The Daily Journal
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1,001 topics in this forum
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Seth Gilbert and Michael Krikorian (Kriky), hosted their 2nd Annual Sound Department's BBQ on May 25th 2008 in Van Nuys under cloudy skies. It was fabulous. Fun and geek talk for hours. I hope they continue this BBQ for years to come and make it an "Annual Sound Department Tradition". It’s a lot of work for the 2 folks organizing it. Kriky and Seth were giving away their 2nd Annual BBQ t-shirts. The Menu - Eastern Carolina Pork Shoulder Texas Style Smoked Brisket Eastern Carolina Brisket Texas Style Smoked Baby Back Ribs Grilled Chicken w/sides The Chefs- Seth did an Eastern Carolina Brisket, Eastern Carolina Pork Shoulder, Esquites (Mexican Style…
Last reply by Jon Ailetcher, -
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Not sure if anyone saw this Article in the LA times? http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-fi-workers28apr28,1,6764360.story Something is quite wrong in a lot of the FACTS of this article. For example the lady, Karen Hartjen. If you do an IMDB search on her, it doesn't appear that she has any credits after 2004. And if you look on IMDB, it doesn't even appear that shes ever worked on CSI:NY at all! The article goes on to read that a guy by the name of Phillip Gordon lost his job on the set of StarTrek.. What the heck does this have to do with the WGA strike?? I'm no journalist, but I was on two sets yesterday in downtown, and many of the sound…
Last reply by Keith Birchfiel, -
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For the last few days here at Universal Studios I've been inundated with RF hits on all of my frequencies in block 21. I'm wondering if there's a new movie on the lot whose mixer is using the same frequencies as I am or if this is the start of the inevitable logjam in the lower frequencies as the upper ones in blocks 27 and 28 become unusable. I see that Lectrosonics are using block 19 for some of their latest wirelesses and I can only imagine how long these frequencies will remain viable until we are again forced into alternative means to achieve a clean recording. The Zaxcom recorder/transmitter system is looking good right now, as are my long unused duplex cables that …
Last reply by studiomprd, -
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In the hot topic of indie film making, I thought I would point people to this article: http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/story?oid=oid%3A634974 This is where I live, this is indie film making, and this is why my view of the world is different.... FYI, I just finished up working on a new TV pilot that Sara Hickman, who is mentioned in this article, helped produce along with the Austin School of Film. Austin is well... different. The music scene is different, the political scene is different, and so is the film scene. It's definitely not L.A. or NY, and honestly if you talk to most people here, we're OK with that. Wayne
Last reply by wbrisett, -
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Hey guys I would like to talk to everyone about the shoot I am on. I apologize in advance for turning this great forum into a shoulder for me to cry on, so to speak, but I wanted to reach out to others who have possibly...and probably...experience some of the same things as me. I am currently working on an Indy production in the Philly suburbs. Its a teen love triangle drama, with some sensitive and emotional material, as most movies do. I always try to handle myself in a professional manner, follow set etiquette, respect the jobs of other crew members, as well as the personal space of the actors. This job, in particular, I have found opposition at every turn …
Last reply by Noah Timan, -
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Forget the back loot at Uni, a hero of mine and all rock n rollers has died today, The truly original Bo Diddley is playing on the other side now. Still my favorite beat to play. Every jam session I have ever been in, we will do at least one with the Bo Diddley beat. A bunch of famous folks made big $$$$$ with that sound. Rock in Peace. I know this is only sort of a sound subject, but he had a sound like no other. CrewC
Last reply by Jeff Wexler, -
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So there we were, on a process trailer, rigged to the max with HMIs and speed rail all over the place. Frames with gels, video monitors, dolly track, two cameras and me in the front with the driver. I had the Deva V set up to use the physical faders, a camera output cable sending line level signal to the comteks, spare batteries, notes, pen, headphones and every piece of necessary paraphernalia to make a good dialogue recording. The actors were wired, and I had safety mics in the visors in case of seatbelt interference. My crew spent a forty five minute pre-call and well into the first hour of prep running antenna cable from the locked down quad box on top of the cab to t…
Last reply by mikefilosa, -
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Just saw this: http://www.theage.com.au/news/technology/death-knell-for-television-as-we-know-it/2008/05/26/1211653917723.html BVS
Last reply by studiomprd, -
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Just got back from a 3-week gig in Mexico. I'm excited to report that in 110 degrees heat, the Sound Devices 442 and the 744T combo held up like a champ. The RED cameras (3 of them) on the other hand kept overheating, which forced the DP to keep the fans on while rolling on the last couple of days. Even pop-ups over the camera and using ice packs to cool the cameras down did not help. Cameras would turn off or give a warning that they needed to be shut down. And even while fans were off during rolling, the camera would emit a noticeable pitch.
Last reply by FSBELLA, -
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Anyone know who the lucky sound guy was on this story ? (Stick with the story to the interview part at the end, and check out what the kid is playing with !) http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/index.php?cl=7757585
Last reply by Jeff Wexler, -
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Traffic was fairly light today so I arrived at work early and partook of some breakfast with our DP, with whom I had worked on a series about fifteen years ago. He reminded me of this story. The scene was inside a surveillance van outside a building inside which the charcters who were wired were gathering incriminating evidence. The producers in their wisdom thought it would be a good idea to have me in the van, Nagra running, on camera while recording the actual dialogue taking place in the scene. So the camera is shooting the two main actors who are talking to each other, and me, pretending to be the surveillance audio tech but actually doing my day job as the producti…
Last reply by old school, -
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I had a call this morning from the transfer house informing me of a ten to fifteen second discrepancy between the time code numbers on the slate and those on the DVD. To cut a long morning's investigative story short, what had happened is that my number three guy who sets up the Deva each morning with relative time code and user bit information had inadvertantly touched the "frame rate" button which on the Deva V is directly above the "enter user bits" button, and had accidentally changed the frame rate from 30NDF to 30DF. On a touch screen these buttons are pretty sensitive. If you set up your own Deva or have someone else do it, a little glance at the main screen which …
Last reply by Marc Wielage, -
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I'm sure we've all seen it happen, or maybe it happened to you. It's usually done in good spirit and although the newbie may have been a little embarrassed at the time, in the end you can usually have a good laugh about it. So let's hear some ! I remember seeing a young PA run around a whole afternoon looking for a the black and white video tapes. Apparently the cameraman had convinced him that he had only brought the colour ones with him.
Last reply by Noah Timan, -
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The father of all our great toys.. Stephanie Holinka of Sandia National Laboratories writes: "We are sad to report the death of former Sandia Labs Director Morgan Sparks. He's best known as the Bell Labs researcher who invented the first practical transistor. His work made possible so many other inventions. Without transistors, one cannot begin to imagine personal computers, cell phones, DVD players and the many other electronic devices we rely on daily. His contributions are pretty humbling to mere English majors like me." Las Cruces Sun-News Article
Last reply by John Steigerwald, -
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Web spots or whatever they are called nowadays for the "Jawbone" noise-canceling Bluetooth headset. Normal low-budg production sound in spectacularly noisy conditions that they didn't really care about. What they really wanted was the audio recorded thru the phone with their headset. This involved finding a landline phone line somewhere near where we were shooting (often blocks away to find a cooperative person who would let us camp on their phone line all day and have 7 or 8 strangers in their house listening), walkie talkie communications between the redoubtable Frances (recording the phones) and me (on the set). Slating thru the phone, 2 recorders and slate jam syn…
Last reply by Philip Perkins, -
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I am down town today as are 8 other companies. If I lived down here I would not be a happy camper/loft liver. Case and I are on 4th street and our company has it shut down from Grand to Broadway, about 5 blocks, and a block each way on the side streets. My brother Moe is on a process trailer driving everywhere down here. The Library Tower is blocked off. It is damn near gridlock. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad so many of us are working, but this might be nearing overload for the residents, they seem pissed off. I hope downtown makes it, but I fear these piss coated streets crawling with film crews is going to have a tough slog of it. CrewC
Last reply by studiomprd, -
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Hi everyone, I feel more and more intolerant to unwanted noise, especially LF from - air conditioner hum, home theater setups... LF is what's disturbing, and obviously. Most people don't have ANY idea what their air conditioners or home theater systems are doing to others in the building. Most people dont have ANY idea about sound and noise. Educating them about the perils of being in a noisy environment is something of a tall order. As i write this, I am experiencing a new LF disturbance in my den - an air conditioner on a floor below me that has started humming as of tonight. I intend to speak to the owner of the flat below me and hope he gets his unit servi…
Last reply by curleysound, -
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RIP Albert Hofman. At 102 years of age, he lived and contributed more than most. While I never had the pleasure of meeting this great man, I feel I know him on a few levels. CrewC
Last reply by old school, -
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I've noticed the 744T is price slashed, can we speculate more than 4 tracks. Sound Devices, what a strong company with fantastic support. If so look out Deva. Ok, forget the price slash and even look out Deva.
Last reply by joe foglia, -
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I heard a very interesting story on the radio this evening, about the history of microphones and a couple who are making mics in the Blue Ridge Mountains. There's a recap of the story and a link to it as broadcast here: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89705610 Best regards, Jim
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Here's a shot from last night about 2am--working for state-of-the-art low budg filmmakers Rich Wong and HP Mendoza ("Colma: The Musical", "Option 3"; Rich shot Wayne Wang's 2 new movies in this same mode) working on a NEW musical: "Fruit Fly". Sony XDCAM EX camera (shoot to cards, audio on SD recorder CF; cards to the post supe and his laptop on-set after every scene, hookup to cam when possible (not here), 2 cams a lot of the time). Tiring, but pretty good fun to work with cool EXTREMELY talented young folks on a funny musical drama, no less. Rich Wong is frame left behind the camera (on a $300 jib counterweighted with paint cans and using a little DVX camera as a r…
Last reply by old school, -
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Frances and I just did yet another oddball job, this one for a comedy website on the elections called "Left vs. Right" (http://www.leftvsright.com/). For many reasons too tedious to go into (but fully understood by everyone here) we ended up booming the whole deal, following the (very funny) actors as they improv-ed their bits in front of a (wait for it....) green screen. (Let's just say that "interactive" industry people have different ideas of audio-picture aesthetics than movie people.) After much tantruming I got a boom op, but only one, so I became the 2nd boom, while mixing the show as well. Hence the first picture ("view from penthouse") of the wacky bag rig w…
Last reply by Philip Perkins, -
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I'm a boom op and I recently wrapped a feature with Actor / Director Vincent Gallo called "The Funeral Director." We actually wrapped in early in February but I had to spend a while just unraveling my head from the experience and taking stock in what I learned as well as physically recuperating. I've been involved in alot of different production situations from student shoots to big budget studio features and I must say that I have never seen the production process play out in this way as it did on "The Funeral Director.". Without going into too much boring detail, the shoot started out normally with Vincent just playing the lead role. He was a little intense but it was c…
Last reply by Chris Howland CAS, -
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Has anyone fed the Red camera Time Code ? We're shooting at 24p, recording Audio at 24p, per the Red camera people's advise, and trying to feed it TC, it drifted by about a second, even while staying plugged in, disconnecting and re-jamming.... ? I know 23.98 was initially the only TC that the RED would accept, but we're on Build 15 and since the RED people assured us that it now should accept 24p from Audio recorder, we can't figure out why it's not working.
Last reply by Philip Perkins, -
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Some friends of mine have a video equipment rental business and got their Red camera. I had PSC make me a camera-fan for the normal PSC style snake, and went over to see if it would work. The connections were ok (TA3F, TA5F) except that PSC wired the return backwards. In E to E the camera sounded fine, although as has been discussed, the fan was very audible even in a fairly chilly room. The line input has no trim, so I plugged in my Loft audio test box to see what level the camera calls zero. According to the loft +4 out to the camera resulted in the meter going into the red, to get a zero read I had to back it down to about -2.3. I found that my normal setup from …
Last reply by Chris Howland CAS,
