Wandering Ear

Thanks Nick! Lots of really helpful info here. Part of me is hoping that once they see the size of the 6066 they will be less worried about color, but I'll be prepared either way.

I have a production coming up where they are inquiring about color matching the skin tones (a wide variety) with headworn mics. Current plan is to use DPA 6066 miniture headworn mics. I am waiting for a call back from DPA service, and I am coordinating with production and MUA. I thought it would be worth reaching out here and see if the community has experience and suggestions of best practices. Any makeup to avoid? Any specific kinds work better than others? All thoughts are appreciated. Kelsey

Hey Nick, Thanks for the thoughts. We are constantly working on enhancing our workflow. I can't say in detail what we have planned, but we will be releasing new features hopefully soon.

Thanks Doug! It's a lot of work, but has been fun too.

I wanted to take a second and share what I've been up to during the shutdown. Thinking about how things were going to change as productions started back up during a pandemic, I began working on a new software service with a partner to help support productions get back to work remotely. The service is called SetStream. https://setstream.io We are a cloud based streaming service that enables productions to stream from set to clients in real time (averaging 200ms delay world wide). Being a web browser based solution, anyone who has been granted access to log on by the p

Many of those USB extenders are USB over Ethernet CABLE, not over switched IP. They work great, but require their own dedicated cable and can't be extended over fiber networks etc. I use USB and HDMI over ethernet in my studio regularly. What you would need is USB over IP. I have only played with that via software setups, but there are print server hardware that would be worth testing. Something like: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004ZMYCRG/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_RSyqFbD6RMCB4

I run Dante for live broadcasting and in my studio. Besides a few unusable updates, it's been a great system for me. However I find less use for it on sets. I still use it when doing playback etc, but for wireless if I were to rebuild a new system I would likely do RF over fiber instead of Dante. I'd rather keep the equipment on the cart and be able to clip an antenna on set whenever I needed. The only reason I haven't invested in this system so far is I find I'm generally always able to be within range of set. Couple that with a trend towards smaller crews and I feel I am often gett

The 8020 anchor fasteners are my favorite method by far. They are very stiff, and I have not had any issues with loosening over time, or shifting under stress. It's far easier to have 8020 do the machining for you when you order the parts. They also sell the tools to do it your self if you have a drill press.

I am not doing any production work right now. Scraping together whatever post work I can, but it's pretty thin. Getting close to completing some personal projects that been on the back burner though, so that's nice. The company I refered to isn't local to me. As far as I can tell production sound work doesn't qualify as an essential business to be exempt fr WA states stay at home order, unless you are part of a broadcast news crew. I haven't heard about any productions shooting here since the order went into effect.

If you elect to file as an S-Corp then usually you put yourself on your companies payroll as an employee, and earnings about your base salary are passed through as personal income for taxes. That's my understanding. It sounds like you may file as a sole proprietorship? Of course defer to how your accountants have set you up The PPP loans have been tough. Every bank has different procedures to apply. Existing relationships are usually required. And then you get the Wells Fargo situation where do to past fraud they couldn't loan more than 10 Billion and they hit that in req

Personally I think a lot of the implementations I saw were as much about making people feel comfortable and that production was acting responsibly more than scientific practices to stop the spread. Better safe than sorry. I definitely saw a lot of emphasis on having less crew on set and having more off set space for people to spread out when not needed on set. Also no fresh crafty . Only pre packaged. I have a client who wants to see temperature logs to ensure no one going on set has a fever or has had one recently.

We're on a stay at home order here in Seattle, so no productions for a while. Right before the order I did a rush of corporate communications jobs as a way to replace planned conferences & meetings etc. A few things changed for me. I was asked to wear nitrile gloves while micing talent. I was asked to sanitize the lav and transmitter in between each person with a sanitizing wipe, or sometimes just using hand sanitizer. At times I was instructed to hand off the mic and let talent mic themselves so I would have no direct interaction with them. Makeup departmen

I use Tunnelblick daily with OpenVPN configurations. They have releases supporting your OS. You would have to check with Express VPN if they have OpenVPN profiles you can download. I have used NordVPN this way with Tunnelblick. You can download deprecated versions of Tunnelblick supporting back to 10.4 here: https://tunnelblick.net/downloadsDeprecated.html

I have mine shoved into an Orca pouch for an ERX. Not a perfect fit but it works.

This has always been my understanding too. The IRS has a bit different language to determine the relationship, but the intent behind it is similar to AB5: https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/understanding-employee-vs-contractor-designation I've also heard several people tell me about the new law making it more expensive to hire contractors because they have to pay payroll taxes. The way I see it those payroll taxes are being paid either way. This law just ensures that the employer is paying their half of the payroll tax, rather than the employee (contractor) paying the full