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Where we set up


old school

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I heard one grip say to another, " did you know that no wardrobe person has never been killed in a earthquake"?  His bro. said ,"Really"? "Yea, they're  always standing in a doorway". Great old joke that makes me love our biz....  Got me thinking of all the mixers I worked with over the years, and their POV about where they needed to be. Many I worked with way before video assist was even an option.  Some needed to be as close as possible. Others just wanted to be close enough to communicate and be involved and record the scene in a easy manner. One mixer who shares the same initials as our host J.W. would and could be city blocks away from the set. I was lucky to work with so many good mixers, I learned the craft from many of the best. Only a few blew. But they all needed to be set up where they thought was the right place. All experience's makes one what they become to some degree, so where do you set up the cart on most shots? What is right for you? Myself, I like to be back aways. I seldom look at a monitor when I record. I don't have one on my cart. Of course I am always sitting next to a Video dude, so it's not like I don't have the option. I feel I'm faster and more in the moment when I use my ears. Might be my Zen Boom op days, but I always feel I'm behind the scene when I watch the picture when mixing a shot. I never set up in doorways and some of my favorite people are grips and film crew members. Just a few thoughts after a long week.

CrewC

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I seldom look at a monitor when I record. I don't have one on my cart. Of course I am always sitting next to a Video dude, so it's not like I don't have the option. I feel I'm faster and more in the moment when I use my ears. Might be my Zen Boom op days, but I always feel I'm behind the scene when I watch the picture when mixing a shot.CrewC

Interesting thoughts here. For me when first coming onto the set, where to set up the sound cart is the first big decision of the day (really, it's whether to have cheese on my brteakfast burrito or not) and I take it very seriously, probably too seriously. There is always a little sparring that goes on between me and Don, and often our Utility person, because we all want to make the right decision (and of course we are all human and subject to the satisfaction that comes from being RIGHT --- or, without that, being able to say "I told you so..." blah, blah, blah. I am actually the worst --- I try and bring WAY too much information/speculation/hypothesizing/predicting to the simple task of positioning the cart, and when I get it wrong, I hate it.

Where the cart should be and where it can be has obviously undergone a lot of change over the years (as Crew C points out, MANY, many years) and the use of VIDEO has played a big role in this. I was always one for having the cart pretty close to the action (pre-Video days) and when video assist started happening it opened up all sorts of new options. I remember having a similar feeling to what Crew C has mentioned while mixing to a video image on a monitor. I would sometimes zone out, looking at the monitor as if I was watching PLAYBACK, forgeting that I was supposed to be doing something NOW --- it was like I was watching the show on TV so it must be something that has already been completed, right? Wrong! Boy they did a lousy job on THAT shot (now I get it, we're DOING that shot).

I think one of the other factors that need to be considered is how well the sound team works together and how much experience everyone has had together. It goes without saying that with Don and me, I have almost complete confidence in Don running the set (and so it should be if the team is really working) so there is little need for me to be able to leave the cart and come onto the set. In the case of the legendary JW style of working (the shortest duplex was 500 feet) the boom operator had to run the set because the mixer and the sound cart were WAY far away.

I do rely on the video image a lot and so now it has pretty much come down to getting the cart positioned in some reasonable manner where we expedite cable runs, RF range (and Wi-Fi if available) and the all important connection to Video Assist.

Regards,  Jeff Wexler

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Having been a utility person for several years, I found that I was in charge of placing the cart most of the time.  It was always a guess as to where I thought the mixer would want to be, and where I would want to be.  On a bigger show, where the mixer had been on a tech scout, he might tell me where he wants to be in advance, but that's not too common.

In my mixing experience (way more limited than most others here), I find that practical locations have become less "practical" and stages are crammed with more sets than they used to be.  The decision has to be made to be close enough for wireless range, if neccessary, but the only spot is usually where the "village" is going to set up.  DON'T want to be near there.  It has become far more difficult to find a good place to set up.  I think that's why we are seeing more smaller carts these days.

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Hey all,

Personally, I like to set up somewhere that doesn't require me to move my cart (or Jeff's:) for each shot!  Of course I also like to be out of traffic's way (harm:) yet still be close enough to be able to keep an eye on set for surprises.  As far as mixing to picture, when I first started doing location mixing I didn't always get a video tap and found it to be more distracting than the world of pure sound in my headphones (ohhhmmmm...)  However, at the same time I wanted tap so I didn't feel so disconnected.  Much as I would love to not need tap it is neccessary.  Before I did location when I had just started working as a sound restoration editor I was cleaning up some audio (without watching the movie) and feeling I had done a very good job.  I proudly called my boss in for a QC.  He listens while watching the film and then he turns to me and tells me I need to put the footsteps back in!  Lesson learned: How do I know if something I hear belongs in the mix if I don't have picture?

Cheers,

Sara

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I have various fetishes about where I don't want to be (right behind big lighting instruments or camera) and where I do want to be (ideally with as little cable out as possible, well inside wireless range, and its nice to be able to communicate some things to my boom op by a raised eyebrow or a smile instead of words down the talkback).  Since "we" on my jobs is generally only 2 it is all the more important that we communicate all the time.  On a fast moving set where the cart goes for each shot often involves some applied psychology as well as hard experience with the DP and gaffer at hand.  Keeping things small cartwise wins us some friends among the grips on crowded sets.  I understand the "long distance/long cable" model very well, but I like being able to easily speak w/ the AD and script so I rarely work that way.

Philip Perkins

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    As a one-person sound-band, I like to be as close to the frame line as I can get so I don't have to go the whole distance of my booms. This means I'm looking for any holes I can find without casting a shadow or being block by a flag.

    If I get on set too soon, the joke is always on me about standing where the key light goes and then start doing the dance of where can I go next before the grips set something else up. They all know I have to be there to do my job, but do I have to stand "there"? Time for a trip to crafty or try to find out who needs wired. Come back later to find a forest of C-stands blocking the way, leaving an eighteen inch hole to stand where nobody behind camera can see you. Now I'm just a voice that says I'm ready and is only heard from to ask if they are wide or tight? And to hear a few "Boom's In!" Ahh, the life of no respect, but if there is no sound in post, watch out!

    Later,

    Scott L.

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My old preference was to be far enough away from the set that tape delay was not a problem, but close enough for one section of boom cable and RF mics to be easily within range. (Around 80 feet.)  Tape delay is a thing of the past, yet I still prefer to be a room or two away.  Success is not having to move all day, away from crew traffic (not in their way), and far from the endless chatter of V village.  The cart has a small footprint, yet is densely packed.

This has been a bad year for cart parking. 

The closet (some call it a control room) that I have been working in since February is 250 feet of boom cable away from the stage (times three booms).  My room is right by the street and the walls so thin that I can hear what folks are playing on their car stereos.  The TD is so loud that I must use Trew Audio High Noise headphones.  I added a third monitor to my cart. (so that I can always see at least one ultra wide shot) It took several episodes before I could get a spy cam so that I could see the booms.  (Sitcom, almost no rehearsals, tons of adlibs)  The producer fought me for weeks about the spy cam (under $400). He said, “The mixer was showing off and trying to do things a certain way only because Hollywood guys do it that way” They still do not understand that their show has a when the mixer can neither see nor hear. 

The 2007 version of Production 101 is to put sound anywhere (“nowhere “is preferable) and then ask the impossible:)

I’ve a few days off from the sitcom but just turned down a shoot because during the last commercial I worked for that company, I could not bring my cart inside the restaurant where they were shooting.  No boom op, difficult to hear cues, or director’s constant changes, six person camera department, sound on every take, “The director needs to hear the fizz in the soda when it is poured—on wide shots” at least 12 different folks speaking during the day, 15 headsets, adlibs, they wanted to roll 20 minutes after my call time, G & E had been there for hours.

David Terry

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"I do rely on the video image a lot and so now it has pretty much come down to getting the cart positioned in some reasonable manner where we expedite cable runs, RF range (and Wi-Fi if available) and the all important connection to Video Assist."

 

    In 1986 I did my last feature as a boom op and Jim Webb was the mixer. Jim was always many moons from the set, but one hell of a good mixer. Blind to the real set, he could lay down great recordings. Like all great mixers, Jim trusted his boom-op's, and tortured his cableman even if he was a she. On our last couple of films, Jim had a crude video system that he broke out every now and again. He would set it up in the way back of the set for an overview of what was going on. A lot of crew members didn't like the camera, thought it was B.S. in some big brother sort of way. How times have changed. Everybody has a camera these days, and we are all on camera as well. It's one hell of a movie from where I'm set up, how about you? Thanks for all the posts, I like all the responces.

CrewC

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No matter where you set up you'll be in someones way.

I remember a British cinematographer called Dennis Coop who said that when he came to light a shot he looked where the sound cart was and this was the place for the keylight and then he looked for make-up and that's where the fill-light went.

Malcolm Davies. A.m.p.s. (Production Sound Mixer.)

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No matter where you set up you'll be in someones way.

I remember a British cinematographer called Dennis Coop who said that when he came to light a shot he looked where the sound cart was and this was the place for the keylight and then he looked for make-up and that's where the fill-light went.

Malcolm Davies. A.m.p.s. (Production Sound Mixer.)

...let me guess: the next thing he'd say was the joke about "how tall is a soundman.."?

Philip Perkins

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