ccsnd Posted March 6, 2012 Report Share Posted March 6, 2012 if the sharpie is on the slate for an entire day, there is an excellent chance that it will be stained. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taylormadeaudio Posted March 6, 2012 Report Share Posted March 6, 2012 if the sharpie is on the slate for an entire day, there is an excellent chance that it will be stained. ...really? nothing a little solvent won't remove? and even if not, stained beyond usefulness? All 4 of my slates are stained to some degree -- the least of my worries. If the AC's want to put the date (for example, as I assume it's to what you refer) on the slate in Sharpie, I have no problem with that -- it gives me an opportunity to ask them in return to otherwise take care in how they handle my slates -- a little give and take, I guess. If you get too uppity with the camera dept. they go the other way, and can certainly make your life hell if they want to. If they will otherwise take care of my slates, I don't mind a little Sharpie ink -- no big deal. If it gets to be really stained, have production put a new face on it for you. L & D : ) ...just my $.02 ~tt BTW thesoundguy, I totally understand what you mean -- and why couldn't they just write Sharpie on gaff tape and put that on the slate -- I know... it's a pain in the ass sometimes, but you have to pick your battles -- I just don't know if I'd immediately attribute an AC using Sharpie on my slate to a newbie move, or something else -- I see veteran camera people do it all the time -- the 1st time someone did it, I freaked out a little... then they showed me how it comes off... no big deal. I'm more inclined to do what I can to foster a positive relationship -- [...flies... honey... blah blah blah...] ~tt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ccsnd Posted March 6, 2012 Report Share Posted March 6, 2012 ...really? nothing a little solvent won't remove? and even if not, stained beyond usefulness? All 4 of my slates are stained to some degree -- the least of my worries. If the AC's want to put the date (for example, as I assume it's to what you refer) on the slate in Sharpie, I have no problem with that -- it gives me an opportunity to ask them in return to otherwise take care in how they handle my slates -- a little give and take, I guess. If you get too uppity with the camera dept. they go the other way, and can certainly make your life hell if they want to. If they will otherwise take care of my slates, I don't mind a little Sharpie ink -- no big deal. If it gets to be really stained, have production put a new face on it for you. L & D : ) ...just my $.02 ~tt BTW thesoundguy, I totally understand what you mean -- and why couldn't they just write Sharpie on gaff tape and put that on the slate -- I know... it's a pain in the ass sometimes, but you have to pick your battles -- I just don't know if I'd immediately attribute an AC using Sharpie on my slate to a newbie move, or something else -- I see veteran camera people do it all the time -- the 1st time someone did it, I freaked out a little... then they showed me how it comes off... no big deal. I'm more inclined to do what I can to foster a positive relationship -- [...flies... honey... blah blah blah...] ~tt Is it a huge deal? no. and now that the face thats on there now is getting older it is even less a big deal. This comes from when I had a brand new face put on the slate. Camera wrote on it in sharpie its first use, and when they went to erase it, the eraser they used scratched the whole thing up. Also, the sharpie had been on there all day. now, as long as that face is still on there, I will always remember that production. White tape is always the better way to go when writing something on there that needs to stay on there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheAudioSynthesist Posted March 6, 2012 Report Share Posted March 6, 2012 Anyone that calls cables "wires". lol i know a guy who does this. gets under my skin every time... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheAudioSynthesist Posted March 6, 2012 Report Share Posted March 6, 2012 They tell you how cheap they are yes, "value" is a much better word. lesson learned. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taylormadeaudio Posted March 7, 2012 Report Share Posted March 7, 2012 Is it a huge deal? no. and now that the face thats on there now is getting older it is even less a big deal. This comes from when I had a brand new face put on the slate. Camera wrote on it in sharpie its first use, and when they went to erase it, the eraser they used scratched the whole thing up. Also, the sharpie had been on there all day. now, as long as that face is still on there, I will always remember that production. White tape is always the better way to go when writing something on there that needs to stay on there. Man, I'm sorry to hear that... it's always more difficult the newer your gear is to see it abused that way (especially the eraser scratching up the face)... battle scars... not the ideal way to break in a slate, for sure... yeah, I guess I'd be a little bent too. The date is one thing... and knowing how to properly erase it -- to mark up the whole slate with Sharpie definitely qualifies as a newbie (or very spiteful) move : ( ~tt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheAudioSynthesist Posted March 7, 2012 Report Share Posted March 7, 2012 Man, I'm sorry to hear that... it's always more difficult the newer your gear is to see it abused that way (especially the eraser scratching up the face)... battle scars... not the ideal way to break in a slate, for sure... yeah, I guess I'd be a little bent too. The date is one thing... and knowing how to properly erase it -- to mark up the whole slate with Sharpie definitely qualifies as a newbie (or very spiteful) move : ( ~tt i'm often stuck with 2nd ADs who are newbs or newbies to professional audio. when i run into one of these people i always always always give them a crash course and if they f-up during the shoot i constantly (and kindly) remind them. i usually start by telling them how expensive the slate is. that makes them nervous and hopefully on point. "soft sticks please! you're holding $1300 bucks in your hands" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric Toline Posted March 7, 2012 Report Share Posted March 7, 2012 I made a 1/8" plexiglas face cover for my slate that's held on by the fourscrews on the slate face. When it gets too dirty from sharpies I just make another face cover. Next time I'm going to use Velcro dots to hold the cover. Eric Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ccsnd Posted March 7, 2012 Report Share Posted March 7, 2012 Heres an interesting one. One time camera didn't like the options I had for giving them a signal. They decided they wanted their own mic to use for a guide. Fine, who cares. I give them a ntg3 to mount on the camera. At the end of the day I am finishing packing up and go to camera for my mic. me - "can I have my mic back" camera - "We put it with your stuff" me - "I didn't see it there, I have just finished putting everything away" camera - "We put it in your bag" me - "I dont have a bag" camera - "oh, well I don't know then" the dude then goes back to packing his own bags while I stand there glaring at him. camera - "What" me - "you dont know where my microphone is" camera - "I guess not, I have to finish packing this stuff up" me - (unkind words) after about an hour, he mysteriously finds it in a bag, in his car. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chase Yeremian Posted March 7, 2012 Report Share Posted March 7, 2012 Whenever I look into a mirror there's always the same rookie staring right back, no matter how good I begin to think I am. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marc Wielage Posted March 7, 2012 Report Share Posted March 7, 2012 I always dislike people who unnecessarily move around on a set during a take, even when they're tip-toeing. It's bad for the actors, bad for sound, bad for a lot of reasons. I like when instead of cutting they say" keep rolling we'll do another take" and then do about ten takes on the same slated scene and ask which one was the best ? I still have trouble logging a report on these . Oh, that's the bane of my existence. I hate it in post, I hate it in production. I just think it's disorganized, plus it's more stressful for the camera operator (in a hand-held situation) and stressful for the boom op. Unfortunately, this has quickly become SOP for a lot of movies; I particularly see it in a lot of comedies, where I think the concern is to try to keep rolling in hopes of some incredibly funny-adlib coming out of one of the actors' mouths. And, then.. clapping the slate, right in front of the actors face, WAY TOO LOUD!! Oh, I hate that. In some cases, I've taken the AC aside and said, "listen, just a suggestion, take it for what it's worth: the microphone is very sensitive, so if you're close to an actor's face, just say 'marker', clap the sticks quietly, and say soft sticks. Loud claps you only have to use outside, when you're far away from the camera." Neophytes also have a bad habit of saying the entire scene & take number, which I don't believe is necessary -- it just wastes data. "Marker" is all they need to say, unless it's multi-cam, in which case they can say "A Camera mark," and the other AC says, "B Camera mark." I don't know what they're teaching in film schools these days, but some of these traditions have just gone out the window in recent years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zack Posted March 7, 2012 Report Share Posted March 7, 2012 I always dislike people who unnecessarily move around on a set during a take, even when they're tip-toeing. It's bad for the actors, bad for sound, bad for a lot of reasons. This is usually the producers from my experience..... they love to believe their $H!t doesn't stink or something, and my mics aren't good enough to pick up their noisy keyboarding during their precious interviews we spent 3 hours setting up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marc Wielage Posted March 7, 2012 Report Share Posted March 7, 2012 I'm rude enough that when the director yells cut, I'll yell back "we got some set noise on that one" and glare at whoever was moving. Sharp ADs usually stay right on top of this, but on no-frills shoots, it's a free-for-all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MatthewFreedAudio Posted March 7, 2012 Report Share Posted March 7, 2012 I always dislike people who unnecessarily move around on a set during a take, even when they're tip-toeing. It's bad for the actors, bad for sound, bad for a lot of reasons. Oh, that's the bane of my existence. I hate it in post, I hate it in production. I just think it's disorganized, plus it's more stressful for the camera operator (in a hand-held situation) and stressful for the boom op. Unfortunately, this has quickly become SOP for a lot of movies; I particularly see it in a lot of comedies, where I think the concern is to try to keep rolling in hopes of some incredibly funny-adlib coming out of one of the actors' mouths. Oh, I hate that. In some cases, I've taken the AC aside and said, "listen, just a suggestion, take it for what it's worth: the microphone is very sensitive, so if you're close to an actor's face, just say 'marker', clap the sticks quietly, and say soft sticks. Loud claps you only have to use outside, when you're far away from the camera." Neophytes also have a bad habit of saying the entire scene & take number, which I don't believe is necessary -- it just wastes data. "Marker" is all they need to say, unless it's multi-cam, in which case they can say "A Camera mark," and the other AC says, "B Camera mark." I don't know what they're teaching in film schools these days, but some of these traditions have just gone out the window in recent years. It should be required to say the full scene and take! Just saying "marker" doesn't cut it in post when you're trying to sort out which takes are which. www.matthewfreed.com Production Sound Mixing for TV, Films, and Commercials Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marc Wielage Posted March 7, 2012 Report Share Posted March 7, 2012 It should be required to say the full scene and take! Just saying "marker" doesn't cut it in post when you're trying to sort out which takes are which. I disagree IF (big if) double-system sound is being used. The picture editor can already see the slate on the image; the assistant editor can hear the sound mixer's audible slate prior to the scene. Ideally, the camera may have a reference track, and the DIT will be renaming the data files with scene & take numbers when they're archived to hard drive. For the greatest part of the sound era, all the AC ever said was "MARKER," just to avoid wasting film. Now, even with digital cameras, it makes sense to avoid using up 15 seconds of data files at the start of the take. I'm speaking as a post guy who had to sync up these dailies for 30 years at Technicolor. I freely admit my opinion is only one of many, and other people see things differently. But I think the time spent in front of the camera is better spent just getting the sync clap and shooting the scene -- only. One big exception would be single-system projects where the sound is going direct to camera. But most of those are documentaries, and getting slates there is dicey at best, under those conditions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nika paniashvili Posted March 7, 2012 Report Share Posted March 7, 2012 boom op grabbing the pole like a lifesaving rope 1 meter away from frame in extreme closeup people who whisper during take as if whisper is something undetectable by the mic Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich Reilly Posted March 7, 2012 Report Share Posted March 7, 2012 The one looking around for the last Subway tuna. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taylormadeaudio Posted March 7, 2012 Report Share Posted March 7, 2012 People coming up to the boom op, grabbing the pole, putting the mic right up to their mug like its a beta 58 and saying something stupid into it at 85 dB. I try to maintain composure, but this really makes me wanna cloud up and storm all over a person. It's not just green gils though... people think they're comedians. ~tt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Winter Posted March 7, 2012 Report Share Posted March 7, 2012 people who whisper during take as if whisper is something undetectable by the mic +1 ...and it was when I started transforming into Hulk.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joecrabb Posted March 7, 2012 Report Share Posted March 7, 2012 won't stop asking questions.... or continue to act as though you can hear them ask their questions while your cans are on. I have to admit to doing this very thing...I was, admittedly, a complete noob, lo those many many years ago. I would have been really frustrated with me for sure. This does explain that one move that all of us are known for though--the sweep of the cans off of one ear to hear what the person next to you is saying. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RadoStefanov Posted March 7, 2012 Report Share Posted March 7, 2012 " Wrapping the 7506 coiled cable tightly around the headphones at the end of the day " Wrapping the 7506 coiled cable tightly around the headphones at the end of the day Using a coiled cable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Den Nic Posted March 7, 2012 Report Share Posted March 7, 2012 "The picture editor can already see the slate on the image; the assistant editor can hear the sound mixer's audible slate prior to the scene. " The shoot I've been on the audible slate is done by the AC. I know this is a bit of topic, but who is used to the Mixer slating and who is used to the AC doing it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soundslikejustin Posted March 7, 2012 Report Share Posted March 7, 2012 AC for me, and pretty much every shoot I've ever been on. Unless its a tail slate, then there's usually an audio ID at the head. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hemmerlinj Posted March 7, 2012 Report Share Posted March 7, 2012 if the sharpie is on the slate for an entire day, there is an excellent chance that it will be stained. Nope. Did a shoot just last week. Had the info that doesn't change written with sharpie and it was on tree for 3 days straight, no staining. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hemmerlinj Posted March 7, 2012 Report Share Posted March 7, 2012 Camera op not shooting the slate clap, and or rolling after the clap. Helped a friend out on her graduate film project and the "kid" who was the DP did this. Along with not checking the gate. We shot on film. She had a ton of problems with the footage. Audio was great though! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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