Fisher 7 Goes Outside

[ve7kjr]

Next time you feel like 8 pages on a Fisher are killing you, Phil, just remind yourself what 3 pages on a fishpole.feel like ;o)

Laurence,,, did way too much of that, I think it was the fishpole that screwed my back- neck up. Doing the the move over to the Fisher 7 was the best thing I ever did. As to production,,,, bring on as many pages as you want, I will do the best I can do and could do a lot better but for the stupid wide shot !!!!! SO we have really good com with the camera people types and will be in on certain shots some of the time as camera people types know when certain shots will be used or we have shots with the digital painter who is going to paint the whole top of the wide shot. For anyone reading this and thinking of traning on a Fisher,,, may I suggest you take a class or two or whatever with Laurence in LA, IATSE Local 695 It is such a dying art, but really doesn't have to be ! It took big balls to convince production that I could go outside with my fisher,,,, haven't broken it,,, well there was that one time,, but I fixed it. I think My Mixer will chime in here at some point and say something to the effect of "Bringing the Fisher 7 outside for 2 days was GREAT. Phil only got in shit once. "Stupid Crane" Starting a new show, I hope to have some pictures to post from that show, More pictures of Fishers in action would be great, so please post

[ve7kjr]

Sad to post this picture - from my recent visit to my film school. this stuff has been lying around since 1970 or later.

Vin, I bet with a little love it might work again,, imagine if the boom could talk,,,,,what stories it could tell

Phil

[Laurence]

Speaking of pictures of Fisher booms... Chris, one of the Fisher boom experts at Fisher in Los Angeles, has started a collection of photos he's putting up on the wall in the "boom room" at Fisher. Dramatic shots, beauty shots, funny shots... whatever ya got... he'd love for you to send them to him at: cronci72 - at - yahoo - dot - com

[studiomprd]

" a collection of photos he's putting up on the wall in the "boom room" at Fisher. Dramatic shots, beauty shots, funny shots... whatever ya got... "

there is even a shot of Laurence!

[soundtrane]

Vin, I bet with a little love it might work again,, imagine if the boom could talk,,,,,what stories it could tell

Phil

Phil, it needs you out here. Make a trip to India sometime soon, and i promise you the best in cuisine, AND a few of these relics at the film school for you to rejuvenate!

AND - apart from this - a good workshop on booming as a superlative art? at my alma mater film school AND at the sound association, AND a few other places as well.

-vin

[Eric Lamontagne]

More boom porn from our outing. It was a great day and I am fortunate to be working with both operators on Mr Young season 3.

There isn't a more glamourous solution to four cameras, live recording, and 20+ page days.

Thanks Mr Fisher!

Eric

[Kevin Sorensen]

The articulator up close. The best thing to ever happen to the Fisher ! We used a small XLR extension with an Sennheiser MKH 50.

[Jeff Wexler]

Looking at the articulator head up close confirms absolutely why I will never be a good boom operator. The articulated head brought a whole new dimension to the standard Fisher boom and the great boom operators that were able to work that into their skill set could do amazing things. I was never really any good with the standard Fisher, so you can imagine with the articulator... oh boy.

[Dan Ostroff]

The articulator up close. The best thing to ever happen to the Fisher ! We used a small XLR extension with an Sennheiser MKH 50.

Great pictures, thanks for sharing! Does anyone have any links to videos of these in use? Never had the opportunity to see one up close and personal and would be great to see it in action.

Thanks again!

[NoOne]

"We used a small XLR extension with an Sennheiser MKH 50."

Can you tell me what kind of extension is used? Is it from Neutrik or did you make something yourself?

[Scott Smith]

Great photos!

Always happy to see a Fisher put to good use by someone who knows what they're doing. Will have to see if I can dig out some old production photos...

--S

[Scott Smith]

Can't quite tell from the photo, but here is the one that Switchraft makes: http://www.markertek.com/Connectors-Adapters/Audio-Connectors/XLR-Connectors/Switchcraft-Corporation/S3FM.xhtml?S3FM

I believe Neutrik has a similar item.

--S

"We used a small XLR extension with an Sennheiser MKH 50."

Can you tell me what kind of extension is used? Is it from Neutrik or did you make something yourself?

[Kevin Sorensen]

"We used a small XLR extension with an Sennheiser MKH 50."

Can you tell me what kind of extension is used? Is it from Neutrik or did you make something yourself?

Its basically an in-line on and off switch. Radio Shack has them. I had to fatten the body a bit by wrapping

gaffers tape around it, at the top and bottom.

I use it for getting the 50 into a zepplin also.

[ve7kjr]

Thanks for posting Kevin, I run the 60 on mine, and made my own extenson, I didn't have to use it after all when I went EXT: for two days.

Jeff, You are so right, "what can be done with a fisher and a good operator, but it takes good communications with the other depts, nothing can kill me faster than lighting as we all know,,, it helps being on the same sets 80 % of the time , the sets change but the lighting stays the same overall, by now the operator will know the holes in lighting he can work, if we have a problem at work, we kindly ask the dp to "please fix this for me" which 99% percent of the time they will,but some times they can't so we just deal with it, it could have been much better if I was just a bit closer. Same thing with camera dept,,,,,: so many times I 'm in the wide shot,,,,why,,,, because I can, I know when I can or can't be in the wide shot and have had great success with this method in order to get the best tracks we could,,,,,Our "video village" has about 20 people around it with a quad split of the cameras on a big screen, we feed the audio with a speaker on the village we only use 2 comteks for village people, The village is never to far away from sets but hearing the speaker has never been a problem. I learn something new everyday. Nothing turns me on more as it were, to be faced with a with a long scene, or a difficult shot, it's the ability to do the dance and you go home at the end of the day pleased with what you did that day, we all have those momemts where you play back the scenes at the end of the day, We run two Fisher 7s 99% of the time, today I did most of the work, so I'm a bit sore but I take this any day. I have my coffee cup holder, a fan that I can remote roll to cool me off, It gets dam hot up there, and my ass has been in a nice soft chair, It has been my work station for the last 3 years. Starting a new show and looking forward to the challenges of that. The whole crew is going over, 2 fishers 26fts, I will set them up next Wed. and will be setting up the "studio" have no idea how it will sound but I'm sure we will be fine but will have to do some fine tuning. If anyone is interested, I will post how it is working out as we go along,

Phil

[ve7kjr]

Someone posted "boom porn" This shot is my rig from season 1 of Mr Young, I was about to derig it and send it back to LA as our season was over, it was a sad day for me,,,,, to see my old friend who worked so well with me. The rig I have now ,I've had for two seasons and no problems with the performance of a Fisher 7 I submitted the photo to the IATSE 695 local and they used it for the 2012 membership directory. Thank You very much local 695.

Laurence, maybe you could get a poster size print of this shot at Fisher mothership for me ?

Phil

[NoOne]

Thanks Scott and Kevin for extension answer. It was hard to see on the picture.

NoOne, on 04 October 2012 - 01:32 PM, said:

"We used a small XLR extension with an Sennheiser MKH 50."

Can you tell me what kind of extension is used? Is it from Neutrik or did you make something yourself?

Its basically an in-line on and off switch. Radio Shack has them.

[Jeff Wexler]

That cover photo is fantastic --- a true work of art that shows a true work of art, a celebration of one of the most elegant tools we have. Sadly, there are probably those who look at it and wonder "what is that?"

[Scott Smith]

Phil & Kevin: Thanks for posting the great photos. Keep 'em coming! I'm printing out a few so that some of the newbies I work with have an idea of what kind of situations the Fisher is suited for, and what it looks like in action.

Like Jeff, it saddens me that there are a number of members in our local that have no clue as to what a Fisher or Mole boom is, despite the fact that they were standard on nearly every set for over at least 35 years (unless someone felt like being tortured by putting 8 pound ribbon mike on a fishpole!)

With the ability now to shoot long takes without cutting, I would have thought they would have made a bit of a comeback, but the design of many sets just (along with wacky shooting styles) makes it difficult. Unfortunately, it also means that we have lost many of the those talented operators who really knew how to master the Fisher. Like a camera operator who knows their way around a Worral geared head, it is a skill that is not easily aquired.

--Scott

[ve7kjr]

Just an update: Two new Fisher 7s arrived at the new studio last Wed., so I put them together , that's always fun, about 4hrs set-up time, till I'm happy, that is 4hrs from crate to ready to be rolling, Extensions on both and a stringing, They feel almost the same, I will bling mine out just a bit. We start our first new show on Sat-Sunday "Package Deal" allways fun to play with the lighting for the first time, and one wall on the back of a key set is all glass that can tilt bend etc. On the very plus side, we have a good team, the same sound camera dept etc. so we will be fine. I will post as to how it goes. Would love to see some more shots of Fishers at work. Today I had my pusher man Ross up on the other boom to do some shots as we had to split the sets up with two booms. He did a dam good job overall but he has a long way to go, he didn't get in any shots much or have a shadow problems but had a hard time with his distane, and knowing where he was pointing, and not following the script right there in front of his face. but he had the work flow down before lunch. Today was a free-bee for someone at the Mr.Young set, what a better chance than to throw Ross into the fire. I now have more confidence in him.

Phil (VE7-KJR)

[studiomprd]

" allways fun to play with the lighting for the first time, and one wall on the back of a key set is all glass that can tilt bend etc. On the very plus side, we have a good team, the same sound camera dept etc. so we will be fine. "

I know that one thing on the minds at the top of J.L.Fisher is educating DP's on the ins and outs of lighting with their booms, and encouraging them to get on board with having them on shows.

[ve7kjr]

Well "Package Deal" is up and running, we shot two days so far, Fishing like crazy and trying to learn the new actors and how they act. Lighting has not been a huge problem so far but it will need a tweek or two as we go. Happy with the performance of the 2 Fisher 7s "26s" that we have, they got a good workout on Sunday with the live show. I may swap my other base from Mr Young when we rap season 3 .this week. My rise time is faster on that base. "insert your own joke,punch-line" They have these big 600w light on the cameras x 4 so my line of sight has to be even higher, no problems with the huge glass wall yet, but I'm sure at some point it will be a problem. The DP Johnny Walker has been most helpfull as he should. If it were a perfect world and it never is, I would gladly spend a day just with the DP and swing the Fisher Boom on every set to see where the problems with lighting and sound would be before we go to camera. I can't say too much about the show as It has not gone to air yet but it is adult sit-come and very dam funny. I hope it will go for 3 seasons or more. Very good track record with the Creator Executive Producer Writer.

Phil (VE7KJR)

[Kevin Sorensen]

This was the Fisher Boom I used on the first show that I moved up to boom on. In the early 1980's.

[ve7kjr]

Do you know the arm # Kevin, be interesting to know if this boom is still around and working. And what you got on the end ? Thanks for posting.

Phil 73

[Kevin Sorensen]

Phil,

That is a # 2 arm. The articulating turret had not been invented yet, as this base ( #3 ) and arm are around 60 years old by now.

Hopefully its been recycled.

That is T powered Sennheiser 415, in an Electro Voice hanger ( shock mount ). The thing in-between the turret and

hanger is from a Moviola ( for film editing ) its body is solid rubber and it helped reduce boom rumble.

[ve7kjr]

I meant like a serial number # 125 or #253 ETC. That way you should be able to track it down. It would be very cool if fisher had a log book for every arm, showing every show it was on,build date ETC. I started to keep a log of the Serial #s of the different arms and bases that I have worked with just for fun. Did your rig ride in this truck ?