GrahamTimmer

Also charge a little more for the pieces that are on a per use basis. They should pay a little more for the convenience.

+2 on camera department jamming the cameras throughout the day. I use clockit boxes and my boom or assistant jams the camera in the morning and after lunch. I then leave the clockit's in the 1AC's ditty bag. They look after the other times the camera loses sync.

Are you putting us on? That thing is embarrassing. Buy another suspension. Shotguns or wires for wider shots and hyper cards for close ups.

On a series I order expendables through the office, and on shorter shows I try to get the entire expendables budget and spend it where I need it. So I always have a stock of rechargeables on hand. I have not done the day player thing in quite a while and i am also wondering what an acceptable daily expendables amount might be. As senator says "it depends"

Ipower 9v in everything that takes a 9v and powerex AA and AAA for everything that takes those. My ts-3 slates are lasting up to a week per set of powerex AA's. I just take note of the battery voltage every time I jam the slates. If the readings are getting near 7.0, I put a fresh set in. I have noticed a few times when the voltage drops faster than I feel it should. I make sure to look at the charger when I put that set of batteries on it and check for a battery that is more depleted than the others. The weak link is then recycled. It's been smooth sailing for the last 5 years. Oh and my ambient clockits run all day on two powerex AA batteries. I keep a set with the skin peeled off just for those boxes. G

Maybe he's busy working...

I would submit receipts for reimbursement.

I had the same problem of 1 to 2 frames of TC 'jitter' as post described it. A deva5.8. I then started using my 744t as the master and jammed all my clockits from it as well as running continuous jam on the deva. I actually bought a second deva and now feed both of them from the 744. I had a splitter made with one xlr TC out and two lemo TC outs. I have 3 ambient clockits boxes and 2 ts3 slates and jam everything using the 744 as the master. Works flawlessly.

Your giving away money. There is no need to give a discount for longer jobs. unless your trying to come in cheaper than your competition I suppose. I just finished a 5 month gig. I charged everyday for the package. I did give them access to everything in my kit for the rate I negotiated but I felt that was fair. Also when you are booked for half a day, personally if I am getting paid hourly and depending on the union or nonunion nature of the project I have a minimum amount of hours for the call. Ie: worked 5 hours but my minimum is 8 hours so I get paid 8. As far as the gear goes a day worked is a day paid. 4 hours is the same as 18 hours. The reason is that gear has been booked for that day and the likelihood of it being able to go out on another job that day are pretty slim. I am talking dramatic work and have no idea how the other forms are doing things. I would also say though that we in the MOW, TV and feature worlds have been around longer and have more established practices that the newer styles of shooting which could maybe learn a lot from how we are billing. I learned my billing practices from my mentors and from union guidelines. I'm not trying to be holier than thou just trying to help people see that we are a valuable commodity and we should not need to discount our gear or our rates to get work.

I was just talking to the PM I am working with. He was saying the grip/lighting houses bid down to a .2 day week. That's 20% of 1 days rental for the week. That's the result of one company trying to bid another out of business. We can't let that happen to us. The market can be dictated by the supplier, IF, we can all just stay the course.

I have to say I am a little worried about the discounting the rental for longer gigs and 3 day week discount being given to productions. The camera, grips, lighting departments are all doing it here in vancouver but in the sound department we charge per day. The gear is used for 4 hours for a camera test? Guess what, full day rental. This is a problem that will affect us all. We need to charge for every day the equipment is used. I also don't believe it's wise to lower the rate for longer projects. That seems like giving it away to get the job. State your rates and stand by those rates. Charge for everyday that gear comes off the truck. Say no to 3 day weeks. Say no to 4 day week. Everyday the gear is worked is a day of rental income!! Solidarity

Hmm. Just ordered a venue and was hoping to just plug it in and have it work... I have a similar setup just use a Deva instead of 788t. To People who are not having the low level noise: what is your venue output set at? I am using a juicer on my 208, will that make a difference?

Drifting along, oh yaa, drifting..

Here I an email I got the other day. A great person who has recommended for jobs I have taken in the past recommended me for this one. I politely declined as I will be taking my holidays during the requested dates. See below: Mr. Pink from Post Mortem Sound services (names changed for privacy) provided me with your email address and highly recommended you. We are shooting a presentation for a new technology and are looking for a location sound recordist. It is a new 360 camera and this will be the first dramatic application. We have initial interest from Sony, HBOGo and FOX and this presentation is to provide them with actual use of the technology. It is content for a specific app that is used on mobile devices (iPad, phones, computers). We are asking for everyone to donate their time and when we have a sale/pick up everyone will be compensated. Here are our dates: July 19 - table read July 22-23 - rehearsals (full cast & crew) on location July 24-25 - shoot The location is a pub in Blah blah. We rehearse and shoot 12 midnight - 10 am approx. The 15 cast will need to be lav'd and then a directional mic placed with camera for ambience. Please let me know if this is something you would be interested in - and we can talk further. Thanks for your consideration. Mrs. Dilphin(name changed for privacy) Producer

I have a deva 5 and a deva 5.8. I use a 744t as a TC master as well as an a to d out of my cooper 208, no digital outputs sadly. To use the 10 tracks of each deva I am inputting 2 analog mix tracks from the cooper to the 5.8 and 2 digital from the 744 to the 5. I generally only need one mix track but if needed the other is there waiting. I am using the deva 5 as a backup recorder only and have not needed more than my 10 tracks. But I have needed all 10 on several occasions. A little convoluted maybe but I had all the parts and it has been working very well for me.

5 months straight with 2 and 3 Alexa's working everyday. Jam in the morning and left the lockits in the camera ditty bags. Rejam the lockits at lunch and then rejam the cameras. If the camera requests a jam other than the two we give it, the 1ac looks after it. No complaints from post. Not even a peep. Also feeding a mono mix via a 411 to each camera. Solid system although I have noticed the cameras are producing rf over a broad spectrum.

I use powerex aaa's in my mini tx's. We change them out after 3 hours. I think we got 4 hours or 4.5 during a test, but felt 3 was a safe window for changing them out. Good luck.

I'm sure it will work beautifully for you chris. It would add to much worry to my day. This Past week both of my slates hit the ground a couple of times in my view. How many when I was not around, well only the ac's know for sure. I like good old solid tried and true. It is guys like you who drive innovation and invention. Cheers to you.

Get the sound report writer app. It is really great.

+1 for the ram mount. I have a leather case on my iPad and the ram mount holder works fine with it.

Where I work the production assistants make 200 a day. Enough said?

I have made great connections by working on short films. They have always led to future employment. Get involved with a short film festival. Talk to those folks. There are alot of filmakers who are also film technicians as well as prod managers, producers etc. and join the union. It can't hurt to have that behind your name. Some people will take you more seriously with the IATSE cred. Good luck.

+1 You would not be invited back.

Also my rx are set to -5db and come in mic level to the board. The tx are set to 4 and are able with cos11's to hold very loud dialogue as well as very whispery dialogue without any weirdness.

I would like to hear it. I don't hear any noise on my system. I have the 2040 rk3 with 3 mini tx as well as the quad box and 4 2040 rx. I've noticed a strange hiss like noise from phantom powered mics using the 48v cable from audio, but gaining up on the tx usually cures this.