BoomOperator

I use the Rycote Modular Windshield WS 2 Kit, but sometimes the Softie will do just fine. I don't think the reach is all that different than the 60, it's just a wider pattern. Much more natural in my opinion. In a quiet environment the 50 can sound amazing, even from several feet away.

I used it outdoors today for an impromptu 3 piece acapella recording. I've used it many times outdoors to record dialog scenes in movies and TV shows. I use either a softie or a Rycote zeppelin with it. It really is a great mic. Wonderful for string instruments as well.

Hiya kid. Thanks for the interesting video. My preferred mic is the MKH 50 and your video reconfirmed that for me. Rich

Hi, I'm a boom operator in L.A. and post sound is outside of my experience. A friend in NYC recently shot a 20 minute short for about $30k. She was able to get an excellent cast of well known NYC television and theater actors and got a good DP who brought his crew on so things went well on the 3-4 day shoot which was in one location. The picture is locked and now she needs to post the sound. She had budgeted $1000 and asked me if it was possible to get an experienced person for that budget. Frankly I have no idea. Any advice that I can pass on to her would be much appreciated. Thanks, Richard Bullock

What I am wondering is if he had any safety training at all. Is it required by the local in Louisiana the way it is in L.A.? As I understand it it is not. This of course would not be his fault, and if this is the case then we need to put pressure on the local IATSE to institute a safety training program (based on Contract Services and paid for by the studios?) Making movies in Louisiana has exactly the same safety risks as it does in L.A. If the studios are going to make movies there to save money, they shouldn't be doing it at the expense of safety no matter what the cost. Rich

Thanks Richard. If I could get the functionality I'm looking for in Final Draft that would be best as I could probably get a copy of the script in Final Draft from production if I asked. That said, Montage looks pretty interesting too and would also require getting a Final Draft copy of the script. It seems to me that much of the functionality of Montage is already available in Final Draft. A UPM friend suggested Movie Magic Scheduling from Entertainment Partners which looks fantastic but is kind of overkill for me (as well as $499). I guess it's time to download these programs and try them out during their trial/refund periods. R

My wife Jean (a set decorator) and I are each breaking down different scripts for our upcoming jobs and we thought of something we would like to be able to do with a PDF of a script. We would like to be able to assign a set to each scene so that once complete you could easily see that scenes 12, 17, 45, 47 and 80 are all in "Sam's apartment" and you could easily view just those pages of the script. Similar to the way you put photos into albums in iPhoto. Then you could just click on the Sam's Apartment album and view the scenes that take place there. Any ideas? Is this maybe a functionality of Final Draft? We use Apple computers. Thanks, R

Thank you Richard, I'll check that out. R

I came across this online hearing test. It's on the University New South Wales site. I've been concerned about my hearing 12kHz and above since I had a double ear infection a couple of years ago. It gives me some idea where I am, but I still want to get a thorough hearing exam. Does anyone have a good audiologist in L.A.? Rich.

Richard, I use the Firefox browser with an add-on called Copy Plain Text that adds an option to copy as plain text when you right-click on highlighted text. When you paste the text into another page or program it is free of all HTML code and text formatting. Rich Bullock

I agree with what Richard said about building trust with the camera operator. In the first few days of a show I will ask the camera op for a frame line here and there just to build up a dialog and to let him know I'm there and take my job seriously. I could just as easily ask the mixer for a frame using his monitor, but it's a good idea to build a relationship with the camera op and dolly grip right away. As for the camera op using the boom man as a scape goat, I have seen that more than a few times as well. But just as often I have had an operator tell a DP or director that it was the operator's mistake. He usually asks for a little more room next time anyway. -Richard Bullock

I was so impressed with the Lectrosonics sm when it came out. Such sleek industrial design. Now I've come to find it's simply retro. The Tahbes Synchro is from the late 1940s.

One of my most favorite movies, and certainly the one I quote the most. Last week I went along with my wife as she was shopping for a film she decorating. She found a rug she liked.... "That rug really tied the room together" I said. She gave me a courtesy laugh. She's heard it before. "Has the whole world gone crazy? Am I the only one around here who gives a shit about the rules? Mark it zero!" Rich

Being a month into a fast-paced 7 day per episode TV show with 3 RED cams, I have to agree with Doug. Let's see, Comtek feed to all 3 cameras. Sync boxes on 2 cameras. Syncing the steadycam every time they change a battery because the steadycam op doesn't want the extra weight of the sync box. 3 timecode slates. The utility guy is very busy making sure that the comtek receivers haven't been bumped, that the sync boxes aren't dangling by the cable (B camera seems to enjoy moving the sync box to a new position on the camera several times a day). This is a lot of extra work, and a serious PIA that has nothing to do with recording dialog or providing post with the elements they need to cut the show. To add insult to injury post is syncing our files for dailies, making all this work pointless. Did that sound a little angry? Sorry about that. I'm just tired of getting off a ladder to do a last-minute steadycam jam because my 3rd is (justifiably) busy running files to "ingest". What a waste of time and energy, and what a distraction from the task at hand. -rich

I too use the Sanken COS-11 in the tie knot often. I've found that the Countryman B6 is more susceptible to wind noise from nose-breathers so I use is less often. I agree with everyone here about the downsides of this rig: scratchy beards on shirt collars, noisy silk ties. Like Doug, I put some moleskin just north of the head, and then sometimes a little topstick just north of that. The one time I couldn't get usable sound from this setup was due to a very textured silk tie and a 5 button rayon jacket that buttoned up very high and close to the tie knot. Even on the boom the sound was barely usable! Rich