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Joshua Anderson

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Posts posted by Joshua Anderson

  1. I missed the original posting, but I really enjoyed that short doc. I used to wait tables right down the street from that chess shop in a vegetarian restaurant that I don't think exists on Thompson St. anymore. But I don't live there anymore, either. But just seeing the outside and that walk through Washington Square brought back a lot of memories. It was really nice to see the inside of the Chess Forum and hear his story. Funny to have been so close once, but I knew nothing of the inside. 

     

    Thanks!

    Josh

  2. Bernie, are you ok? 

    I was watching the Vikings and saw the clip of Linval finding you before he found any quarterbacks. I hope you're alright.

    At least you got to see a win. It's been a while.

    Josh

  3. On 1/22/2015 at 6:08 PM, Wyatt Tuzo said:

    If it's on the SD site, I sure couldn't find it... The 744, yes- the 788, no.

     

    Before I delve into this, let me preface by saying that I was both in a time crunch, and am very comfortable with electronics. This isn't difficult to do, just know that you assume all responsibility should something get screwed up.

    So, here goes:

     

    You will have to remove all cover screws plus the strap post screws on the side of your choosing.

    On my particular serial numbered machine, the battery holder is mounted on a PCB just below the hard drive (between the disk and the input jacks). I used a non-conductive tweeker and a pair of long thin needle-nosed pliers. If you don't have a non-conductive tweeker or the like, use something like a tooth pick.

     

    **before opening the case, remove L battery and disconnect any power source**

     

    First, gently remove glue glob with pliers

    Next gently push the battery (from the back corner) toward the opening of its holder with your non-conductive probe.

    As soon as you've gotten it out enough to grab ahold of the dead batt with the pliers, channel your innermost "Operation" champ and remove that thing.

    Next, just install your new batt (positive side up, in my case.. Confirm this when removing yours)

     

    I decided to add another dollop of hot glue to mine, just to ensure it wouldn't shake loose. The blob of glue really just sits outside the battery holder slot and acts as a retainer.

     

    Anyway. Sorry no pics. Hopefully this makes sense

     

     

    Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

    Wyatt,

    I keep going back to these instructions. I just switched out a hard drive on one of the 788s and did the TOD battery, too. Thanks for posting this.

    Josh

  4. If a machine freezes up mid take, it's easy to do exactly what you are saying. I've had to do the "I'm sorry, sir, I had a user error and just didn't hit record until I noticed about 20 seconds into the take. So even with the 10 second pre-roll buffer, we're missing the opening 10 seconds of that take." Running two machines didn't help with that situation at all. Where it helps is when a drive fails. On some recorders, you record onto the main internal drive and then copy over to a deliverable disk or CF card. If your hard drive corrupts but doesn't alert you. You end up making multiple copies of a bad file without even knowing it. Or if the transfer to the deliverable has issues, and the internal drive fails the next day, you'll have lost possibly your only salvageable copy. These are extreme examples. But I've seen a version of that with another mixer and a whole day's worth of sound was lost. It's one thing to know you have a problem, but when a computer or drive fails, you may not know that there was a problem until the phone call the next day. And then it may be too late. 

    Josh

  5. I think the 788 has been a great machine. I still run two of them with the sonosax mixer in front of them. The 788s are small, 8 tracks. I know they are designed to go portable (and I do keep a 3rd in a bag with a 442 ready), but I use them like a recording "box." The one thing that does bug me about the 788 is when I have to redo all of the settings (even after loading my user settings) and reset the inputs/faders one by one. I don't use the faders/gain controls on the 788s - I just use them as two recording boxes. I hope when I move on from the 788, sound devices has another, similar recorder. I don't need the track count of the 970 - nor the weight. I like to run two recorders, fed separately, so if something goes down in one, the other isn't affected. I've had it happen. I've seen it happen. I don't want to spend my political capital on set on machine failure (and what I see as user error if I only run 1 recorder at that point). These recorders are computers and computers fail at some point. So I'm just hoping sound devices has something like the 788 in the next round of machines they're designing. 

  6. Contractually, I believe, it's one thing to "steal" wide pickup group talking from extras while on set, but as soon as they are directed to say (or do anything) specific for close micing, rates start to increase. 

    Narratively, it's also hard to get on set extras to improvise quality dialogue. When I've done make-shift, even organized walla, on set, the improvised things extras say really don't seem useful to the story at all. Those are times I want to hear the cacophony, not the specific speakers. 

    But I think Mobilemike is correct that sometimes too wide probably isn't helpful in the final mix if the crowds in picture are small. I find a similar practice when I'm adding in a lavaliere from an actor deep in the background. I leave the boom up to "air" out the tight pickup of the lavaliere so the deep actor still sounds distant. But I need a tight pickup from the lavaliere to make that work with the boom. 

    Josh

  7. Hi Gkim,

    99% of my career has been in narrative work. Here's my brief purchase history of mics:

    The first mic I bought was a MKH-60. For a while, it was my only mic, so I bought a zeppelin and used it both indoors and out. Then because I wanted more reach when outdoors and to keep in the same microphone family, I bought a MKH-70. I thought it might be easier to match to my MKH 60 when those situations came up. I remember mixing a scene where an actor walked from inside a theater lobby to outside onto a midtown street. I had one boom operator with the 60 inside and one boom operator with the 70 outside and made the transition as camera and actor went through the door. 

    A Schoeps CMC-6 with a MK-41 head was my next purchase. I had landed a feature film mixing job and wanted to really make an impression with a nice mic and thought that would be a good choice. Outside, I still used the long MKH 70. I ended up adding another Schoeps after mixing a scene where I needed to fade between a Schoeps on a boom and a MKH 60 on a plant and being frustrated by the shifts in tone. So I thought another Schoeps would help with matching in those situations. Schoeps CMC-6/MK41 for indoors and the MKH 70 for outdoors was my typical setup for a number of small films. Adding in a couple of Schoeps collette cables to help plant the mics and I had a setup that seemed to work well for the projects I was on. 

     

    Later, I took a job on a TV show as a utility for another mixer who favored the MKH 60. As I moved into 2nd unit mixing and having a 3-man crew, I purchased another MKH-60 for double boom situations, 2 MKH 50 and 2 Senn. 416 mics as other options for indoor work (much like that mixer was doing), and another MKH-70 for matching two booms in outdoor work. Some of these mics I bought new and some I found as good deals used. 

    I ended up working as a utility for a different mixer and he favored the Schoeps CMIT for both indoors and out. We were working together on a TV show and he left mid-season. I took over mixing and to try to keep some consistency, I bought 2 Schoeps CMIT mics. I got used to using the CMITs outdoors and if they didn't have the reach, I depended on the lav mics. I ended up selling my 2 MKH-70 mics out of disuse.

     

    On a later TV show, I again started to feel the need for a longer shotgun mic outdoors in scenes that were borderline possible to boom with a tight boom pattern instead of a lavaliere. So I ended up purchasing a used 816T mic. Months later, I bought another 816 (that one a 48v version) so I could do double booms outside. I've also added a couple of T-powered Schoeps CMC mics, and MK-4 heads (for a wider pickup) and even a -10db Schoeps pad when I needed to record Bernadette Peters singing live in close up on a boom. 

     

    Nowadays, my personal preference is to use the CMIT outdoors. I have 3 so I can do double booms inside and out and have a 3rd has an option for a plant, or if one needs to go on a long vacation to Germany. I'll use the 816 mics outdoors, too, from time to time. Between those two mic types, I feel I'm covering all the situations I tend to come across where we can boom a scene outdoors. When we use the 816, I prefer the T powered version first. If I'm choosing the 816, it's because the voices are whisper-y in sound quality and I want the high end snap I can get out of an 816 (much like the 416 which I will still sometimes use indoors for certain scenes). I feel the T powered version of the 816 gives more of that than the 48v version. Just a personal preference. I have a similar preference for the T powered Schoeps CMC mics since I find they handle being wireless plants better in my setup. 

    That's my own mic purchasing history. It seemed like you were trying to stay away from the "this mic is better" discussions, so I thought a personal history might be slightly interesting. Like John mentioned before, a lot depends on your budget and what jobs you're on. For me, that's been a growth from very small to bigger, but almost exclusively in the narrative field. A lot of my purchases were either reacting to jobs I had finished (frustration) or jobs I was going to start (hope). 

    Josh

     

  8. On June 22, 2016 at 8:07 AM, Jose Frias said:

    I'm still extremely grateful for allowing me the opportunity to visit you on set a few years ago. It was extremely beneficial to me, and I learned a lot!

    Thank for the kind words, Jose! It was certainly fun and easy to have you visit. I hope it wasn't too boring. But that's what makes it easier to have sound people visit: they already know to expect the slow dullness and repetition when watching filmmaking. Friends and family sometimes make the worst visitors as the behind the scenes entertainment is expected to be better. 

  9. Over the past few years/shows, I've had a few sound guests. Obviously this is just to watch and not work. They get a chance to see how a union show runs. Unfortunately, security has gotten tighter on shows and guests are not allowed anymore. I think it's a shame. If young sound people can appreciate a well run set, then some habits may form while they are learning in the non-union world. I don't think I even knew there was a sound utility position until I was applying to be in the local union. Nowadays, an introduction into film sound might be reality TV or sit down interviews. I'd like narrative work to have a representation as well. 

    I do wish we had a sound trainee position in our locals. Last time I checked the new local 52 application requirements for sound, it involved amassing 800 MPI hours, or hours working on union sets. Since a non-union person would need to have it be busy enough that productions can't find a union member and a narrative sound department is so small, the only way I see someone getting those hours is through reality TV. 800 hours of Reality TV doesn't help you learn how to be a sound utility or boom operator. 

    If those hours could be accrued by working as a sound PA (who didn't boom), and was only an addition to a 3-man crew, I think there would be a lot of benefits for both the trainee, that particular sound crew and the industry in general. But that would also be a paid PA position. People shouldn't work for free. Hanging out and watching for free is one thing. Doing for free the work that would have been compensated isn't fair to anyone. 

    With all of the sound guests that have visited, I've never thought of it as babysitting. Sometimes, there are days with more opportunities to chat than others. But I think most of us can be good enough judges of people not to invite someone who will steal props, take photos or talk during the takes. 

    Josh

  10. I run a Samsung DVD/Blu-Ray Player that can stream Netflix, a Mac Mini (maybe from 2009?) and a Music Hall turntable all through a Harmon Kardon HD-3550 receiver, then out to 2 Ascend Acoustics speakers and a 40 inch TV. The mac mini lets me stream other shows besides netflix, run iTunes and watch dailies. No more cable, cable box, not even network TV. Just internet and subscriptions to Netflix, Amazon and iTunes. 

  11. Whitney - They are for UM450 transmitters and IFB receivers. We use the UMs for the booms. My guys like the on and off switch. 

    Richard - Yeah, as of 4/1/16, there are newer guidelines in shipping lithium batteries. The plastic casing is in place of individual blister bags, which I think are still ok but probably more expensive. The guidelines require the batteries to not be able to touch in air transit. It's just an unfortunate use of space and materials. 

  12. We were organizing and packing a big expendable order yesterday while loading our truck to start a show. We had ordered 400 Lithium 9 Volt batteries to cover the first few episodes. The Dynamis brand that we normally order has recently been shipping in ridiculously extra packaging to hold just 10 batteries. We removed the plastic holder and were able to fit 21 batteries in the cardboard box. 40 boxes down to 19. 

    I know the packaging probably has something to do with shipping, but all that extra plastic is just awful. 

    Josh

    IMG_3255.JPG

  13. It's an SX-T, not an SX-ST. I think the SX-T evolved into the SX-VT series. It has 12 inputs (9 are mono and 3 are stereo). While the SX-ST series offers 8, 10 or 12 input models, the SX-T (and SX-VT) starts at 12 inputs and goes to 48. I think both are models are made to be "mobile" or at least in a mobile studio instead of being installed in a studio space. But I think most people putting a new sonosax board on a sound cart have bought the SX-ST (but I'm in that group, so maybe that's why I'm assuming that). 

  14. 34 minutes ago, Wandering Ear said:

    I doubt file size will ever be a limitation for us, we will always be smaller than the associated picture.  I think if we end up changing our recording format from PCM to dsd or other, it will be driven by the delivery format, not because of any benefits in production.  If online streaming, or the next media delivery format adopted a dsd spec, then we might start seeing some demand for it, for the foreseeable future, I doubt linear PCM is going anywhere.

    I hope so. 

    When I took over mixing Law & Order, the show had already switched from 1/4 tape to WAV file recording, having skipped DAT. I think between me and the previous two mixers, we used a wide variety of non-linear recorders: PD-6, DEVA, DV824, 788T. But post always had us record in 16 Bit due to how they were transferring it. 

  15. I agree. There's a little range of scenes/scenarios where a long shotgun lives nicely. If possible, I'll go with my CMITs for what feels to me like a fatter voice and more forgiving blend of the background(and for that reason I once sold the two MKH-70s I owned), but if we can stay on a boom and not go with lavs by going with my 2 816s, I'll do that. For a while, I only owned one (that I bought used), but picked up a second used one a few shows ago. We had scenes on the waterfront in Daredevil that where we went with 816s from above and below to get the lines without going to the wires.

    Sometimes the 816s, in my opinion, are good for brute force - just cut the dialogue out of the background. But, I really like those mics for quieter exterior dialogue, especially when the voices have a whispery tone. So I've even used it indoors because of that whispery pickup (similar to a 416 in my opinion). On Jessica Jones, our lead was sitting against a wall inside, and we went with the 816 to get the whispering lines she was saying to herself. Hard wall, hard floor, interior - but if it wasn't for an 816 in that situation, it probably would have been a lav which would have been a shame.

    Yes, they are heavy, especially with the zeps, fur and a fully extended pole. I once filled in as boom on a movie a friend was mixing. We had an exterior shot. The mixer was ready to go with the wire but I wanted to get a shot at the line (actor hailing a cab, so he was putting out level to work with). I think my friend had a Neumann long shotgun in the zeppelin, I'm not sure. But the boom was one of those super heavy panamic booms. It was fun to do, but it hurt. And this was nowhere near a 5 minute scene. Just a quick 30 second one with some walking backwards on a long stick. 

    Josh

  16. 9 hours ago, Marc Wielage said:

    I have encountered studio execs who have told me they look at the slate just to get an idea of what time of day the scene was being shot. And that's something I had never thought about before, until they mentioned it. 

    I was chided the other week when I forgot to change my master tc clock after daylight savings. I hope people remember that the slate time is probably approximate. I don't want to be responsible for the cost of meal penalties because of my time code. I know some mixers do purposefully start the day's time code at zero or 1 hour just so they don't have people expecting the clock to be absolutely time of day accurate.

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