Bob Marts

Some good suggestions. For years, I've kept mine in a Planters peanut can (the cardboard kind) and it's worked fine.

I got them in Seattle at Blick Art Materials on Broadway (The building with the statue of Jimi Hendrix out front).

That's really fun. Thanks for posting the link.

Interesting story in today's New York Times Magazine.

Red and black has always been a favorite color combination of mine. Your cart looks great like that - - like a hot rod. Way to go, keeping up your old PSC cart. I still have my old upright cart which was a very early ASC cart - may even be a Skyline cart. Nice job! Bob M

My experience with the Epic has been the same: Balanced, Mic Level only.

I found a variation on a "lavalier mic quieting sleeve" at an art supply store recently. It is smaller than the commercial brand, which is sometimes desired . It is a replacable foam cover for a painting tool with a lengthwise hole through it - just the right size for a COS11. I just snipped off one end and there you are with a nice smaller sized foam sleeve. I paid $2.09 for a package of 10! http://www.sofftart.com/products.html

I bought a couple of these at Cabela's a number of years ago -- $26 for 2. They have a threaded stem, but that doesn't seem to matter. I trimmed the vinyl coating off of the stem so it wouldn't bind in the C head.

I really like this thread...it's like a virtual wrap beer rant session.

Then there's the ambiguous protocol for music playback - LOUD music playback. Playback can stop everyone in their tracks when it's really loud and the last thing you want to do is roll it at an unappropriate time -- but how many times do you hear vague commands like "Let's hear something" or "Music" or "Roll it" from the director or AD or the performers themselves. I always tell the AD (if the AD is actually in control) that I will only roll playback on a consistant command from him or her, such as "Music Playback" or similar. And I will cut only on the AD's call unless there is a problem. I try to keep my eye on the AD during playback for a cut signal because a walkie is usually hard to hear. Unfortunately I miss watching some good performances for this reason.

Did an Epic job recently. I had already made a pair of XLR to 3.5 in the balanced configuration, so that's what I used with mic level sending to the camera balanced inputs. Worked fine for the job.

Researching sound carts again (a hobby of mine), I came across this interesting design from Soundsquare Rentals s.r.o., Czech Republic

I've been a Tiki, Polynesia, Exotica fan for a long while. My profile pic is of my Cooper 208 headphone volume knobs -- A blue tiki knob for me and a brown tiki for my boom op (just for fun).

Here's what's being said about the wiring on REDUSER.

Shooting in an office in downtown Seattle yesterday with this moody skyline in the background. You can see the Space Needle way off at the far end of the street. I took this on my Samsung Galaxy phone.

My advice is, whether you wear a vest or not when you're around deep water, put a quick release connector on your bag straps to release your anchor if you need to. You won't have time to fumble with caribiners and such if you go over. I worked for a sailing film company back in the 70's and the Nagra we used had a great bag made by a sail maker that had car seat belt latches on the strap and could be released in a second.

Great idea!

Here's another slate faceplate maker: Nola Slates. I've never used these but they look fine.

One thing I do which helps protect the slate when it's not busy slating is provide a netbook size computer bag and a spring clamp to hang the slate from the camera cart. I found three nice bags cheap at Goodwill.

Laurel and Hardy showing microphones to the early Our Gang kids.

Many times I used a lav on the forehead under a stocking cap on the Northern Exposure TV series. A lot of winter exteriors and the under-the-hat and cap rig usually worked quite well.

In the 80's, a company called Kangaroo Products made a good alternative Nagra shoulder bag (mine was red cordura) - probably the first type of bag that most of us now own made by Porta Brace, Petrol etc. The front of the case had a large black Velcro patch that could be used for slate ID info using the supplied Velcro numbers. You had strips with numbers silkscreened onto them and if I remember correctly, you had to cut the Velcro strips into tabs and there you were with a set of numbers. Anyway, I still have mine (kept in a nice plastic16mm splicing tape case). Maybe Kangaroo Products has a solution for you.

A little off-topic, but I remember how much this scene impressed me when this movie first came out. Having small portable flat screen devices was so futuristic!

O M G

The term "portal-to-portal" is sometimes used in our work and I've always thought it refered to billable time or travel expenses with my equipment starting and ending at my door. On a recent job that involved air travel, the producer insisted that portal to portal was defined as airport to airport, and that I was responsible for transportation costs to and from the airport or long-term airport parking. Would anyone care to give their thoughts on his?