wolfvid

Invitation to Attend SMPTE Hollywood Meeting on Loudness and the [pre]CALM Act Hello Everyone: We have been invited to attend the upcoming SMPTE Hollywood monthly meeting on "Loudness - TV and Related Cinema Post-Production" to be held on Tuesday June 15th at the Linwood Dunn Theater. It's not often that SMPTE meetings are entirely devoted to audio, so please plan on attending. The meeting is open to all non-members, and there's free food and refreshments. You can't beat that! Please see the attached announcement for all the details, including members of the panel discussion to be moderated by meeting coordinator Lon Neumann. Regards, Joe Carter AES-LA Secretary Technicolor Digital Content Delivery Phone: (818) 543-3124 Cell: (818) 254-7114 Email: joe.carter@technicolor.com<mailto:joe.carter@technicolor.com> [/pre]

The surprising thing is that there are no transformers of any sort in them [the ETS InstaSnake system]. They are simply wiring adapters that connect pins 2 and 3 of the XLR connectors to a pair in the CAT-5 cable. All the XLR pin 1 connections are tied together and to the shield contact of the CAT-5 connector. So, unless you use shielded CAT-5 cable, there are no shield connections (which could be a big problem, depending on the grounding status of equipment at each end of the CAT-5 cable run. Therefore, we ran no curves for frequency response, distortion, etc. Bill Whitlock, president & chief engineer Jensen Transformers, Inc. www.jensen-transformers.com

Canon and video assist:http://wolfvid.com/datasheets/FAQCANON_7D_VideoAssist_Notes.pdf

this is all I know: http://wolfvid.com/datasheets/faq_cat5_cabeling_specs.pdf Its hard for me to comprehend this contradiction: the input transformers we have in Coopers and SoundDevices are highly engineered $ 80-150 pieces of eclectic metals with sophisticated shields and extended low ends, and we use fancy twisted quad shielded cable, and now we are putting not one butr 2 pieces of $ 5.00 Chinese junk in front of them.... .. ( is the world changing this fast??) Yuk wolf

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/10/business/media/10audio.html?hpw http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/10/business/media/10audio.html?hpw=&pagewanted=print In Mobile Age, Sound Quality Steps Back By JOSEPH PLAMBECK At the ripe age of 28, Jon Zimmer is sort of an old fogey. That is, he is obsessive about the sound quality of his music. A onetime audio engineer who now works as a consultant for Stereo Exchange, an upscale audio store in Manhattan, Mr. Zimmer lights up when talking about high fidelity, bit rates and $10,000 loudspeakers. But iPods and compressed computer files — the most popular vehicles for audio today — are “sucking the life out of music,” he says. The last decade has brought an explosion in dazzling technological advances — including enhancements in surround sound, high definition television and 3-D — that have transformed the fan’s experience. There are improvements in the quality of media everywhere — except in music. In many ways, the quality of what people hear — how well the playback reflects the original sound— has taken a step back. To many expert ears, compressed music files produce a crackly, tinnier and thinner sound than music on CDs and certainly on vinyl. And to compete with other songs, tracks are engineered to be much louder as well. In one way, the music business has been the victim of its own technological success: the ease of loading songs onto a computer or an iPod has meant that a generation of fans has happily traded fidelity for portability and convenience. This is the obstacle the industry faces in any effort to create higher-quality — and more expensive — ways of listening. “If people are interested in getting a better sound, there are many ways to do it,” Mr. Zimmer said. “But many people don’t even know that they might be interested.” Take Thomas Pinales, a 22-year-old from Spanish Harlem and a fan of some of today’s most popular artists, including Lady Gaga, Jay-Z and Lil Wayne. Mr. Pinales listens to his music stored on his Apple iPod through a pair of earbuds, and while he wouldn’t mind upgrading, he is not convinced that it would be worth the cost. “My ears aren’t fine tuned,” he said. “I don’t know if I could really tell the difference.” The change in sound quality is as much cultural as technological. For decades, starting around the 1950s, high-end stereos were a status symbol. A high-quality system was something to show off, much like a new flat-screen TV today. But Michael Fremer, a professed audiophile who runs musicangle.com, which reviews albums, said that today, “a stereo has become an object of scorn.” The marketplace reflects that change. From 2000 to 2009, Americans reduced their overall spending on home stereo components by more than a third, to roughly $960 million, according to the Consumer Electronics Association, a trade group. Spending on portable digital devices during that same period increased more than fiftyfold, to $5.4 billion. “People used to sit and listen to music,” Mr. Fremer said, but the increased portability has altered the way people experience recorded music. “It was an activity. It is no longer consumed as an event that you pay attention to.” Instead, music is often carried from place to place, played in the background while the consumer does something else — exercising, commuting or cooking dinner. The songs themselves are usually saved on the digital devices in a compressed format, often as an AAC or MP3 file. That compression shrinks the size of the file, eliminating some of the sounds and range contained on a CD while allowing more songs to be saved on the device and reducing download times. Even if music companies and retailers like the iTunes Store, which opened in April 2003, wanted to put an emphasis on sound quality, they faced technical limitations at the start, not to mention economic ones. “It would have been very difficult for the iTunes Store to launch with high-quality files if it took an hour to download a single song,” said David Dorn, a senior vice president at Rhino Entertainment, a division of Warner Music that specializes in high-quality recordings. The music industry has not failed to try. About 10 years ago, two new high-quality formats — DVD Audio and SACD, for Super Audio CD — entered the marketplace, promising sound superior even to that of a CD. But neither format gained traction. In 2003, 1.7 million DVD Audio and SACD titles were shipped, according to the Recording Industry Association of America. But by 2009, only 200,000 SACD and DVD Audio titles were shipped. Last year, the iTunes Store upgraded the standard quality for a song to 256 kilobits per second from 128 kilobits per second, preserving more details and eliminating the worst crackles. Some online music services are now marketing an even higher-quality sound as a selling point. Mog, a new streaming music service, announced in March an application for smartphones that would allow the service’s subscribers to save songs onto their phone. The music will be available on the phone as long as the subscriber pays the $10 monthly fee. Songs can be downloaded at up to 320 kilobits per second. Another company, HDtracks.com, started selling downloads last year that contain even more information than CDs at $2.49 a song. Right now, most of the available tracks are of classical or jazz music. David Chesky, a founder of HDtracks and composer of jazz and classical music, said the site tried to put music on a pedestal. “Musicians work their whole life trying to capture a tone, and we’re trying to take advantage of it,” Mr. Chesky said. “If you want to listen to a $3 million Stradivarius violin, you need to hear it in a hall that allows the instrument to sound like $3 million.” Still, these remain niche interests so far, and they are complicated by changes in the recording process. With the rise of digital music, fans listen to fewer albums straight through. Instead, they move from one artist’s song to another’s. Pop artists and their labels, meanwhile, shudder at the prospect of having their song seem quieter than the previous song on a fan’s playlist. So audio engineers, acting as foot soldiers in a so-called volume war, are often enlisted to increase the overall volume of a recording. Randy Merrill, an engineer at MasterDisk, a New York City company that creates master recordings, said that to achieve an overall louder sound, engineers raise the softer volumes toward peak levels. On a quality stereo system, Mr. Merrill said, the reduced volume range can leave a track sounding distorted. “Modern recording has gone overboard on the volume,” he said. In fact, among younger listeners, the lower-quality sound might actually be preferred. Jonathan Berger, a professor of music at Stanford, said he had conducted an informal study among his students and found that, over the roughly seven years of the study, an increasing number of them preferred the sound of files with less data over the high-fidelity recordings. “I think our human ears are fickle. What’s considered good or bad sound changes over time,” Mr. Berger said. “Abnormality can become a feature.” An earlier version of this article misstated the common unit of measurement for the transfer rate for digital audio formats. It is kilobits per second, not kilobytes.

FAQ CANON 7D, 5D, 1D Video Assist Notes:Video Outputs everything i know at: This document Canon and video assist: http://wolfvid.com/datasheets/FAQCANON_7D_VideoAssist_Notes.pdf www.wolfvid.com email: wolf@wolfvid.com youknow prices change and specs are illusions. I tried to not advertise the vaporware out there 03/09/2010 pix don't show here at wexler... ========== End of document =====================

listening ears http://jorgevismara.net/ce/rare/listening/ wolf

Favorite iPhone Audio Apps Mix’s February 2010 issue looked at iPhone apps for professional audio, and we asked readers to tell us about their favorite audio apps. For more on this topic, go to mixonline.com/gear/newproducts/audio_new_assistant_engineer and emusician.com/ms/iPhone_Apps I have been a touring and recording musician for more than 30 years. In November 2009, I bought a 16GB iPod touch second-generation. I started loading it with free apps and then came across SPL Meter by Studio Six Digital. I soon discovered that Studio Six Digital was offering AudioTools. This app package includes what they call “Acoustics, Acoustic Analysis Tools.” In that portion of the bundle is a tool called RTA Real-Time Analyzer. RTA is worth every cent it costs to get the bundle—and then some. I wish I had this little package 30 years ago. It would have saved countless hours trying to help live sound engineers find the correct feedback frequencies. I take it to every venue. This is an exceptionally helpful tool at a very reasonable price for such a good piece of gear. —Jim Nunally from http://mixonline.com/TalkBack/talkback_letters_mix_april_2010/ I wish there was a RF spectrum analyzer available for MAC. The serious engineering apps are just not there yet I think. this post: http://jwsound.net/SMF/index.php?action=post;topic=5332.0;num_replies=1 wolf

check this http://jwsound.net/SMF/index.php?topic=5668.0 wolf

The long awaited firmwareupdate for one of Canon's most popular DSLR cameras has finally arrived. Firmware Version 2.0.3 incorporates five enhancements to the movie function anda fix to the manual sensor cleaning function of the EOS 5D Mark II camera. If you'reone of the many 5D owners who have been anticipating the release of these newfeatures, you already know that this is big news. If you haven'tpurchased the 5D yet and have been holding off buying it because of the framerate issue, your wait is over! CLICK HERE for 5D Mark II Product Info& Firmware Update Link http://web.canon.jp/imaging/eosd/firm-e/eos5dmk2/firmware.html 1. Adds or changes the following movie frame rates. NTSC: * 1920×1080 : 30 fps (changed -actual 29.97 fps) * 1920×1080 : 24 fps (added - actual23.976 fps) * 640×480 : 30 fps (changed - actual29.97 fps) PAL: * 1920×1080 : 25 fps (added - actual25.0 fps) * 1920×1080 : 24 fps (added - actual23.976 fps) * 640×480 : 25 fps (added - actual25.0 fps) 2. Adds a function for manually adjusting the sound recording level (64levels). 3. Adds a histogram display (brightness or RGB) for shooting movies in manualexposure. 4. Adds shutter-priority AE mode (Tv) and aperture-priority AE (Av) mode to theexposure modes for shooting movies. 5. Changes the audio sampling frequency from 44.1 KHz to 48 KHz. 6. Fixes a phenomenon where communication between the camera and the attachedlens is sometimes interrupted after manual sensor cleaning. (This phenomenononly affects units with Firmware Version 1.2.4.) more useful info at http://wolfvid.com/datasheets/FAQ_CANON_7D_VideoAssist_Notes.pdf wolf

Cannon 5D manual: http://www.prohdrentals.com/store/skin/frontend/default/default/manuals/eos5dmkii-im-en.pdf Cannon 5D editing on a PCCine Form Neo Scene converts in real time in full res. http://www.cineform.com/neoscene/ “With Neo Scene you will convert yourdifficult-to-edit HDV, AVCHD, Canon 5D Mk II or Canon 7D camera footage toCineForm AVI or MOV files and then benefit from the same theatrical qualityformat and real-time editing performance as professionals.” How to post Canon 5D files – oh mi gawdhttp://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/newbay/tvt_20100303/index.php?startid=19#/19/OnePage This is a Flash ? file and I can’t reproduce it well here.This is a good article with much technical detail on the How to workflow of the5D files. Details on picture and Sound speed change. He may have expressed itawkwardly but he means the right thing. TVTechnology - March 3, 2010 - (19) Mar 3, 2010 page 19 ...News Posting Canon 5D Content Some advice for handling 30 fps videofrom this hot new DSLR by Oliver Peters ORLANDO, FLA. video cameras, www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/newbay/tvt_20100303/index.php something to print out and give to the posties... wolf ( we have perfect transmitters for video assist now) www.wolfvid.com

CHANNEL GUIDE FOR AROUND THE WORLD:Of course you cannot use any UHF transmitter in the USAunless you have special permission from FCC or are working for certaingovernment agencies. If you are, thisapplies to you: Some channels (14-20) are used by police and fire in manyplaces around the world for data, so even if there's no picture on yourmonitor, some other service is using this frequency for data communication andyou could be interfering with them. They may complain and stop you from using your equipment. If you areanother government service with priority you probably have other choices orknow how to frequency coordinate. In use channels in Tijuana: 12, 21, 27, 33, 57 Do not use channels that have Broadcast analog TV on it. It does not work and its not permitted mostplaces. If you want to be real safe do not use the channel on either side of abroadcast channel. You may interferewith broadcast TV reception they may desensitize your reception. Do not transmit over the air in the USA or other placeswhere you have no permission from the appropriate authorities! Spectrumuse: Here some worldwide frequencies inuse find them for your area: http://www.sennheiserusa.com/frequencyfinder/default.asp (ref. Scott F) http://www.lectrosonics.co.uk/lectroeurofreq.htm A sample database of USA TV channels pre digital is at http://www.globalcommnet.com/operators/tvoperator.asp Enter your location and TV channel and alllicensed transmitters (TV, AM, FM) at a specified distance will be listed withfull site maps. Of course, it’sof little use, as you are not allowed to use Modulus in the US and loads of TV and freq. Info: http://tvtower.com/Commercial%20Television%20Frequencies.html WorldTV systems list: http://www.kropla.com/tv.htm also http://www.alkenmrs.com/video/wwstandards1.html forworld radio stations and internet stations go to : http://www.tvradioworld.com/region1/ca/tv.asp?m=los AllTV channels and frequencies in the US http://www.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Engineering_Technology/News_Releases/1998/et8002a.txt And http://www.soontai.com.tw/tvtab1.html Good little antenna lesson: http://www.professionalwireless.com/antenna.aspx LECTROSONICSWEBSITE FOR WIRELESS FREQ: http://www.lectrosonics.com/cgi-bin/tv_form.pl SHUREWEBSITE FOR WIRELESS FREQUENCIES: http://www.shure.com/scripts/freq_app/default.asp SENNHEISERWEBSITE FOR WIRELESS FREQ: http://www.sennheiserusa.com/newsite/mat_dev/frequencyfinder/Freqfinder-open.asp TV& RADIO CHANNELS AROUND THE WORLD: http://www.tvradioworld.com/ FCC TV CHANNEL LOOK-UP SERVICE:http://www.fcc.gov/mb/video/tvq.html Want to find out how to coordinate frequencies on the set?Here a computerized approach: http://www.professionalwireless.com/ias/Demo/index.html Digital transition consumer info: http://www.antennaweb.org/aw/welcome.aspx http://www.dtvanswers.com/ http://www.rabbitears.info/market.php http://www.hdpictures.com/stations.htm http://www.shure.com/ProAudio/PressRoom/WhiteSpaces/index.htmwhite space info Find all digital stations within 80 miles of a zip code: http://www.rabbitears.info/search.php

Look at the links in this it will be a help http://wolfvid.com/datasheets/Battery_watcher.pdf wolf

Taylor and Taylor 8181 981-9700 Darren Rosenbaum - insures a lot of production companies. knows film. I had a 120K claim against a company that no longer insures film... it took 3 years to get 60K and was a monster of a hassle. Note that ins. co are there to collect no pay out money. the agent is a SALES agent - not on your side on a claim. - you got to do it and watch for low deductible and coverage of locked car in public places at night. -- Never admit to "mysterious disappearance" - someone always "stole" equipment. Airplane ins. is nonexistant. fed Ex coverage is said to be good but $1K deductible . . wolf

Carol Ann Lombardini job is to pay us as little as possible and to reduce health insurance and other producers costs as much as possible. She is there to take food out of your children's mouths. She does not care who gets killed from excessive hours, she does not care that work stays in LA. JO is going soft in the head not to call her out on this. I could comment on other excessive public exercises of verbal masturbation but why? None of the concerns of a trade union were touched upon in this communication from the local. wolf (in shame and disbelief)

wonder why this and the other IMPORTANT topics are not even touched on in the 695 newsletter? wolf PS.: it particularly revolting to see JO (on our dime) praise our enemy: the new contract negotiating partner. I am afraid his brain is going a little soft on us.

more.... If the union had the interest of its members at heart, it would do away with all barriers to membership, find better ways to guarantee that its members are qualified, have an organizing strategy, and make sure that it controls the labor market. Again I hate to have to say how repulsive it is to make a good thing (union membership) so hard to attain. Once you are in the union do not expect to get anything beyond a hard to earn and keep health plan. In LA you need an initial 600 hours to qualify and then 300 hours to maintain. AS of 2010 you need 400 hours to maintain. If you get to be old enough and have 20,000 hours of work behind you they will pay you a small pension ( starting with $ 500 a month), if you die before or during receiving a pension your spouse now gets something ( not sure??? 60%??). The actors guild SAG has a much better plan especially for the under-employed large majority of their members. In fact if you do expect the union staff to do "the right thing" you got a lesson coming. It is next to impossible to get the union to act on your behalf. I hate to say it but the simple truth is that the union exists to protect its bosses salaries not yours. You are just a pain in the side to their cushy jobs. The fead of THe IATSE in 2009 gets 325,000 a year! This organization is a top down hierarchy. If you want to approach the union on any level about something, please discuss this move thoroughly with your friends first. Many fully justified innocent approaches have lead to consequences that affect your work-life and home-life in a serious way. This family ( the union hierarchy ) does not respond well to people who make wavelets. Addendum: E. writes: Thanks the brother for providing this timely (1997) information on how to join IATSE. Anyone considering joining us should be aware that there are a substantial numbers of IA members who wish to open our doors to all motion picture workers and welcome your efforts to join us. IATSE has entered a new era in which we are being attacked by the giant media corporations who want a non-union entertainment industry. The best way for us to fight back is to organize all levels of media production and stand together. ( PS.: they have achieved this for pretty much all internet distributed wares) There's another way to join IATSE that wasn't mentioned above, and it's how most new members are getting in here in Hollywood. You can help to organize the show you're working on now, and if that show goes union, you and your fellow crew members can get your union cards and get on the experience roster (with 30 days work). Help to organize means to inform the IA of who is working on the show (names and numbers) and what their attitudes to the union are. Many of our newer members are people who sought out work on non-union features they thought would be good organizing targets. You can call in a non-union show to the West Coast IATSE office at 818-905-8999. Ask to speak to an organizer. We have several of them and they're all good people even if its hard to get them off their assets at times. They know your number one concern is to keep your name confidential, so just to keep them from slipping up be careful about given them your real name. Do worry about getting burned. Protect yourself first of all. There is another wind blowing in the Camera local ( today Feb. 97) though. We have weekly orientation meetings for new members: ...all the people who get their "congratulations" letter through Contract Services are told to come to the orientation meeting Fridays at 10 AM (usually takes 2 hours) and we talk about the new national camera guild, the benefits and how you qualify for them, the various services the guild provides, stuff about safety and political actions and strikes and how to deal with independent producers who ask if you're in the union (which is illegal)...etc etc...it gives the new members a sense of what being in the union can be all about and encourages them to make suggestions and get involved. We've had from 5 to 30 members there each week (because we had a 90 day open period letting in anyone who had 30 days experience anywhere in the USA anytime in their lives...and contract services still has 2 cabinets worth to process). That's how it should be done of course. Lets see if other locals pick up on this… Pass this around to get others to join. The initiation fees are ridiculous - the unions will do little for you except allow you to work - but you will get paid better and if you work real hard you will get a decent health plan. --------------------

How to join the IATSE This was written over 13 years ago – nothing much has changed. To work as a member of one the Los Angeles IA locals, you must first be placed on the Industry Experience Roster for short THE ROSTER. This is a computerized list kept and distributed by Contract Services to all signatory producers and production companies. Producers with a union contract may only hire people listed on this roster. Since the application process can be slow, you might as well get yourself on this list now, even if there seems to be no union work on the immediate horizon (Case in point... We know of a non-union small commercial production company that was recently threatened with a lock-out on a major lot while in the middle of a week-long shoot. They became a signatory that night in the eleventh hour!). It is happening occasionally, folks! Generally though the major lots are just rental facilities nowadays, every production company is on its own and does what it wants to with respect to unions or not. ANyway it is free to join the roster – so DO IT. First, my opinion: I believe the Industry Experience Roster to be against everything that is good and traditional in American labor. It restricts access to work. It has artificial, semi-secret rules that are confusing to the uninitiated. It is plainly extra-legal if not totally illegal. It smacks of the old closed shop practices that created the labor elite locals, dinosaurs that are dying quickly. The only Dinosaurs left are the paid staff of the locals. It is a major stumbling block that prevents the IA from revitalizing itself while slowing recruitment directly into the Locals and the organization of non-union shows. The roster system should be abolished. Joining the various locals should be made attractive, easy and rewarding to prospective members. It is the new, young, hard-working members who will keep the health and pension fund alive and well for the membership as a whole. The locals should explain all the benefits to new members who are often not even interested in the health plan. Also there are just no locals for all the new entertainment crafts: nothing for computer animators ( Avitar) nothing for folks working on computer games. Shameful. And another opinion by a labor activist: The ROSTER is how the Producers guarantee there will always be a large non-union labor force in L.A. for them to exploit and to help keep the unions weak. Requiring a person to work 100 days non-union in order to get a union application may sound reasonable until you realize that those 100 days represent FIVE non-union M-O-Ws, or FIFTY commercials, or FORTY Music Videos, or THREE low-budget features, etc. So for every crew-sized group applying for union admission, we REQUIRE that all those productions be made NON-UNION. This is SUICIDE! How many new members did your local take in this year - and how many productions had to be made non-union to allow that many to qualify by working 100 days? The producers can't help but love a system in which the unions REQUIRE vast amounts of non-union production to continue unchallenged. Don't you realize how stupid that all is? We should be grabbing these people right out of film school, or right out of the rental houses, with limited experience, to be sure, but before they begin contributing to the system that is killing us and keeps our contracts so low. I think you will find that the Producers set up the Roster in the late 1940's (1947?) originally to guarantee that an adequate number of skilled employees would remain in Hollywood and available for their companies. They did this by promising employment preference to experienced workers. After the war, many Americans enjoyed the economic boom and began moving away from the cities. The studios were afraid that experienced crews would be hard to find unless they did something. The studios got together (the origin of Contract Services?) and hired former Senator Robert Taft, I believe it was, to write the ROSTER language they later adopted. In effect, the ROSTER uses loopholes in Taft-Hartley to do what it does, and who knew these better than one of the sponsors of the Taft-Hartley bill? The employers formed Contract Services, they hire the staff, they pay the bills, and they determine policy. CS is a producers organization, not some neutral clearing house. Their job was, and is, to make sure that there are always a lot of non-union people around by keeping the Roster difficult to qualify for, and to make sure that very few workers qualify for Health Insurance and Pensions. They do this job very well. They "Service" their "Contracts" by making sure that labor doesn't cut too deeply into huge corporate profits. What you need: Contract Services will now send you requirements in the mail if you request. Generally: You must have worked 100 days on non-union shoots OR 30 days on union shoots in a given category over the last 3 years. You will be asked to prove this with paycheck stubs and letters from your employer(s) or the payroll companies that they utilize. Remember these are not documents like you would submit to a court of law, just rags of paper. There is no charge to be listed by Contract Services. You do not have to be in a union to be placed on the roster. You can, however, join the union without being on the roster, which will give you union status, but will not make you eligible for employment by the producers who are part of the multi-unit bargaining system (who signed the labor contract with the international IA in New York). New 1997: There is a second roster now: a commercial roster. Less rules more confusion: Approximatly: You can get on that with 30 days and then you need 120 days to get on the real roster: the Industry Experience Roster . Nuts?? Yes… especially since Contract Services is unable to establish this roster as of Feb. 1997, 3 month after the IA signed the commercial contract with the AICP in secret. That's right noone voted on it, no members were consulted. Payrates are not much worse but conditions certainly are. ½ day travel sucks, so do short turn arounds on location. Camera men again get better conditions. How to do it: Contract Services will require proof of work experience in the form of paycheck stubs and letters from the production companies you have worked for or the payroll services utilized by your employers. Contact the payroll companies OR the producers for whom you have worked and request a letter for Contract Services (see attached letter templates for specific examples). They are, in theory, required to promptly write you a letter. In reality, however, they may not give this their full and immediate attention... be polite, but persistent. Also, make it easy for them. Modify and send out the letter templates to the appropriate employers or payroll companies. Include a self-addressed and stamped envelope so they will speed their signed letter back to you. Once you’ve received your letters back from the producers, attach the check stubs corresponding to each. Payroll companies must send their letters directly to Contract Services (if you choose this method, Contract Services may not require paycheck stubs, but find and organize them anyway, as the Local itself may ask to see them). Furthermore, it has been said that the check stubs have to show you worked in the category you are applying for. This seems to vary on a case-by-case basis. Also, don't plan to use days where you were paid as a sub-contractor, 1099'd, loan-out corp., etc. They will only consider W-4 income. Finally, in spite of letters and paycheck stubs, you guessed it, they want to do an I-9, so don't forget your personal documentation. They say this checkout procedure takes no less than 3-4 days, more typical though are several weeks if there is no emergency. If you utilize production company letters, you must hand-deliver the above-mentioned documentation and proof of citizenship to Contract Services at 15387 Oxnard St., Ste. 200 Van Nuys 818 995-0900 . If you have to mail make sure you use the green letter arrived receipt forms the P.O. sells. As already mentioned, we are told that payroll company letters will not be accepted by this method. Be sure your papers are well organized, well Xeroxed and easy to read, thus making it easy on the overworked office staff that processes this pile of stuff. They are not subject to any kind of a deadline, prodding helps. Once you "pass," Contract Services will call the local and possibly even write you and them a letter confirming your placement on the Industry Experience Roster. You should ask to have a letter sent to you. After being placed on the roster, call the appropriate Local to find out about your financial obligations ( lots of locals exist on the initiation fees) . You’ll have to fill out the Locals’ application forms, if they have any, and pay the usually very hefty initiation fees. For example, a director of photography pays over $ 8000, a camera operator $ 6000, a camera assistant $ 4200, a sound mixer over $ 4000, script supervisors about $ $ 4300 (2300 initially and 3x700 in 2 month increments). Some Locals let you pay off the initiation fees over a short term. The basic formula for initiation fees is 4 weeks at scale rates in the Basic contract. Local 600 ( Camera) dues are 480 a year (1998 OLKD info!) plus 1.15% of your gross income. None of this, of course, guarantees you any kind of employment. Only a few of the craft locals send jobs out through the union hall. Grip local 80, electric local 728 do when its busy. These are called hiring hall locals. They will send out new people not in the union when they run out of their own people (it does happen!). These people are called "permit workers". If they work for more than 30 days the local has to take them in. Both grip and electric are very good at canceling permits after 28 days. They do not want new members. ( Jan 1997 revision: Electric has taken in lots of new members recently, and the grip local hired a good organizer Tom Davis who is pro labor.) Here a quote from the Internet: "…you've got a Call Steward for Local 728 who says "3 things bother me, Niggers, Jews and Women"...who is so opposed to organizing and letting new people in that electricians regularly cross IA picket lines because they know that even if they stick their necks out and support us [the IA], Local 728 would rather self-immolate then ever let them in. We will NEVER regain power as an effective bargaining unit while we have isolationist, short-sighted, miserable assholes like THAT out of positions of authority." ( he meant in positions of…!!) All of this paperwork is handled in a very informal manner and open to interpretation, embellishment and fraud. This is not a court procedure and it is not supervised by any watchdog committee. Remember, when you talk to union officials never volunteer more information than is asked of you and do not answer any questions that seem uncomfortable or unreasonable. We have heard of smart individuals carrying hidden $40 miniature tape recorders when talking to the various officials (It is of course not evidence permitted in a court of law in California). You have very little recourse here except for witnessed discrimination or intimidation cases. There is a lot of this going on in private of course, and generally these misdeeds are buried because the applicant is scared of the union bosses. They all have cousins to bring into the fold, so don't be surprised by the general hostility you may encounter. I wish new members were recruited and made to feel that they own the union. They do, after all, pay the official’s salaries. Grandfathering Another way of getting into the union is by being "grandfathered" in. This means that you have worked in your category for a non-union production company for 90 days when the company or the production is suddenly organized (signs a contract with the union). You are then allowed to join the local when your name is included on a list handed in by the producer and for $500 [the so called organizing fee] (and we have even heard of cases where a specific local actually wanted the members and let them in for $50), you’re in. This is usually associated with some form of raiding or other unique circumstance. I must stress, once again, that these are only unofficial guidelines for making application to the IA. The attached letter templates are intended to simplify your approach. Do yourself a favor and verify this information by calling your prospective local and Contract Services at (818) 995-0900 (they have a fancy phone menu information system). Not sure if they are email cognizant yet. J In the past, Contract Services has been known to issue written instructions ( 2 pages) only when pressed. Eileen Leonard, assistant to the CEO of the Service, has never been seen by any person I have talked to ( as of 1997 !!!). The Contract Services Administration Trust Fund calls itself an independent entity. It was created to maintain a roster of individuals who have met a standard of work experience which makes them eligible for employment by union signatory companies. Contract Services is supported by direct payments from the Producers Association and to a very minor degree by approximately 24 union locals. This extra-legal service is one of the last vestiges of the old guard, keeping people out of the various locals and acting as a barrier to protect the old, complacent membership. It’s one of those stupid shoot-yourself-in-the-foot remnants of dinosaur style unionism. It benefits the producers to have a large non-union pool of cheap labor that they can do with as they like ( work for endless hours and pay often less than minimum wage). These same producers, when it suits them, also want a docile workforce that is trained, compliant and supervised by union imposed discipline for those few projects that have to go through the production mill without any hick ups. The unions are that guarantee of a minimal workforce at set wages. This is why the IA is allowed to exist. D. opinion: "My understanding of the situation (writes D.) - which I researched for an article a few years ago (1994) - is that it is a complicated and insidious situation. Since Contract Services is a separate entity contractually bound by its relationships with both the employers and the individual locals, it has no authority for independent action. No change in the eligibility requirements can take place without the negotiated agreement of both parties - the local and the producers. This allows the [any] local to claim that it does not have the ability to independently implement any change. The de facto situation is that the producers are perfectly willing to go along with any change which would make the Roster more open. However, since that agreement must come as part of a formal negotiation, some locals persist in the fiction that they cannot unilaterally change the requirements because they do not wish to make the Roster more open. Further I am told by a source close to contract services that, in the early days of the union (while under the control of Frank Nitty) , there was much feather-bedding on studio shows with workers bringing on unqualified cousins and the like. Studios found that a significant portion of the payroll was unproductive. Contract Services was originally a plan to insure that all eligible workers had some experience in their respective crafts. Since it was run independently of the unions, it could independently verify work experience. Use by the various union locals to restrict access to work was corruption of the original purpose and came much later." [its very hard to get a the real history of these extra legal organizations despite their power over so many individual livelihoods. The answer to unqualified workers is of course training and testing, not something considered by the IA. Ed.] Contract Services, by the way, is funded exclusively by signatories to the collective bargaining agreement and in proportion to the number of employees paid under that contract. The union locals contribute only the extent that they too, are employers under the contract. E.G. each local typically pays its BA and several assistant BAs under its own union contract. To that extent, it is also a union employer and subject to contributions to support Contract Services." There have been class action suits in the last 20 years that have loosened the control of Contract Services considerably. They can not officially discriminate anymore on the basis of sex or race. As penance for their past nasty practices, they were even required to completely open up (all locals) for a brief period in the seventies. Still, the very existence of Contract Services is a major obstacle to recruitment, despite Tom Short’s ( the IA's supreme leader) assertion that organizing is the number one priority of the new International. We have not heard of any rejections of properly documented applications by Contract Services. The open locals are, as far as we know ( as 1998) : Camera (Local 600/659), Sound (695), Editorial (776), Make-up/Hair, and since the fall of 1996 Script. I hear from out of towners that Camera and editorial will not recognize hours worked outside of L.A. county. Some people (few) have had their 1099 hours accepted most have not. The closed locals are, as far as we know: grip, electricians. All Locals and their addresses are on the Internet at: http://www.iatse-intl.org/home.html . This is the official IA site. Again, Good Luck!

some links for some really cheap stuff (once again) chargers and inverters: http://wolfvid.com/datasheets/Specials.pdf keep track of your battery status http://wolfvid.com/datasheets/Battery_watcher.pdf http://wolfvid.com/datasheets/Batteries_and_chargers.pdf We think Lithium Batteries are often dangerous. Here a summary of near disasters compounded by the Federal Government: http://cryptome.org/0001/phmsa100709.htm and here something very usefull if you care to dig around in it... its a bit of a mess and this board does not show tables and pix correctly... if you actually build stuff not just BUY shit read on... PRIVATE DOCUMENT (unfinished thoughts) 12V 40 Ahr Lipo http://www.batteryspace.com/customizelifepo4prismaticbattery128v40ah512wh25aratewithcigarettelightersocket.aspx $ 450 with charger http://www.batteryspace.com/customizelifepo4prismaticbatteryandcharger128v40ah512wh30aratewithseparatechargeanddischargetermnialsand10acharger.aspx ============================ note; Interacter PS1210 10 Ah from a company in Meriden, CT http://www.interacter.com/Ps_page.html with Noise Filter is the Xterminator S-25A by American International (25 Amp, 350 Watt) http://www.crutchfield.com/p_003S25A/American-International-S-15A-S-2... not sure how necessary this is, some chargers switch noisily =============================================== need a fast ( 10A) charger for a 7 cell ENERSYS CYCLON BC CELL BATTERY 25AH - (formerly called: Hawker Gates Genesis) Application guide: http://www.enersysreservepower.com/documents/US-CYC-AM-007_0408.pdf selection guide http://www.enersysreservepower.com/documents/US-CYC-SG-003_0608.pdf ==================================================== 14V 25Ahr battery charger available. what is the cost of the first one? answer: This will need to be a custom charger as the voltage is non-standard at 14V. Please see the attached profile. The charge current must be a minimum of 10A. Aaron A Woodruff District Sales Manager / Southwest Region 903-885-2668- Office 830-433-0963- Cell ====================================================== Yes it is possible to make a 14V 10A Interacter charger for cyclon cell batteries. Our part number would be PS14/10 But the transformer is a custom design, not a standard part so we do not stock it, and there would be a delay while the special transformer is wound & tested. I will check on availability & price and let you know. Best regards, Phil Hutchings, Engineer, Interacter Inc. 290 Pratt ST Meriden CT 06450. P: (203) 630 0199 F: 203 630 0122 --------------------------------------- CYCLON-BC CYCLON® and GENESIS® Batteries Hawker Energy 0820-0004-2V 25.0AH BC CELL Cyclon BC Cell Hawker Gates 2.57x6.25H" HOT=6.821" M6 mm, M8 mm N&B terminals Price: $49.50 http://www.enersysreservepower.com/cyc_b.asp?brandID=4 Per cell: 2.45 to 2.50 volts @ 25°C 12 volts: 14.70 to 15.0 volts @ 25°C Float Chargers: Per cell: 2.27 to 2.35 volts @ 25°C12volts: 13.62 to l4.10volts @ 25°C CYCLON® BC Single Cell Mechanical Specifications (F, G, & I - Maximum) Products Dimensions in. (mm) A B C D E F G H I Weight oz. (kg) BC cell 0.65(16.5) 1.30(33.0) 22° 0.57(14.5) 0.22(5.6) 6.25(158. 0.06(1.5) 0.13(3.3) 2.57(65.3) 3.68(1.67) CYCLON-BC: 2V/25AH Pure Lead Battery Hawker Energy 0820-0004-2V 25.0AH BC CELL ENERSYS CYCLON BC CELL BATTERY 2V 25AH - (formerly called: Hawker, Gates, Genesis) still the best, longest lasting and most expensive 2.57x6.25H" HOT=6.821" M6 mm, M8 mm N&B terminals List Price: $49.50 for 25Ahr cell can find for $ 40 Application guide: http://www.enersysreservepower.com/documents/US-CYC-AM-007_0408.pdf selection guide http://www.enersysreservepower.com/documents/US-CYC-SG-003_0608.pdf Made by enersys: CYCLON® Battery 12 Volt 2x3 25.0Ah Case 0820-2018 BC Double Slot, 8.05 204.5 5.45 138.4 7.25 184.2 22.86 10.4 Yes Copper Straps 0820-0020 BC Double Slot, 8.05 204.5 5.45 138.4 7.25 184.2 22.86 10.4 No Copper Straps EnerSys P.O. Box 14145 Reading, PA 19612-4145 USA Tel: +1-610-208-1991 +1-800-538-3627 Fax: +1-610-372-8613 Cyclon 2V Single Cell Products Diameter Height. Heightwithterminals Weight Tabs PerformanceConstant current discharge/amps(Constant power discharge/watts per cell) (Capacity) in (mm) in (mm) in (mm) oz (gm) in (mm) 15 min. 60 min. 90 min. 5 hr. 10 hr. BC cell (25Ah) 2.57(65.3) 6.25(158. 6.82(173.2) 58.88(1669.2) M6(-)andM8(+)terminals 54.3(105.5) 19.3(36. 14.0(25.6) 4.85(9.20) 2.55(4.95) ================================================= OPTIMA batteries can be shipped by AIR. The battery is nonspillable and is tested according to ICAO Technical Instructions DOC. 9284-AN/905 to meet the requirements of Packing Instructions No. 806 and is classified as non-regulated by IATA Special Provision A-48 and A-67 for UN2800. Terminals must be protected from short circuit. http://www.optimabatteries.com/home.php http://www.optimabatteries.com/_media/documents/specs/D51_D51R.pdf http://www.1st-optima-batteries.com/#deepyellowspecs YellowTop Specs OPTIMA YELLOWTOP DUAL PURPOSE (STARTING & DEEP CYCLE) BATTERIES MODEL NUMBER D34/78 D75/25 D34 D35 D51 & D51R PERFORMANCE Voltage 12v 12v 12v 12v 12v Cold Cranking Amps @ 0F 750 620 750 620 450 Cranking Amps @ 32F 870 770 870 770 575 Reserve Capacity 120 100 120 100 66 Capacity (C/20 Rate) 55 48 55 48 38 Internal Resistance (ohms) 0.0028 0.003 0.0028 0.003 0.0046 PHYSICAL SPECS Length 10" 9 5/16" 10" 9 5/16" 9 5/16" Width 6 7/8" 6 13/16" 6 7/8" 6 13/16" 5 1/16" Height 7 13/16" 7 5/8" 7 13/16" 7 5/8" 8 15/16" Minimum Weight (lbs) 43.5 37.8 42.9 36.4 26 Type Post/Terminal Dual SAE & GM Dual SAE & GM SAE Post SAE Post SAE Post BCI Group 34/78 75/25 34 35 51 & 51R Manufacturing Location: Made in: Enertec Exports S. de R.L. de C.V. RFC: EEX020516KU2 Avenida. del Parque No. 2155 Monterrey Technology Park Cienega de Flores, N.L. 65550 MEXICO Phone: 52 (81) 81542300 Fax: 52 (81) 81542301 1.59 AUTOZONE (310) 305-3880 12778 WASHINGTON B =============================================== (RED ONE™ camera current use: Basic recording 5.5A, Pana tape 1.3A, RED monitor .7A, assistant 7” monitor .9A, FIZ min 1A max 1.5A, video Tx 1A = approx. 9.0A continuous, 9.5A peak =========================================== ODYSEE BATT Approved chargers: http://www.odysseybattery.com/documents/ODYSSEYApproved12VChargers_000.pdf VDC ELECTRONICS, INC. Tech Support: TOLL FREE 800-379-5579 x208 (ET) Tel: 800-379-5579 (ET) Email: techsupport@vdcelectronics.com Fax: 631-423-8029 Web: www.batteryminders.com ========================================================= Interacter Inc. 290 Pratt St. Meriden, CT 06450 ... (203) 630-0199... Fax (203) 630-0122 Engineering e-mail Only pphutchings AT snet.net 14V 10A Interacter charger for cyclon cell batteries: Our part number would be PS14/10 But the transformer is a custom design, not a standard part so we do not stock it, and there would be a delay while the special transformer is wound & tested. Phil Hutchings, Engineer, Interacter Inc. 290 Pratt ST Meriden CT 06450. P: (203) 630 0199 F: 203 630 0122 The price for 1 charger will be $155 plus shipping. For 50 pcs we could do significantly better pricing, but we must make one first, to test & approve.Delivery estimated 2-3 weeks after order, because we have to design a special transformer.The specs for it would be the same as the Interacter professional Series PS12/10, except it would be configured to charge 7 series cells (14 Volts Nominal).The charging voltage limit would be set for Cyclon cells per Hawker Energy recommendations at 2.45 V per cell (17.15V total) with auto float charge at 2.3V/Cell (16.1V total). PS series provides 100% automatic charging with proportional timing, temp comp, and override timer. This charger could not be used for charging 12V batteries, only for 14 Volt. Here is a link to the PS series specification. http://www.interacter.com/Ps_page.html If interested kindly contact Bob Besch on the number below, re payment, we accept Visa or Mastercard for initial order.I hope this will be of interest, and good luck with your application! Best regards, Phil Hutchings, ========================================= http://www.powerwerx.com/wire-cable/ lying picture – just a dual sleve over the plastic but NOT 33 wires for 12 Ga To leave a message, please call toll free 888-321-0073 or 714-674-0073. Customer service is available Monday thru Friday, 9AM to 3PM Pacific Standard Time. SKU: Wire-RB-12-25 12 ga zip SKU: Wire-RB-10-25 10 ga zip They will send free samples ============================================== Terminal types http://www.synergisticbatteries.com/media/terminal%20types.pdf ============================================ charger http://www.sidewinder.com.au/page62.html http://www.sidewinder.com.au/page166aaa.html have battery protector http://www.sidewinder.com.au/page90a.html ====================================== lubricant http://www.rc-electronics-usa.com/connector-lubricant.html Wire Resistance and Voltage Drop Calculator http://www.stealth316.com/2-wire-resistance.htm background knowledge http://www.rc-electronics-usa.com/battery-electronics-101.html ================================================== Some interesting stuff from Jeff Wexler: 2-wire panel meters http://www.murata-ps.com/cgi-bin/cd4power.storefront/49907af7093088da271d0c9f894206ef/Catalog/1070 http://www.murata-ps.com/cgi-bin/cd4power.storefront/4ab5e0ec17c5b168271e0c9f8942074a/Catalog/1042?defaultPanel=0 http://www.marteltesttools.com/products.php?cat=113&action=detail&id=69 ================================================ Lithium Batt for Red info: http://www.batteryspace.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=4266 Polymer Li-Ion Battery Box 14.8V 25.Ah in Water-proof Case, 6 pound $ our cost 420.00 LxWxH: 200mm( “) x 152mm(6.0") W x 3.0"(75 mm) Charger 3A for 12 hours $ 38.00 Or 12V 13 Ahr http://www.batteryspace.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=4826 $ 230 ================================ Battery cut off 3A charger http://www.powerportstore.com/power_accessories.htm also lots of cheap batt packages in soft pouches West Marine has 6,12,30A chargers only for 12 V ================================================= Why you should not use a FAST charger for a float application: William, I don't dispute that it works for you, but permit me to clarify. The electrolyte paste has water. When the battery loses enough water, the paste becomes inert, dry. This is a major cause of end of life of AGM (absorbed glass mat) batteries, which is what a Blue Top is. A sealed battery has an oxygen recombination cycle that recovers most of the hydrolyzed water, but the cycyle fails when the battery is fully charged, and continues to be charged above float voltage. All smart chargers have at least two phases, and sometimes four. But there is always a "bulk mode", which means charging at a rapid rate. The battery can be charged at the higher bulk mode voltage because it will not gas until it is nearly full. The way the charger senses this is by current draw. But using the charger to power equipment makes the charger unable to sense the reduced current draw of the battery as it approaches float. The last phase of battery charging is float. The voltage at float is lower, but since the charger has no way of knowing that the battery is nearly full, the charger remains in bulk mode. The consequence of this is that your battery is losing water faster than a battery that is not connected to a charger that is also powering equipment. I understand this is a perfectly acceptable tradeoff for you, but another user might have different goals. The page on your charger describes bulk mode: http://www.interacter.com/Ps_page.html Your charger is a three mode unit. Regards, Bob Morein (310) 237-6511 Easy answer: have the charger modified with a float/fast mode switch and go to fast mode when you are not using the batt as a UPS

more info http://www.wolfvid.com/datasheets/!_24P_EXCERPTS_for_internet.pdf wolf

custom tuned Yagies made by http://www.comtelcoantennas.com/index.htm decent construction - best antenna for RF mikes Helixes have too wide a bandwidth besides diversity does for audio what the helix does wolf

check here http://wolfvid.com/datasheets/Specials.pdf for some great deals on Statpower ProWatt converters, power supplies, chargers etc. I would not recommend Samlex, Excell is great (Sine wave extremly clean!!), I ran a Yamaha on a 250W Statpower ProWatt and a 100 W Excell both are fine - the Excell is more expensive and not necessary. wolf look at http://wolfvid.com/datasheets/Specials.pdf and read http://wolfvid.com/html/lit.html

I did some extensive experiments in the early days of stereo movies for a Disney sail-boating film - SFX only , not dialog. Using the Dolby matrix in post it became obvious that stereo as thought of in music ( 2 signals with some subtle phase differences) did very little in a theater. I ended up using Shoeps hyper cardiooids 12+" apart pointing 90 or more degree away from each other ( Not ORTF not x-y not M-s). It was important to record similar sounds occurring at the same time but have pretty serious separation, because the Dolby matrix sucked everything together in the middle and the large theaters have no standards at all that make it good in all theaters. THX knows there is no way to predict stereo phase in large rooms so different from each other. Of course you can't rely on just "phase" stereo in a large theater because there are only few center seats where this would work. The BBC guys use M-S all the time. the whole of TV is very used to it and they have all kinds of ways to manipulate it later. Of course they are mixing for a small room , still their transmission make a muddy mess of pristine M-S ( loss of separation and limited bandwidth). I understand that for interviews they just use the M though. M is usually a short shotgun i hear. wolf

In a Distressed Year, Hollywood Smiles By BROOKS BARNES New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/21/business/21hollywood.html?_r=1&ref=business In a Distressed Year, Hollywood Smiles By BROOKS BARNES New York Times LOS ANGELES — This was the year that Hollywood hit the jackpot by informing us that Mike Tyson keeps a pet tiger, Spock had a fling with Uhura, Hogwarts School needs a new head, the world will end in 2012, and even George Clooney is up in the air when it comes to women. By year’s end, it was enough to make Daniel Day-Lewis break into song. Hollywood will ride premium-price tickets for 3-D movies, big-budget sequels and — counterintuitively — the recession to more than $10 billion in ticket sales by the end of 2009, a near-record that is helping to offset a steep drop in DVD revenue. As of Sunday, North American theaters had already generated about $9.95 billion in ticket sales, with 11 days of 2009 to go, according to Box Office Mojo, which tracks movie sales. Most important, the industry did not reach this level of success through price increases alone. Box Office Mojo said attendance so far this year was about 1.39 billion, already a 3 percent increase over last year, even before counting many holiday blockbuster releases. That is still off about 12 percent from 2002, the attendance peak for the decade, but a far better showing than 2008, when attendance dropped 4.5 percent, according to Box Office Mojo’s figures. “It’s our job as an industry to make movies that consumers feel are worthy of getting out of the house to see, and this year we achieved that,” said Robert G. Friedman, a chairman of Summit Entertainment, the studio behind “The Twilight Saga: New Moon.” Even so, the film business has more work to do if it truly wants to scale new heights at the box office. Adjusting for inflation, 2002 still holds the contemporary record with just over $11 billion in sales. The robust box office is helping the industry cope with the DVD downturn. In the first six months of the year, DVD revenue fell by about $1 billion compared with the previous year, analysts say, as consumers tightened their discretionary spending and as video-on-demand and online viewing became more popular. A major problem is that bigger receipts at the box office do not immediately translate to bigger studio profits because of revenue splitting with theaters and other partners. Still, the uptick in moviegoing has studios for the first time in years focusing more on delivering must-see films than churning out poorly executed movies and letting DVD sales pick up the slack. “If people come to the movies and leave feeling like they got more than they paid for, the experience was validated for them and they will come back,” said Tom Rothman, a chairman of Fox Filmed Entertainment. So, how did Hollywood deliver such strong results? Start with the recession. Historically speaking, the old saw that movies do well in hard times is not precisely true. But the economy certainly played a role this year, analysts say, with the movies offering a relatively affordable escape. The downturn also coincided with a batch of movies that did not make people think too hard. Put “The Hangover” from Warner Brothers in that category — the comedy, featuring Mr. Tyson’s tiger, came out of nowhere to sell $277.3 million in domestic tickets — along with inexpensive thrillers like “Taken,” from 20th Century Fox. Studios relied surprisingly little on men in tights — “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” was the lone superhero picture among the year’s top 10 — but leaned heavily on big-budget sequels and prequels. Seven of the top 10 movies were new franchise installments, including the No. 1 movie of the year, “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen,” which Paramount Pictures pushed to $402 million in domestic sales. Other factors mattered, like a less-cluttered marquee: the number of films released in theaters dropped 14 percent for the year compared with 2008. But by far the biggest contributor was the audience’s embrace of 3-D screenings, for which a ticket costs $3 to $5 more than standard. Analysts estimate that box office revenue from 3-D has totaled $1.3 billion so far this year — not counting “Avatar,” from James Cameron, which opened on Friday. In 2008, 3-D sales stood at $307 million. Expect the business to push the format even harder as a result: there are currently more than 50 films slated for 3-D release in coming years, according to RealD, a provider of 3-D technology for theaters. Imax, the large-format movie company, also kicked into overdrive in 2009, helping to push film after film to blockbuster status. There are now 440 Imax theaters open around the world, a 24 percent increase from the fourth quarter of last year, according to Richard L. Gelfond, Imax’s chief executive. Some studios rode these business currents, and others nearly capsized in them. Leading the Big Six movie factories was Warner Brothers, which dominated with 20 percent market share and $1.9 billion in sales in North America. (Add in overseas figures and the studio raked in $3.7 billion for its biggest unadjusted year ever.) Notably, “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,” the year’s second best-selling movie with $302 million in domestic tickets, overcame a delayed release date and worries that consumers were tiring of the series set at the Hogwarts School for wizards. Sony also recorded its best year, selling more than $3.4 billion at the global box office — an impressive result since the company did not have any films among the year’s top 10 in North America. Its formula? A wide range of pictures: the end-of-the-world epic “2012” on the big-budget side, “Paul Blart: Mall Cop” on the small, “Julie & Julia” aimed at older women, “Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs” directed toward children. “There are a bunch of different audiences out there if you pay attention to them,” said Doug Belgrad, president of Columbia Pictures, a unit of Sony. Added Matt Tolmach, who is also president of Columbia, “People are much more selective. If they don’t feel a movie is for them, it’s over.” Paramount, owned by Viacom, reversed its fortunes with a successful reboot of “Star Trek,” in which a young Mr. Spock had an onscreen kiss with Uhura, and the introduction of a possible new franchise with “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra.” Giving the studio a boost was its decision to focus on fewer but more ambitious titles. Paramount will release 14 movies this year, a 36 percent drop from two years ago. Fox’s year is still undetermined, pending results through the rest of the year for “Avatar,” which cost $310 million to produce (before deducting tax credits). Although the studio effectively delivered sequels, including “Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian,” Fox made one of its best moves with animation. “Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs” delivered $884 million in global ticket sales — $200 million more than “Up,” from the Walt Disney Company. “Up” was no slouch, particularly in North America, where it was the year’s third-biggest seller with $293 million in domestic sales. But it wasn’t enough to counter a disastrous year for Disney’s studio, which lost money in two quarters, leading to a management overhaul. Bloated budgets for films like “G-Force” and “Disney’s A Christmas Carol,” along with multiplex wipeouts like “Confessions of a Shopaholic” and “Surrogates,” were Disney’s primary downfall. Independent distributors had a rough year — though the Weinstein Company hit pay dirt over the summer with “Inglourious Basterds,” a 50-50 production with Universal Pictures, and was hoping for a late year rally with Mr. Day-Lewis and a cast of beauties in the musical “Nine.” Outside of “Basterds,” Universal Pictures also stumbled. Despite successfully rehabilitating a franchise with “Fast & Furious,” the studio suffered flop after flop, including what is widely considered the year’s biggest, “Land of the Lost.” Its co-chairmen were fired in October. The studio is careful to say that 2010 will be a rebuilding year, since all of the movies will be ones that those executives left behind in the pipeline. But there are some potential blockbusters in the batch, including a third installment of the “Meet the Parents” series. “That gets us back closer to the things we’ve done well before,” said Adam Fogelson, Universal’s chairman. “I’m excited to focus on a new beginning.” ================================================== COmment: and they cant keep the Health plan going as last year?

Had a discussion with one of his producers: Seems he pays them well but "expects a lot". ( is that code for unpaid overtime?) Seems the producers are rewarded with trips to Cannes for his premieres.... He said that the IATSE is not a "real union" therefore he does not feel obliged to hire union crews. I would agree with him that the IA is a house union (a union that acts on behalf of the house, the studios) but I am not sure if his selection of reality here is not based on personal greed. Union members still have better conditions that the ones he offers - with no health plan. I loved his best film : "SICKO" of course. Did he glamorize the health services in Europe? yes... but he made a valid important point in the film and it came home without too much of his self indulgent shenanigans. wolf