Richard Ragon

This is the best quote ever! I totally believe in this all the way, and it will show in your work and your attitude on set.

We all know how difficult getting ambiance sound or room tone can be during a production. And any time that you work with a new crew or a crew you've never worked with, its difficult to judge how that crew (or director) will handle the situation of pausing the entire production for 60 seconds, in what seams like a lifetime to them. Well we all say that every job is a learning experience, but this one is a new one for me. After some small arguments about "when" we should be doing ambiance, and personally it doesn't matter to me one way or the other... One of Grip/Electrics, and older guy more my age, who sure looked like he knew what he was doing, piped up and said... "Spielberg gets his Ambiance right before the first take in any new location. It gives the actors a second to contimplate what they are going to do and get into character". Every one in the studio paused for a second, kind of looked at each other, and then all nodded with agreement. From that point on, each new location everyone knew to wait for ambiance, then the first shoot. It was kind of weird. Now for me.. I would not have suggested this because it IS the hardest time because the first shoot is allways the most stressfull, and asking Ambiance is like pulling teeth sometimes. Asking for it to interupt the crew workfull before the 1st shot to me is the hardest, but possibly a good rule of thumb. Ambiance can even change sometimes given the time of day too, so perhaps this is yet another point to press that. I don't know if the Ambiance story with Spielberg is true or not, but it sure makes people listen to what you need to do for your job.. Perhaps I'll try it on the next shoot. -Richard

Thought this is funny.. http://www.csmonitor.com/news/images/classics/cartoon11.jpg -Richard

Not sure if anyone saw this.. I'd take it, but it's in Vegas. http://realitystaff.com/home/?section=JOBS&result=Job%20details&rs_job_id=5967 -Richard

Personally, I've never done it either.. But just about every single Boom op that I've worked with has done it. But doing it with the Rycote is easy.. doing it while holding the mic in your hands is another thing. -Richard

With things like Net Neutrality, FCC, and the simple fact that technology is going to effect every person on this planet, we need a President who understands technology to it's fullest. http://www.jedreport.com/2008/05/john-mccains-up.html This unfortunately, does NOT give me the warm and fuzzies. -Richard

OK, perhaps misleading is too strong of a word. The article DOES NOT mention the fact (and we all know this) that there are professional complainers. Professional complainers are people that know they can make money off complaining to production companies. I've even heard stories of people trying to disrupt shoots in order to make money from this. Also, the article ends up saying that this lady was paid off in an undisclosed amount.. what a whore. But seriously, I try my best to be on my best behaviour while at a location. Once the DP was blocking a driveway when the neighbor wanted to get out. It was 3 guys going to the beach, and they were really pissed. Seeing this, I ran over to them, and tried to sweet talk them because I knew that our crew was in the wrong here blocking the guys driveway. I offered them some sodas, and ran to go get them. When I came back, these guys were so nice and actually thanked me.. I saw there attitude total change when I got them the sodas from the craft tables, and this bought me some time while I got the truck moved out of their way. It's the small stuff sometimes. -Richard

Wow.. All these articles seam to have a large amount of false or mis leading information in them.. I'm wondering if this is just par for the course in Hollywood, where there's simply just whatever spin seams to benefit whichever parties. -Richard

Thanks everyone, I userstand this doesn't guarantee me employment. But basically, I want to work on larger sets. So, like any double edge sword, I can't unless I'm union. Also.. I guess everyone else just answered my next question about still working the low budget. Thanks -Richard

Not sure if anyone saw this Article in the LA times? http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-fi-workers28apr28,1,6764360.story Something is quite wrong in a lot of the FACTS of this article. For example the lady, Karen Hartjen. If you do an IMDB search on her, it doesn't appear that she has any credits after 2004. And if you look on IMDB, it doesn't even appear that shes ever worked on CSI:NY at all! The article goes on to read that a guy by the name of Phillip Gordon lost his job on the set of StarTrek.. What the heck does this have to do with the WGA strike?? I'm no journalist, but I was on two sets yesterday in downtown, and many of the sound people were saying that work has picked up a lot this month. It seams a little bit like someone at the Times is not being truthfull for whatever reason, and I draw a very large red flag on any article that can't get facts straight. But, yes, I'm sure that the linering effects of the strike has workers in a hole still, but I'm not sure it has anything to do with our industry. It's a squeeze with all industries in the US. Combine this with the fact thats its a Times article, which is known to be proven inaccurate, or a slant on it of some way. The Times is one of the worst papers ever created, and they have a very long history of distortion. So, I'm not sure what bias they are trying to swing here.. -Richard

Milling over the idea about joining the union. Been doing the low budget stuff for about 2-3 years now. Not a lot of talk about Local 695, but I'm sure there was at one time here. thanks -Richard

Ok, speaking to me.. how do I go about changin my handle to my real name then? Thanks