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RunAndGun

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Posts posted by RunAndGun

  1. I received an email late last year(?) from the "new owner" introducing himself.  Then received an email a week or two ago from a former employee that has started their own business since TAI has closed.  Makes me want to reach out to my former sales rep there that retired last year and see what they know.  Seems kind of sudden and out of the blue to me.  The last thing we need is less competition.

     

    This same topic just came up on reddit today, too.

  2. On 3/26/2023 at 9:44 PM, Johnny Karlsson said:

    Sure, but just because it says it records 24/48, that’s no guarantee of “quality”. Depends on what camera we’re talking about. Meaning a noisy camera input recorded at whatever file format will still be noisy. Also, the camera is a device that I have no control over. The operator may change some settings, or accidentally bump the level control(s), unplug a cable etc. And even if they are “monitoring”, they are probably not focusing on sound, or even want to, since they are busy doing their job making sure the picture is good.

     

    You must work with a lot of bad cams or bad ops or both, because most of those things don’t happen in the real world with professionals.

     

    My .02, 8-9/10, the shoots I’m on where a slate is used, it’s all for show.  And everyone knows it.  But they are willing to pay the $50-$75, so the audio guys are more than happy to use their slates.

  3. On 2/24/2023 at 12:11 PM, Phillip C Dent said:

    0F40ED54-4467-432E-83E0-F715BFFB987B.jpegA85C86CE-CFB6-4A8F-8EC6-9BCF1B54B7B6.jpeg

     

    A camera man that I work with just sent me these pics. He just took delivery of his Arri 35 with the Sonosax Aem-1.  Has anybody had any experience with this unit yet? I’m wondering if l’ll run into the same issues with the aes in as I have had with the Amira.

     

    I’ll also have to get some cables for my Lectro M2R receiver. Does anyone here know if anyone sells stereo mini to dual ta3f? Or will I need to get these custom made?

    A friend of mine that got his A35 back in December.  He said there is (still) a bug (as of mid-January) that resets the levels on the audio module every time the camera is powered down.

  4. Could it be a routing thing in the mixer that maybe got changed inadvertently?  An audio guy that I work with regularly, uses Lectro digital camera hops and sends into my Amira via AES.  Just worked with him for five days last week and I had two channels coming in.  I'll try to grab my camera tomorrow and see how everything was set, but I think it's pretty straight forward- just flipping the side switch over to AES.

  5. 8 hours ago, The Documentary Sound Guy said:

    Go back and dig deeper in to the context of this question ... even with big corporations there is a negotiation on rate, and my question was based on the fact that Alien was negotiating a higher rate partly on the basis of the longer time for payment.  Obviously, he didn't avoid the long payment, but billing at a higher rate to compensate seems to me like an interesting way of handling the situation.

    With some, maybe.  With others, no, it can be take it or leave it on all terms.  And both sides are free to do either.

  6. On 12/16/2022 at 5:24 PM, The Documentary Sound Guy said:

    How have negotiations gone when talking about the 90 day payable length?


    What negotiations?  These are gigantic corporations and those are their policies and set way above anyone that you are dealing with/that is calling you.  You either take it or leave it.  I’m not justifying what they do, because I think it’s pretty reprehensible that they hold the money and make even more for themselves with it, but that’s the way it is(has become)(one of those companies used to pay in roughly 2-3 weeks, but I have seen them take take over 5-6 months to pay individuals, now).

     

    Ironically enough, it’s the smaller companies that I find pay the quickest.  I have a regular client that runs a two week pay cycle and I’ve done work for some others that will pay within a few days.

  7. 2 hours ago, JonMoore said:

    Looking forward to making the switch to the DSR4 eventually!

    I was trying to find on this thread (or anywhere) if you can use a combination of SMQV style transmitters with the DBSMs.

    For example- could I transmit two SMQVs, an HMa, and a DBSMD to one DSR4 simultaneously? 

    I can't answer that specifically, but I know that with the 822, you can operate one channel digital hybrid and the other full digital, if you need to.  But of course, there is a time delay difference between the two systems(digital hybrid vs. full digital).  I believe it's listed in the manual or spec sheets on-line.

  8. In my neck of the woods, you aren't going to find many audio guys(and gals) for less (or much less) than $1,000/day(10hrs) with a basic package(mixer, boom and 2x wires), with labor starting at $750.  When work started to pick back up in the second half of 2020, that's when I noticed the audio rates going up and everyone sticking to their guns on it, more.  

     

    I admire audio.  Y'all seem to stick together on rates way more than what happens on the camera side, where too many guys will cut their own mothers throats to get the shoot.

     

    2 hours ago, Philip Perkins said:

    Call for help today from some well-meaning but under-experienced friends shooting on location about why their two wireless systems would work when only one of them was operating but not both.  Well, they had them on the same freq....   Elementary to us, Greek to most filmmakers.  If their wirelesses had been set up right to start they would have gotten away with their shoot just fine.  But someone had messed with them and they were suddenly hosed for not having a professional along.  And so on.

    Honestly, that should be elementary to almost anyone on the camera or audio side.  But maybe I just take for granted that I actually know about audio, possibly because of my ENG background.

  9. We did a similar shoot for a network piece(not live): 11 subjects(2 being the hosts), 5 cameras.  Everyone was lav’d(ISO’s recorded in mixer, 2 ch mix sent to cams, everything TC’d).  This is the way.  Not enough time to mic everyone is not your problem.  It’s the productions and they need to make time, if they care about audio and what is being said.

     

    Also, you should have an A2 to help mic everyone, etc.

  10. I've seen a handful of 633's with issues, lately, including the unit freezing up with the screen going screwy(requiring a hard reset) and sections/ends of recordings disappearing.  A little on the disconcerting side, especially as how this is still such a widespread, workhorse unit.

  11. 6 hours ago, Stillweii said:

    Recently A/B’d R1b against the LR in a playback setup / wireless send . 

     

    my experience was that yes , it can work , but not the right tool for the specific task .  R1b’s are great to use as a boom op and ifb listener .  Comteks as lowest quality minimum send. Understand it’s a fun small tool , but let them run time code syncing if they want to hassle anyone about wireless send size on camera . 

    This "philosophy" has become more and more prevalent over the last several years, as many audio guys now can't see past the noses on their faces, especially the ones that only seem to live in the narrative or commercial world.  There are situations and market segments where the audio being sent to camera is the "hero" audio and has to be 100% usable, not just a low quality mono scratch track, because there is no time to sync the iso files.  There's a reason that Lectro makes an entire stereo system designated 'Digital Camera Hop'.  They understand that some productions have to have quality, air-able audio sent to and recorded in the camera.  Is this how every production is done? No, of course not.  But then again, neither is how narrative and commercials are done, either.  I guess this is just a long winded way of saying, that we all need to realize that there is more than one way to skin a cat and sometimes it has to be done one way and sometimes it has to be done another.

  12. And subtitles are not the answer.  The whole point of a movie or show is to watch it.  To see the environment, the actors, everything.  If you are busy reading the subtitles, you've just missed everything you were supposed to see.  Especially with the break-neck pace that everything is edited at, today.  As they said in the article, you might as well read the book, if you're going to have to rely on subtitles.

  13. I don’t do narrative, but down here in the south, it’s rare to “mask up”, anymore.  Even when it’s on call sheets, it’s just on there mostly for dog ‘n pony.  The last time I tested and had to mask was about a month ago for a real estate show, but they are based in CA and have been crazy about Covid protocols since the get-go(testing is actually stricter, now).  Their editors actually screen the footage for the sole purpose of catching crew that may not be masked.  
     

    The vast majority of people that I work with and are friends with  are vax’d and boosted, but I still see people losing work, because they refuse to get vax’d or sign waivers.  I even know a guy that not only refuses to get vax’d, but has on numerous occasions refused to even get tested so that he could work.

  14. It can be done.  Back just before covid, we did a four or five camera round table style shoot, and one of my A guys did 11 channels, using SR's on whips(maybe a 411A or two, too), out of two bags.  Amazingly enough, there was not a single hit, drop-out or other audio problem.  I'm sure there was more than one prayer said...  I just wish it had gone as smoothly for us on the camera side.

  15. I still have a couple block 26 hops and there have been times that they are better than my A1 hops.  I don’t use them in coordinated venues (for obvious reasons) and I have zero concern of “getting caught” using them.  If I did, I would immediately go to a convenient store and spend the day rate on lottery tickets, because the odds are about the same…

  16. I have an 822, two DBSMD's and two DPR's(well, still waiting on the 2nd from Lectro).  It's been kind of strange since I've gotten the transmitters in, I haven't really had my wireless out on many shoots, lately.  But we did use one DBSMD on an interview a few weeks ago, and when I asked my audio guy how it sounded, he said, "Sounded like a Sanken COS-11", which I would consider a good compliment, because all he heard was the mic.

  17. On 4/15/2022 at 11:24 AM, Grant said:

    ... my comment on gear insurance, and why I never continued with it after our 2011 house fire : The Hartford pulled stunts after our personal and biz losses that made my jaw drop. The most outrageous : they claimed that my 5 digit serial numbers for destroyed cameras did not match their records (all amongst the highest individual valued items covered in the policy). That part of the claim was therefore denied. They either deliberately altered the records, or serial number data got corrupted over the aprox 15 years of continuous coverage with them. Either way, it must be classified as fraud.

     

    Appealed - no success. (the only way forwards would have been to lawyer up. Not feasible while homeless, of course). I am now 'self insured'. Never again, I say. Your view on gear insurance my go under a sudden re-evalution... if you ever actually need it! (I will take a moment to evaluate how much I have saved, no premium payments since 2011 - I would guess around $25,000. Hooray!). Just my experience, of course....


    I was with the Hartford, for business insurance a long, long time ago. They dropped me and the entire insurance pool that I was in(did away with the policy they were offering), after several large claims(not from me).  I believe Liberty was the next insurer I had.  I had a large theft while out of town on a job, and without insurance at that time, I could have never recovered.  It was a $40K+ claim.  Every penny paid.  No fuss or pushback.

     

    $25,000 is nothing to sneeze at, and if you have had no reason to make a claim, on the surface it seems like the smart move.  But $25K wouldn’t even cover replacing a single zoom lens of mine, much less my audio package or even scratch the surface of my entire gear package.  Yeah, it hurts and I hate paying all those thousands of dollars every year in insurance premiums, but it’s less painful than if I had to replace hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of equipment without it.

  18. 4 hours ago, Constantin said:


    The Rycote system solves problems you never knew you had. It’s lighter and the mic mount almost jumps out. You just pull the pcs down and the mic pops out. True one-handed operation

    And the Rycote doesn’t F-up the threads on the pole, either.

  19. On 12/17/2021 at 11:20 AM, OnTheSoundSideOfLife said:

    I remember seeing the 833 for 3700€ (no VAT) two years ago, it's 5000€ now. Looking at what has been added (for free) to the bare recorder: Yes they added some cool bells and whistles, but also a lot of fixes and things that already existed on their older series. None of these things justify a 1.3k price bump imo, even calculating in inflation and chip shortages. I was strongly considering the 833 with the extra channels option now, but with that price bump.. I don't know. Maybe I'm just mad.

    Not exactly the same, but shows how it's effecting the entire market: Earlier this year, right after SD announced the suspension of production of some of their mixers, including the 833, I saw some 633's on the used market going for more than I had paid for my 633 when I bought it brand new.

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