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TheBlimp

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  1. Hello folks,

     

    just wanted to share a few things. I learned a ton form this board and have been away for almost a year, getting my diploma (media design) and finishing my little documentary movie. It's been a super stressful time, but it seems like it all paid off.
     

    I'm a bit baffled, but I've kinda built myself a repuation locally, at least that's how it feels... since I keep receiving inquiries from production companies all across the country, and when they're shooting in my area, I'm the first guy they call. When I ask how they found me (as I still haven't managed to build that darn little website), the usual answer is "you were recommended to us". Woah.

     

    What I learned from jwsound's members is so valuable to me, like: decline cheapskates, invest in your gear, ask questions about shooting style & schedules, be overprepared, work out a bit, shape up your social skills, and don't underestimate your role in the production. Over the last few weeks, I've worked on B2B, doco for cinema, nationwide TV spots, restored messed up zoom-recorder interviews from the middle east, now I'm doing some dialogue editing... all kinds of stuff.

     

    There's no way I would have gotten to where I'm at without all the insight I got from here. And I don't really mean to boast about my jobs or skills: I'm still at the stage of of starting out, self-teached, I don't know everything and I wet my pants with every new inquiry. But I'm getting better at things and people seem to notice. It just feels too good not to share.

     

    When things go right, we have the best job in the world.

    Anyway, thanks to everyone and peace.

    Mike

  2. First off be safe. Somebody drunk in an ER is possible to be in a bad state of mind, so don't kick the hornet's nest if that's what it looks like. Trust your gut. There will always be somebody else very willing to talk to camera with a totally crazy story. 

    I don't mean to sound like a jerk, but on the other side of the camera..... 

    I have to be honest, if I was rushed to the emergency room for any reason and a TV crew was trying to film me for some mystery reason, I would be pissed. Especially considering how long you can sit there waiting for somebody to help you, I would feel trapped if a film crew had me cornered like that and rolled. 

    I also always wondered about the legality of somebody drunk signing a release. I guess it depends on your Country, or State if you are in the US. 

    I've always been curious about releases. I was recently working on a reality series and one guy was in a documentary a few years earlier. He's only in it for a minute, but he said that when he signed it, he was totally drunk (which is why they wanted him), and the girls that talked him into signing a release said it was for a school video project and their teacher required permission. Now the "student project" is on DVD and Netflix. 

    I worked on a doc TV series with law enforcement and we had to blur a lot of faces (because Pennsylvania requires everyone to sign away their image, their voice and their property). That said, we had a surprising number of people willing to talk to us and show off whatever the action was right up until they had handcuffs put on. That's where a good field producer can first talk to people. 

     

    exactly the problem with my doco. i've been filming with three former homeless guys for about 1.5 years, they signed the release, signed gratification receipts, and now that i'm almost done with the rough cut i'm wondering if i'll run into major problems in case any of them changes their mind. sometimes it was hard to tell whether they were intoxicated or not, one of them has even stopped drinking and found a job (which of course is great), and while his personal development is part of the film, i'm afraid he might insist on having the earlier material removed or defused. even though he signed the relase when he was already clean, it's kind of complicated. ah dammit what a hassle. i need to get back to doing sound alone.

  3. Marc, i think you got me wrong. I never meant to present the list as "my work" (which would be hilarous) - I just tried to help by compiling the stuff, asked everyone to contribute but keep the formatting etc - so that maybe it could become the "one-stop reading resource", which wouldn't have to be posted over and over.

    I had this info at the very top of the list. There, I also stated that it's compiled mainly from Marc's posts, plus a few scattered ones, and asked if it was a good idea at all. After Jeff put the list into the "resource" section, I removed my statement, as I figured everything was approved - I just wanted the list to be as clean as possible. Sorry if the removal of the initial statement has lead to bad vibes.

    Cheers

    Mike

  4. I had the same thing a while ago. Cheapo shoot in the woods - I made sure the director fully understood that the generator need be parked in at least 150 ms distance and, no matter how they'd do it, I didn't want to hear any of it - or I wouldn't do it. Got a bit of complaining, but it worked and it was for the best I guess. Post was terrible enough without the damn thing. Good luck with your project!

  5. For Starters

    Audio Bootcamp Field Guide

    by Ty Ford

    http://web.mac.com/tyreeford

    Location Audio Simplified

    by Dean Miles

    http://www.locationa...simplified.com/

    The Location Sound Bible: How to Record Professional Dialog for Film and TV

    by Ric Viers

    published by Michael Wiese Productions [iSBN 1615931201]

    Location Sound & Post

    The Practical Art of Motion Picture Sound

    by David L. Yewdall

    published by Focal Press [iSBN 0240802888]

    Sound Man

    by Richard Patton

    published by Location Sound ltd [iSBN 9780986607707]

    "Roll Sound!" - A Practical Guide for Location Audio

    by John Fielden

    published by CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform [iSBN 1450549837]

    Producing Great Sound for Film & Video, 3rd ed

    by Jay Rose

    published by CMP Books [iSBN 9780240809700]

    Audio Postproduction for Film and Video, 2nd ed

    by Jay Rose

    published by CMP Books [iSBN 9780240809717]

    Sound for Film and Television

    by Tomlinson Holman

    published by Focal Press [iSBN 0240804538]

    Sound for Digital Video

    by Tomlinson Holman

    published by Focal Press [iSBN 0240807200]

    Sound for Picture

    by Tom Kenny

    published by Artistpro [iSBN 0872887243]

    The Foley Grail: The Art of Performing Sound for Film, Games, and Animation

    by Vanessa Theme Ament

    published by Focal Press [iSBN 0240811259]

    Sound-On-Film: Interviews with Creators of Film Sound

    by Vincent LoBrutto

    published by Praeger [iSBN 0275944433]

    The Sound Effects Bible: How to Create and Record Hollywood Style Sound Effects

    by Ric Viers

    published by Michael Wiese Productions [iSBN 1932907483]

    Sound Design

    by David Sonnenschein

    published by Michael Wiese Productions [iSBN 0941188264]

    Designing Sound

    
by Andy Farnell


    published by Mit Press [iSBN 0262014416]

    Audio-Vision: Sound on Screen

    by Michel Chion

    published by Columbia Univ Pr [iSBN 0231078994]

    Sync Sound for DAT, DV, and DVD

    by Wolf Seeberg

    www.wolfvid.com

    24P For Sound and Video Assist

    by Wolf Seeberg

    www.wolfvid.com

    The Sound Reinforcement Handbook

    By Gary Davis and Ralph Jones

    published by Hal Leonard Corporation [iSBN 0881889008]

    Dialogue Editing

    Dialogue Editing for Motion Pictures: A Guide to the Invisible Art

    by John Purcell

    published by Focal Press [iSBN 0240809181]

    Online Ressources

    The Art of Zen-Boom Pt 1&2

    Interviews with boom ops

    Boom Operating: The Art and Passion

    Article about boom operation

    http://www.epicsound.com/sfx/

    Foley and FX guide

    http://filmsound.org/

    Film sound design learning space

    Sennheiser Audio for Video

    Geert Verdickt's audio tutorials for filmmakers

  6. Arsen, as always it's best to make a few tests and ask your post dept. how they want to handle things.

    Maybe a "recommended reading" sticky thread would be a good idea? Then again, I don't know how much work it would be on the admin side of things - and of course it wouldn't keep people from not reading.

  7. It's not about whether the limiter is on or not (it's a good idea to have them on to protect from transients and clipping further down the recording chain) but has to do with the fact that if you are pegging the limiters consistently, your dynamic range is being compressed - ie the echo is being recorded louder than it needs to be. Similarly, you wouldn't use a compressor in post as all that would result is the reverb being brought higher in relation to the direct signal.

    Same deal with auto gain - as the echo trails off, the auto gain will raise the input volume, which will result in more echo being recorded, for longer.

    Damn, this happened to me once and I got burned real bad. First short movie, completely shot in a storage depot. Assuming location sound couldn't be that different from music recording, I used to drive the limiter on my mixer "just a bit" - just out of habit and not being alert enough. The first day's audio was... I mustn't think of it. Ouch.

  8. Hey Dunkle, thanks for the advice! The workflow you described is good - I guess it's just me wearing all these hats which causes my troubles/distractions, haha. I'm more in the flow right now, as in: it doesn't take me so long anymire to make a decision whether this or that can be saved. I lost a job or two over raising my location sound rates, but hey, I can spend more time on the documentary this way - developing some routine with the picture edit... better.

    About FCPs media management: Linking, re-linking, losing Motion renders upon consolidating, the usual stuff. I know my way around, but sometimes it's just a drag. As if you need more brainpower for the workarounds than the actual editing. Ah well. The new Premiere looks pretty good - but I'll stick with FCP and see where the pro editors in my area will be heading, where it seems like a 50/50 between Media Composer and Premiere right now. I guess by the end of next year we'll know for sure.

  9. So you don't believe that what you know has any value then...

    Sure I do believe it has value. And sometimes I get paid for it, which makes it even nicer. I won't put any effort into a hopeless case or an unsympathetic fellow. But know what, there's two guys helping me out for free on a project now, just because I helped them out in the past. The good guys seem to remember.

    Peace ;)

  10. (...) Yes maybe there are too many new people, I know its been suggested before but hire some of us as utility's or booms and fight for us to be brought on when negotiating with clients, if we are working for you, how could we be working against you ;)

    Agreed. I'm relatively new to location sound, but please don't pick on someone just because he's new. I always feel like having to duck my head when I log in. :ph34r:

    Okay, so I'm relatively new, and where I live there's not many boom ops, mixers or post people. I know a bit of everything, not on a pro level, but I do, and that's how I get my smallish jobs. I'm working my arse off. In the last 5-6 years, I didn't have more than a week off. I do learn the hard way. I'm dedicated. I never went to a forum and whined about having bought this and that how to hook it up - because I do RTFMs. I do digest as many audio books as is humanly possible in the little spare time I have. I make terrible mistakes and get burned, but I don't complain. I have no one to teach me. Weirdly enough, I do give audio courses at my University because I know more about it than the guy who runs the audio studio. He knows which buttons to push, but he has no thorough understanding of it all - because he doesn't work his arse off. He'll be forever stuck in there, just like everyone without dedication and willingness to give it that extra bit of effort. Just an example.

    There's one boom op in town whom I consider a bit of a mentor, and even though he doesn't know how to solder an XLR or how it works, I learned a bit from him, and I'm super thankful. Since he's doing more camera work now he refers people to me. I charge pretty low rates - and behold - even I lost a few jobs already because they found someone cheaper. In this 200.000 people town. I wonder how. Probably someone whom I teached at Uni and got the equipment for free there. I never ask my clients how I did. 90% of the time, when listening to their audio, I get the strangest of feedback: See, the levels are a bit low, but it's better than most of the stuff I usually get. Is that a special mixer you're using? No, run of the mill stuff, but have you noticed me working my arse off?

    I'm a modest guy who tries to use the search function before posting what might seem like extremely trivial questions (e.g., my confusion about Dialnorm in the Post section). But I have noone else to ask. I'm on my own here. Sorry for the lengthy and unorganized rant, and let me finish off with something hopefully most of us can agree upon: Both old hands and new guys are, if not in the same, then in similar boats here. The common denominator hopefully being dedication to and love for what we do, and not the cost of our equipment. It's amazing to see the number of people who watch a tutorial on a DIY filmmaker site and think there's all to it - and then work for free or credits. At the moment, there's tons of them and it will get worse. But there will be better times. Because everyone wants to be an effin' cameraman or director. Sound is just the interim solution to them. I keep hearing this and it makes me both sick to my stomach and gleeful. If someone wants to keep his knowledge to himself, then so be it. If have no problem giving away what I know (and be it not even that much at all, but thorough basics) - because I know that only one out of ten will even be able to really absorb it, make it part of his routine, live it, and think further. The other nine are passers-by, but this one guy will not stop there. He will read up on it and work his arse off. Like one should. So please don't give me the feeling that I'm one of the newbies who tries to steal anyone's jobs. Man. I'm on a different continent, I'm on my own, and even I (on my low level) lose jobs because they find someone cheaper. And sorry for going totally OT. Cheers, Mike

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