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Peterpete

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  • Location
    Los Angeles
  • About
    Sound mixer, boom op.
  • Interested in Sound for Picture
    Yes

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  1. Hi everyone, My question is, how important to others is the sound mixer position on a film set? I understand it's different on each set/shoot, but recently I haven't seen much respect for sound. I feel like directors care more about picture and will engage with the AC's, gaffer and lighting guys more than me. Especially on these docs, fashion, reality type stuff. I never know what's happening, I'm never addressed and I am always the one seeking information. No one gives me a run down of what's happening. If I sat there and did nothing, which happened one time because I wasn't allowed in the room due to keeping it intimate and private, I was told nothing. Just, "Okay sound we need you in there." And there were two girls in difficult outfits needing to be wired. I told them I needed time to mic these outfits and it was a, "okay just boom it." Does anyone else feel the same? Should I expect this for these types of shoots where the picture is more important to the clients than sound? Should I be speaking up and making a fuss about being heard and noticed? Or should I be adapting my prep and routine on set a little more?
  2. Awesome thanks! I didn't know they would usually throw the lockit boxes in the camera package. Good to know. That will help me when I ask them to rent mine. And help even more for mounting to camera. Again, I'm sure I'm at a lower level than most of you but I feel like I can barely get to that conversation about post and what to do with my files. Today I spoke to a director about not overlapping dialogue. In this instance it was really ruining the edit. And it just seemed like it's not even close to the importance of the position of the keno that took them 20 minutes to tweak. At a higher level does this disregard for sound decrease or do these bigger projects get the same treatment? I know this is way off topic now but maybe I'm just venting. Haha sorry!
  3. Out of curiosity. What if someone wants to book you and tells you they want a scratch track. Do you tell them no just sync my files or do you just do it anyway because they requested it. Lately everything I have been on has asked me for timecode. Even small crew indie narratives. Thanks again for all the replies guys. I see that every situations different and everyone handles things differently.
  4. RodPaul I completely agree with you on that one. I definitely would never just walk up to a camera and throw velcro on it or even touch it. I'm sorry if people have done that to you. Maybe those are the people that give me a bad rep. I make an effort to show that I understand the AC has a lot to do and that I want to be as efficient as I can. My problem as a sound mixer is a lot of AC's or mainly DP's make me feel like I'm ruining their day by needing things from them. Whether it's throwing on a receiver for scratch or a timecode box. I'm not sending scratch audio because it makes me feel good at night. I'm doing it per request of the editor or producer. That's the problem I've been getting lately. But again, all the tips I have received are great and I guess i'll always be dealing with tough people on set. So I'll keep working on it.
  5. Hey everyone! I can't thank you all enough for your great replies. This really helps a lot. Ill definitely take into consideration shadowing some other mixers. I would never touch a camera without permission. I'm always kind on set. When I said push back I didn't mean be rude. I always do my best to be liked on set. Every now and then I get walked on. But I like the advice of leaving it up to production. From the answers I got I can tell the shoots I am doing are a little less involved. A lot of them I get a callsheet the night before so I don't get time to contact the crew members or attend pre production meetings. It's basically email the producer and find out as much as I can. But I always deal with the AC when I can. I love that some of you hand off the gear to an AC and let them deal with it. I think I may try that approach. Especially for timecode and scratch. I'll tell them "the box is jammed and I'm sending tone at -20db, let me know if you need help." I can definitely handle the rude people on set. i understand film can be stressful and you might not always catch people on their best day. But it's night and day between the kind/helpful crew and the rude ones. I can pick them as soon as I walk on set.
  6. Hey, I'm a fairly new sound mixer and I've started working a wide variety of jobs. I was hoping to get some insight to what the sound mixer is responsible for besides the obvious recording dialogue. I want to try to keep this short so I will just list some questions that I had. Obviously, these may vary depending on the size of the production or what type of production, so any extra details will help. 1. Who is responsible for the slate? I would never want to bring a timecode slate to a shoot and hand it over to an AC or PA that treats it like a C-Stand. And a dummy slate is less than $100 and is in the hands of the camera dept the whole day. 2. Is the sound mixer responsible for camera audio? For example, The camera dept is recording scratch audio and that's all the editor needs. Then later I'm told the camera didn't record scratch. 3. How well should I know camera menus? I've had a lot of DP's being really rude telling me either not to touch the camera or that they will not assist me with setting up audio and timecode and that it's my responsibility. I have some more questions I can't think of right now. The reason I am asking this is lately I have been working with some really rude people who have made me look like the bad guy. I'm trying to decide whether I should push back at these people and tell them I need five minutes with the camera whether you like it or not. Or whether I should just let it be and explain that I attempted to do my job but was sent away by the camera dept. Also, if there are any other duties/responsibilities that a new sound mixer like me wouldn't know about, it would be great if I could get some more information. Thank you!
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