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sound mixing class in Los Angeles


JS

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I know Fred Ginsburg teaches one at CSUN (csun students only) and UCLA extension (Jim Tanenbaum) has one but not until June.  Does anyone know anywhere else or any type of internship or apprentice program that is happening now or very soon.

Thanks

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Thank you for the compliment. I was originaly going to be a teacher before I started working in this industry. I have taught many classes, moderated seminars, participated in workshops (and have tried at all times to be helpful and instructive for many people working in sound). I am presently the co-chairman of the Education Committe in the Union (I.A.T.S.E. Local 695) and we are trying to get a whole lot of things going (most of the classes will be for Union members only, but we have held seminars that are open to everyone). There is a real need for continued education and training in our craft and not just the equipment stuff --- the workplace is changing almost as fast as the technology and requires almost constant atttention for all of us to continue to be successful in our work. In terms of technology and equipment, we are trying to get the key manufacturers involved in producing training and support materials for their products that go beyond the basic owners/operator manual typically shipped with these products (but not always available, sometimes badly written, seldom up to date and sometimes absent altogether). The idea is that DVDs should be produced (with Quicktime movies available on the web) with detailed walk throughs and setup for a non-linear recorder, wherein the explanation of "what button to push" is complete to the point of helping get things done properly in the big picture. Glenn Sanders of Zaxcom has told me that they will be working on a video of this type, for not only the Deva recorders but the Digital Wireless product line as well. So, if such a DVD could be produced, when it got the part of what button to push to set the timecode reference, there would be discussion as well as to why certain timecode rates might be required for certain kinds of shoots/workflow.

We can hope that these sorts of training DVDs can be made and in timely fashion, as the technology and the equipment changes so rapidly, this is a difficult task, it is definitely a moving target. A quick example: when the DV40 came out and had certian quirks dealing with Deva files, Zaxcom came up with the "F" setting (which either stood for Fostex or "you better use this button or everything will be F*** up) as a workaround for the limitations of the DV40. Soon after, Fostex changed the operation of the DV40 but the "F" setting was still being tal;ked about and still bering used, creating even more problems than the original problem.

Regards,  Jeff Wexler

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  • 3 months later...
  • 3 weeks later...

REALITY CREW IS FOUND AT:  www.realitycrew.com.  Aaron Murphy here and I am happy to discuss what we teach at Reality Crew.  I started the seminar program because I enjoyed sharing my knowledge of pro audio with fellow crew members and found that no one seemed to teach the  skills to work specifically in the Reality and Documentary world.  We are offering a seminar price discount until August 15th 2006.  www.realitycrew.com 

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.02:

These are valid points all.  How to push the right buttons can be more easily learned, however, than can our craft, which I'm starting to get the sense is perhaps facing a rather unpleasant extinction.  I'm working with a new boom op on my current show who was recommended to me by some very reputable local folks, and he's a hard worker and absolutely willing to learn what he doesn't already know, but it's absolutely shocking to me that most of his mode of employ up until now has seemingly been to "air" out a bunch of lavaliers, rather than work and fight to position the boom microphone as the primary source of the track.  He's out there fighting and scrapping and learning very fast (and probably thinks I'm crazy), but I think too many people are meeting the new multi-camera, multi-practical-location challenges with a shrug of, "okay, fuck it, let's wire everybody".  The fallout from this is that boom ops get hired to do a whole show and actually boom a fraction of it for real, and that seems to have changed the very definition of their job.

I must admit that sometimes I'm starting to feel like a relatively young dinosaur for expecting the boom to be as close to the frame as possible, delivered back to the mixing panel on a duplex cable.

More useful, and more, to my belief, in dire need than instructional videos of how to use the Deva and get it to cooperate with the Fostex (all software-based machines that will be updated and replaced with newer versions before terribly long) is what you can teach about the simple nuts and bolts of recording SOUND for picture.  You and Don Coufal have probably forgotten, over the course of your long careers, more valuable wisdom about the basic principles of recording on set than some folks ever learn, and I think if there was a pressing need for an instructional DVD, this and not that would be the subject matter.  Such a disc would seem to have more longevity than the ins and outs of the rapidly changing world of NLR recorders and telecine controllers, which I personally do not expect to remain at status quo for terribly long.

Regards,

Noah Timan 

Thank you for the compliment. I was originaly going to be a teacher before I started working in this industry. I have taught many classes, moderated seminars, participated in workshops (and have tried at all times to be helpful and instructive for many people working in sound). I am presently the co-chairman of the Education Committe in the Union (I.A.T.S.E. Local 695) and we are trying to get a whole lot of things going (most of the classes will be for Union members only, but we have held seminars that are open to everyone). There is a real need for continued education and training in our craft and not just the equipment stuff --- the workplace is changing almost as fast as the technology and requires almost constant atttention for all of us to continue to be successful in our work. In terms of technology and equipment, we are trying to get the key manufacturers involved in producing training and support materials for their products that go beyond the basic owners/operator manual typically shipped with these products (but not always available, sometimes badly written, seldom up to date and sometimes absent altogether). The idea is that DVDs should be produced (with Quicktime movies available on the web) with detailed walk throughs and setup for a non-linear recorder, wherein the explanation of "what button to push" is complete to the point of helping get things done properly in the big picture. Glenn Sanders of Zaxcom has told me that they will be working on a video of this type, for not only the Deva recorders but the Digital Wireless product line as well. So, if such a DVD could be produced, when it got the part of what button to push to set the timecode reference, there would be discussion as well as to why certain timecode rates might be required for certain kinds of shoots/workflow.

We can hope that these sorts of training DVDs can be made and in timely fashion, as the technology and the equipment changes so rapidly, this is a difficult task, it is definitely a moving target. A quick example: when the DV40 came out and had certian quirks dealing with Deva files, Zaxcom came up with the "F" setting (which either stood for Fostex or "you better use this button or everything will be F*** up) as a workaround for the limitations of the DV40. Soon after, Fostex changed the operation of the DV40 but the "F" setting was still being tal;ked about and still bering used, creating even more problems than the original problem.

Regards,  Jeff Wexler

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I completely agree with you here on the decline of our craft and the means by which some of the newer people can even learn to strive for the sort of sound you talk about (and has been talked about here under various different topic areas like "perspective sound", "are we mixers or just recordists" etc. Don Coufal's Boom seminar that is coming up, and is aptly titled: "What is Good Sound" will focus heavily on many of the areas and issues you have mentioned, including an emphasis on responsibility to the soundtrack, the importance of a highly trained and qualified sound TEAM, and will NOT have any great emphasis on specific microphones, who makes the best fishpole, etc. There are many, many reasons why such a lecture needs to be attended by ALL of the people involved in the production sound, even though it is being called the "Boom Op event." Not the least of which is the knowlege that although much of the technology and procedures have gone through massive changes, sometimes in our hands and often in the hands of over-zealous not terribly experienced producers, the LAWS of PHYSICS have not changed and microphone technology remained fairly constant for 60 years --- AND, the importance of boom operator, though marginalized by falling rates, lack of understanding (on both sides --- the producers AND the new boom operators), this importance to the soundtrack remains the most important and crucial component to good sound.

Regards,  Jeff Wexler

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Guest tourtelot

I worked on a pilot last February for WB with a director who has lots and lots of credits.  There was only twice where he and I had any disagreement (with me saying "yes you are right Sir," since it was HIS show)  Both times it was over me recording a super-wide shot (thnk from a helicopter only not QUITE so wide) for camera perspective.  The sound of the scene that was going on behind the dialog.  He flipped out!  He said "I can always get perspective in the edit.  I want to hear what they are saying!"  We went out and miced eight guys for a shot that you couldn't see them in and away we went.  He was shocked what I did, and I was shocked what he wanted me to do.  I am sure that they will never use that track (the actors knew how small they were and "spoke their lines" appropriately to the size of the frame.  Lots of "blah, blahs," and words that will never make it onto network TV) and I'll bet that they would have used my "wide-shot" sound in the scene.  Oh well.

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