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Laughter Outbursts From Talent


Tom Maloney

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I am sure all you have had to deal with this one time or another.

I knew it was going to be a long day for a 10 page script with a total of 3 people as talent when the producer / director arrived with a revised script ( sigh )

Soon after a few takes I was exposed to ear piercing laughter outbursts

from the cast. To make things even worse none of them could get past two sentences with out looking at the script. ( both the DP and myself sigh )

After a while, and a little frustration I calmly explained to them how painfully this was to my ears and each time it happens we are losing time etc.

As it continued I just monitored levels visually and removing the headphones and let the take run, Hey ! No one called cut . I figure if I have to listen to this BS , so can they in post. Sure they will appreciate it.

So I am just curious how you handle this when dealing with amature talent as I did.

All is good, cash in hand at the end of the day

Go Cubs !

Tom in Chicago

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Tom,

 

I share your pain.  I've experienced this very problem all too many times, and it really is a valid gripe -- I had one actress several years ago whose outbursts were so loud that I finally approached the 1stAD and asked him if there was some way we could address the problem without destroying anyone's delicate ego or sense of freedom of expression.  I'm not sure what he said, but it was effective, and I don't recall any resulting tension directed my way.  I guess your solution is certainly understandable, though I would probably be equally stressed out not monitoring my tracks.  Yes, in the end, it's a paycheck. Sigh.

 

~tt

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Watch out when you have plenty of open mics in a small room and they all start laughing and talking over eachother..

I had one talent in a controlled room, SDI, lav and boom. Hour long interview and she would pick at her ring with her fingernail between every question response. Almost worse than an outburst. I just pretend I don't know what it is and I'm searching the room for this 'ticking noise' and she was quick to stop it. Next week, at it again. I was lucky to be in the position to where I could call her out on it without offending her.

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" I calmly explained to them how painfully this was to my ears and each time it happens we are losing time etc. "

it happens, and it's not your job

you were on a POS production, it appears, and I'm guessing there was to be no OT (a red flag!)

cast getting the giggles is not an uncommon situation, and running the set is the 1AD's gig.

(I'm also going to question the experience of the actors, though like I said, it happens to the best of them... but beginners on these productions only make it worse...)

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  • 1 month later...

Might be nice for field mixers to have a defeatable limiter in HP circuit. I could see it helpful in some docu situations as well. I've seen mention of something like that in some consumer devices.

There are the Beyerdynamic headphones which can be ordered with a limiter. It's fixed though, and can't be defeated or adjusted. But you can specify the settings. I'm about to embark on this show with occasional unexpected explosion, like a microwave exploding. I'm considering these Beyerdynamic headphones for this. Has anyone here used them? Any opinions?

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