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It had to happen sooner or later....FLIP as "A" camera


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I worked on an episodic where the AD's got into the habit of trying to jump the gun by yelling

"Put us on a bell, Bob". Soon the bell and light lost it's authority.

I have had that a lot.  I go on the bell, and if we haven't rolled in 15 seconds, I go off the bell (or sometimes just turn off the light to let people in the door - which you can't do with Warner Brothers' system).

I have had the AD ask why I went off the bell, and I gently replied that the bell and light lose their effectiveness if left on.  The crew begins to "take a chance" and walk through the stage doors during takes, which is bad for sound AND camera AND actors.

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I, too, would like to keep the old terminology around.  And it also frustrates me, as Crew wrote earlier, when a 1st AD calls roll sound as a way to speed up the work that's happening.  It's rude.

AD's do this all of the time around here.... it is stupid and unprofessional, yet rampant.

"Roll Sound" calls without a quiet set is incredibly unfair to us, as, when the set finally is ready, sometimes 3-5 MINUTES AFTER said call, and we discover an ambience problem, we are the bad guys, of course.

This was particularly problematic in the Nagra and DAT days, but much less a problem with a 10 sec pre-record setting.

When "roll sound" is spit out under those conditions, I call out "speed" moreso as a "ready" call, and then actually roll when I finally see the slate in the frame.

At least this mitigates the overly long pre-roll that can occur if we actually obey these jerks.

It does nothing for the nerves and tension of being "on alert" an excessive amount of time before the take.

Michael Filosa, CAS

Atlanta

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I forgot to roll ONCE, because I decided not to press the REC button, but called "speed", because I knew they weren't ready.  There was some other distraction, as I remember, and I simply didn't notice the numbers not spinning on the the 744T.  Now, I press the button and let it roll (even though my new 788T has a big red screen when running).  I've never had a call about too much pre-roll.  But I never again want to say, "Sorry, I had a technical problem, I do not have that take", unless it's the truth.

Robert

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Hey Philip, I don't even push the red button till I hear the sticks. Still doesn't eliminate all the false starts but it cuts them way down.

CrewC

We didn't used to do this on 'film', but in the digital age, if you get a false start, so what??  I call over to the script super, tell them, go to the next take.  Reason being is that once a 'file' is created by either camera or you, you have to call it something..  not a big deal to move on, and don't even bother trying to edit or erase the files, and really no one cares in the editing room.  The editor just wants the take to match the paperwork.

-Richard

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  • 3 weeks later...

I just directed a short "movie" yesterday with a small crew and even though we sending sound directly to the camera (no double system on this) you can't believe how many times I called "roll sound" which of course really got me laughing the first time the mixer called back "sound speed".  :-)

Phil

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