Harris K

In regards to contacting Producers to follow up, I think that's a never. Our role as department heads, and of a particularly isolated department, puts us in a tricky position. A grip calling a key is a different story, we unfortunately have to wait for work. That being said, when I contact a producer socially, or over something like an outstanding check, I notice if often leads to a work call soon after. A rough fact of this business is short memories, given the hours and sheer amount of people met. You'll be forgotten quickly by someone who you haven't spoken to or worked with in a while. Rarely does anyone stick out in memory too long when they haven't incurred a problem. Social networking can be a very useful aide to this; using services like facebook to friend coworkers (recommended) and keeping in touch through updates and comments and such can be a great aide in simply reminding people you've worked with them and it was enjoyable. It's also important to remember the producers usually work on a job far longer than we do. Depending on the type of production, producers can be working pre-pro, production, and post, which means that even if they call you every job, that could be months apart. The lesson I've learned from this is cast a wide net. Keep you hiring network, even for so-so gigs, broad. As freelancers their work is as subject to ebb and flow as yours, and relying on a few good relationships and jobs you've really "nailed" isn't enough. The fact is that is just may take time and patience working through the "buffer zone." One day the calls may be frequent enough to make a firmer commitment to changing your situation, but for now I hope you enjoy all the weird shit, the crazy rigs and small heorics you see in production. I was really excited and fulfilled by this line of work long before I could make it pay the rent.

I'd blame the g2. I tried something like this a while back and got wonky TC read outs on the.slate. I couldn't.figure it out at the time and put the idea to bed. Recently I've discovered that the g2's limiter freaks the heck out with "pumping" over very LF information, the kind you wouldn't hear as a wire on talent. I would therefore suspect that a consistent broadband signal, like smpte TC, would be pumping at the receiver end and be unreadable. This is conjecture, however. It would be very unpleasant, but since you know cabling is good I'd suggest A/Bing the smpte signals to determine if the g2 artifacting makes this undoable.

Apologies for small size. My boom Jeff Gaumer on the set of "Recalled"

Stay on target, guys. I too have been using wedges, but I've been looking for something more aesthetically pleasing. Producers seem to like shiny.

Apologies in advance as I'm sure this topic has been covered here, but I can't seem to find it. I picked up a Sennheiser buttplug transmitter the other day, just cause. I tried testing it in a variety of applications, handheld plug on, on the boom, and then out of a MM-1 (quickly discovered the unit functions pretty uselessly as a pre). So far I've found the range to just plain suck. I suppose the intended application is a hand held to a camera that's 5 feet away. The whole mic-as-an-antennae thing seems like a pretty soft science as it is, so I'm a bit befuddled as to improve range. Do the things just suck? And I ask in terms of G2 performance, which is what it is. Side question: it occurred to me that connected straight to an balanced XLR cable, being an RFI killer, would therefore make the thing a poor transmitter antenna. Is that a correct line of thinking? As my current AD is fond of saying, "please and thank you people."

I'm curious if any posties have figured out a rough signal-to-noise ratio where their noise removal plugins will stop being effective or produce unacceptable artifacing. It would be awesome to have numbers on my acceptable level for a too-close genny or other consistent noise source before it actually screws us.

Oh, yeah, that probably will be a thing, huh?

This is directed at the New York mixers. I have a shoot coming up where we'll spend 6 days at Floyd Bennett Field. I have this impression it's a fairly popular location. For those who haven't been, it's a semi-active air field with high winds, directly under a JFK descent path. Next to a busy street. I've discussed the situation with production, and it's understood that though we'll have a lot of problems, they'll often be to frequent to hold for. DP and Post are aware and looking for cutaways etc. My plan is to roll as much amb as I can to help cut plane passes together, and I think that's all I can do. The question part is, has anyone else who's shot there heard how post dealt with it? Is it a complete masacare, or is the whole shebang easier to cut together than I'm anticipating. The script has a lot of background action, extras etc. so there's a lot of excuses to layer on there, but It's a feature and I'd hate for them to have to rely too heavily on that "fade in and out fast" move you hear in TV a lot.

I am concerned that in broaching this topic, I may be raising an unliked topic. I don't wish to get into the area of ethics and financial matters of charging production for convenience, I just want to explore a hypothetical. Though perhaps I'm doing a general disservice by making this topic google searchable. If so, flame away. That said: Has anyone tried this? Is there some pitfall to the idea I'm failing to see? I can't see a problem with this set up in a situation where camera audio is non-critical, like a feature with time and budget for proper syncing. The Comtek audio will definitely be inferior to a higher quality system, but a non-critical application, such as a Pluraleyes workflow or just plain dailies, wouldn't seem to need more. And besides, most of the time we'd have to stick the sound through camera, our audio is getting 30% worse before the D/A. Is there a crucial issue I've overlooked? Has anyone had any successes or failures with this set up?

Starting this weekend on a week of behind-the-scenes for a record, then a few days for a regular internet client. Mid next month starting 4 weeks on an indie feature I booked a few hours ago. Spent the cold season mostly doing small ball post gigs, very happy to be back at the mixer.

Can I ask where you sourced the caddy?

I was trying to work such a solution for my breakaway cable (am I the only one still using that, by the way?) but could never find an arrangement that was more function than flaw. I'm curious to see a working implementation of the idea.

Someone in a recent thread suggested "she sells sea shells" to help reduce this, which I've never tried. I've always found that "panning" off a hair with the boom can buy you a little leway with sibilance, though lavs are going to be what they will if you commit to placement. Incidentally, I've been doing some compare and contrast recently and have begun to suspect that the 7506s amp up sibilance, and what you hear through them is not necessarily accurate in the dread 7ish-kHz range. Can anyone else support this?

I prefer the tascam, though I couldn't exactly say why. I think the file structure and file naming was less convoluted, though I'm not positive. The pres were surprisingly quiet.

Hi All, What term do you use to describe when talent needs to clear their throat and have a drink of water? In my parlance the term has always been "froggy", as in, "you sound a little froggy." It's occurred to me recently that this isn't necessarily the best thing to say to an actor. How are y'all putting that?

Sound mixer death stare

I do. I see now where the problem is. I suppose I'll have to go tail between my legs to my boom op. Again.

I just got my first B6 and first day out threw the popscreen cap on. I haven't been able to remove it since, and of course, ripped the foam off. I feel like there has to be a trick I'm missing here.

I'm curious if anyone has tried one of these devices in the field, and with any success. I'm suspicious of their effectiveness, but they may have a place in the kit. Possibly easier than peanut butter as well.

I did this exact thing once. Without the y-split it should be fine, but in the chain it appears to lift the ground and "fuck things up".

I also do the Fat Max. I modded mine a bit to double as a "project cart." I added boom pole bobbers and bungee hooks, with the intention of just having a secure place to leave the rig for smoke breaks on one man jobs, though its ended up working as an adequate cart for two man jobs where real estate is a concern. For what it's worth, I've found its just about as big as an upright case can be and fit through the back door of a sedan.

Fair enough, Robert. Though this isn't necessarily a conversation I'd be having with a grip or a producer. If I can attempt to rephrase, we're not always given the resources to do our jobs to the ideal. Our role first and foremost is to get the actor's words on tape, then we go from there. There's always going to be those days when even the guide track is completely NG, and I reckon we're all fuzting with our smart phones a bit more then. But there's also the days when you walk away knowing you made the work stronger with your sound, and you contributed in a way another mixer couldn't have. I'm not saying we should ever be phoning it it, and it rarely behooves a mixer to be whiny or grumpy on the job, but we're still not at the point where they flip the camera around to an unbuilt part of the set and the DP says "can't we fix it in post? Let's just go."

The goody beads or "pony holders" (i think we're talking about the same thing) is a pretty common way of doing it. I've always considered it the "right way". You're not affecting your dazzle factor the way you think. Everyone has seen it already.

Yes!

Perhaps I'm an extreme odd man out here, but I'm usually approaching the audio of each shot in how it should sound, emotionally. I came out of music production originally, and I've always felt that the emphasis on the effect of precise mic placement made me a stronger production sound mixer. There's always the essential acquisition of sound to consider on set, though often the boom operator has the freedom and opportunity to be making several-degree adjustments to mic placement which can make significant changes to how a character "plays." Minor voice tone adjustments can force dialogue to read sympathetic or villainous, hilarious or pathetic. Since the way people interact with sound is fundamentally subconscious, our work is very rarely acknowledged beyond being adequate. Still, I've had the pleasure of working with a few directors who really understood sound enough to discuss with me the desired auditory emotional impact (and I'm not referring to the film school drop-outs who call for a pre-pro meeting and starting talking about the foley and sound design). I've had more jobs than not where I'm not getting the rate, respect and / or support to give a shit about the end result beyond delivering something for the edit, but when provided with the means to approach this gig artistically, the production sound can significantly alter the final product. My 2 cents...