Roger Slater

I was a very early adopter of DAT, starting in 1991. Despite a great many stories of unreliability from many folks on both sides of the pond, I never once had an issue in the 10 years I used DAT. In 2001 I changed to the NAGRA V. A beautiful machine, but it suffered from their choice of the awful ORB drive, which took unreliability to a whole new level. A colleague who bought his at the same time, eventually sent it back to Nagra and got a refund. They later fitted a proper hard drive and I used it until 2004, when I went Zaxcom and never looked back I used most types of DAT recorder, from Panasonic SV260, through Stelladat, Sony TC-D10 and finally HHB. Never tried Fostex. I always backed up on a second machine, initially a Nagra 4S and then another DAT. Not because of worries about reliability of recording, but more about a whole days rushes being on one tiny cassette, which could fall down a drain on wrap on a dark night.. Roger Slater Malvern Wells UK

Sixpence

4.5 Amps: Sonosax SX-S8, Deva 5.8, 6 Audio 2040 in RK6 rack, 2 Black Magic Down convertors, 2 Monitors, Denecke GR-1, BCD A to D convertor.

Well it is still an issue for me. Just because it is approved for download by apple doesn't mean it is bug free. I have had extensive email discussion with Eric at Movieslate and have saved the history data file and reinstalled the App. It launches ok but when I restore the data file it crashes and will not launch again. I have sent him the data file to examine and we will see if that is causing the issue. We have an 8 hour time zone difference so will see later today. Roger Slater AMPS Malvern UK

The problem doesn't seem to be with version 7.6, as I upgraded to it on my IPhone 5, running IOS6 and it runs fine (fortunately), its related to IOS8

Just updated 7.6 from the App Store and it will no longer work on my ipad. Every time I try to open it , it freezes at the logo screen and then closes.

At least on film we were limited to 10 minutes by the length of a mag, but I once boomed a 7 minute shot for which we did 11 takes...

Robert Farr the re-recording mixer is a highly regarded professional with 20+ years experience, who coincidentally picked up the BAFTA Award for best sound for a different production the same week this story broke. You might want to do a bit of research before you slag off another sound professional. The story has moved away from being a 'sound issue' and into problems of mumbling and bad acting

Information is not knowledge and knowledge is not wisdom

"I am not going to get married again. I am going to find a woman I don't like and buy her a house".. Rod Stewart

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/26/hollywood-struggles-to-halt-film-exodus

"Good, Quick, Cheap. Pick any two..."

I did some second unit days on Gosford Park and was there for the big banquet scene. The movie was recorded in the traditional Bob Altman way, with everyone wired. At that time (pre DEVA 4 and 5), Peter Glossop was recording on a pair of DA88s to get 16 tracks and as I recall was running 12 or 15 Audio Ltd Wireless channels, plus a couple of booms. Roger Slater AMPS

Interview with Ray Beckett and Paul Ottosson here:Bafta

I notice from his 'Field Production ' set up, that the DEVA is listed as a Multitrack machine, whereas the Cantar is only a Stereo machine......

Before I worked in France I wondered if the French for 'Wildtrack' might be 'Piste Sauvage'. When I got there I discovered it is 'Son Seul'....

I have trained myself to not look out the window in the morning, so I have something to do in the afternoons....

I agree with the consensus here. Working in the UK mostly on episodic TV series, I fail to see how an agent would improve things for me. The weekly rate that most of us get, falls within a fairly narrow band and even if an agent were to negotiate an improved rate, it is unlikely to cover the 10% that the agent takes. I am also uncomfortable with the idea that an agent gets the same percentage whether the job is one week or 6 months. The work and negotiation involved is just the same, but they make a great deal more in fees from the long job. I don't have a problem with negotiating my deal with producers. It's just another necessary part of my job, but I know folks who prefer not to. Most colleagues I have spoken to who have agents, tell me that they still end up getting most of the work themselves. So why pay for nothing? I agree with Jeff, that I would be concerned that the agent might be pushing more heavily for one of their other sound mixer clients, to my detriment. We are, I agree, more interchangeable than say actors, directors or DPs. In all the years I have been mixing, I would say that 95% of the jobs have come from people I have previously worked with, or from recommendations by previous clients. Very few have come out of the blue, or as a result of me 'cold calling' a production who did not know me or my work. Roger Slater AMPS Malvern UK

Jeff and John, thanks for the info. The 'superdrive' in my Macbook is a Matushita UJ 857E and the one in the Mini is an 846 regards Roger

A very Happy Christmas to all. I have recently become a Microsoft free zone and bought a previously enjoyed Macbook to go with my Mac Mini. I assumed I could playback DEVA DVD RAM disks in the Macbook, as I used to in my trusty Thinkpad and can in the Mac Mini,but I can't. Is this a hardware or a software issue? Regards Roger Slater AMPS MALVERN UK

Absolutely. My boom operator knows his way very ably round my cart and the Deva and can stand in to mix if need be. I was taken ill on set last year and he stepped in and kept things going with the 3rd man booming. On a day to day basis I often give him some of the simple scenes to mix which gives me a chance to make that necessary phone call, go for a leak, read a script for the next episode or whatever. It also means that me being held up by a traffic accident on the way in, doesn't hold up production.It is how I learned and how we move up the ladder. Regards Roger Slater AMPS Malvern UK

Jon, You are correct, it usually records to the Sony SRW-1 Deck, via a cable loom. We are using the setup on my current shoot. The camera is completely quiet, the recorder deck has a noisy cooling fan, but it is sitting in video village, so not generally a problem. I have the cart parked up next to it and feed a single mix track to the recorder track 1, which editorial have requested, as a guide. Main audio is on my DEVA, with dailies on DVD-RAM. We feed timecode to the deck from a Denecke SBT, but only the TC output, as we were told by ARRI not to feed it with Tri-Level. There is an analog composite video output from the camera, which comes down to my cart monitor via the loom. There is an option to fit a 'flashmag' to the camera and record independent of the deck, but I have no experience of using it. There is an Input Delay Setting in the Audio menu, which we have set to +2F, to make the recorded audio in sync with the picture. There is a wired remote for the recorder which lives on the camera and that controls record levels etc. The recorder has 12 Audio tracks, but only Inputs 1-4 are analog Regards Roger Slater AMPS Malvern UK

Q: How many Line Producers does it take to change a light bulb? A: 5, but you can only have 2...