Bob Marts

The Commercial IA scale for Mixer and Boom Op has quite a gap. Can somebody tell me what the current average L.A. boom rate (above scale) for a national commercial is? Thanks

I was curious about this and did some searching as well. This note from the link on my previous post leads me to believe that the U-174/u plug aka "helicopter" plug is the right plug for the C-130: The “M” designation as part of the model number indicates the headsets are compatible with C-130, C-130J, C-141, KC-135, C-5B and the AIC-18 interphone used on many military aircraft. The headset normally uses the Nexus® U-174/u plug but can be supplied with whatever connector is specified.. Bob

Many military comm headsets use a U-174/U plug. And this. This, too.

One thing's for sure, that it's pretty hard to pigeon-hole our occupation.

Here's how I've come to understand it: A worker in our field is usually an employee who is temporarily employed by a producer, then paid by either the producers' employee account or by a payroll company who then becomes the employer of record. The producer is usually the independent contractor to the ad agency, studio, client, etc., and we are their employees. (If you are a corporation, then that changes everything.) By most peoples' understanding, we do not meet all of the requirements to be an independent contractor by state and federal definitions. For instance, a true IC has liberties as to how their product or service is delivered as long as it meets the needs of the job. An IC--for example, a plumber or a landscaper--can hire their own employees to do the work and the IC can then simply manage and oversee the project. How many times have you done that? If you supply the sound equipment, then that can be a separate business. You are a sound rental company as well as an employee. As a rental company, you can take the usual tax deductions for advertising, purchases, maintenance, and transportation and mileage to deliver the equipment to your job. Once you're on the job at call time, you are then the employee of the producer. As an employee, you are covered by workman's comp. for injuries, and the employer will pay half of your social security when an IC would have to pay all of it. That and the mentioned expedient payment is a benefit. For those who find that unemployment insurance is helpful, that can be collected when needed through payroll jobs. Also bookkeeping can be kept in separate ledgers, with your equipment paid on 1099's and your wages paid on W4's. And remember that you don't make overtime on your equipment, so quoting a day rate that includes your equipment rental only gives part of the equation. If you go into overtime, (which is based on your hourly wage), you have to decide what part of your day rate is equipment. Add to that that fed tax on earnings is less for equipment rentals than for wages and you now have a good case for working as an employee. That's my take on it.

An Icon indeed.

Of course, that was "An Officer and a Gentleman".

Dave Richards - Port Townsend, Washington. Booming on "You Can't Win".

My camera breakaway cables are made with Mogami W2602 (4 pair) cable. I plan to make some new extensions with Neutricon connectors and I'm just wondering if there is a better or newer cable style than this.

Earlier, I posted that I set my tc at hour "0" = call time. I should add that in recent memory, I've never rolled in the 1st hour on the features I've been working on.

I usually set 0 hour at call time. This way, the tc shows elapsed time of the work day, will not cross the 24 hour point and documents if we are shooting past meal break ;-)

My firewire port had to be replaced on my 788 right from the start. They do fail.

I once worked in my hometown of Seattle for an afternoon on the closing scene for an extremely popular network dramatic episodic season finale. It was so secret that only the two cast members and some producers from the show had knowledge of it. That and the show's day player camera crew, an AD and director as well as myself and my boom op and a Seattle location manager. The rest of the crew and cast didn't know about it. Those people from LA flew up in the studio's jet and were back in LA by the end of the work day. Very hush, hush. Except that they forgot to have us few Seattle people sign a non-discolsure. Of course we didn't say anything to anyone, but it sure could have been quite a scoop!

Question about the Epic clock: I'm starting a movie on Monday and the specs call for jamming TC into an Epic - not feeding it with a sync box. How well does the Epic hold TC?

I once opened an MK41capsule to clean it. I carefully photographed each step to help in the reassembly. I spent hours trying to put it back together and finally had to send it on a long trip to get it fixed. I love to be able to fix things myself - be it my car, my home plumbing, or my sound gear, but I've finally learned when it's time to let the specialists have at the complex repairs. I have three Schoeps MK41 mics and a while back I sent them to Germany for a once-over. It's nice to know that they're tweaked and up to specs. I've had my first Schoeps for thirty years and it's still my favorite mic. Btw, I think the turn around was only about one month - not four.

Really hard to 2nd guess the logistics of the play here, but from a technical standpoint, you actually have 4 channels - 3 from the 302 mono mix onto track 1 of the 702, and channel 2 of the 702 onto track 2 of the 702.

Interesting little video clip. When I worked on the Twin Peaks pilot, David Lynch would have a custom headphone mix on some scenes that was a mix of the live production dialog we were recording and playback music of Angelo Badalamenti's themes for the show which he had already composed. He recorded the music on a Rhodes piano and we mixed it in to David's headphone monitor from a Walkman cassette player as we rolled.

I dug deeper and found that the plug is made by Conxall.

That looks like the one - Thanks! Bob

Yes, I am. Thanks

This is a 12vdc power plug to a Marshall video V-R72DP-2C dual 7" monitor rackmount unit. I'm looking to buy an extra one and I can't identify this plug. I tried an extensive internet search including Marshall Electronics and nothing has turned up. (No, I haven't contacted Marshall yet - their website had no clues) I just wanted to ask here first. Anyone know what it is? Thanks Bob

Sure does look familiar. Here's a couple of other pix of my PSC conversion:

Why, thank you, Jeff. Here's a nice wider version of the same pic. I was working on a Korean movie shot around Seattle called when I took this picture. Late Autumn, btw, was Korean above the line, and it was one of the most interesting and rewarding movies I've ever done. I shared the mix with Tom Taylor of Spokane, Washington.

Nice work, Joe. I chopped my PSC cart as well. I took about ten inches off the top and made a wooden rack box for the recorders and the Venue. I found that including a top shelf with a 2 inch lip around it is handy for my netbook and stuff.

I still have a couple of older Phonak induction earpieces which were made to use the now obsolete Renata RE 212 1.4v mercury battery. These batteries are smaller that the common #10 zinc air batts that are now in use. Anybody know of a compatible replacement battery for these RE 212 batteries? Thanks for any replies to this.