hemmerlinj

I feel as mixers we will always be fighting to justify our jobs. We are really the only dept. that doesn't work for the image and I think that puts us at a disadvantage before we even get hired for the job. When it comes to rates everyone of us needs to be aware of what our colleagues(other sound mixers, not other crew members) are charging and what they provide for that rate, and we need to match that. This means the newbies as well. If you're starting out in the field you should try to meet other mixers in the your area and get an idea of what they are charging. Try to keep in line with what they are doing. I know this can seem hard to do, but you will make a better living at this. IF the production won't budge on the rate, then you budge on what you provide and the hours you are willing to put in. If they don't want to pay for the gear then don't supply it. Don't take flat-rate jobs that aren't paying an acceptable rate. You have to have designated range of time that your rate is based on. You need to give production a reason to keep things under control. And they will never see fatigue as a reason to end the day. Everyone will get physically tired, and mentally tired, but as a sound mixer your ears will get tired and this will effect how you do your job. Let alone that I'm sure a lot of us have been on that job where you've been working way past 12 hours and just said to yourself, "Screw it I don't care anymore I just want to go home and sleep". This doesn't help anyone including yourself. Enough of my rant. I guess my point is that the only way we can really help to insure that we as sound mixers get paid what we should get paid is to up-hold a standard amongst the sound mixer community that we work in and stick to it. I'm sure we've all heard a producer say, "Well, I've worked with this guy before, and he did the job for this much and he had such and such gear that you haven't provided me with". It all comes back and bites all of us in the ass. J. Hemmerlin

I've adopted the ritual of saying yes to a job even if it conflicts with another Job coming up, and replacing myself for one or the other. I'll usually tell the production that I am may find a replacement for myself, and that it will be someone who is of equal experience as I and that they will have an equivalent kit to what I would bring. This has definitely saved my ass in the past. The trick is knowing other sound people that you can trust to send a job back your way in return and that they won't steal the client from you. Unfortunately, I feel this has happened to me in the past and I no longer reccommend the people that I feel have done this to me. Getting regular work can be hard enough for most of us, especially those who are new to the business. We all need to support eachother in any manner we can, and reciprocate with each other. J hemmerlin

Who would have thought the old soap operas were ahead of their time.

And considering the popularity of 3D movies you would think they would have made it capable of shooting 3D. I thinkI read somewhere that they're working on the ability to shoot into the future. This could really make things go much faster on a shoot. An entire feature length movie shot in 1 day.

Exactly. When they re-write add 4 more actors and change the location to an extremely noisy exterior. And every bit of dialog is a whisper. Not because it was written that way, but because the actors felt it would be better that way.

I was under the impression that the 12 minute limit had something to do with battery power consumption. The chip uses a lot of power and will quickly drain a ton of power. I believe the limit was done so that people who may have been using the video feature would actually still be able to have some power left for taking still photos as well. The video feature was added mostly because canon could do it. They have had video on all of their point and shoots for a long time. They probably figure that it may be seen as useful and added it. I wouldn't believe they added with the idea that anyone would want to shoot a movie with it. J Hemmerlin

They may have change the audio on the camera to be more professional, but the means of getting the audio into the camera still leaves a lot to be desired. You'll still have to put some sort of box on the camera for a better connection, and you won't be able to monitor the signal that is being recorded to camera. I wouldn't even attempt to use the camera as a means to record the audio. I would expect that the majority of the people on this forum wouldn't either. J. Hemmerlin

I've definitely had problems with Block 22 in Chicago. Particularly close to the lake. Further inside of the city not much problems. Block 21 has generally seemed to work fine anywhere I've used them. J Hemmerlin

I've had a lot of conversations with people about this before. At what point did it become and the Sound Dept's responsibility. Timecode is a reference of time based on a framerate based on what the camera is doing. The audio isn't recorded based on that framerate. Especially digital audio which is being recorded based on the sample rate. J Hemmerlin

I've never had a company just give me extra money for a job well done. But, on a recent low budget shoot I was working on with a friend of mine the lead actor, Steve Guttenberg (yes from the Police Academy movies) got the entire crew together to give a round of applause to the sound dept. for doing such a great job under some pretty harsh conditions for sound. As he was listening to dailies (as he was a producer on the shoot as well) he felt that we were getting some really great stuff and, I guess, felt that we were not being taken as seriously as we should have been. That put a smile on my face, and made me realize that sometimes people do notice when you bust your ass despite the lack of respect that may get while on the job. Now to work on a job where the director says to the sound department, "What do you need from me to get the best possible sound?" Jason Hemmerlin

From what I've experienced and read the RED will not hold tc when it gets shut down. If you're just jamming you have to re-jam every time the camera department shuts down the camera. Not sure how it handles getting an ext timecode signal like an ambient or denecke box feeding it. The audio is ok. The camera just doesn't have the expected controls for setting levels that other professional video cameras have. It seems that the problems you can have are different for every camera. On one shoot I did I had almost no problems with mixing to camera. On another it seemed the camera would change settings on its own out of no where. Not sure about the false 25fps. Haven't done any shoots at that frame rate. J Hemmerlin

I ran around with the DEA in North Jersey last winter for a TV show. We were outside about 70% of the time. The sound mixer and I destroyed our brand new Merrell snow boots in about a month. I replaced mine with a pair of Sorels. They worked great. I could run in them with no problem often leaving the camera man I was working with sucking wind. I think they have about 400 grams of insulation and are waterproof. Use them whenever I'm working outside in the winter now. I always wear a pair of lite wool tights usually with an army type pant. They work fine for me outside and aren't too warm if I have to transition to indoors. I would also wear an under armor type of base layer shirt. The ones I have aren't under armour, but similar. Then I have a few Marmot polartec sweaters (for a lack of better words) that I where and then either a fleece jacket or for the really cold days my Northface. I usually have a thin scarf on as well to seal up the neck of the jacket. Still haven't found a hat the really works well with my cans as of yet. For gloves I have a pair of open fingered gloves with the flipover mitten cover for the thumb as well. when it was really cold I would where a pair of windstopper gloves underneath them. The windstoppers didn't do much for warmth, but helped for the wind and gave me dexterity with a bit of protection from the cold. I always keep some of those handwarmers in my run bag as well. As many have noted it is all about layering. Jason Hemmerlin

I've seen quite a few photos of carts with the mackie boards on them. I was wondering how they hold on the cart, and how some of you guys are dealing with powering them. Are you using a DC to AC converter? Or having the mixer modified to be powered off of DC? What kind of amp draw do they have when they are modded? Interested in knowing as I am trying to build my first cart and am trying to weigh all of my options. Any info is appreciated. Thank You, Jason Hemmerlin

Worked with P-diddy a few years back. Had a mic on him with a vamp clip. He tried to take it off himself and he got the pins fully stuck into his chest. The man didn't even flinch.

I'm currently building my first cart and was planning on the Rack case route. I found a company that makes a magliner wanna-be for a about half the cost. Looks pretty good. It's from this company Wesco. I think it's the Spartan JR. I was originally thinking about the Rock n Roller, but they've been really hard to get for some reason. J. Hemmerlin

No matter what you buy, make sure you read your manuals. Don't know how many times I've been called up by other mixers asking me how to change something on a piece of gear.

You should get a hypercardioid. The used mkh50 is a good idea. If you can't find one I would try the Neumann KM185. I use one and love it. J Hemmerlin PS- Sound blankets can really help as well, but are bulky.

Has anyone thought of using emi/rfi sheilding impregnated into the sheathing of the cables. This may help with interference issues that would occur with the longer cables. J Hemmerlin

The Shure UA844 or 845 will work. They have BNC in's and out's. Will power an active Sharkfin, but you will need a DC blocker for the passive antennae's. It can be dc powered as well with 4 dc power outputs which is pretty ideal for a cart. Just make sure that you get the wideband unit or the specific freq range that you need. I think the 845 model has a link option for another 845 unit.

The shorter one definitely looks like the bnc mount antennae for a Comtek M-216 tx.

I use a 442 and always have the boom in channel 4. As others have noted it keeps the cable clear of the shorties I use for my wires. I think I also started doing it because I'm right handed and the fader was closer. And I like to keep both hands on the boom as much as possible, but when I do need to make an adjustment on the faders I'll support the boom with my right hand and reach down with my left hand with the boom being counter balanced in the pit of my elbow. This naturally leads me hand more towards the right side of the mixer, and I tend to make more adjustments to the level of the boom. Jason H

I did an indie film in NYC back in June of 09 and used a Senn e835 handheld dynamic mic with a UH400 tx for a shot where the actor was addressing the guests of the party. Worked great. Had the boom op swing the boom as well. The funniest part is that there wasn't any hint of a sound system in the scene anywhere. Not that anyone other than a sound person would think about that.