S Harber

Crickets. This forum.........

Anyone out there on an Amazon show getting daily rate rather than weekly? I'm heading into some negotiations and I've been told Amazon will NOT allow daily. I'm having a hard time believing that but have yet to hear otherwise from anyone. I'd love to be able to negotiate upwards and am wondering where folks are in negotiating on shorter series. Thanks from me and my crew. SH

I announce towards the end of the shooting day via Comtek that we would appreciate that they return them to a sound person on set. It seems to help them come back. Sign outs never seem to work as many who take Comteks see themselves as above doing something as low as writing their name on a list. A couple of those and it defeats the whole purpose and we rarely have someone just there to run a sign out sheet. SH

Well blood and body tissue is roughly as dense as salt water which is denser than fresh water. Thus...... (your conclusion here)_____________. and then some people are just dense.

To me the biggest aspect of any argument of gear L&D has always revolved around the fact that we hand out our gear to other constantly. Be it Comteks, Wireless mics (that get pulled off by the head), Slates, TC boxes, or the like. These are the items that tend to get trashed oddly enough. These items are patently out of your control. The UPM would surely not be OK with you using their laptop for a season and hoping that it came back in perfect order. There's a line that gets crossed wherein you have to fix or buy a replacement. It's part of business and they have a line in their Excel for this. It's how the pros do it. Otherwise you will be driven to put crappy gear out. Part of this equation is your integrity and how you treat the show and the like. Calling out "Village Idiots" and the like may point to how you are on set btw. that may not help.

The joys of America's 2nd Amendment. Police running around not sure who packing guns or not. Horrible things like this are not too unusual. Sad. I've done ride alongs with police many years ago. Chasing armed assailants and been shot at and pressed up against a building as shots were going out of the window next to me. Shots, adrenaline, mayhem, radio frenzy. About the worst scenario possible for something productive to happen. Stay away folks. There's other work to do. Hopefully.

An invasive weed attributed as "Russian Thistle" that didn't exist here in the US prior to the civil war?

I pass out between 10-20 sets of Comteks per day working 150-200 days per year. Whatever you pass out will get trashed no matter what you say when they go out. There is always L&D to them and it happens often with folks taking them away or dropping them or .... When I put in an L&D quote for a Comtek it comes in at about half the price of an iFB. Producers definitely have looked at me sideways when I've submitted quotes for IFBs versus Comteks as they know what a Comtek costs as it's a common item of L&D on all levels of production. I've also had production folks act as if that I'm trying to put one over on them when I've done so on the IFB version of replacing said item. The IFBs are definitely better sounding. Not perfect but all things considered. I use Comteks. And let's not even get into battery life and the like and either having to go the Lithium route or change batteries after searching the IFB units down.

Alexas are 5 pin. Only the wonderlcks at Red wandered into the no man's land of 4 pin Lemo AFAIK.

There are Lemo TC cables that are wired directionally for various reasons. Maybe try flipping the direction of the cable if they are both Lemos. Sounds odd but it may be part of the puzzle.

There's a great tool called a Microstitch. Western Costumes in LA sells them. Sets a quick, easily removable binding stick like a tiny price tag. Amazing tool in the right hands and circumstances. http://www.wccsupplystore.com/micro-stitch/

We do a good deal of driving shots on Bosch. Seems like more or less an entire season of cell phone calls in cars. I put my bag rig in the car/pod rig, set some levels, hit roll, and monitor via Comtkes from the follow vehicle. No worries about range, cars separating etc. The mix can definitely suffer but it serves the interest of always having good isos/decent mix. Mixing from a follow vehicle is slow to rig, horrible for really monitoring well, and is rife with other issues, i.e. it will be remixed in all likelihood anyways. The BST75 throws a hell of a long way and we can monitor from a safe distance. I put a receiver through the follow vehicle stereo and pass out a few comteks. Easy. Hope this helps. Scott Harber CAS

I've shot there a good deal the last couple of years and you will find holes in the spectrum. Not stellar range but not huge problems. I'm in 21/25 mostly.

I stand. Way better for it when I'm just south of 3,000 hrs/yr. It took a week to really feel comfortable after sitting but I now much prefer standing.

Use your old stuff and get new stuff.

So where are things regarding re-celling IDX NP batts these days? I have 5 or so that are dead and it just seems lame to be throwing them out. In the proper way and all but basically into a version of the trash. Scott Harber

Once the gear's there I try to cycle or scooter to work. I always feel so much better when I can ride the bike to work.

Subaru Forester or a bicycle.

I also find wardrobe and mic rigs to be more important than just about anything in terms of quality of what you hear. Obviously if it doesn't get to the receiver or distorts beforehand all bets are off. But I'd take a well rigged G3 on a transparent piece of cotton cloth to the best of mics and transmitter under a leather coat. The dark art or putting a wire on someone well is never to be dismissed.

There's probably a capacitor bouncing around, wedged into or on the floor somewhere as well. I think the capacitor threads through the holes in that plastic piece. We've had this happen a couple of times but the slates always seem to keep working well even after this happens. My brain was thinking it may have been designed as some sort of G shock indicator much like the iPhones have the moisture indicator inside them. Charlie is the expert though.

So where are you all getting good carpets these days? Not the $15 Home Depot grooved plasticy ones, but the good rubberized runners etc? I haven't bought any in a good while and we've left a few behind. I'm trying to point our show to a place that carries them at a reasonable price. Thanks, Scott

I'd take the file, A-drop it into Wave Agent B-Look at it to see if it's truly at 30 and if so C-Change it to 23.98 and save it. I'd change the name to reflect the new version D-Bring the file back into the 788 for PB. Make sure you do NOT change the sample rate.

Well there's ideas, and then there's the business of ideas. We all have ideas and try to implement them and even sometimes think they are marketable. But.... I already have a job that I love so why would I want to go play with lawyers and the like.

Either A-Loan a CF reader (cheap, you're the hero, and it should be done by the time you wrap). These work well enough so buy a few. http://www.amazon.com/Compact-supports-SanDisk-Kingston-Transcent/dp/B0030UL7IG/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1440467962&sr=8-3&keywords=usb+cf+card+reader B-Sell them a CF Card (treat it like an expendable). C-Burn a DVD and figure that one out (again bill for expendable and time). D-Wring your hands about it, throw someone under the bus and act like you've never had to deal with some adversity before. I usually go with A. Once or twice gone the B route. C... it's been years now. YMMV

I'd love to see the 8 channel Venue with Dante out. All doable just need to repackage what is out there more or less.