danmixersf

Does anyone out there know a good mixer based in Scotland? A doc. project I'm currently helping to edit will have some shooting there later this year, in the summer and early fall, and I'd like to be able to connect the filmmaker with a good audio person. This will involve some verité situations, some b-roll stuff, some musical moments and possibly some interview set-ups...in other words, the type of stuff we always do. Affability, good gear and a solid resumé are required. If you know of someone, please let me know. Dates and rates TBD, but it's not a freebie. Thanks, Dan Gleich 415-517-2880 lessmos@gmail.com

Does anyone out there know a good mixer based in Scotland? A doc. project I'm currently helping to edit will have some shooting there later this year, in the summer and early fall, and I'd like to be able to connect the filmmaker with a good audio person. This will involve some verité situations, some b-roll stuff, some musical moments and possibly some interview set-ups...in other words, the type of stuff we always do. Affability, good gear and a solid resumé are required. If you know of someone, please let me know. Dates and rates TBD, but it's not a freebie. Thanks, Dan Gleich 415-517-2880 lessmos@gmail.com

Well, not that Exact thing, no...but some very similar things

They might be shooting a freight train going by, 60' away, in which case the mic cueing isn't so bad... could be a herd of elephants, or the Mormon Tabernacle Choir (in which case I hope that's a stereo mic he's got on that pole).

Which noise? The low, menacing rumble or that ethereal angelic choir whose exact location I can't quite determine?

Let's keep it clean, guys. If I'm not mistaken, some of our professional colleagues on this site are actually women.

Did a picture in 2009 with Lauren Bacall, and I remember the first day she was on the set. Her first scene began with her coming into the foyer of a big house and calling out the name of the other character in whose house she was. I'll never forget the experience of the first rehearsal, sitting at my cart with the headphones on, hearing that voice come over the wires and realizing: "That's LAUREN BACALL, for cryin' out loud!" I just about fell out of my chair. Of course, I did a commercial with Kermit the Frog once, as well...

"There's a filter for that right?" A producer. "Well, if I set the on-off switch on the recorder to off, we won't get any of that." (aircraft, traffic, ventilation, refrigerator, constuction, etc.)

You might want to consider changing your last name to "Electret."

I'd like to second what Phil says here in his last sentence. A good microphone, such as the Schoeps he mentioned, can do a lot of the work for you in situations like this if you're not having to fight background noise and terrible room acoustics every the shot gets a bit wide. Likewise, if you find yourself having to use an inexperienced boom operator, a more forgiving acoustical environment will make up for at least some of the lack of technique and shyness about the frameline that such folks almost always bring to the day's work. Good luck with it.

Or, as Col. Kurtz says to Capt.Willard in "Apocalypse," Are my methods...unsound??" To which Willard replies "I don't see any method at all, sir." I'm not sure if this would fit on a T-shirt, but I've long used "I take the best equipment I can afford and use it under the worst conditions I can find" as my one sentence job description for those who wanted to know what being a production mixer is like.

I did extensive FX recording for K-19, both on the Russian sub in Long Beach and on the USS Pampanito, a WWII era sub that's up here in SF. Post sound needed all the hatches, switches, valves, cabinet and locker doors, latches, and quite a bit of Foley done to picture in the subs to replace the unrealistic production FX that had been recorded on the sets built for the film. We recorded ambience in many of the compartments of the subs as well. The action also required a vast library of metal hits and stress sounds, hisses, whirs and mechanical running sounds, etc., most of which I found in other places. It was great fun, but I'd have to agree that working inside the subs was maddeningly difficult, even with a relatively small FX recording kit.

I managed to get through a 30 year career using mics, mic'ing things I needed to record, and occasionally telling people who needed to know how I'd mic'd those things. One of my favorite boom operators is named Mike. One of my Rycote windjammers was named Natasha. I've never owned a BMW, and I'm pretty sure "micking" would mean acting like an Irish person, unless you were at a Stones concert.

Two useful mottos that could be T-shirt material: "If the Sound Matters...Hire a Sound Person" "I Need Income...Not Deductions!"

What fun! But we need one more piece of information to properly respond to your request for critiques...well, maybe two more pieces. When all was said and done, how did it sound? And how did the producer and director like the audio? Was it appropriate to the picture, as in, did we see the jacuzzi jets whooshing away, and the alcohol fueled guests all talking at once? Could we understand all the words? It sounds like this was a pilot for a show. Presumably, everyone will want to refine the production process if they really do intend to shoot multiple episodes.