Joshua Anderson

Something about this whole discussion seems a bit strange to me. We can try different tricks of mic placement or for enunciation, choosing a less muddy mic for a particular voice. But in the end, a lav mic 6 inches from an actor's mouth (even with extra oomph of the chest resonance, but minus the lack of directionality) isn't a magic tool compared to a shotgun that's also 6 inches from an actor's mouth. There may be times, when the pattern of an overhead boom might be worse than a from-below boom or a body-blocking lav, but those are decisions we make in the field. On set, it's our job to convey to the directors if a line is unintelligible or too quiet. It's their job to decide to try to get the level up from the actor or let it be (either as a semi-audible or mouthed word or to let it go to Post due to time constraints on set). What really strikes me in Henchman's first post is it seems that the problem isn't mixers getting screwed by using booms that are too far away when shooting wide and tight, but by mixers that are either not involved in the shot discussion or not seeing that a close up is being done at the same time. That really is a main portion of our on set job, in my opinion. I try to deliver sound that matches the picture. If a director wants to shoot wide and tight, then I need to decide if I can make the sound work for both shots. If I can't, for whatever reason, I need to plead my case. This is where we earn our keep. It's not hard to push a fader, it may be tricky to push 6, but the money is in being a part of the visual/editorial consideration. Now, I would be really bummed if Post didn't take the sound of a close up boom and put it in the wide shot for that one opening line example mentioned above. I'll deliver an aired out, boom matching lav track in the mix for that wide shot, but if Post can slip the boom from close up to match the subsequent shot and performance, I think any sound person (and director) would prefer that. It just seems the blanket "all lavs" or "60% lavs" is not how most of us work on set. There may be shows that are heavy improv or some other manner that demand a lot of lavs. But I think most of us are trying to build the sound to match the shots we are doing. If in Post, you have shots with sound that doesn't match the perspective, the issue is in the decision making on set. Always throwing a bunch of lavs in is not the best solution in my opinion. Those are my rambling thoughts on it. I know Phil and Patrick. They are top sound guys. If they're using lavs in the mix at times, it's for a reason for those particular shots. But if Post is just grabbing unmonitored ISO's of the lavs and disregarding the work Phil and Patrick are putting into the Mix, I would question that decision. Just my random thoughts on it all. Take it with a grain of salt - I'm on night exteriors this week. Josh

I didn't know him but I love his headphones. The first time I heard them was when a DP put a pair on my head, blasting death metal. I wasn't a fan of the music, but it was best sounding death metal I'd ever heard. His pair was one of the higher (and more expensive) models, with wood ear cups. You could really hear the wood and the texture in the music. I've only purchased the lower end headphone models, and I use their phono preamp for my turntable, but I've been pleased with those just the same. Josh

Thanks Jose! I'm doing fine. Prepping for the next show. How are you? Best, Josh

I still run 2 788Ts. Both machines get the same audio/track designations. I hand in 2 CF cards and ask the loader or DIT to transfer both cards. I have had a 788 lock up mid take. It was on a stunt shot, so certainly not critical (may have even been off speed on the camera). It's really only happened once in the 4-5 years I've owned the 2 recorders. It's been pretty common in narrative episodic in NY to use to recorders. 2 788ts are pretty small in size (same as 1 Deva or even the newer SD machine, 970). It takes me a little extra time to do the metadata, but I don't mind. I'd rather have the backup available then have the transfer house print a take without sound because "there are parts we can still use so we'll print it."

Exactly. I used 2 PSC PowerMax units with separate Lead Acid Batteries for about 5 years. One on the cart, one as backup. But now I'm using a meon life with 2 extra life modules and removing everything to switch out the meon life for one of the older PowerMax units was looking too time consuming on set. The show I just wrapped on had a good amount of rooftops and we were able to get my cart where it needed to be (either on the roof or cabled to it), but sometimes I think a 2nd, smaller cart with those PowerMax units would be nice. Josh

I think Greg means separating the charging system from the battery. The hotbox only distributes DC power. I bought a Meon Life 6 months ago. I did have an issue with the AC cord connector getting loose in the chassis. This resulted in the Meon not running on AC, including charging. I was able to coerce the cable into reseating correctly with a plastic tie until Remote Audio took it in and re-crimped the connectors inside, all still under warranty. Just before sending it in, since we were in production, I bought a second Meon Life. I was previously using the PSC PowerMax, but it was going to be a procedure to switch to that as a backup in the field. I've been pretty happy with my meon. I was happy with my PowerMax, too. The reason I switched was that I wanted to add Ahs and utilize LiFePo tech, but I couldn't figure out how to fit those ideas with the PoewrMax in the space allocated on my cart. I do think a second power distribution system is important in case your primary goes down. Josh

I do it for the same reasons as Scott. I, too, have been a bit confused by the topic as it seems like a no brainer most if the time. In addition to what Scott has said, I like it for protecting overlaps. Even if a scene plays clean and the director doesn't want them to overlap, it's usually so easy to cover the off camera person just in case the actors get caught up in it and that take becomes the preferred one. I'd much rather go to a director and say we can play the overlap to sound good, but do they want to keep it clean for editorial. Playing 2 sticks lets me do that.

Definitely a good start. Why not start with the more popular choice than the SD forum? I would think you'd get many more opinions here. Maybe even an opinion that you shouldn't bother utilizing Jeff's site. But to each their own.

Are you always "adding a new entry" or "renaming"? Personally, I keep a list of episodes as that's how I label my shots. So I'll have 101-33G, 102-4K, etc. Each representing the last shot we filmed in that episode. If we go back and reshoot a previous episode, I just rename the last one for that episode.

Not exactly less cable. Assuming a typical "16-foot boom pole", both an internally cabled pole and an uncabled pole with a cable wrapped around the exterior, have enough cable to go from the microphone to the bottom of a fully extended pole - just over 16 feet. I tend to make my "boom" cables 25 feet in length so that if a boom op needs to stretch his arms as far away from the Power Supply (the MM1 in your setup) and Transmitter (or duplex box if there were 30 years ago) while uncomfortably holding a fully extended pole, he would have enough cable (8-9 feet) to reach without strain between the bottom of the pole and the power supply. When you use a 2 foot coiled cable between the bottom of the pole and your MM1, the cable is actually more than 2 feet if you stretch it out. Maybe not 8-9 feet like an external cable, but keep in mind that the cable inside your pole is also coiled will be longer if fully stretched out. Personally, I don't think the difference in cable length between a cabled pole and an externally cabled pole matters. If you want to nitpick, I would suggest the extra connecting points in an internally cabled pole would be less advantageous to an externally cabled pole. Josh

That's what I ended up doing. I guess my initial confusion was caused by the fact that Denecke is based in CA and I think of that date structure as more international over American. I kept (over)thinking it and wondering if there was some practical reason for the month to jump after midnight (like a reminder to re-jam). We're around stories all day, I thought there was more of one here.

Not so much SOP for me. I do TOD and that always seems to be the assumption during Post Production Workflow Conference Calls in Prep. However, on the show I'm on now, it looked like we were an email away from having to address this. We got an email from Post that there were problems when we would start rolling a take before midnight and cross the line during the take. There was a suggestion to switch to basing zero off of the call time so we wouldn't cross that line. Apparently, it was an issue with the transferring - the time code on the video files would stop at midnight, while my time code would continue. But, because of the rare occurrence, we let the process be. Josh

Thanks for the explanation, Charlie. I switched the setting on the GR-2 to dd/mm/yy, but considering today's date, no one will notice.

It does have American and International variations. I don't remember - and not on set right now - if both number columns will go past 12. If I switch to international on the GR-2 and treat the months like days, it may not advance enough. I have a feeling you're right about the TS-Cs rolling over independently. I think that's how mine behave whether I jam it from the GR-2 or a 788. I think I have to send a slate in soon, so I'll try to remember to ask Denecke. It came up yesterday because I left the GR-2 on overnight and when we jammed the slates, we were already into November.

Mm/dd/yyyy

Curiosity is getting the best of me and my team...so I'm not waiting for a good time to contact Denecke directly. While on set, we're wondering if anyone has an answer to this: When my time code (from the GR-2) rolls over midnight, the date increments, but not in the normal way. The month is added to, while the day remains the same. I've looked through the menu to see if I'm missing a setting and to make sure the GR-2 is not in European date mode. I'm pretty sure I've seen this sort of rollover on other Denecke devices, so I'm guessing it's intentional. My theory is that it's to alert you to the fact you're rolling over midnight. Anyone have a real reason? Josh

I normally have all mics coming in through wireless receivers, but depending on the mix, I'll adjust which faders I'd like to use. That helps me mix. Since there is the occasional time I might hardline a mic, I want mic pres, 48v, and my EQ accessible on all faders. That way a hardline mic isn't s deciding factor on how I set up my board. It's kind of corny, but just like you can play the same scale on different strings of an instrument, you can play your mix from different faders in a way that feels better for you in that scene.

You might want a "grace" button too. If we break late for lunch, but grace is called, the app may apply a meal penalty that doesn't exist.

I think so. In a way, that's how our time cards get manually filled out sometimes to avoid the confusion. We'll put lunch in and out times that matter for meal penalties and also write in the next column "half hour lunch" or "1 hour lunch". The column we take over is actually the 2nd meal column because we never actually break for a 2nd meal, we just start accruing penalties.

Hi Tyler, This is how we do it under local 52 rules in New York, but I'm imagining it's the same for all IATSE jurisdictions. It is certainly confusing. Our "hours" will typically look like this: call: 7am lunch: 1pm to 1:46pm. wrap: 9pm That's a 30 minute (off the clock) lunch. Which makes the total hours 13.5. No lunch penalties, but there are some dinner ones. This is what seems to be too complex for a lot of apps. It's only 30 minutes of lunch, but that 1:46pm back in time is important because the dinner penalties would start 6 hours afterwards, at 7:46pm. So on this hypothetical day, we'll get 3 (30 minute) dinner penalties (7:46-8:15, 8:16-8:45, 8:46-9pm wrap). Also of interest, those 3 will be at a minimal amount but had we gone into the 4th meal penalty, we would have received prevailing rate for it. Another example: call:7am lunch: 1:10-2:10pm wrap: 7:30pm The lunch time looks like an hour, but what I'm imagining to have happened is: Grace was called so even though we broke after 1pm, there is not a lunch penalty. Catering, however, was a long van ride away and it took until 1:40pm to get the last man through the line (which is where the 30 minute clock actually starts). We wrapped at 7:30 with no MPs and a 12 hour day. Unfortunately for production, they only got 11.5 hours of work out of us because of the catering travel. Other variables are one hour lunches that also take into account the last man through the line, one hour walk away lunches that are one hour off the clock, but lunch time is either an hour and ten minutes or an hour and fifteen minutes to account for walking to the restaurant time. And just to further clarify the prevailing rate trigger on meal penalties, if you get 2 lunch penalties, it is still you're 4th dinner penalty that is prevailing rate. The two lunch periods are not cumulative in counting towards prevailing rate. You could also have 4 lunch penalties where that 4th one is prevailing rate, but if you then get two dinner penalties, those will be at the minimal rate. Anyways, the trickiest part I think for a lot of apps is accounting for lunch times that are longer than the off the clock time, so the total hours and meal penalties are accurate. Josh

I've usually gone with the grill covers but when my last one got a hole, I was given a "bag it" from the camera department. The good or bad difference between the two: the bag it is clear. I'm not sure, but I think the camera department orders them by size and this one fit my cart perfectly.

I use Bento. Not with bar codes. I manually enter in items, SNs, purchase dates, value, and any repair notes. Doing the work and keeping it up to date is the hard part. It does help in outputting equipment lists for insurance. But Bento has a convoluted way of doing that export. Josh

My coworker downloaded your app and we looked at it about a month ago, so forgive me if this is outdated, but... We've seen this on many production time card apps - no one seems to handle the lunch times in a way that works for us. We keep track of the in time, the time we break from lunch, the back in time and the wrap time. However, a lot of times the time between the break for lunch and the back in time is more than a half an hour, but we're only off the clock for a half an hour. We can't fully use a lot of apps, because we're forced to choose between putting an incorrect back in time (which changes the math for dinner meal penalties) or leaving the lunch times correct but then settling for an incorrect total time. Btw, it even confuses the accounting departments. Sometimes, we write in "half hour lunch" next to (but still including) the lunch times. There have been instances where lunch is a half hour off the clock, but it's taken a while to get everyone to and through the lunch line, so the lunch times look like an hour lunch. If we don't write "half hour", the accounting departments might take an hour off the clock for us. Josh

Our construction grip made a pair of giant sticks that our scenic, very nicely, painted for us on a TV show that used a lot of super wide crane shots. Obviously, no time code, but better than the tiny slate that was appearing in the wide shots because the camera was 30 feet in the air. I think mine are about 3 feet long. Pretty handy to have...and always good for a few laughs too.

In Griffin’s defense, part of the “stage" space he’s using on his current show was one of the spaces we had on “Smash” - and it sits right on top of a plastic bag factory that operates 24 hours a day. It’s horrendously loud and those rooms can be pretty frustrating to record sound in. As for equipment rates for narrative TV in NY, there are a few of us getting $3k/week. Though a lot of times the standard seems to be $2500. I try to specify in a document or email that that includes: 1 mixer, 2 recorders, 6 wireless, 15 comteks, 2 slates…and then I list a bunch of microphones (the least important bit of info to production as they don’t care if you record the whole show on an SM58 as long as it sounds good). I charge extra for a 3rd or 4th slate, for more comteks, playback equipment, and ear wigs. I feel very strongly about charging extra for the extra slates, because it’s my personal way of making sure there is a financial cost to shooting with more than 2 cameras. Our department shouldn’t be the only one that suffers. I’d love to be able to charge extra for "extra" wireless, but there are times I might use a wireless mic when production wouldn’t feel it necessary to do so. For example, on a TV show last year, we needed to record a wild track of a surveillance recording. We had the two actors on set one day and planned to boom the wild track. I put the boom as the only mic in the mix, but we also put a sort of horribly buried lav on the character who is supposed to be “wired” in the story and recorded that on a separate track. I made a big note to post and maybe they used it, maybe they didn’t. But it was a sort of fun exercise. Obviously, Post can take the boom track and EQ different levels of muddiness to it, but it was an easy additional track to give them. But I can’t imagine production wanting to pay for that. If it’s 8 people talking on a loud NY street, then maybe I should charge for the extra wireless since it’s usually the only way to get the dialogue. Even though the stated package is what it is above, like others, I’m carrying more. I only have 8 channels on my mixer, but I can employ 12 channels of wireless. I just don’t want to state that as the standard. I carry extra so I can find good frequencies. And even though there is only 1 mixer listed, I carry 4. I have my main board, a backup 8 channel analog board and then 2 portable 4 channel mixers. I don’t charge them for the backups. If a piece of equipment fails, I should be providing the alternate version of it. If I were a camera rental house, a teamster would have to make a pickup to get it. I just have to get it off of the truck. I think that’s a fair arrangement. I think the “standard” packages are probably pretty similar from mixer to mixer. The important thing is that it’s stated to production what it is. If I carry 15 comteks and someone else carries 16 comteks, the important part is that production knows that that number is the number of comteks they get before they need to pay for more. Josh