Jeff Wexler

What a treat to read all these posts --- great topic with many terrific ideas and comments expressed here. I will comment on most of this when I have the time (going in for our last day on this movie and it is going to be a doozie --- the will try and do every shot we didn't get over the last 3 months). I will say that this whole notion of "natural" sound for picture can, and should, be discussed at length, and as Crew and RVD point out, it all starts with LISTENING. When I say a Schoeps sound more natural than let's say a lav buried under clothing, this is fairly obvious, but one thing that is important is we need to know what natural means, what it sound like, and then use what ever tools we have to try and create that natural sound (assuming that natural is the goal). It is true that in certain mediums, and for certain sorts of scenes (like in possibly a TV commercial or a reality show) natural is not the goal. The other big factor in todays dominant moviemaking procedures (including, almost most importantly the choice of shooting locations) is the obstacle presented to us when the goal is to record something natural sounding. As my father once said, "filmmaking is an unnatural act" --- almost everything we do is a fiction, an artifice, but when the desire is to produce the perception of reality, some reality, the artistry comes with knowing how to perform all these unnatural acts, creatively and in such a way that we engage an audience in the desired way. - Jeff Wexler

Reminds me that years ago I sold a matched pair of Kef 105's (legendary British loudspeaker popular in the 1970's) to a real audiophile at a time when Hi-Fi meant something and lots of people were into spending lots of money on all kinds of things in their systems. I showed up at this guy's house with the Kefs in my van and on the floor next to the pair was a coiled up set of automotive jumper cables --- red and black, probably 4 guage with huge alligator clips. The guy said he had never seen those that brand of speaker interconnects, wanted to know if they were included in the sale, and remarked that they probably sounded great! Regards, Jeff Wexler

An article in the Washington Post on the opening of the movie "Chicago 10" really turns out to be a wonderful review and celebration of my father's 1969 movie, "Medium Cool." You can read the article here: http://haskellwexler.com/HaskellWexler.Com/medium_cool.html - Jeff Wexler

This surprises me since AC has ALWAYS had way more issues for me --- this is why I have gone with the cart power system that I use now (and have used for the last 10 years or so). Since almost all the equipment is DC powered (in my case) how can powering off a battery supply be "an accident waiting to happen"? As soon as you make the decision to introduce AC in any fashion, you are talking about putting some other device in the chain (to convert AC to DC at the very least). It has been my experience that if you use to so-called AC adaptor that comes with each piece of equipment, this is truly a recipe for disaster. If, on the other hand, you do use a centralized DC source (that may be AC powered) this will help eliminate many potential problems. I guess whatever works for you works for you. I just have had a lot better results and far fewer issues sticking with as little involvement with AC, UPS systems, inverters, converters and such. The less you have to do with AC the better in my book since there are so many other AC issues on the set now with devices that require AC (video assist, Technocrane, etc.) with which we must interface, the potential (pun intended) for ground loops, unpredictable ground potentials and so forth, I like to avoid all of that. - Jeff Wexler

I'm not sure if this answers any part of your question or not but one thing to consider is whether you are talking about powering some piece of equipment off a battery supply, which will go down, or off a regulated power source (like a AC powered regulated DC power supply). The exception of course, although I don't know how many people are using items like the Juicer, is a battery supply that is feeding the load through a regulated DC to DC device. The point I am making is that if a given piece of gear will operate from 12 volts to 18 volts and you are using a supply that will diminish over time, it makes sense to start out at the high end so you have more time before the supply gets close to the bottom of the range. The other factor, and this is often only reveled through personal experience and is not reflected in the operational spec, is the tolerance for operation below thew stated voltage. Some gear, even if rated at "12 to 18 volts" will misbehave or even fail at a 10th of a volt below. In the same fashion, some equipment is very intolerant when you approach the upper limit. - Jeff Wexler

What firmware version are you running on your AAA? - JW

I just received this notice from law firm representing Axium. The first thing I am struck by, though not really surprised, is how easily things are discovered on the Internet (and then can be used either for you or against you). I am not going to remove any post (this one appears to have been cross posted from Michael Everett through Wolf) until such time as there is some formal legal action taken against me and this forum. The notice follows (arrived via email): Jeff Wexler 1027 Grant St. Santa Monica, CA 90405 Dear Mr. Wexler, It was brought to my attention today that your site has published a copy of Axium's Incentive Newsletter without permission from the authors (respectively Jeff Begun and myself) and possibly in violation of Axium's 2007 copyright. The Axium US Production Incentives newsletter (Title missing, but nevertheless word for word taken from the 2007 Axium Newsletter) appears at http://www.jwsound.net/SMF/index.php?topic=1951.0. Please remove this information immediately. The trustee for the Axium bankruptcy, Mr. Howard Eherenberg, is copied above. All rights and remedies herein are expressly reserved. Sincerely, Dama Chasle

You make some very good points here. I appreciate the analogy to other machinery as well. For me, what you have highlighted here points up something I have been thinking about regarding the statements about the "learning curve" in relation to the gear we use. Some have said it is as non-issue: once you DO learn the machine, however long it takes, why continue to damn the machine because it may have taken you longer to learn than maybe some of the others? If it is a good machine, get over it they say. I think there may be more to this. Beyond the obvious advantage a simple intuitive machine will have for someone using it for the first time, a machine which is essentially more intuitive (and by intuitive I would include things like having the design, function and user interface draw on other devices, devices to which we may already be well acquainted), I believe it could provide some insight into the machine's essential design. These factors, intuitiveness, proper labeling, ease of use, will continue on even for the veteran user who has mastered the learning curve and now knows the machine well. I think that Local 695 did a terrific job of putting on the presentation and it served all of the people (really good turnout) that attended. It was obvious that there really wasn't enough time to go through each machine, each with its own design peculiarities and eccentricities, to really train anyone to sit down in front of a machine they may never have operated. The machines which were more simple and intuitive, this might be possible, but for the ones that are more complex, the presentation served to inform that advance time will be needed with the machine --- I am sure everyone was quite clear, after seeing all the machines, that just jumping in the driver's seat and hot wiring the forklift could be potential suicide in our profession. Regards, Jeff Wexler

This is the first I have ever heard of charging for the sound reports/logs ... I don't think I could make that fly. I have been using custom (designed by me and printed professionally) 3-part NCR padded sound reports ever since the beginning of my career and I never thought to charge for them. - Jeff Wexler

Here is what I have been charging recently (this applies to Feature Film only since that is all I do): $ 11.00 DVD-RAM disk, packaged in ProLine DVD case with custom label 2.00 9 volt ProCell 0.85 AA ProCell 3.00 AA Lithium 6.50 CR123 (3 volt lithium) This represents a small markup on batteries and a markup on the disks. Since I have often obtained the DVD-RAM disks for as little as 3.00, the ProLine case costs 1.50, the labor for printing labels and so forth, I wouldn't feel comfortable charging $ 20. for the disk. The few times when production has claimed that they found disks at Best Buy for $ X.XX, I tell them they could purchase disks themselves but the office will have to design and print labels, purchase the ProLine security cases, package everything up and deliver to me in advance so that I can QC the disks. - Jeff Wexler

I don't think the original owner factory warranty was for anything more than a year or so anyway, so it is not like a previously owned ("used") car with 100K warranty that you inherit. All of the boards from Andy have been incredibly reliable and not difficult to work on. I am sure that Cooper Sound Systems has made arrangements with many of the usual service places, those that have serviced the Coopers over the years, and they will have spare parts, service manuals, schematics and so forth. I would have no worries purchasing a used Cooper. - Jeff Wexler

I was shocked to hear that Andy is retiring and there will be no more Cooper mixers. My history with mixing panels echos much the same as RVD except that I did my first movie with a Nagra BMT II mixer (which was an accessory add-on for the Nagra III). I then moved on to a very early Sela, followed by the 2880 (which Ivan Kruglak modified for me). I also used an Audio Developments PICO mixer for 2 movies. The thing these all had in common was that none of them sounded as good as a mic plugged right into the Nagra preamps. This prompted a few people to build their own mixers using Nagra or Nagra derived preamps (David Ronne, Neil Stone, Ron Cogswell all wen this route). When Andy first proposed the original Cooper Mixer, I knew it would sound terrific (which of course it did!) and I was pleased to have been involved in its functional design (also taking delivery on either the first or second one off the first production run of the 106). Since getting my first 106 on up through the present 208 I am using today, I have used the Cooper Mixer on every single movie I have done --- and I couldn't be happier. I will probably be able to use my present 208 right into my own retirement. - Jeff Wexler

In the early days of file based recording when only a few of us were doing it and very few facilities had demonstrated that they really knew what they were doing, I always did backups and in a form that I knew they could deal with. I never wanted to be blamed for the dailies not getting out on time. Now, since the majority of productions are using file based recording and the majority of the facilities are up to steam, I do not feel the need to cover their act anymore. What I am saying really only applies to long form projects where I have given them a test disk, possibly even tested the whole workflow involving the facility, the picture editorial department and in some cases sound editorial. Once a facility has made the deal with the production company, and these are really big lucrative deals for the facilities, they need to perform. If there is any "calls in the middle of the night" they should not be to me. If someone at the facility has a meltdown and can't get the dailies out on time, the call should be to the facility manager who must then call the production company and explain the problem. Since we all seem to agree now that we can rely on our equipment, we are using media (DVD-RAM for example) which is very reliable and fault tolerant, I see no reason to run a backup machine with a different format, possibly even less reliable (DAT, DVD-R, etc.) to try and protect a facility screw up. - Jeff Wexler

The Deva does not work this way (I don't know how the Cantar handles this). Fostex seems always to have referred to their machines as things like "6+2" and so forth, the Cantar originally, I believe, required that use tracks 7 and 8 as "mix" tracks and so forth. With the Deva, track 1 is track 1 and that's it. Over 90% of the recordings I make are track 1 only and there is no phantom track 2, or a "right track" or anything like that. Some of the playback machines do at times misinterpret this and display that there are 2 tracks, or if I have recorded 2 tracks, let's say track 1 and track 3, the other machine may call this "track 1 and track 2" or "left track" and "right track" but this has not caused any difficulty. - Jeff Wexler

I have been running a 744T in parallel with my Deva so it does serve as a backup machine (although I have never had to use any of the tracks on the 744T --- I sometimes wonder why I even run it). I send only my Track 1 (from the main output bus of my Cooper 208) which is essentially the so-called "mix" track. None of the iso tracks that go direct out, pre-fader to the Deva are recored by the 744T. This suits the way we work, for the most part, since my track 1 is really the best track on most of the movies we do and the iso tracks are really just extras or alternates, usually not even needed. You have to remember that often my mix track is not really a mix of anything --- it is just the Schoeps microphone on Don's fishpole. I am not doing TV shows with 6 wireless mixed to one track (producing what is often less than a perfect mix) and the iso tracks would be all important. So, if you really feel the need to record some of your iso tracks to the 744T backup, I would consider simple Y-cable split (analog) of whatever Direct Outs you need to backup. - Jeff Wexler

I figured Scott had mentioned this but I didn't have the time to look for his posting. What intrigued me more, actually, as the in depth articles I read from several sources that went far beyond just the news item that Apple, and others, would not attend NAB. Many of the articles talk about the expense of the big shows and their evolving and fading relevance in sectors of the tech world. - JW

Apple has announced that they will not be at NAB this year. Some have speculated that this means Apple has given up on the Pro Applications. This is not the case, as analyzed by a very well informed (and lengthy article) to which I have posted this link: http://www.roughlydrafted.com/2008/02/12/is-apple-shedding-its-final-cut-pro-apps-at-nab/#more-1554 This article also points out that Avid will not be at NAB. Additionally, within the article there are links to other articles, one details the history of Quicktime, Microsoft's efforts to kill it off, and lots of other interesting computer history. http://www.roughlydrafted.com/RD/RDM.Tech.Q1.07/5F0C866C-6DDF-4A9A-9515-531B0CA0C29C.html - Jeff Wexler

And before that... no hole at all. Lots of potential drama drilling a hole through the machine while an NP-1 is still inside. There probably aren't too many who remember that a filament tape "tab" had to be put on every NP-1 used in the early Devas and it was a pull on this tab that was the only way to get a battery out. Once enough people broke the tape tabs the idea of a hole through the casing was the next "fix" for the battery compartment. I think the present solution, a permanent push - pin to eject the battery, works just fine. - Jeff Wexler

Mozilla has released Firefox 3 beta and it now looks exactly like Safari! I think that's great so the few times I actually have to use Firefox because of Safari incompatibilities, everything looks basically the same. For me, Firefox has never held any great attraction over Safari in terms of speed, ease of use and so forth. - Jeff Wexler

Anyone who hasn't read this, here's the news (and yes, I know, maybe this doesn't matter to anyone but I have been following this because I do believe it has a bearing on our work). Japan press: Toshiba to end HD DVD Previous reports that Toshiba will end its efforts in HD DVD are accurate, according to a report by Japanese broadcaster NHK as well as additional sources. The electronics maker is poised to both stop future development as well as ramp down manufacturing of HD DVD players, recorders, and PC drives. The move will be one of Toshiba's costliest to date and should cost hundreds of millions of dollars, according to the Japan press outlet. Toshiba has not responded to the claims, though sources have suggested an official announcement will be made soon. If accurate, the end to HD DVD will represent one of the quickest ever for competing formats and will effectively hand the entire HD movie format war to its chief opponent, Blu-ray. The rapid fall began with movie studio Warner Bros.' plan to drop HD DVD just before the Consumer Electronics Show in January, which handed a clear majority of HD movies to Blu-ray and forced the HD DVD Promotional Group to cancel its keynote presentation for the event. The shift led to a sustained marketshare lead for Blu-ray almost immediately afterwards and spurred several independent studios to echo Warner's Blu-ray only policy. Toshiba's decision is widely believed to have been accelerated by events of the past week, which saw Best Buy, Netflix, and ultimately Wal-Mart all announce that they would drop HD DVD over coming months, all but killing HD DVD's ability to gain traction in the American market. Until Warner's decision, both formats had largely remained competitive with each other since their respective launches in 2006. Blu-ray typically enjoyed wider support from hardware manufacturers such as Pioneer, Samsung, and Sony, but was countered by the typically lower prices of Toshiba's HD DVD players as well as official support from Microsoft which saw an Xbox 360 add-on drive and official promotion of the standard for Windows PCs.

Crew worked with us on the movie we are on, and it was great to see him and his crew. They did have an easy day (so did we actually) but since we were on separate stages and different call times, we didn't get to socialize too much. I would love to spend more time with Crew --- I have a lot that I could learn from him about how to be really relaxed at work and enjoy the day ("relax" and "enjoy" are two things that I have always had trouble with in connection with work). Thanks again, Crew, Mary Dixie and Case, for spending an enjoyable day with us. - Jeff Wexler

The fishpoles have traveled over the years in various plastic tube-type holders (the ones made by Plano and others for fishing poles) and the few microphones that I have that typically go in blimp type windscreens do travel within those windscreens. I have 2 Schoeps microphones in modified Rycote mounts/windscreens, 2 Sanken CS-3e, each in blimp-type windscreens. These all go into a foam lined case with divided compartments. I have not seen any additional wear or problems doing it this way (but I imagine there is some validity to what the person said about this practice accelerating the aging process). - JW

I have 2 of the monitors from Ikan and they have worked out very well. Neither has "professional" interface connectors but possibly newer models do have these. So, what I did was what I have done with other monitors is put a small box on the back with proper connectors (BNC's, power switch, 4-pin XLR for DC power, etc.) and connect the appropriate leads from the multi-cable harness that comes with many of these monitors. - JW

It is important to realize that what Marc is saying about the whole production - daily - post chain --- many of the procedures which do not really have any technical or economic obstacles, procedures which we all agree would be possibly faster, more efficient and so forth, cannot be immediately adopted because of the established workflows in place. The demands that are placed on the primary telecine session on a daily basis are enormous --- sure, these are things which are done in the relative calm of the telecine suite and not out in the cold rain where we are doing our production work, but intense all the same. All of this, it should be noted, also really only applies to the common methods of work here in the U.S. where typically the picture editorial department relies entirely on telecine, even when film is not involved, to achieve sync material that is available to all those who need it (and need it NOW). It has taken quite a long time to even get DVD-RAM (and other) optical disks accepted as a standard production deliverable. I am quite confident that CF may well get integrated into the daily - post chain and Zaxcom's decision should help move this along because of the huge user base. This would be a boon, of course, to Sound Devices 7 series users, who prior to SD implementing outboard disk support were hoping that post facilities would accept CF. In those situations, like in other countries where sync is achieved typically in the picture edit domain, the use of CF should be welcomed. A simple and inexpensive CF reader can be used and transfer speeds vs. optical disk is sufficient. Regards, Jeff Wexler

T-shirts, T-shirts... certainly Philip deservers it but I just don't have any T-shirts, sorry. We'll think of something. - Jeff Wexler