Martin Kittappa

Really, how would you feel if a sound guy said that I'm making a short film but I don't have the budget for a camera operator and / or focus puller so I figure that I'll just lock off a camera on tripod. What would be the best camera for that- I hear that the Red is the best camera would that be ok?

Unfortunately I can't make NAB this year. There are so many cool and expensive toys in the exhibition hall and I wish I could afford to buy them all, but unfortunately it's true- 'What happens in Vegas has to stay in Vegas'

Give post uncompressed clean audio on all tracks. If they need to compress it they have all the toys they need. If we do it then they are stuck with it. The only exception would be if production specifically asks for a particular compression, but I can't imagine any situation that would happen.

I recently was the mixer on a helicopter night shoot- the DP wanted to put in some LED lights up to illuminate the pilot. The flight commander point blank refused to allow this, saying that lighting will all but destroy the pilots night vision capabilities. In the end they allowed subdued low level green lights which had no effect on night vision. I have to wonder if the producers of the show were pushing for more light inside to get the shot and bullied to get their way. I sincerely hope not. It seems that the pilot and camera op in this case were very experienced and I'm sure that they wouldn't deliberately have done anything that would put people at risk, but reality producers can be very pushy and can make it difficult to say no when they want things their way. Deepest condolences to the families and friends of those involved.

Just had some great customer service from Portabrace- The plastic clips that attach the carrying strap to my 7 year old 442 case broke and I thought that I'd end up spending $45 on a new strap. After nearly going out to purchase a new strap I figured that maybe I should just purchase new clips instead. Sent a quick email to Portabrace to see if this was possible and if I could order metal instead of plastic. Not only can they supply the clips- they are sending them out to me free of charge and haven't even billed me for the shipping. Gotta love great customer service like that.

Getting on set when G and E shows up is usually a good idea, especially if there is a generator involved. I've had sound considerate electricians ask me where is the best place to put the genny. If I were to show up later and the set is already almost lit then I would probably find it much more difficult to to get the noise making generator moved to a better place, and at the very least I would not be making many friends in the G and E department.

Actually I found a great woman here in LA- the reason I moved out here from the UK, but then she has no desire to ever be working in the entertainment industry. Maybe that's were I went right and many go wrong.

Here's what to say to those low balling CL producers

I actually decided not to take the 10% discount and kept the coverage. There are many times that equipment could be in an unlocked car- say during a load in / out. If it's my own personal vehicle then most likely I'll lock it, but there have been times when my gear has been in someone else's vehicle and I have no idea if the person responsible for the car has locked it. Productions of course should have L&D cover, but at least I know that I'm covered if for some reason the production fails to meet it's own insurance obligations.

I might be able to swing by for an hour or so.

If there are multiple mics it is usually possible to get a line feed from the audio desk at the wedding venue. Double check that it is a quality feed though, some sound systems at churches and reception halls can be a little bit... consumer level. If it's not a great feed you could at least lay it on it's own iso track so that you have it as fail safe.

You raise some great points but I think this is beyond what I had in mind, in that I have no desire to become a full service rental house, and don't intend to be working as a gaffer. If I decide to purchase any kind of lighting it will only be enough for simple ENG type interviews. I already insure and maintain my equipment, and I already charge a rental for my sound gear, so a basic lighting package would be just an add on to what I do already. As for negotiating equipment requirements, it would simply be: I have x and y lights available, possibly a couple of C stands and some basic flags. If you need anything other than that, then you'll have to go to a full service rental house, or deal with a dedicated lighting guy.

No shoot is worth getting injured over, and if you feel that the situation is becoming unsafe then you have every right to make the call to abort. I'm surprised that if you are shooting in a hospital emergency room at a time when all the drunks were showing up, that you weren't accompanied by a security guard.

I don't think any soundie who owns lights is likely to encroach on camera or lighting department. It's more about having the lights available if needed, and handing over control of them to the DP. It would be a little like the shows where production owns the sound gear and have hired me to come in and operate. They don't tell me how to do my job or try to do it for me, but they want me to use their gear because they own it and makes more sense than paying rental to me. On more than one occasion I've had my Canon 7D in the car and have had the opportunity to pull it out because the show was wishing they had one more camera to set up. In such situations I just handed it over the camera department and forgot about it until they called wrap and I've added its rental value to my invoice. On the lights though- For me the jury is still out at this point, but I'm beginning to think that the return on investment might not really be worth it.

They'll most likely say "Actually the fact you have had an unethical self serving idea means we don't want want to offer you the sound mixer job, but maybe you'd consider being a producer on our next project"

I've been thinking about purchasing a small lighting kit- maybe an Arri kit, or/and some LED light panels- just a basic interview package. The plan being that if I'm hired as sound mixer on small ENG shoots I can offer these as extra equipment for rent. On these two man jobs I often end up helping the camera op set up lights anyway. I think could be useful especially to producers who fly in from out of town to do a few quick interviews and fly out right afterwards. I could offer a basic lighting package saving them from bringing heavy lights on the plane, or having to figure out getting lights from a local rental house. It might even save local producers time picking up lights the day before a shoot. I wouldn't want to get into anything complicated that would require a full G and E package. Even simple lighting is pretty expensive though, so before I decide to go down that path I thought I would ask if anyone else here has bought into purchasing lighting and has this been a worthwhile investment, or do you find that most of the time they end up sitting at home not making any money?

Sennheiser 416 Sennheiser MKH50 Sennheiser 8070 Sony ECM 77 2 x Sennheiser MD46 handheld mics 5x Sanken Cos11 5 Lectro m152 (came with the MM400c transmitters used on shoots when there is huge potential for lavs to get damaged) 4x Sennheiser ME2 (sitting in a drawer at home) Next mic addition will most likely be a Sanken CS3e

I can see it's use as an extra tool in hidden camera type situations, something like 'to catch a predator' or 'rogue builders' you could disguise the mic as part of the headphone setup for an iPhone enabling you to get a mic a bit closer to a perp. Other than that it looks more like a toy for amateurs.

Holy Moly!, mixing ENG bag style with a baby underneath all that- I don't know about your rig, but my fully loaded 788T rig weighs almost as much as full term twins. Most likely your baby will be OK they tend to be very resilient, but think of the strain on your own body- It will be like running around with triplets and 12 hour days will take their toll on you as well. Every woman I know who has had a baby gets aches and pains all over and get very tired just because of the baby. Seriously get someone to boom for you, and if you have to bow out for you or your baby's health don't let the production pressure you into staying. No movie is worth getting yourself injured over.

I've bought Sound Devices gear, and whenever I shop for something expensive I always try to get some kind of a discount. I have learned from multiple vendors that Sound Devices fix their prices and do not allow any seller to offer any discounts from the marked price. The fact that these guys are offering SD gear for a lower price is huge red flag. As my grandpa always said 'if it looks like sh*t and smells like sh*t, then in all probability it is sh*t'

I resolve that my mountain bike will get out to more trails this year and spend less time sitting in my garage. Already took it out for a run today on the Angeles Crest- lots of fun I guess it's a good thing that I'm working tomorrow and Friday, but too bad I can't hit the trails again.

yup- I've actually mixed sound for two features in Nigeria- A different world I tell you. It certainly has given me some interesting stories to tell over a beer. There is a director out there that is trying to raise the bar in film quality and so he came to Los Angeles and hired a DP, 1st AD, 1st AC and a sound mixer (Me) to help him out. My biggest worry was that by the end I was wondering if I had got caught up in some kind of scam as we had wrapped and were heading to the airport, and so far none of us from the USA had been paid, though our DP assured us it would all be ok. As we arrived at Abuja airport we were met by two guys in a Range Rover and they handed us each a brown paper bag full of cash (crisp new $100 bills) to cover our day rate for the 5 weeks of shooting. I walked through US customs not saying a word about the money- After a 17 hour flight home I didn't want to be stuck in secondary interrogation. Six months later I was back in Nigeria for another feature. This time I wasn't so worried about being paid- Once again the Range Rover was waiting at the airport for us.

I had an actress with a really short dress and much of it see through. I ended up hiding my smallest pack (Lectrosonics MM400) into the side of her bra. When hiding mics in intimate places it's all about having a professional attitude. In the case of the girl above, she was awesome. As I was hiding the mic pack in her bra she just smiled at me and said 'Martin, next time can you please at least take me to dinner first'.

Sorry I've got a dinner date at the Restaurant at the end of the Universe.

I find that Powerex AA's are great for about a year maybe up to 500 cycles with periodic conditioning. after that they seem to die quite quickly. My biggest problem is that my newer ones get mixed up with the old ones and as they all look the same I don't know which ones will last and which ones won't. In order to figure out which of my Powerex's are no longer viable I every 3-4 month or so I'll condition and test the batteries in one of my transmitters to see how long they last If it drops it's charge in less than 2.5 hours then I figure that it's expired beyond practical use. I used to use a volt meter, but I found that even after charging, an old battery would give me a good reading, but would still drop it's charge quickly when being used. Also I always try to use soft charge on my Maha charger rather than fast charging to prolong the working life of the batteries . I have more than enough batteries that I rarely need to charge them up quickly. My only exception is when working in 3rd world countries where the electricity grid is unreliable. In that case I want to get my discharged batteries charged up as quickly as possible because you never know when the power might go down, or how long it will be out for.