlikely (although possible, but probably not life threatening). Third: it should have been done with wireless setup (which I wanted in the first place). Fourth: if the guy had fired me, which did come up, OSHA and the sound union would have had a big problem with that and any judicial court in the land would have seen me get paid for any subsequent days missed. And Fifth, the mixer sounds like an idiot! You can quote me on that.

At first it probably seemed to others nearby on the set like a friendly dicussion between the boom operator and the mixer. However, after again stating I wasn't going in the water, he said, joking, but kind of not, "well, we can always find another boom operator." In a diffusing manner I responded (still keeping my tone light), "Well, that's obvious, but that's not the problem! We need to figure out how to get out there with the boom pole, and NOT be in the water."

He then raised his voice enough for those nearby to hear (second grade tactic, we've seen it befeore) and said, "why are you so scared to go in the water? These guys have been doing it all afternoon...there's no diseases..." He was not showing any concern for what I had been saying.

Other people began tuning an ear to the discussion. I didn't want to make this a 'sound department show' so I continued speaking at an appropriate level. I explained (more than once) the same concerns I stated above about the potentially dangerous grounding situation, that it wasn't a 12v. or phantom power problem that I was afraid of, it was a potential short circuit from anything on the sound cart, or anything else grounded to the entire generator system, trying to ground to the lake through me instead of grounding back to the generator. He then raised his voice very sternly, saying clearly, and many people could hear, "you don't know what you're talking about." This Mixer Person went on to tell me why there was entirely no danger, that I was wasting time and should just lay the cable and get moving. Again I said, (not raising my voice...well okay, maybe I did just a little, mostly in pitch and inflection and probably with a slight laugh of disbelief) "You're not understanding me, (Said Mixer Person), I am NOT going into that lake with a cable grounded to that generator." The discussion continued for a good few minutes

Before long, a nearby electric made a derogatory comment and as I turned, I could see a number of people listening to the developing 'sound show.' (Mixer Person) was loud enough that the people on the raft could hear. One of the guys in the water was a producer. He turned and asked what was the problem. Not wanting to look like a bad guy, the mixer said, in a friendly manner, "we've got a new tuna on the market, chicken of the lake."

At this point I think I just sighed. It seemed perfectly reasonable to use wireless, or simply allow me to sit in one of the, let's see...one, two, three, four, no wait... FIVE BOATS landed on shore.

So this producer offered to take the boom pole and do it himself, seeing that he was already up to his mids in lake water. As we were laying the cables for the producer to hold the pole, the mixer said "I can't believe you're afraid of the lake." Being freed from the hook I said, "You know what, you're right. Lets just do this, you and me. We don't need the producer holding the boom pole." He asked if I was kidding, and I said no. "YOU go ahead and boom it and I'LL hit record" (he almost turned red knowing I was right, that he could certainly boom the shot and I could mix it). He laughed and said, "Are you kidding, I'd probably get electricuted." It was funny, but not really.

After shooting the scene I thanked the producer for taking the risk into his own hands. I honestly thought he understood the risk he was taking, but he hadn't realized possible electricution and was glad I hadn't said anything until after the scene was complete. He said If he had understood the concern, he would have insisted we use wireless to minimize any risk (Hello? Mixer? Anyone home?).

After I hung up the phone from telling all this to my aforementioned friend Dana, I heard one of my housemates laughing in the background. I asked what's so funny? He handed me an article from the Nov. 29, 2005 CHRISTIAN CENTURY (my friend is a church organist). Coincidently, he was going to throw the magazine away today, and had thumbed through a few of the articles. He pointed to one of a baptist minister who, (not funny) after stepping down into a baptistry pool, reached for a microphone and was fatally electricuted in front of eight hundred congregants. The pastor was only thirty three years old and in good health. He left a wife, five year old daughter and three-year-old twin sons.

After coming off such an animated phone conversation, I was deeply saddened to hear this. At the same time my blood temperature began to rise. This mixer had said "there's no way a microphone power supply is going to hurt you." It was an ignorant statement. It wasn't the microphone power that killed the pastor, it was a short circuit from other equipment that had conducted through the grounding of the audio cable, exactly as I had argued.

Does anybody know the scheme of things when a hollywood-style generator is powering the set, and the sound cart is run off that generator--does/can it somehow make ground with the earth? An electrician (not the gaffer) was saying that simply lowering the generator's hitch post into contact with the earth makes the ground, something which I don't believe it can do (neither does my friend Dana). Houses/commercial buildings drive a metal pole deep into the ground to make earth ground, and secondly the buildings power service also provides city-wide ground through the service lines. (congratulations, you've made it to the end of the post)

Doug

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Good for you, Doug Brandon. I believe you were correct in refusing to wade into that lake. Considering the options open to the production and the mixer in particular, there was no excuse for requesting you to take a risk. I'm not an electrician, but every shoot I've ever been on here in Ottawa (Canada), the genny operator has always earth grounded the system with a honkin' big ground spike. I don't for a minute believe that a safe grounding can be made with a trailer hitch. Just as important: were there assigned  people with life-saving experience standing by? It doesn't matter if the water was only a metre deep. Shit happens. It sounds like safety was not exactly paramount  on this production. Who knows what other short cuts these people had taken. I've only had to turn down one assignment for safety reasons: it involved a car tow rig during an ice storm. I told the producer and AD they could do the shot, but they'd be doing it without sound. I never regretted standing firm for one minute. Other crew members who were nervous about losing a badly needed job thanked me afterwards.

Don't put up with shit from these people. It's only a movie

Chris Newton 

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Hi Doug,

that was a brave move on your part and unimaginable and criminal on the part of the sound mixer to put his boom ops life in jeopardy

well it is good that you stood your ground

after all it is only a movie, life is much more than that

i would nevr imagine in my wildest dreams by putting my crew s life in danger

my asst makes sure of all electrical connections , esp the genny earthing are ok before we get to work (if we are using that supply)

way to go

hats off to you

best

Harry

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Doug, thanks for the detailed report and kudos for the smart-sense you showed.

I have boomed a few shots IN the surf with a cabled boom before, but it was a decision I made after assessing the risks myself; thoroughly checking the cable from the mixer - my mic, and triple-checking that we were running entirely off batteries (and disconnecting any outgoing feeds to videosplit - which WAS running off a Gennerator)

Throughout the set-up my mixer was very supportive getting me the time required to get ready, and I'm positive if i'd said no, he'd be cool with it.  For us the wireless wasn't an option as it was a weird RF environment (*something about the islands communications)

Your mixer seems to be someone that is not going to value your input (if that's how he's going to react to the situation you were faced with), do yourself a favour, and dump him for someone better.

NO JOB IS WORTH YOUR LIFE.

cheers on doing the smart thing.

Ian

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great post, thanks... and as others have said, well done for standing your ground (so to speak)

Ive only worked on one water based film (living far inland), and that time i was running a strictly battery only rig - im not exactly an electrical genius, and i learned a lot of things from your post.

thanks.

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I'm not sure that ultimately you were in danger, expecially since (I assume) you intended to keep the mic and pole out of the water.  The interesting thing to me is that the mixer wasn't willing to accomodate you in some way when you showed genuine concern regardless of what he thought about the science involved.  I mean, it's a small department and we have to stick together, right?  He's relying on your judgement to place the mic(s) in every shot, and (in my case) follow harebrained experimental ideas about how to deal with the sound in problematic scenes, so how about some slack?  If he really didn't want to go wireless, then he should have stepped up and boomed it himself. 

Philip Perkins

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Hey Doug, sorry to hear about your confrontation with your mixer the other day, sounds most uncomfortable, but rest well that you did the right thing the right way.  As others have stated, your life is not worth loosing for a film. The Mixer should of 1) radio mic"d your boom, or  2) run on batteries and comteked vtr and hard wired you. No a.c. in the system. I've worked in the water this way, sent my brother and others into a few pools this way. From all I've read this is safe. It's not much of a team if the mixer doesn't understand your safty concerns, and puts you down in front of others, but keeping your cool was the right way for a pro to handle it. I know jobs are hard to come by, but working with a mixer like that is not worth it. Safty 1st.

Max Respect, Old School

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Doug,

You've hit on a subject that has long been a pet peeve of mine. There was some discussion around this issue at the (very excellant) grounding seminar done by Bill Whitlock at 695 recently.

You certainly did the right thing, and the fact that your mixer was enough of an idiot to ridicule you for standing up for you're safety says a lot about the ignorance exhibited by many crews working within the industry are when it comes to basic electricity.

I still don't understand why this isn't dealt with as part of the "Safety Pass" classes. It should be a basic requirement for at least the Mixer, but ideally the full sound crew, as well as the video assist crew.

I have witnessed more than a few occassions where a camera operator was nearly knocked off the dolly because the camera body was hot, due to the fact that it takes it's ground from the video assist cart. Before the time that I completely isolated our cart from video assist, I once had a 65 volt difference in potential from the video cable send to us, which needless to say didn't sit well when it was connected to our cart!

These days, I carry a ground rod and cable that we can ground our cart with, and if we take power from the genny, I have a jumper that we can remove to isolate our ground from the generator ground. All you have to do is think about the amount of leakage that can get into the distro ground from various sources, and you will think twice about ever using the genny ground at all.

I am still at a loss to understand the thinking regarding not grounding the production gennies; especially in wet weather situations, when all kinds of leakage occurs from the power distro and lamps. I have had this discussion with a lot of genny operators and electricians, and it amazes me that many of them still just don't get it. When we have no choice but to take power from the genny, I always check to make sure that it's grounded. (I actually walk over to check it, as I've been lied to about it in the past). Although a couple of guys have complained initially, after I ask them to put one hand on their ground conductor, and their other hand to a convenient earth ground (sign post, fence post, etc), I see their attitude begin to change.

There are plenty of ways to get a healthy dose of electricity on a set, which should be obvious to anyone who takes a few minutes to think out the grounding paths between camera, sound and video on a typical set (at least if a hard wire connection exists between them).

This is one area where a lot of ignorance still exists, and I don't see it getting better any time soon. In the meantime, follow your best instincts.

Scott D. Smith C.A.S.

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Doug,

Applause for holding your own in a hostile environment.  

I never understand situations like that.  I agree with whoever said your mixer should have stepped up and boomed him/herself.  The few times I've found unsafe or risky situations, I have always offered to jump in and boom myself.  And always in a private discussion with just the boom op (even remembering to kill the comteks just to be sure).  Sound is a cooperative effort - the mixer and the boom op (and assistant if you're lucky to have one...I never have myself) must work as a team, or you will get crappy sound.  Paraphrasing a post from either here or another board - there are 50 or so people focused on picture, and (at most) only 3 people focused on sound.

I certainly understand why you're not naming the mixer - but if that person is on this board, hopefully he/she will see these posts and learn something.  Safety on the set has to come before EVERYTHING else - schedule, egos, etc.

Best,

Phil

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To be honest, I don't understand why it is a hazard to my health to hold a graphite boom pole with a mic on the end in waist-deep water.

Does anyone have hard, factual information about how this might cause electrocution?

I raise this question as someone who frequently docks boats that need overnight power. Marinas use wires covered by rubber (although the cover is thicker than what one is used to) that invariably wind up partly in the water. And a good part of the time, we hook up to the power line in the rain. Of course, the boats are grounded down to the keel, which is why we don't worry (too much) about electrical storms.

Like anybody, I'm a bit nervous about this mix of power and water, but for all I know that is ignorance. The fact of the matter is that I've never heard of a problem, let alone someone being executed.

Just looking for enlightenment.

Cheers.

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