wbrisett

That's a great point. I didn't think about that, but you're right, having a camera hop is a wonderful idea. I'll have to decide if I want to go with the 411 or the TRX900 for that. I like the size of the Zaxcom better, but the range is certainly a bit better with the 411 system. Frank: Thanks for the tip on what to call it, since I haven't gotten a clear answer. The good news is Chile is now part of the Carnet system, so it shouldn't be too difficult to bring things in and out. I've just heard horror stories about wireless gear getting taken that I guess I'm a bit spooked by that. I think the biggest issue for me will be if I take along the Deva to do a double system with. It saved my bacon when I did a National Geographic shoot last year, so I'm sold on running a double system, but I also don't want anything to happen to it. A Wendt mixer I can beat up, but a Deva I can't. Wayne

Frank: The biggest challenge so far has been trying to get a clear answer as to if I'm allowed to bring them into the country. I don't want to show up and have customs decide they like them and keep them. I want in writing that they won't have issues with it, but thus far I haven't been able to get a clear answer from Chile's agency on this. Based on what I know of this doc, I really won't need them anyhow, so I would rather leave them in a safe place. Wayne

Have you checked about using wireless there? If the shoot gets funding (I'll find out soon), there is a doc in Chile that I'll be going on, but I wasn't planning on taking my wireless at all do to all the hassles and restrictions. Wayne

Well that's odd, I looked at the bottom of main page to look at recent topics, and there was one titled Recording a Trio (I think that was the exact title), looks like several people posted replies, but when I look at the thread, it's empty. What happened? Wayne

Most people on the Deva list know this already, but I'm the person responsible for the manuals. I agree that many times the information you need isn't there. But to be honest, most of the time I don't have the equipment in front of me and I can't test it out. I have to write from notes provided to me. If you ever have any suggestions or additions to the Zaxcom manuals, by all means, send them to me so I can update the manuals. Wayne

I just got off an industrial shoot where we did a very similar thing and went straight from the Panasonic HVX200 into a MacPro using Final Cut Pro. As Mike stated, when doing this you can only check the audio to the camera, once Final Cut is running you can't get audio out from the computer to check, so you have to hope everything is golden. You can, as stated, get confidence audio from the camera, but that doesn't give you the clear picture. I did try sending them timecode to channel 2, but that didn't seem to work (although I do need to send my Deva 5.8 back to Zaxcom to look at since I'm having some issues with time code). We did run some tests where they imported some audio from the Deva DVD and they were able to use the slate to align the audio without any issues. One of the cameras had some funky audio problem they were aware of prior to the shoot, so they were planning on using the audio captured by the Deva anyhow, but it was nice to be able to see the post production workflow in action and working properly. Wayne

Have you tried adjusting the trims on the adapter? There are two trims for the input on the adapter that you can adjust. Maybe they are not set correctly. Wayne

I came from the music side of the business. Things were totally different there. You don't get paid for your gear, you get paid for each performance. Kind of the whole day rate - your equipment. Granted you typically didn't have to 4-8 wireless units, so you're equipment investment was a bit lower, but if you did things right, you still had a multi-channel recorder. But things changed. My recording business went from 1 or 2 gigs a month last year to suddenly 1 every six months! Why? Many factors. It wasn't my price necessarily, but the fact that the cost of equipment has dropped, so now somebody in the ensemble has a relative with a laptop and some Oktava mics, so they are now the person "hired" -- chances are they are now doing it for free. The other part of that is a lot of the old time producers of events have changed. They were getting pushed out of the business by the large corporations (thanks clear channel!), and most called it quits. Thus I knew it was time to move on. Since I owned a Deva and had 20+ years in the audio business, it seemed natural to move into docs, and film. Thus over the past year or so, my audio business has changed a lot. However, until recently the Union work wasn't even an option (living in a non-big budget area kind of sucks), but we get a few every now and again. My guess is most newbies wouldn't even get a shot at union pictures since they wouldn't belong to the union. But there is also no shortage of non-union work (some at better than union rates) around here. I guess my point in all of this is similar to what Taylor mentioned, things are changing (we don't have to like it), and equipment prices for entry level gear seem to be falling all the time. Film is one of the last bastions of paying audio work, so I think we'll see more people get involved in it. Experience should cost something, but unfortunately everything is being looked at totally on cost and not on quality and experience. And I don't think we're going to be able to prevent the person with a 302 and a couple of 411's (you really think they would even spring for those... G2's maybe) from undercutting us and getting a gig they have no business getting involved in. Wayne

Thanks everybody for the input. I probably should have updated this earlier. As it turns out, there were issues on both sides, but a lot stemmed from the production itself and how the director and DP saw things versus what the Post Group saw things. This particular production has had it's fair share of issues and this was simply one more of them that simply needed to be worked out. It seems that all is well now that both sides now understand things. Wayne

Good luck with that! It seems that every production (regardless of budget) is trying to cut costs anyway they can, from kit rental to number of crew members. The recent production I worked on with Ron Scelza was a prime example, they didn't pay him nearly enough for his kit and they would only go with a two person sound crew when we really needed a third (especially since we were doing a multiple camera shoot and at a very frantic pace). I have no idea how to change this, mainly because a lot of the productions I work on are commercials and documentaries and they work a bit differently. Wayne

As anybody here had any dealings with the Post Group telecine's organization? I have to have a call with them today, as I try to sort out some ongoing issues they are having with dailies from a production that I worked a few days on (I left due to prior commitments, but left my gear on the production for the mixer to use), but apparently they are having some sync issues with the Deva and picture. I don't know all the details yet. I had a conversation with the mixer yesterday, and I'll need to call them today to find out exactly what sync issues they are having. I do know that from day one we've had issues with this organization and getting the right audio for the dailies. Anyhow, I thought I would see if anybody else has had any experience (good or bad) in dealing with them. Thanks, Wayne

Hi Ron! I understand the concern, but I also know one of the producers and have worked with him before on another project. In fact while on that project, he and talked about this documentary and traveling to Boston for some interviews. He also asked me at the time about traveling with him and a camera person elsewhere. But he wouldn't say where, at least not until things were firmed up. Turns out it's in Kenya. Since this is a very small budget production, the crew will be very sparse; camera, producer, sound, and . Not exactly sure who the other person is, but only four of us. And as you know, the Jarhead in me is always up for a challenge. I did get in touch with a couple of agents yesterday who are suppose to be providing me with some quotes on my equipment. We still have a few months before the Africa gig and the funding isn't even in place for the South American gig, so who knows if that will even come about. But, folks have given me some more food for thought that I didn't think about before (again, it's that Marine mentality that nothing is going to happen), so thanks to all! Wayne

They've asked me to get quotes for them... thus my question. In both cases, the producer is an indie who is asking both camera and sound to get quotes for them. Wayne

I have two upcoming opportunities to work with two different documentary teams. One in South America and one in Africa. However, I'm finding it a bit tough to find people who will insure my gear when traveling abroad. Anybody got any tips on finding somebody who will insure audio equipment when traveling abroad? Regards, Wayne

Both Ron and I had our TRX900 units shipped to Zaxcom prior to this shoot as we had older 900 MHz IFB units, and needed them updated to the 2.4 GHz IFB. None of our units have this timecode output either, so this must be something new. I'll have to find out about this connector. I did end up speaking with Glenn one morning and discussing the issues with him. He is the person who told me what we were trying to do with the IFB and time code was backwards, thus why we couldn't get it to work. We did get the wireless hop to work fine (although one of their cameras had some serious sound input issues), and it was great not having to run cable everywhere. Wayne

hmmm... I think it was I that did most of learning. Actually this project was hampered initially by our lack of understanding of the IFB100 and how it worked. What we wanted is to keep the video cameras in-sync with the Deva by constantly providing time code from the Deva to the Camera. However, that's not how it the IFB100 works, it works reverse of that. You take the camera's time code and feed it into the Deva. Because of how we had to work, this was not something that was going to work with us. However, I can see this setup working perfectly in other situations. And I will agree with Ron, I think this particular shoot pushed both of us to our limits (in many ways)... In all honestly, it's rare that people who respect each other as much as we do get the opportunity to work together, I feel very lucky that I was able to work with Ron and learn from him. I'm not sure he learned anything from me, I think I did all the learning. Wayne