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cmgoodin

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Posts posted by cmgoodin

  1. 22 hours ago, Mark LeBlanc said:

    can you show the part of the guide for camera?  

    Also, is there anything about not using Fog Machines.. That crap makes me cough even on a non-pollen day..

    If you are wearing your respirator mask like you are supposed to  it will now not be a problem right?😁

  2. When the Governor and local Mayors do authorize some type of lessening of the lock-down, the Entertainment and Film and TV production will

    have to drastically change.  Imagine if just 1 of the actors in a sitcom or movie test positive the whole crew and cast has to go back into quarantine for at least 2 to 3 weeks.    And insurance is not likely to cover work interruption from COVID-19.   

     

    There is a good article here from Deadline about what may be necessary to re-start production

     https://deadline.com/2020/04/how-hollywood-reopens-coronavirus-shutdown-production-insurance-actors-crews-1202908471/

     

    Time to look at early retirement.   I did it 2 years ago.  Most of you on this forum are not that lucky.

  3. RIP Mr. Daviau,

    I had the opportunity to work with Allen many times on high-profile commercials,  music videos and while doing the BTS  and second unit sound on "E.T. The Extra Terrestrial" in the 80s and 90s. 

     

     He was always the gentleman and never put his own ego above the craft.  He was a perfectionist and would always 

    fight for the time and money to do things right.  I had many enlightening discussions with Allen where we were both interested in new technology and the upcoming transition to the digital age of photography and sound. He was always co-operative and would always do what he could to help out sound in the more challenging setups.  He was always willing to share his talent and extensive knowledge with students and fledgling cinematographers.   We will all miss him.

  4. 1 hour ago, JonG said:

    Rebuilding/wiring my cart, watching a ton of documentaries, FaceTiming with friends. I got my guitar out of the closet, we’ll see if I go for it! Cooking of course, and trying to avoid Facebook ;)

     

    Lets keep good conversations going here!

    I've finished my tax prep and sent it off to my Accountant who is working from home.   Now I am working my way through 4.5 Billion DIY videos on YouTube. I'm now thinking on taking up Yak Shaving.

    22 down and 4.498768 Billion to go.   I wonder if I'll hit the Data Cap on my Spectrum Cable Internet.

  5. You know when I retired 4 years ago I took a few years to do the things I always wanted to do.

    With those things out of the way,  I really started missing the work environment.   Now I am totally bored.

    But now that we are all locked up in our homes and ALL out of work (Mostly). 

    Everyone gets to feel what it is like to be retired and living lack-of-paycheck to lack-of-paycheck.

    Thank goodness for Social Security and meager Union Pension...   

     

    What are all of you doing to entertain yourselves during this un-scheduled mandatory hiatus from work?

    And what have you come up with to make some cash on the side while restricted to our homes?

     

    All I am missing is the ankle bracelet.

     

     

     

     

     

  6. Truly sad news.  I have always appreciated Jay's insights and vast knowledge when it came to Sound and Video engineering.

    I have been following his columns and various print pieces for decades.    Sorry to hear of his sudden passing. We will all

    miss his frequent contributions to this site..

     

     

  7. Here is where to look on any official Cancellation of the show.

    Things are changing rapidly  and Covid -19  Cases have been reported in Las Vegas. Today

     

    https://nabshow.com/2020/attend/onsite-services/coronavirus-update-and-resources/

     

     

    SXSW show in Austin Just pulled the plug and cancelled the whole shebang.   That's $300 Million down the tubes for that city.

    And the show was supposed to start Monday. 

  8. I used to pick up electronic parts at the Radio Shack across the street on Fairfax (Now closed) and occasionally see 

    Rock stars stumbling out in the morning after all night recording sessions.   I knew where it was because I had done

    a few commercial recording sessions there.  but if you didn't know what is was  you would never had guessed there

    was a world class recording studio there.    This is what it looks like now.   They built an Apartments above and

    next to it.

    https://goo.gl/maps/Vth2xAcX7rW1x8zT7

     

  9. I don't know how many Video playback engineers there are on JW Sound, bit if you are called upon to do any 24 frame Video playback or poor man's ADR  Video playback on set you might be interested in this thread.

     

    I have worked as an audio and video engineer in the Television and Film industry for over 50 years and now it comes time (in my semi-retirement) to share a bit of the technology and tools that I have created for my own personal use over the last couple of decades.  I have gathered together a handful of my most useful video and audio playback software tools and packaged them in a piece of computer hardware to serve as a kind of Swiss Army Knife for the 24frame Video Playback Technician.  You can easily slide one or more of these units into the pouch of your laptop bag to help solve some of those tricky situations that often pop up on set at the last minute.

     

    This tiny device can deliver HD video and can be controlled from the wireless remote and over any local area network.

     

    It has many unique properties that can replace thousands of dollars of video playback and compositing or switching hardware. I have used it on hundreds of Commercials, TV shows, and Feature films over the years to do the things that they never budgeted for but were possible only with these solutions I have created for my personal use.

     

    Here is a video overview of the TechnoWeenies Video playback Toolkit.  It covers the main uses and capabilities of the hardware and the 6 software tools.  I have a small number of these units for sale and the price is less than half the price of the cheapest new Mac Mini. Let me know what you think or contact me via DM if you are interested.

     

    --------Courtney Goodin

    Chief TechnoWeenie

     

     

  10. I got one of these "Miracle Machines"  the year after they came out.  I traded an old IBM clone PC I had built to a writer that wanted to 

    have a machine he could get work done on.   After I set up the Mac I discovered why.   It came with Microsoft Word

    on Floppy disk.  I tried to use it, but since the machine had no Hard drive and only one Floppy drive,  it required

    over 21 floppy disk swaps in order to open a single word document.  (I counted them)  After 15 disk swaps I was ready to throw the little portable machine out the window.  I had Atari and Commodore and IBM PCs that only had floppy drives (no hard disks) and they only required one disk swap to create or open a word processor file. 

  11. I used the Lilliput dual 7" rack-mount RM7028S and found them much more versatile and better image than the BlackMagic Duo.  For one thing

    they have HDMI and SDI and Component and Composite inputs and front panel switches to control the monitor and switch inputs.  With the BM Duo you need a computer hooked to the LAN port running proprietary software to just adjust the display.  With the Lilliput, you can feed your laptop or mac mini into the HDMI input and switch between it  and the 3G SDI camera feeds using a front panel switch.  Here is the link:

    Lilliput 7" on Amazon

    Only slightly more expensive than the Blackmagic Duo screens

    you may not need the tilt function since the Lilliput screens are HD IPS displays with good off-axis viewing.

     

     
  12. 20 hours ago, indiefilm said:

    Any suggestions for Similar popular support monitors? I am designing vertical Location Sound Mixer carts for resale and want to make it easy to attach the most common monitors. I thought this was a popular model but if there are others I would love to know the model/brand names so I can get the dimensions

    I used the Lilliput dual 7" rack-mount RM7028S and found them much more versatile and better image than the BlackMagic Duo.  For one thing

    they have HDMI and SDI and Component and Composite inputs and front panel switches to control the monitor and switch inputs.  With the BM Duo you need a computer hooked to the LAN port running proprietary software to just adjust the display.  With the Lilliput, you can feed your laptop or mac mini into the HDMI input and switch between it  and the 3G SDI camera feeds using a front panel switch.  Here is the link:

    Lilliput 7" on Amazon

  13. A couple of weeks ago I bought a new Zoom F6 recorder in order to examine how Zoom is dealing with time code and Broadcast Wave metadata.

    And to see how to deal with 32bit float Broadcast wave files in my software utility BWF-Widget Pro. 

     

    I was quite impressed that for the price, ($650 US) this device is very versatile and pretty high quality.  The mic pre-amps seem pretty good and the internal time code generator is very accurate and holds sync well.  Add the ability to act as a computer recording interface and 8 or 10 track recorder at the same time is also a bonus.   I did find a few anomalies in the BWF metadata having to do with their formatting of data for frame –rate and numbering for cue marks.  I pointed these out to the manufacturer’s reps and they have told me they would send them along to the engineers and developers in Japan.  In the meantime I made some changes to BWF-Widget Pro to program around the non-conforming metadata and to correctly handle the 32bit float files.   So if you are a user of BWF-Widget Pro and have the time code Zoom production recorders like the F8 , F4 or F6,  shoot me an email and I can send you a link to the download of the latest version (1.201) which will clear up any playback and conversion problems with files from the F series recorders.

     

    Just curious if any members of this forum have had a chance to use the Zoom F6 and if they think they have a place as a production recorder for daily use.  I know it is really designed for the Reality show or You Tubers who need something at a reasonable price but capable of using professional time code for sync.  Seems to me to be a pretty good backup machine to keep on-hand to save your bacon if your primary recorder goes down.  Also because of the 32bit recording and dual A to D converters and Auto-mix it would make a great “Plant in the Car and forget” recorder for those driving shots where there is no room for the sound mixer and wireless transmission is not practical or reliable.

     

    ---Courtney Goodin

    GoodSound

    www.bwfwidget.com

     

  14. On 5/15/2019 at 10:56 PM, Bouke said:

     

    Strange that this did not come up:
    https://www.videotoolshed.com/handcrafted-timecode-tools/ltc-midi-readerconverter/
    (Working on an update now, latest version is a bit CPU hungry, should be fixed by tomorrow)
     


    What is the problem of syncing to network time every 10 minutes? That should take care of the problems.

    Syncing to Network time will not work for most US users that are tied to 59.94 hz clocks for timecode.

    NTSC timecode (29.97 or 23.976fps)  does not run in real time.  You can jam to a network clock when you first turn on a TC generator,

    however unless you jam all other generators to that one you will drift at .1 %.  from Network (real time of day).

    By stating that Laptop or Computer clocks are not very accurate I believe the OP was referring to crystal of the 

    normal laptop not being as accurate as most Temperature Compensated crystals used in all pro Time Code Generators.

    So long term sync between different free running devices will not be frame accurate even if they are both running at the same integer time base

    frame rate..

     

     

  15. Outstanding Sound Mixing For A Comedy Or Drama Series (One Hour)

    Game Of Thrones • Beyond The Wall • HBO
    HBO Entertainment in association with Bighead, Littlehead; 360 Television/Startling Television
    Onnalee Blank, CAS, Re-Recording Mixer
    Mathew Waters, CAS, Re-Recording Mixer
    Richard Dyer, Production Mixer
    Ronan Hill, CAS, Production Mixer

    The Handmaid’s Tale • June • Hulu
    MGM, Hulu, The Littlefield Company, White Oak Pictures, Daniel Wilson Productions
    Joe Morrow, Re-Recording Mixer
    Lou Solakofski, Re-Recording Mixer
    Sylvain Arseneault, CAS, Production Mixer

    Mr. Robot • eps3.4_runtime-error.r00 • USA
    Universal Cable Productions and Anonymous Content
    John W. Cook, II, Re-Recording Mixer
    Bill Freesh, Re-Recording Mixer
    Joe White, Production Mixer
    Paul Drenning, ADR Mixer

    Stranger Things • Chapter Eight: The Mind Flayer • Netflix
    A Netflix Original Production
    Joe Barnett, Re-Recording Mixer
    Adam Jenkins, Re-Recording Mixer
    Michael P. Clark, CAS, Production Mixer
    Bill Higley, CAS, ADR Mixer

    Westworld • Akane No Mai • HBO
    HBO Entertainment in association with Kilter Films, Bad Robot, Warner Bros. Television
    Andy King, Re-Recording Mixer
    Keith Rogers, Re-Recording Mixer
    Geoffrey Patterson, Production Mixer

    Outstanding Sound Mixing For A Limited Series Or Movie

    The Assassination Of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story • The Man Who Would Be Vogue • FX Networks
    Fox 21 Television Studios and FX Productions
    Doug Andham, CAS, Re-Recording Mixer
    Joe Earle, CAS, Re-Recording Mixer
    John Bauman, CAS, Production Mixer
    Judah Getz, ADR Mixer

    Fahrenheit 451 • HBO
    HBO Films in association with Brace Cove, Noruz Films, Outlier Society Productions
    Tom Fleischman, CAS, Re-Recording Mixer
    Henry Embry, CAS, Production Mixer
    George Lara, Foley Mixer

    Genius: Picasso • Chapter One • National Geographic
    Imagine Television and Fox 21 Television Studios
    Bob Bronow, Re-Recording Mixer
    Mark Hensley, Re-Recording Mixer
    Tamás Csaba, Production Mixer

    Twin Peaks • Part 8 • Showtime
    Rancho Rosa Partnership, Inc.
    Ron Eng, Re-Recording Mixer
    Dean Hurley, Re-Recording Mixer
    Douglas Axtell, Production Mixer

    Waco • Operation Showtime • Paramount Network
    Brothers Dowdle Productions
    Craig Mann, Re-Recording Mixer
    Laura Wiest, Re-Recording Mixer
    David Brownlow, Production Mixer

    Outstanding Sound Mixing For A Comedy Or Drama Series (Half-Hour) And Animation

    Barry • Chapter Seven: Loud, Fast And Keep Going • HBO
    HBO Entertainment in association with Alec Berg and Hanarply
    Todd Beckett, Re-Recording Mixer
    Elmo Ponsdomenech, Re-Recording Mixer
    Benjamin Patrick, CAS, Production Mixer

    Family Guy • Three Directors • FOX
    20th Century Fox Television
    Jim Fitzpatrick, CAS, Re-Recording Mixer
    Patrick Clark, CAS, Production Mixer

    Modern Family • Lake Life • ABC
    Twentieth Century Fox Television, Steven Levitan Productions, Picador Productions
    Brian R. Harman, CAS, Re-Recording Mixer
    Dean Okrand, CAS, Re-Recording Mixer
    Stephen Alan Tibbo, CAS, Production Mixer

    Mozart In The Jungle • Domo Arigato • Prime Video
    Amazon Studios
    Andy D’Addario, Re-Recording Mixer
    Chris Jacobson, Re-Recording Mixer
    Ryotaro Harada, Production Sound Mixer

    Silicon Valley • Fifty-One Percent • HBO
    HBO Entertainment in association with Judgemental Films, Alec Berg, 3 Arts Entertainment
    Todd Beckett, Re-Recording Mixer
    Elmo Ponsdomenech, Re-Recording Mixer
    Ben Patrick, CAS, Production Mixer

    Outstanding Sound Mixing For A Variety Series Or Special

    60th Annual Grammy Awards • CBS
    AEG Ehrlich Ventures, LLC
    Thomas Holmes, Production Mixer
    Mikael Stewart, Production Mixer
    John Harris, Broadcast Music Mixer
    Eric Schilling, Broadcast Music Mixer
    Ron Reaves, Front of House Music Mixer
    Thomas Pesa, Stage Foldback Mixer
    Simon Welch, Stage Foldback Mixer
    Eric Johnston, Playback Music Mixer
    Pablo Munguia, Pro Tools Mixer
    Josh Morton, Post Audio Mixer
    Bob La Masney, Sweetening Mixer

    Jesus Christ Superstar Live In Concert • NBC
    Universal Television, The Really Useful Group, Marc Platt Productions, Zadan/Meron Productions
    Thomas Holmes, Production Mixer
    Ellen Fitton, Production Mixer
    John Harris, Production Music Mixer
    Brian Flanzbaum, Music Mixer
    Mark Weglinski, Music Playback Mixer
    David Crawford, FOH Mixer
    Dan Gerhard, FOH Mixer
    Mike Bove, Monitor Mixer
    Jason Sears, Monitor Mixer
    Christian Schrader, Sweetening Mixer

    Last Week Tonight With John Oliver • Episode 421 • HBO
    HBO Entertainment in association with Sixteen String Jack Productions and Avalon Television
    Steve Watson, Production Mixer
    Charlie Jones, Music Mixer
    Patrick Smith, Music Mixer
    Steve Lettie, FOH Mixer
    Anthony Lalumia, Monitor Mixer
    Jason Dyer Sainsbury, Pro Tools Music Mixer
    Max Perez, Pro Tools Mixer

    The Oscars • ABC
    The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
    Paul Sandweiss, Broadcast Production Mixer
    Kristian Pedregon, Re-Recording Mixer
    Tommy Vicari, Music Mixer
    Michael Parker, Monitor Mixer
    Tom Pesa, Orchestra Monitor Mixer
    Mark Repp, Orchestra Monitor Mixer
    Patrick Baltzell, House PA Mixer
    Christian Schraeder, Supplemental Audio Mixer
    John Perez, VO Mixer
    Pablo Munguia, Pro Tools Mixer

    The Voice • Live Finale (Part 2) • NBC
    MGM Television, Talpa Media USA, Inc., Warner Horizon Unscripted & Alternative Television
    Michael Abbott, Broadcast Production Mixer
    Randy Faustino, Broadcast Music Mixer
    Kenyata Westbrook, Reality Supervising Mixer
    John Koster, Production Reality Mixer
    Robert P. Mathews, Jr., Production Reality Mixer
    Brian Riordan, Re-Recording Mixer
    Ryan Young, Re-Recording Mixer
    Tim Hatayama, Re-Recording Music Mixer
    Eric White, Re-Recording Music Mixer
    Shaun Sebastian, Monitor Mixer/Music Mixer Reality
    Michael Bernard, Music Sub Mixer
    Carlos Torres, Interstitial Music Playback Mixer
    Christian Schrader, Supplemental Audio Mixer
    Andrew Fletcher, House PA Mixer

    Outstanding Sound Mixing For A Nonfiction Program (Single or Multi-Camera)

    Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown • Lagos • CNN
    CNN Original Series and Zero Point Zero Production, Inc.
    Benny Mouthon, CAS, Re-Recording Mixer

    The Defiant Ones • Episode 1 • HBO
    HBO Entertainment and Silverback 5150 Pictures in association with Alcon Television Group
    Christopher Jenkins, Re-Recording Mixer
    Gabriel Andy Giner, Production Mixer

    Jane • National Geographic
    National Geographic Studios in association with Public Road Productions
    David E. Fluhr, CAS, Re-Recording Mixer
    Marc Fishman, Re-Recording Mixer
    Lee Smith, Production Mixer
    Derek Lee, Scoring Mixer

    The Vietnam War • Episode 6: Things Fall Apart (January 1968-July 1968) • PBS
    Florentine Films and WETA, Washington, DC
    Dominick Tavella, Re-Recording Mixer

    Wild Wild Country • Part 1 • Netflix
    A Duplass Brothers Production in association with Stardust Frames Productions and Submarine Entertainment
    Chapman Way, Production Mixer

  16. did you mount the internal drive on a MAC over USB to play them back?  Could be that MAC or Windows 10 placed hidden file-system files on the drive which the Roland 88 is choking on.  Does it playback files recently recorded on a freshly formatted (in the Roland) Card? Is the SD card a SDHC or SDXC?

     

    Try recording on an SDHC card (<=32GB).

     

     

  17. On 8/16/2017 at 6:05 PM, JBond said:

    Does anybody know what this Nagra item was used for? Nagra QDAN  Take Identifier whatever that is.

    I saw one before shown below in Nagra's collection, so when I had the chance to buy one I did. I like the fact it has Nixie tubes and it's a Nagra. 

    But what was it used for if?

     

    KsUXWvi.jpg

     

    AlJINkz.jpg

     

    James,

    I have never seen one of these "QDAN" devices before.  But building and operating transfer systems (transfering 1/4" to 35mm and 16mm Mag) I believe it was a take counter that counted the dropuouts in the 60hz Pilot signal and generated an audio Beep that could be fed into transfer system to record on the Mag Film.

    Nagra had a bloop system that could generate a bloop tone on the tape or work silently and just interrupt the pilot signal for a fraction of a second when triggered while recording.. When you are transferring a series of takes on 1/4" they can run one into another (especially on documentaries where there are not slate IDs.) Without bloop tones it is hard to tell when one take ends and the next one starts.  When the transfer person hears the beep from this device he could write on a log the take number from the Nixie Tube readout on the QDAN and write down the footage from the counter on the 35mm Mag transport. The SLO had something like this built in and could drive a solenoid operated Marker Pen to physically mark the 35mm Mag every time it detects the silent bloop signal thereby not disturbing the recording yet marking a visible sync mark on the audio Mag film that could be used to sync up dailies.  the Bloops were either triggered manually while rolling continuously or triggered by the camera's built in bloop light  triggered by sync cable or QRRX radio receiver every time the camera rolled.

  18. On 7/13/2017 at 4:50 AM, MarkC said:

    Can any Sound-men shed light on what this contraption is like to use? I have never seen one before.

    http://www.ebay.de/itm/Nagra-lVL-4-2-lVs-Recorder-Tape-Counter-Sound-Assist/162587364051?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649

    I think this is something similar to something I built for the Arri BL2 in the late 1980s.  It is a digital Footage counter for the Nagra 4 series.

    The Nagra 4.2 & 4S only had an optional clockwork type tape counter that replaced one of the guide rollers and was not very accurate.  This device would take the Sync Out signal (60 HZ) that appeared on the Accessory or Sync Connector whenever the machine was rolling.  That signal would clock a digital counter that calculated footage based on the tape speed selected.  It would also advance a second digital counter every time you rolled so you would have a take number and footage readout for logging.

     

    That's my best guess although I have never actually seen one of these.

     

    ---Courtney

  19. I saw Dunkirk at the Arclight In Sherman Oaks in 70MM Film projection.  I found the track louder than any other film I have seen.  I also was annoyed by  the buried dialogue and the constant use of Synthesizer "Chug Chug Chug Chug" bursts of white noise to heighten the dramatic moments and add to the din of the music and explosion sounds.   I felt the "SFX" or Score artificial and it kind of took me out the the moment as it drew attention to itself.  I think there was a lot of work that went into the sound (mostly in post)  because the Imax 15 perf cameras are not blimped.  (some of the closer dialoge scenes were filmed with Panavision 5 perf 65MM Sound blimped cameras).  Typical of most Nolan films there was almost zero character development and so you had trouble identifying with the characters since we don't even know their names in most cases much less their backstories.  I think we had the most empathy for the Mark Rylance character and his sons?  And he didn't show up until quite a ways into the film. Of course because of Nolan's obsession of not paying attention to time or continuity it is impossible to figure out the timeline.   They constantly cut from day scenes to night scenes to dusk to high noon and back to night, while we are supposed to believe this takes place over just a day or perhaps 2.  Who knows?  One thing I did like was because the film was shot on celluloid and mostly had a photochemical finish (no computer DI),  it thankfully lacked the over stylized color palate that most tent-pole movies sport these days.  This added to the more realistic depiction.

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