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polishdog90

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Everything posted by polishdog90

  1. Thanks for the advice y'all. I have come in contact with a couple more experienced sound mixers in my network that I'll reach out to. And if anyone here in Los Angeles needs a boom operator; I'm a pretty solid human mic stand. Cheers, Louis
  2. Hello, I did a quick search and didn't find any posts talking about joining the union so I'm sorry if this is a repeat question. I'm a non-union sound mixer in Los Angeles and I was wondering if anyone had advice on how to eventually get union work. I've been able to scrape by the last 4 years as a full time freelance artist but now I'm worried that the non-union sets I'm working on are going to be unsafe with new covid safety protocols. I've worked a couple skeleton crews (3 crew members, 2 cast) recently which didn't feel unsafe but we also were not close to following the new covid safety protocols. I'm worried larger non-union sets are also going to not going to be following safety protocols and with disaster unemployment ending this month I might be forced to take unsafe jobs to pay rent. I've never even worked on a set with more than one person (me) in the sound department and I'm not really sure what steps I need to take to work towards being on union sets. I don't have a mentor and sort of fell into this job by helping my friends do sound for their sketch comedy videos. I was working as a music engineer in a home studio (for under minimum wage) prior but I quickly started getting referrals to all of their classmates at the local comedy schools and transitioned into working on film full time. I'm mainly working on self-funded projects with a shoestring budget. I'm often paid under the table and only work a handful of 1099 gigs a year. Any advice would be greatly appreciated because at this point I'm considering moving back home to my parents when my lease expires because my current career trajectory is not sustainable in this environment. Thanks in advance.
  3. Thanks for your reply. That makes a lot of sense. My issue is I only have a stereo studio monitor setup. I have a 5.1 home media setup downstairs on my TV but basically have to guess and check in my DAW or editing program if I’m going for a 5.1 mix. I primarily work as an on set sound mixer and when I do work post it’s generally for web content so I haven’t been able to justify upgrading to a 5.1 studio monitor setup. I generally like to deliver stereo mixes because I can more accurately monitor them on my nice speakers/digital to analog conversion and most of the time the stuff I’m working on doesn’t have a whole lot of stuff to pan even if I wanted to. But for short films and festival entries I’ll proabably start taking the time to get a solid 5.1 mix since that’s what they are looking for.
  4. That's pretty much where I am at now. But the only real difference between a 5.1 mix and stereo mix with only 2 source channels of audio would be more music in the back right? I'm pretty new to 5.1 mixes but from what I've read (from Izotopes guide to converting stereo to 5.1) you want dialogue front center, foley/sound fx mainly front L/R with some in the back L/R, ambience in the back, and music 75% in the front L/R and 25% in the back. If all I have is dialogue and music to work with that would basically mean dialogue in the front and a little music in the back. I don't see how that would sound much better than a solid balanced stereo mix because most 5.1 systems still play a stereo mix out of all of the speakers. Unless you just don't want that much audio coming from behind the audience. Some stuff I mix is being submitted to festivals so there is a good chance it will be screened in actual theaters. Izotope guide for reference (number 6): https://www.izotope.com/en/blog/mixing/6-tips-for-mixing-in-surround.html
  5. Hello, I get asked to mix some very indie projects in 5.1 and somtimes I don’t really see why. If there is nothing but a single boom track and music there really isn’t that much to mix. Is it worth the time to convert those projects to 5.1? I would assume you would at least want some foley/sound fx to really make a difference. Or is it that important to have more music in the back of the theater than the front? Thanks, Louis
  6. Not that I know of but I'm pretty ignorant when it comes to camera equipment. The DP was definitely adjusting the focus on the lenses manually for the shoot that I provided the clip from. That's amazing! Thank you Patrick. I'll get the screws nice and tight and see if that fixes the problem.
  7. Hello, First off I'm new here so sorry if I posted this in the wrong section. I wasn't sure if this should go here or in technical reference. I work as an on set sound mixer/boom op and every once and a while my recorder picks up this really strange buzzing noise. I've been doing some googling and can't seem to find other people with this problem. At first I thought it might be the lavs picking up some rogue wireless signal but it's coming through the boom track. I run a Sennheiser MKH 50 into a K-Tek pole with an internal wire into my Zoom F8 portable recorder with a standard XLR cable. It works perfectly like 98% of the time but every once in a while starts picking up this buzzing noise that sounds like a fly buzzing mixed with electric current. It usually works fine if I turn it off and turn it back on but it's still frustrating that it will ruin a take occasionally and I have no idea why. I assume it's an issue with the recorder but could it be an issue with the mic or phantom power? I've attached a sample of a take where it started acting up. Any advice on how to fix or even identify the problem would be fantastic. Thanks in advance, Louis Zoom_Audio_Buzzing.mp3
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