Worst mess up on set..

[Richard Ragon]

OK, this topic is a bit hard for most.. people don't want to admit their biggest mistakes that were completely their fault.. But, What the hell.. I'll do it.

1) Ok, this one happened just 2 days ago.. While filming in studio (2 recorder cart), we were close to the end of the day, and I realized, that I had NO flash card in the 744T. 68 takes, and I didn't even notice.. Wow.. However, the 744T has a back up hard drive, and was able to get the files from there. I was debating on telling the director that one.

2) A close second might be, once I didn't 'arm' tracks on boom recorder, so it doesn't record the right ISOs.. That has since been corrected on BR, so that the 'armed' tracks are in color.

-Richard

[Philip Perkins]

I've always felt that my worst moments weren't technical glitches (although I've had plenty of those) but diplomatic gaffes--those are much harder to recover from.....

philp

[RPSharman]

+1

My mouth is my biggest enemy.

But I like to believe I've gotten better.

[justanross]

Last show I did there was a take I forgot to hit record on my Fusion!

I never said that to the director. I just said I had a technical issue with my recorder and we need to go again.

[jason porter]

I wired up our host (shirt with a front zipper) and she walked around for 10 mins with her shirt open and didn't realize it. When confronted, I said "Sorry, I usually just pull zippers down, not back up" She laughed and all was forgiven.

[pkautzsch]

Last show I did there was a take I forgot to hit record on my Fusion!

I never said that to the director. I just said I had a technical issue with my recorder and we need to go again.

It sure has to do with tech departments obviously not being ready when a hectic AD calls "roll sound". I usually say "speed" promptly but roll only when AC calls out the slate (using pre-roll time to reliably get the slate into the first few seconds of the file).

Once I forgot to hit rec, too.

Dealt with it the same way.

[Max Hirtenstein]

I usually say "speed" promptly but roll only when AC calls out the slate

sounds dangerous

[studiomprd]

" That has since been corrected on BR, "

it wasn't BR's fault.. BR may have been improved to help folks, but it was not BR's mistake

" NO flash card in the 744T. 68 takes, and I didn't even notice "

maybe you are charging too much...

the political gaffe's are the worst...

[BHAudio]

My phone rang... bad, bad , bad from the sound guy. Everybody laughed about it so it wasn't so bad.

[berniebeaudry]

My phone rang... bad, bad , bad from the sound guy. Everybody laughed about it so it wasn't so bad.

I've had that happen too! Funnier when its the producer. I was on a shoot in a mine and when we stopped for lunch the camera op went off to shoot b-roll. Of course he switched to the camera mic and both of us were so tired from a very early start that neither of us caught it until we shot for an hour and changed tape. I couldn't listen to return because of the routing required to do a transcription recording so I didn't hear it. Fortunately the on camera mic was a good one and the subjects were within two feet of the camera. The acoustics weren't great but at least we had something.

[mjacomb]

Did the usual "phones, please" thing and the DP relayed it to some other crew, and said about how phones ruin takes/distracting it is.

Next take, a phone goes off. I had a bit of a whinge, as did the 1st, as did a few people........ The phone belonged to the DP.

Forgot to put a battery in a radio once as well. Stupid mistake, luckily camera didnt do a great job so i went to "swap" the battery and all was sorted.

Guess you learn by them

[johnpaul215]

Last show I did there was a take I forgot to hit record on my Fusion!

I never said that to the director. I just said I had a technical issue with my recorder and we need to go again.

While I bet you were sweating bullets, how often does a camera op double tap? Comparatively they have a term "double tap" for what they do, and it took you a whole sentence to say "I forgot to press the record button".

Richard: does it even matter if you didn't have a card? The 744T wouldn't have gone into record if you didn't have a drive enabled. I did a whole series where they never got me a CF card for the 744T (baffling), instead I hooked up a firewire drive at wrap and copied everything over from that day. I found it odd because a CF card would have cost almost nothing and the option for redundancy is already built into the machine. It was a rental 744T that got shipped all over the country, or world. Who knows what kind of abuse that HDD had seen. In the end, everything worked out fine.

[AndyB]

I think the biggest mess up for me so far was making a tangle out of a 100' boom cable when I A3'd on a major cable series. Not a big deal, but 5 minutes (which seemed eternal) untangling and re-coiling the cable. On the plus side, the mixer just kind of shrugged it off and the boom op gave me a great tip about how to lay out the cable to avoid it becoming spaghetti.

[studiomprd]

" it was my umbilical. "

but how/why/who was behind it not being plugged in??

this has always been a key issue about sound being responsible for something someone else, usually, as in this case, camera, is actually recording on their equipment...

especially if camera, also being the recordist, declines to listen to at least be certain reasonable audio us getting into the camcorder.

Also at fault is the abusive practice of long hours; it is well documented that they lead to issues that would include the ones you mention... I'm going to guess you weren't being paid OT, and this is exactly why the labor laws are there. you (and the camera-person) are lucky that you are not telling us that on your way home, you fell asleep and crashed your car

Edited November 28, 2012 by studiomprd

[soundslikejustin]

I like to think I have not made any major mistakes, but plenty of small ones:

1. Not carrying the right batteries for an unexpected battery change mid scene, the AD 'going again' and the transmitter dying mid scene before I could get back (I was utility). Mixer got on the walkies, take ended prematurely, all eyes on set turned to me - they knew what was up! We ended up playing the scene 4 more times anyway, so no massive loss.

2. Once, after very little sleep, I was struggling to understand why my boom mic wasn't functioning. Turned out I had loaded an empty rycote on the end on the pole. No-one was the wiser as I "swapped to my backup mic"

3. Forgetting 'that one cable' or adaptor or mount or whatever. Now everything comes with me, all the time.

It feels good to fess up to this stuff, in a way. Learn, and don't make the same mistake twice.

[Toy Robot]

Recording a 2-channel mix with lavs panned to one channel and getting half way through a break-off EXT interview with talent #1 before talent #2 starts chatting back in the lobby.

Glad I was booming it!

[Max Hirtenstein]

2. Once, after very little sleep, I was struggling to understand why my boom mic wasn't functioning. Turned out I had loaded an empty rycote on the end on the pole. No-one was the wiser as I "swapped to my backup mic"

LOL! I almost did that once. Sounds a little hollow

[Ian Thomson]

ok, been holding on to this one for a while...

very beginning of my career, 1st day "real" booming on a "real" TV show. (2nd unit shooting 8 pages of dialog).

Mixer has an MKH 50 set up in the zeplin so that the shortest end is at the business end (opposite to usual configuration with a shotgun), and has constantly reminded me to make a note of this mic being set up this way.

we shoot a few takes, all is good (2 cameras, Wide-ish and some mids, but definitely boomable, so there aren't too many radio mics out).

quick re-set, I'm distracted and throw the pole out upside down... hmmm... why does everything sound quieter all of a sudden?...

glance over at the mixer to see that priceless look of both confusion and fear, he's checking board settings, reception, everything on his end.

I'm so green that I stupidly continue the scene (instead of dropping the mic into shot and getting another take).

Director calls - Perfect, Cut, Print, Moving on...

...People do...

...mixer raises his concerns with AD, who confers with Director, Grips have already broken down the dolly, were moving onto next set-up, Director goes to mixer to listen to the recording on DAT...

a full 5 minute discussion later and we're re-setting for the previous 4 minute take.

no one is finger pointing, but it's clear that everyone knows it wasn't "equipment malfunction" in the sound department.

[bmfsnd]

When I was first starting out, I tipped over a Monster with my boom, drenching the scripty and her clipboard during a take. All was forgiven, as I was OMB'ing it, and we were all shoved into a corner of the room... or so I thought.

I was told to not come back the next day. A bit harsh, but lesson learned, I guess. She should stop drinking that stuff anyway.

[stephensharrod]

I knocked over a DLSR with my xlr from the boom once. Nobody was in the room though, so I just set it back up.

[chrisnewton]

hey matt, what's a monster?

[soundslikejustin]

hey matt, what's a monster?

Energy Drink, similar to Rockstar, Red Bull, V. etc. Awful sh*t.

[Marc Wielage]

Oh, I love the Monster Chaos drinks. Those are great -- almost as good as a 5-hour Energy Drink, but much tastier. However, I won't have non-cappable drinks on my cart. Too many near-disasters.

I haven't had any huge total disasters that I can think of (the memory dulls over time), but a few last-minute saves. A couple of weeks ago, I looked up in the middle of a scene and noticed I had failed to activate the last 4 channels on the 788. My heart stopped, because I knew there were some very important isos on 5-8, but I also knew the mono mix was going to be perfectly usable. But by the next take, I realized I had accidentally hit the "VU1/VU2" button, so all the isos were there, the levels were fine... I was just seeing the wrong meters. Much relief.

Worst disaster so far was reaching for a camera hop RX battery on an out-of-town shoot and realizing I had left it back in my hotel room on the charger. By pure chance, I had a backup battery pack with unknown AA's in it out in my truck, and I was able to limp through all day on it. Not gonna make that mistake again.

Just had a case where a camera hop RX got put on the camera without the antennas detached, which was embarrassing. It was just a scratch track, and we were within about 20 feet of the camera at all times, transmitting at 250mw, so I'm pretty sure the scratch track is fine... but this is what happens when you rush. Funny thing was, we did check levels at the beginning of the day, and reception and audio levels were fine. Go figure. Lessons learned: don't rush, and double-check everything.

Mixer has an MKH 50 set up in the zeplin so that the shortest end is at the business end (opposite to usual configuration with a shotgun), and has constantly reminded me to make a note of this mic being set up this way.

Who would do this? It looks goofy, and it's harder to balance that way. I had a devil of a time getting the Rycote mount and zeppelin arranged on my MKH70 four or five years ago, and finally realized I had it backwards. Works much better when the shorter end is on top.

I swear, Rycote needs to write some kind of "Microphone Mount Handbook" to show how and why these mounts and zeppelins should be used, common mistakes, solutions for frequent problems, and stuff like that. Otherwise, you wind up with people who have microphones mounted upside-down...

[Richard Ragon]

I get a kick out of telling my boom op that the boom is facing the wrong way. This is right after the take sounds like crap.. I look over, and sure enough.

-Richard

[jason porter]

OT, but I bought my CS3e used. It was setup so that when I held the boom with a loose grip, the mic swung to the ceiling...I didn't like it and it actually took effort to aim the mic. A few adjustments later and the mic stays pointing down when I loosen my grip.