Rachel Cameron

Nice shots, Crew. Is it muddy? I know it's Death Valley, but the surface looks wet, and does Mary Dixie leave no tracks? The first picture looks almost like water. Either way, nice photography.

Far out. I love my Denecke thingies. Recently, the phantom went out on my 633. My Denecke PS-1A was right there to catch my fall. Thanks Charlie. Rock solid gear.

Through these files, I've achieved audio atonement.

MartinTheMixer, you're very kind to help in such an incredibly detailed way. Making reparations to specific materials, using glues and adhesives, heat, and safety gear...well, properly? That's a body of knowledge worth chasing, I've found. Great detail in your explanations.

Digital camo, even, for the coming day when everything is aliased and 8 bit again.

Good call. And yeah, we get the views: A day of lovely hood mount pick up shots. Didn't want to return to that day, but the light didn't match with the master shot. Ugh. 95 degrees. Pouring rain. Steamy sun. Then pouring rain again. Then unholy humidity. Glad it was a big ol' Buick LeSabre, and not something smaller. But it represented a chance to do that audio over, and I got it better this time, despite the circumstances.

Another problem I have with waist borne bags: See how the top of the thigh is in full contact with the back corner of the bag? This makes the whole bag o' gear bounce up and down and left and right with each step, hindering agility. For fast and agile movement, I used to pick up the bag (off my thighs, putting a hand under it), with the boom in the other hand, just to run or move faster. This was a major hassle. I would end up with bruises on my thighs sometimes. This is why I switched to a harness.

I used a waist belt before, but I stopped about 10 years ago, because the front loading made my lower back ache. That, and not being able to move about so nimbly. So I now criss-cross two of those tan suede Porta-brace carry straps across my back. They kinda make a super soft AH-2HB Audio Harness. Edit: I should qualify one thing here: Looking back to the issue, the migration to a upper back styled 'criss-cross' harness was predicated mostly by the fact that I could not run or walk fast, should I need it (as I often did). I don't really think my lower back was affected as much as my ability to maneuver nimbly about the tight shooting situations I found myself in. Infrequently, they were somewhat tactical situations, and for safety, it mattered.

Mine is just the repetition of Stage one...five times.

Email and PM sent.

What a brilliant term. Perfect storm: Expen$ive cotton shirt, starched until it was like iron. Add a businessman literally bouncing off the walls from too much coffee. Add to that: tight fitting..like skin tight. Now factor in his eight day chest hair stubble, and the results sounded like a wire brush on a two by four. Reality tv gets you reality audio. It was boom all day.

I didn't either. : (

Agreed, Matthew and Marc. I was impressed at the fit and tidiness of it.

I was at NAB and heard this item. It's no less than amazing. I have problems on almost every location shoot I do regarding SOMEthing in the ambience: air handlers, air traffic, roofing crews, Harley's, and the like. Doesn't matter where I am. On some projects, by noon I feel like I'm the one in charge of the roll, and I hate that. Sometimes we have to shoot between incoming jets. This has given me my share of gray hairs. It would change my life. It learns in a millisecond and constantly re-learns. You can dial the ambient sound back in if you want some. If some ambience was wanted, I'd wire a mic around it, and put that track on an iso, and post can put as much or little as they want back in there. Of course, I would not switch it on without a fee. It's $4k. It's going to cover those who scout with no ears (or don't scout), but they'll just have to pay for that oversight. When they [don't] hear it, and see how much time it's going to save them on location AND in post, they'll acquiesce (or struggle later). I have questions about at what point it just stops 'working'. EG: if you were walking up to the interview from the background with a leaf blower, WFO. I'm dying to test the algorithm in the real world. It seems infallible. And Philip Perkins, I noticed the SD design earmark instantly. Edit: I usually have little idea as to what post house (if any) will do with my tracks. I rarely ask where they plan to post, so I doubt many of my clients have access to the DNS 8. This is not NR, nor is it EQ. I would always provide the dirty tracks as well, so post could use that all day, if they really wanted to.

Nice, any color in the rainbow can be made. And what did you do to keep the epoxy from draining into the latch, if anything?

Very nice, I love those colors..

Not really sure what it was...it just stopped happening one day. It was that way for some three weeks though.

Clara Rockmore, the Theremin's first virtuoso (and Leon Theremin's muse), plays The Swan. I learned about this in a somewhat sad 1994 documentary (Theremin: An Electronic Odyssey) I saw years back, where Rockmore and Theremin were reunited after losing touch with each other for fifty two years. Mr. Theremin was abducted in 1938 by Russia, while living in NYC, and put on trial in Russia for making 'anti Soviet propaganda', then largely forgotten about. He was thought to be dead, but he survived by becoming valuable to the KGB for creating the first "bug", or miniature listening device, for espionage activities during WWII". Clara Rockmore knew differently. She informed the film maker, who went to Russia to get him for the film and brought the two together for a nostalgic and sad reunification. I remember being very touched by their conversations. Theremin passed away in 1993, one year before the film was released. I've never forgotten the sweet sadness of this event.

Thank you Karl.

That's a tough one, and I think that's quite possibly the rudest things one could do to a boom op (edit: or a mixer). It's similar to grabbing a camera and pushing it by the lens during a take, to redirect the framing, in my opinion. I've had my boom gently lifted out of a shot by a shooter before, perhaps as he widened the shot some. But what that Director did was out of line, yes. First, though you may feel stepped on, you did right, by not speaking up. Collect your wits, and watch for it again. In cases like this, I'll wait until the right moment (depending on the urgency of the situation) and have a polite chat with the offending soul. I may lead off with the attention getting line of "look, I know this audio is important, but we're not getting the audio we need to get this cut. Did the boom dip into the shot on that last take?...because the lavs are not doing the work we need them for, and I feel that the boom is going to be critical." I may have already cued the last (busted) take, and have the cans ready to put on his head, to actually hear the the lavs and the boom on the last take (including all the handling noise he just caused), and ask politely for a re-take. If I'm not sure if this particular audio clip is critical, I'll first consider this phrase: "Is this audio important at all...I mean does this audio matter here?". They usually sit up straight and chime right in: "Oh yes, we need this audio...", at which point we have that little private chat. I practically whisper it, too. If there were already poor sounding shots before that point, by all means, have that chat sooner, and avert the bad audio situation in general, before it gets down to self-appointed boom grabbers, and misunderstandings.

Comteks were the first thing that crossed my mind.

Oh! How much is a roll of that stuff?