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Joshua Anderson

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Everything posted by Joshua Anderson

  1. I'm sure a lot of our productions take the benefits of paperless and turn it into a mess of wasted paper like Robert describes. But I like that I can email the reports out, partly because I don't send anything directly to a transfer house anymore. I hand CF cards to a DIT or camera loader. I do wish MovieSlate fine tuned the formatting. Sometimes my header is on one page and the list of takes is on a second page. Seems odd to me. But I do like that I can go back and search through emailed reports or the data in the app. That's helpful and convenient.
  2. I'm almost finished with my third TV season using MovieSlate. I switched from my older, regular sized iPad to an iPad mini and bought a mount to attach it to my cart. Works out great for me. I bought the time code module, but still don't use it. I like the preset options for Mics, Characters and frequent Notes. If we reshoot something, I can get the roll number from our script supervisor and check which mics we used the first time around. Plus, I too, don't have the best handwriting. One thing I had to figure out was internet access to email the reports out. A little Mifi was an extra cost as well. I don't see any reason to go back to paper reports. I send them out to Production, post-production, assistant editors and the transfer house. Josh
  3. Just looked at their website a bit. Are the rechargeable batteries removable? It says "built in", but also says "replaceable" If these are to be used everyday, when do you charge them if the batteries aren't removable? Does "replaceable" mean sending the units in to get the batteries switched?
  4. I run two 788 recorders and have thought about trying to get it down to 1 button as well, but I don't want to slave one machine to the other. I prefer to keep them separate in case of one machine's failure. I generate my TC from a GR-2 and that feeds the two recorders. I believe the 788 can be set to record when it senses TC. I've thought about building a box that sits between the GR-2 and the recorders and turns on and off the TC feed to both recorders. I also run movie late (in log only mode) and if I really went this route, maybe I'd include a feed to the iPad as well. If the Cantar can also be placed in that record mode (record when it senses TC), you could do this setup. You also need an external TC clock to do this. I use a Sonosax board as well, but slaving the recorders to each other or triggering them with a shared TC feed, doesn't affect which mixing panel you're using unless you're trying to incorporate the internal recorder on the SX-ST.
  5. I hate getting burned in some locations, like restaurants, where you get the old "they know where the switches are and will turn everything off, but want to wait until we're about to shoot." And then of course, there are a few refrigerators that were overlooked. I'll try to get the locations guys to give us a little five minute preview of what everything off sounds like. But getting the crew to stop talking and working, while nice to listen for those problems, would probably get me some dirty looks for holding things up. Bravo to you, if you're getting it. I'm on my second consecutive Red Camera show and it gets hard to hear what's left running on set or buzzing with the camera fans blasting at 100% (so I can get them down below 30% when rolling).
  6. I guess I should add that I bought a Shark for "Smash" in case producers/directors needed the comteks to be delayed to watch for lip synch during music playback scenes. The Alexas seemed to have a slight delay and even more when video was sent wirelessly through the Box system. I ended up never using it and spent more energy shooing the music performance people towards watching for lip synch live instead of on the monitors. So take my suggestion with a pail of salt as mine still sits in a box.
  7. Check out the behringer shark dsp-something. It's AC only. Not sure if it can adjust live. Probably.
  8. I don't "usually" keep more than one fader up all the way, but if you adjust your trim pot down, you could achieve the same input level when pushing a second fader up to meet the first fader. So I don't know how you'd really come up with an accurate answer. I sometimes do scenes with hard fades and sometimes with soft fades. It really depends on what's working with the mics, acoustics and what the camera sees.
  9. Did you miss an opportunity to show off the product and auto-mix the tutorial?
  10. I sort of enjoy touching up my resume. I usually wait until I'm done with a job, which tends to be after a few months on a TV series, so it's sort of the cherry on the top at the end. That and updating imdb, too. Every once in a while, I'll try overhauling the resume. Maybe change the format, layout, length, type of info I'm including. I keep it on my website (productionsoundmixer.com), and I've tried to direct people to grab it from there if I'm out and about. But typically, I have an updated one on my computer that I can quickly send out once i get home. I do get asked to send in my resume, but I will also tend to offer it up right away. I know everyone uses imdb, but I like handing in a resume because I can control the outlook. Since I do a lot of television, once the title has gone past being "in production", it drops way down on my page, below lesser known movies. The resume allows me to present my work experience the way I'd like, emphasizing the titles I think might be most impressive. Though, the first time I was being considered to mix a tandem episode for "Law & Order," I handed my resume to the UPM and prefaced it with "these are a bunch of movies no one has ever heard of." Hie response was "Great! You're used to working on projects with little time or money for resources. Perfect for TV." Sometimes the resume just becomes a conversation starter at an interview. The UPM will scan for any recognizable names or titles and use that as a jumping off point to get a sense of how I work. Since a lot of our work is dependent on reacting to locations and situations, I think it's hard to interview our department. A lot of times it's "oh, you worked on (blank). How was that?" And then you mentally scramble for some interesting tidbit about a past job that hopefully is sound-related. Josh
  11. ​ But a tight boom, with added lavs on the same actor doesn't sound as good. Phase usually forces me to make a decision in mono to either have , all boom, mostly boom or mostly lav. But unless it's all boom, the boom mic then needs to give some space to work with the lav (even if I'm low on the boom fader). If what you mean is micing an on camera person only with a tight boom and bringing up lavs on off camera actors is also something I wouldn't like to do. Unless you can't swing the boom to those actors too or put another matching mic on the off camera actors, the lav-heavy sound won't match your tight boom when you do their coverage. Playing the wires on an off camera actor who you'd boom when it's their coverage is more of a last resort for me, not go-to plan. When I was using a DAT recorder, I would put the Boom on Left, any wires on Right and then monitor in Mono. I'd put a big note on the reports "L=Boom, R=Lavs, Please transfer in Mono." I still didn't just wire everyone and if we didn't have lavs, I think I remember switching the boom to go to both L and R. But, like Glen is saying above, all of that seemed completely unnecessary once we got track 3 plus. Now it's 1=Mix, 2-8 = ISO's and on special occasions, I'll use track 2 as a 2nd mix or sub mix (I had to do that the other day when I needed a mix that could be grouped together through a phone filter in post instead of forcing Post to take the ISO's and re-mix it just to get the filter effect in place). As far as the Jon's initial topic about the recorder hardware, I just want a nice, solid, small box. I'd like mostly XLR inputs and I'd like to use track 1 as a Mix from my mixer and the other tracks as the ISO's. The 788 does this for me. I don't need 64 tracks like the 970. I like having the limiters on the 788, which the 970 does not, even though I use limiters on my board. I don't need more Wi-Fi, Dante, etc. bell's and whistles that I won't use - especially if it adds size, weight or decreases dependability. Sometimes I will use the other headphone options like playing back a certain track or listening to a certain input. And I've used the M/S monitoring on the 788 for my stereo mic. Josh
  12. I slate every roll. It is its own file. I mentioned in the thread about it before that it lets me know that everything is working/recording. It's a bit of a joke...but seriously, then at least I know the cart can record something each day. But I'm assuming no one actually listens to it. It it also helps me to verify that the 788s are putting the files into the correct folder. "SLATET01.WAV" is good, "SLATET01A.WAV" means it went into the wrong folder.
  13. Our AC's still do the East Coast way of reading the slate just before they clap, but I've gotten in the habit of saying it, too. Sometimes I'm asking the ACs for hard sticks to hear the clap through windows or when the booms need to be extended away from the slate. In those cases, I wouldn't hear much a mumbled vocal slate from the ACs so I like having my vocal slate there. It usually doesn't make it onto the audio track before the camera rolls, so I'm not sure when it becomes useless to Post, probably soon after syncing.
  14. I voice slate the head of the shots. Sometimes it's hard to understand what the AC is saying when they do it.
  15. The iPhone one isn't all that great, anyways. Sometime after the app or site update, tapatalk' unread section stopped updating. If you reloaded the section it just became a list of newest posts, regardless if you read them or not. The app used to be more convenient than the mobile browser version, but it sounds like Jeff doesn't want to keep tapatalk for much longer, so I've been getting used to the mobile in case tapatalk goes away altogether.
  16. There was an iPhone tapatalk update that came out 5/26. The ads that started after the update were annoying, so I've bee trying the safari mobile browsing. Seems good.
  17. Marc may spend less because of a lower budget, but I can't imagine spending more in time or money for a single or double boom mix over a collection of noisy wires. I was very happy with what Post did on the last show I worked on. It seemed like they got to have a lot of fun with super hero hearing and layering city noises in. It's probably a larger audio post budget than I was used to, but I believe it helps that I give them mostly-booms complete mix tracks. I try not to saddle them with having to do too much work on the day-to-day dialogue so they can spend their resources on the scenes that were tough for us and for better effects/design. But I still think Marc's initial issues are in communicating with his on set mixer and probably his line producer. A good boom or 2 booms mix can be so much better and easier to post than a bunch of wires and mics thrown out in desperation.
  18. Post has said it costs more to do the dialogue edit when you play on booms over wiring everyone? Josh
  19. Thank you for the kind words, Dan. I always assume we only have x number of favors or times we get to chime in about sound issues. So I try to make as much work as possible so I can save the favors for the most important times. Josh
  20. There are different types of overlapping scenes and sometimes there isn't a clear cut rule on it besides what is going to cut in the edit. If actors can maintain the same overlapping points from shot to shot then as long as the micing is also maintained then it shouldn't be a problem in the edit. 2 camera cross coverage with similar frame sizes is great for this. Sometimes DP's don't want to light 2 different directions and then you might have 2 cameras on one actor. It gets troublesome when you film the second actor later, because now with the established overlaps, you need to have sort of matching micing positions. For example, say you shoot the first character with a medium and profile as a 2 camera setup. Then when you move to the second character, you shoot a matching profile, but not a matching medium, but say a wider shot that doesn't allow the boom mic(s) to be where they were for the first setup you have a problem. It's not just the typical, shitty wide and tight, you might not be able to cut with the overlapping dialogue because when you go between profile shot to profile shot in the edit, the transition (or overlapping) section won't sonically match. Personally, I like to be able to play the overlaps. I'll try to nudge our way into getting clean versions or hope the actors naturally give it that way on later takes or pickups. But there are times when it is certainly a problem: Overlaps between phone calls or people speaking to each other through a speaker system (like in a visiting room in prison) don't work in the edit because one character needs to be given a filter effect in post. If the lines are married, then it doesn't work. Sometimes loud argument scenes are problematic. I recently had a scene with two yelling actors who are far enough apart to need 2 booms to cover. But when they overlapped, and I tried to play 2 mics up at once, the extra reverb in the room was dreadful. We had a scene in the last TV show I worked on where 1 woman spoke in Spanish and another woman translated for her (plus two guys speaking in English, all around a small conference table). In shots featuring the two women, we let them overlap. But I told the AD's and Director that also shooting a close up of one of the women wouldn't work as they wouldn't be able to recreate a translated overlap on the other woman's close up. I told them we could shoot two close ups of the women at the same time, as long as the Director accepted the marriage between the lines in their coverage as it forces certain edits. I do sometimes take the tact of "we can make the overlaps sound good, but it might not work in your edit." If the overlap is one actor stepping on the back end of another actor's line, and we're trying to protect the edit from the overlap, I might suggest the actor being stepped on to say a few more words before being cut off. And then when we turn around and film the interrupting actor, we'll ask the actor who is being interrupted to cut themselves off before being interrupted. If the overlap is someone interjecting in the middle of a longer line or paragraph, then I might ask the person interjecting to hold their line until we do their coverage and then ask the other actor to leave an space in their speech for the interjection (since they are now off camera). If the overlap is just two actors talking to each other and not listening to one another, I'll try to get them to separate it. It all really comes down to being able to create a scenario with the dialogue that doesn't disrupt the actor's performance and works in the edit. But one of the reasons, I like working with 2 boom operators is so even unplanned overlaps are completely fine for us. I'll play it in the mix, and if the performance is there, then the edit will work. I did have a director say to me once on a TV show that he wanted to play the overlaps because when he had listened to his sound mixer in the past and kept the dialogue clean, the editors never recreated the overlap in post. So he felt he needed to protect the overlap by forcing it. Also, the scene involved two pro actors who kept the overlaps in the same spot in each take. Sorry for the boring length. Bottom line for me, no real rules. Just try to think of how it'll be put together later. Josh
  21. Not sure i see the point. There are times when I'd appreciate it if MovieSlate communicated with my 788s so I didn't have to enter in the scene and take on three different screens. But I've had times when we do a take and either I accidentally cut or one of the two cameras accidentally cuts. Now one of us has 2 files to cover 1 take. I'll end up renaming the second file in a way that hopefully shows that it is the second part of the same take, but I think little bits of human error would make keeping a large synchronous system too burdensome for it's worth.
  22. That was an amazing read, Alex. It's easy to get caught up in a particular shot. Which turns into getting caught up in a particular scene. Then a job. It's easy to let the work blind you to some of the more important relationships in our lives. After reading that post, I can only imagine Steve felt the warmth of your friendship even in the most trying days on set. It sounds like he was a special person that some were lucky to spend their daily 12 hours of captivity on set with. Josh
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