Carlos Corral

Actually, the sound mixer sometimes acts as the 2nd Gaffer while on a set. 75% of the time I will plant myself where I believe I need to be based on the 1st round plan of the DP and his lighting. Then, without fail, the gaffer and DP will ask me to move because the position I picked is where they will put another light/flag/bounce.

I need to stay of the internet on April 1st.

The first (30) seconds of that video gave me a really bad flashback O_O. Does anyone else feel that producers want us to start being more like mobile sound carts in a sound bag? Don't get me wrong, I see this as a replacement/alternative to the 788T for bag work but still...I beg the question...are more channels better for bag work? This bag setup alone gave me back pain after 2 days of using it. Is it an injury waiting to happen? Thoughts? (the picture was a rental fyi hence the bad flashback I had)

I've tried to keep my rate at $750-$850 a day for my market area (labor w/ 3 wires, boom, mixer/recorder, betso box, and slate). If producers say thats too high, then I started subtracting gear but the price never goes lower than $700. Timecode is always a must since I don't want post ever blaming sound. I've started to avoid reality TV since they demand too much and don't pay enough for gear they request. Anything lower than $700 for me is usually a favor to friends only. Otherwise, I tell them the same thing Jose says. "If they are cheaper than my rate, fly them in." One line that always seems to work is this one:

Can you confirm that with photos of the set? I'd be really surprised if "Better Call Saul" relied only on wires for sound. That would be crazy.

Bought me some of these bad boys .

thanks brotha!

I had a great time meeting and chatting with everyone as well. Thank you Tyler and Jack. I hope to see you all again next year hopefully. My long journey from El Paso to Dallas was totally worth it when I walked away with this raffle beautiful raffle prize. Thanks to Jose Frias for the ORCA demonstrations as well!

Harvest is pretty good. It's the one I use. https://www.getharvest.com/

A lot in West Texas its actually quite common. El Paso isn't an LA or NYC market so there are times when doing commercials here in town results in the one man sound guy. I did a commercial spot for Land Rover recently back in August in TorC, NM. I was the one man sound guy and did alright for myself. For bigger spots, yes I agree there should be a 2-3 man team. Sometimes it just depends on the market. Call me cheap if you want Senator, but I know the needs of the market I'm in. A majority of the better paying sound gigs I get are all from out of town clients (LA/NY). Those teams only bring 1 person on. I've asked for assistance before but it all comes down to the producer. Very rarely do commercial, corp, doc, and reality productions hire 2-3 man sound teams here. I've always been on 2-3 man teams for narrative features though. They would be crazy not to.

They've never heard of a 2-3 man team because those Producers have never actually worked on a narrative film set. One man sound guys who mix and boom are usually doing corporate, commercial, documentary or reality based productions.

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It all depends on the situation, the boom pole length, and weight of the mic. Give me a MKH50 and a 16ft. pole and I can boom for a solid 45-60min before I need a break. Make it a Rycote + Shotgun Mic and that goes down to about 30min before I need a break. A 12ft pole with a MKH50 and I'm good for at least an hour before a break. A 20ft. pole fully extended with a ME60 + rycote + doing 4 straight 6min takes and I'm down for the count after 24min+. Last time this happened I had to take a break for at least an hour. The DP was having fun riding is long dolly with a 28mm lens.

Not me lol.

Was on a reality shoot recently. One of the CameraOps / 2nd DP said he didn't need any information on the slate, only needed to see the timecode numbers. I told him that editorial informed me they wanted everything labeled (Roll, Scene, Take). 2nd DP: "You're only on this show for 2 days. You don't know how this all works. I don't need all that info on the slate." Me: "Oh, you're one of THOSE, DPs aren't you?" His stare at me said it all....