AndyB Posted February 3, 2012 Report Share Posted February 3, 2012 ...I would have bitch-slapped the director! Working a run and gun docu shoot yesterday. All dual system sound. Anyway, at one point the director was picking up some handheld shots with a 5d while the main cams ran and I'm booming and mixing out of a bag. All of a sudden, he grabs the headphones off my head, and holds one earpiece up to his ear while holding the 5d in his other hand! After about 30 seconds, he tries to put them back on my head (again with one hand). I end up with headphones awkwardly placed on my head. Luckily, the grip guy saw this and came up behind me to place the headphones more securely on my ears. I swear, if I hadn't been holding the boom I probably would have hauled off on the guy for doing that. Other than that, he was great to work with, so by the end of the 40 minute take I just let it go. How would you all respond in a situation like that? Just curious! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShubiSnax Posted February 3, 2012 Report Share Posted February 3, 2012 I would have told him that if he had paid for comteks, he wouldn't have to pull a stunt like that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric Toline Posted February 3, 2012 Report Share Posted February 3, 2012 By not saying anything you have given him tacit permission to do it again anytime he wants to. Unacceptable behavior like that has to be nipped in the bud otherwise you can never complain about it should it ever happen again....and it will. Eric Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyB Posted February 3, 2012 Author Report Share Posted February 3, 2012 I appreciate both your answers. Exactly what I was thinking. I kind of doubt I'll ever work with the guy again, but if I do, first thing I do will be to warn him off this kind of behaiviour! As for what they paid for...heh...producer told me they only needed a dumb slate. Got to the shoot, DP asks me where the slate is, I pull out the clapper, he freaks out because I didn't bring a smart slate. I told him this was what the producer and I agreed on, and he kind of shakes his head and says "Not your fault, man". It was seat of the pants stuff all day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Ford Posted February 3, 2012 Report Share Posted February 3, 2012 I'd have hit the tone button to censor what I would say next from being recorded Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ccsnd Posted February 3, 2012 Report Share Posted February 3, 2012 My favorite is when a PA starts asking me a million questions when im in the middle of trying to rig something up. Never do they ask me questions when im sitting at my cart, between takes, or just simply doing nothing. It's always when I'm trying to troubleshoot something or set something up. I absolutely love talking tech. I can do it all day long (which is one of the reasons I love being on these forums) But some people just don't know when the time to ask questions is, or when it has passed. It reminds me of the beginning of Jurassic park when that kid is asking Dr. Grant all those questions just before he goes to look at a sick triceratops. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Nault Posted February 3, 2012 Report Share Posted February 3, 2012 Headphone Touchers... Tsk, tsk. There ought to be a law. R Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soundtrane Posted February 3, 2012 Report Share Posted February 3, 2012 a 40 min take? that seems worser than the HP pull... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich Reilly Posted February 3, 2012 Report Share Posted February 3, 2012 Not being there, it reads like an attempt to get you to fail. And it sounds like something not easy to retake. Kudos to you for staying on task. I had a recent webfeed confernce gig where there was an introducer and a presenter. Presenter was wired (by request) with one lav for room sound/pa, one lav for recording. The introducer just had a lav for recording, room not that big. This was all cleared with the producer beforehand. Well..the introducer starts speaking in the relatively small room without sound in the PA and the producer starts freaking out and asking me why introducer isn't miked. Really freaking and I try to explain while waiting to pot up the presenter. Really was hard to concentrate and end up essentially ignoring the producer. I can only imagine how unexpected and distracting a grab at your headphones would be. At least he didn't grab your wrist to see your watch. addition: After the shoot, the aforementioned producer apologized for his reaction and thanked me for my work. All was good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rasmus Wedin Posted February 3, 2012 Report Share Posted February 3, 2012 No way I would take someone yanking my headphones off, and neither should you. I would confront him as soon as that scene was over. Thats not ok. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jan McL Posted February 3, 2012 Report Share Posted February 3, 2012 Rasums is correct, but be certain to deliver the message soon, quietly and privately. The first time anyway. After that...all bets, off. -- Jan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyB Posted February 3, 2012 Author Report Share Posted February 3, 2012 Thanks for the back up, everyone! I doubt I'll be working with that crew again, simply because they flew in from well out of my region. As it happened, that was the last shot of the day, so I just let it go. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jan McL Posted February 3, 2012 Report Share Posted February 3, 2012 Too bad, Andy. Hope His Grabbiness never gets near me... Why I oughta... -- Jan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Q Posted February 3, 2012 Report Share Posted February 3, 2012 That's the equivalent of pushing the camera op out of the way to take a look in the eyepiece. Not cool. I might have had to put the boom down to fix my headphones. Sorry. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyB Posted February 3, 2012 Author Report Share Posted February 3, 2012 "His Grabbiness"...Priceless! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Lewis Posted February 3, 2012 Report Share Posted February 3, 2012 Professionally, I would have said something! Unprofessionally out of spite I would have stopped the recording and the shot and knocked him the hell out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Philip Perkins Posted February 3, 2012 Report Share Posted February 3, 2012 That was kind of a weird thing to do, but I would strongly advise you to treat it in a joking, friendly manner (wait for the right opening) rather than getting heavy with the guy. He was in some kind of creative bubble and did what he thought he needed to do--if he wasn't being an asshole about it (acting like you didn't know what you were doing) then you shouldn't act that way either, I don't think. I feel like everyone else on the set is always ready for the sound guy to be cranky about things that affect sound--I enjoy confounding those expectations with humor if I can.... phil p Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dugstar Posted February 3, 2012 Report Share Posted February 3, 2012 i was on a run and gun with a camera pal of mine last year and the director (one of you american types) started grabbing him round the waist and kind of 'steering him' to get the shots he wanted. we were in a rather loud environment and the guy apologised after, to which the cameraman accepted, but i could tell he was absolutely furious about it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geordi Posted February 3, 2012 Report Share Posted February 3, 2012 I feel like everyone else on the set is always ready for the sound guy to be cranky about things that affect sound--I enjoy confounding those expectations with humor if I can.... phil p I'm glad that others have experienced the same feeling! I always wonder why it seems like the crew is looking around toward the sound people and waiting for the explosion. I never have, and I try to handle any situations on set with humor too. The furthest from that I have gotten was in a situation where something had failed and I was trying to trace it while the AD kept on being an AD... I wasn't grumpy or unkind, but I was perhaps a bit terse in just saying "Sorry, I need a couple minutes to fix this, I'll let you know when I'm ready again." and kept working. I heard from the director later that he was shocked I was so far from my normal demeanor, I must have been furious. --shrug-- I wasn't, I was just busy! If they have worked with mixers who HAVE blown up on set... I feel sorry for them. Dugstar: It is possible that the director in your project had worked a lot with a steadicam operator here in the USA - That is how I have seen the director on smaller shoots spot the op when he is working and walking at the same time. For steadicam, it can be a safety thing as well as composition. Not excusing the behavior if it isn't discussed beforehand... But that could explain it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyB Posted February 4, 2012 Author Report Share Posted February 4, 2012 @ Phil P, that was kind of how I took it after the fact. I had another 15 minutes of booming to regain my composure and chill out. I think he may have just been in "the zone" with his camera, and hearing the awesome dialogue that was going on, just wanted to hear what I was hearing. Still, it freaked me out, but I just tried to roll with it at the time. Other than that incident, he was totally cool. I had a technical glitch right when we were doing our first setup of the day, figured out a work around in a few minutes, then solved the glitch after that setup. At the end of the day I appologized for the early day issue, and he was totally cool. He said something like "If I jumped on someone's ass for a technology problem, I'd be a hypocrite...No worries, man". So, anyway, while it was completely eff'd up at the time and I wanted to punch him in the gut with the dumb end of the boom, overall it was a good day. Thanks to everyone who had some input on this! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dfisk Posted February 4, 2012 Report Share Posted February 4, 2012 Reminds me of my post sound freelance days. I was working on a short that paid next to nothing just to build up experience, but I was real anal about people getting close to my pro tools rig, specifically putting drinks on the desktop where a spilled drink could ruin things. I had some guy put a can of soda on my desktop, right next to and on top of expensive things, and I politely asked him to remove it. He said no. I said "seriously, you need to get that off there in case it spills. If you damage anything because of a spill, you are going to have to pay for it". He still said no. I closed the pro tools session without saving (even though I had auto backup on, I just did it for dramatic effect), and I said "there. I just quit the session and we lost the last hour's worth of work. I will export the older saved session onto your external hard drive, and you are going to leave". He got all bent out of shape, since he was submitting to some festival nobody ever heard of and we needed to get done within the next day or two, and told me to get back to it. I said "if you can't respect my wishes and my equipment, I cannot respect you or your project". I don't know if I'd get that jerki-ish now, but it felt good to kick some a-hole out of my place at the time when I had been treated like crap for so long. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marc Wielage Posted February 4, 2012 Report Share Posted February 4, 2012 Good one for Dave! I worked on thousands and thousands of post sessions, and only walked out of a session once. I had a famous director (who I later liked enough that I won't name him) who became absolutely unbearable, and after three days of that attitude, I just got up and quit. The boss eventually dragged me back in the room, we yelled at each other for about 15 minutes, settled down, got the project done... and I wound up doing another 12 features with him. Some people just want to push your buttons and see how far they can go before you crack; this was one of those times. Never had an experience that bad. Ultimately, I was glad that it happened, and it helped me keep my cool in later years during pressure-cooker situations. I agree with Dave: you start off friendly, get firm, stay professional at all times, but if they keep pushing you around, it's game over. BTW, I have seen the "Pepsi Syndrome" completely kill several editing, color-correction, and mixing sessions -- usually by the mixer or operator. Rarely by the client. I have vivid memories of a live TV director spilling an entire cup of coffee in a $500,000 video switcher once upon a time... that was an ugly day, I can tell you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geordi Posted February 4, 2012 Report Share Posted February 4, 2012 I have vivid memories of a live TV director spilling an entire cup of coffee in a $500,000 video switcher once upon a time... that was an ugly day, I can tell you. Oopsie! Is this director now working at a broadcasting tower in the Aleutian Islands? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Philip Perkins Posted February 4, 2012 Report Share Posted February 4, 2012 Reminds me of my post sound freelance days. I was working on a short that paid next to nothing just to build up experience, but I was real anal about people getting close to my pro tools rig, specifically putting drinks on the desktop where a spilled drink could ruin things. I had some guy put a can of soda on my desktop, right next to and on top of expensive things, and I politely asked him to remove it. He said no. I said "seriously, you need to get that off there in case it spills. If you damage anything because of a spill, you are going to have to pay for it". He still said no. I closed the pro tools session without saving (even though I had auto backup on, I just did it for dramatic effect), and I said "there. I just quit the session and we lost the last hour's worth of work. I will export the older saved session onto your external hard drive, and you are going to leave". He got all bent out of shape, since he was submitting to some festival nobody ever heard of and we needed to get done within the next day or two, and told me to get back to it. I said "if you can't respect my wishes and my equipment, I cannot respect you or your project". I don't know if I'd get that jerki-ish now, but it felt good to kick some a-hole out of my place at the time when I had been treated like crap for so long. Putting a can of soda on anything electronic is such a bonehead thing to do that it makes me think that there was a big subtext to that action--payback, or pissing on your fire hydrant etc. because the guy was already angry with you. I'm sure you folks mixing big sessions (Hollywood etc) deal with some outsize personalities who like causing trouble and pain to people they perceive as unable to retaliate, but usually such aggression indicates a negative reaction to some previous situation (maybe that you had nothing to do with). In location recording on larger projects (incl commercials) this is a fairly common occurance, and again, humor backed up with having your self and gear very together will get you through it (and win that person's respect). phil p Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich Reilly Posted February 4, 2012 Report Share Posted February 4, 2012 "causing trouble and pain to people they perceive as unable to retaliate, but usually such aggression indicates a negative reaction to some previous situation (maybe that you had nothing to do with)." Maybe the latter leading to the former...grasping for a sense of power when feeling powerless. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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