Stripe a tape?

[wbrisett]

I'm working on a very small production for the next couple of days where we're doing interviews and some recording of seminars. The DP/Camera Op is somebody I've never worked with before, but he asked me what I thought was a pretty strange thing yesterday. He asked if I had striped his tape. I had never been asked by anybody to ever stripe their tape for them. He mentioned that was always the sound person's job. Now, granted I haven't done a lot of TV work, but is this normal? Do some of you have to stripe the tape for the camera op? He had a Sony HD camera that I hadn't ever worked with, how in the world do you deal with knowing where all the stuff is on a camera when there are so many cameras out there now (like we don't have a hard enough time knowing all the stuff on our equipment)?

Wayne

[rich]

did he just mean run bars and tone? or pre-record a timecode track (from the reel to reel multitrack studio recorders)

[wbrisett]

bars and tone.

I'm use to giving tone and letting the camera op do the actual recording and then I verify that we're setup, but usually it's a team effort sort of thing, where I give them tone and make sure the camera is setup to receive line in on the XLRS and my tone levels match his camera.

Wayne

[rich]

thats what i thought. often when i do 2 man crew stuff i'll roll bars and tone whilst the camera op is doing their lighting thing - after first checking theyre ok for me to do so. though i mainly do it to look busy, rather than sitting watching someone else work once im set up.

on jobs where there is a camera assistant, then usually i connect up, set levels and wait to be asked for tone. but i have never heard that it is my responsibility to run bars and tone, i just do so sometimes to help out

[jason porter]

I do all TV work.  Sometimes...I stripe the tape just to look busy as well.  But, most of the time the cam op does it.  He is there, knows the equipment and can probably get it done faster than you or me.

The interface is so easy to use, you could learn and retain it after a 30 second primer.  After all, you are a Soundmixer

-JP

[Rob Lewis]

I stripe tapes all the time.  This is a normal practice in video, where the sound man does everything while the camera op bullshits with the producer.  Then he tweaks his lights, shoots the interview and then bullshits some more while the sound man strikes the set and loads the van!  Oh did I say that out loud !  Not all shooters expect that, just the ones that don't think their s*** stinks.

[cmassey]

Several years ago I worked with a fellow, who asked me to stripe the tapes.  What he wanted was the entire box of ten BETA tapes striped, (bars and tone) ahead of time so we didn't have to do it while we worked.  A strange request, but I did it.  Each one 00:00:00 TC and tone!  Then I discovered he didn't know how to set TC in his camera, it was on free run all the time!!!  I offered to change the TC with each roll, he said, never mind, he had done it this way for decades and it would be fine...

Yea, we are just the soundmixer, but it never hurts to offer to help!!!  And as previously posted, it is a great way to look busy!!!!

cleve

[cmgoodin]

If you are pre-recording the Bars and Tone on a box of tapes, it is dangerous for 2 reasons.

1. If you are using REC-RUN time code you have to remember to change the TC hour number for each tape. Then label the tapes an remember to insert the tapes in the proper order. Then when you place each pre-striped tape in the machine you have to make sure the machine picks up the pre-recorded time code and carries on from there. Otherwise there will be a break in the time code and it could cause the wrong code to be recorded for the rest of the tape.

2. If you are using time of day code the TC on the Bars and Tone will be out of sequence for the rest of the tape. So it confuses automated chase lock in editorial or when logging the tape.

It is always best to do bars and tone just after that tape is loaded to be shot and do not remove the tape until it is completely recorded.  That way it serves as a double check that your settings and connections are still valid and lets you confirm that the TC numbers are correct for everyone. Checking the Bars and tone after recording serves to verify that the recording device is still working properly. (No head clogs or bumped audio settings etc)

Pre "Striping" (a misuse of the term since you are not "Striping" the entire tape) may save 30 seconds at the beginning of each tape reload break, but any brief time saved will not be well spent if you end up with a bunged tape that no-one notices until you have shot for an hour.  It is a false time saving.

---Courtney

[slemaker]

I've never been asked to stripe tapes either.  Maybe I'm a little spoiled on bigger productions, but I have certainly done a good amount of ENG in my day.  In my opinion this is not the sound mixers job at all.  I'm not a camera guy.  Sometimes on very small shoots of interviews, etc. I'll help the DP/Videographer carry a few things out of the trunk of his car, but I would never ever let them make me load everything for them.  No way.  I'm glad to help, but I'm not a PA...  By the way I always like to remind producers of these types of shoot that the gear I hold in my little bag costs way more than those tiny lights and cameras...

Charlie

[slemaker]

I'm glad to hit my tone switch though...

[jason porter]

Not me.

I always tell the "DP" that all of the shooters I work with hit the 'tone' switch for me.  I believe it is standard practice

-JP

I'm glad to hit my tone switch though...

[joecrabb]

Yeah Wayne it's kinda the norm for us to roll bars and tone in the 2 man crew world. I wouldn't say that it's so much expected though as much as it seems the most efficient way to work. I would never, ever go so far as to say that it was the sound person's "job", and if that was his attitude, it belies an underlying disrespect for the sound department and I personally would think twice about working with him in the future. You only get one chance to make a first impression and that's pretty indicative of how things will be for you in the future.

I always take the attitude that if we as a 2 person crew can be efficient, then we can get home faster or can sit around and shoot the shit more while we wait for the talent. I always tell the shooters to start lighting the for the interview while I set up my gear (usually that's as simple as dropping my already set to go rig). I then set the tripod, camera, and monitor in place with power and roll of 30 sec of bars and tone (always try to hit 30:00 exactly) and then ask if I can help shake up the lights while he looks at the monitor. I feel that if I'm staying busy, the day goes faster. As long as I don't feel taken advantage of I'm happy to help. After the interview, when the inevitable b-roll with camera mic stroll down the sidewalk is to happen, I tell them to head off to shoot that while I strike. That way when they return he is ready to load up his truck and go. I don't like to load their gear into their vehicle since for me loading my gear into my car is how I check to make sure that everything is accounted for. A place for everything and everything in it's place, right.

If they treat me like their personal pack mule, that's another story altogether. I have had a shooter when I introduced myself as I lugged my gear into the location say, "Here's my lights and grip gear, when you drop your stuff off inside come on out and get this cart. I'll carry the camera." I laughed in his face, walked inside and never lifted a finger to anything but sound gear.

Now that is only the case when it's a two man crew, when there's a full crew, I'll put on my mixer hat, take care of my business and let the other departments take care of theirs.

Courtney, another reason to wait to stripe tapes individually as used is that it gives everyone a little break after rolling for 30 minutes or longer these days.

Joe

[Philip Perkins]

If you are pre-recording the Bars and Tone on a box of tapes, it is dangerous for 2 reasons.

1. If you are using REC-RUN time code you have to remember to change the TC hour number for each tape. Then label the tapes an remember to insert the tapes in the proper order. Then when you place each pre-striped tape in the machine you have to make sure the machine picks up the pre-recorded time code and carries on from there. Otherwise there will be a break in the time code and it could cause the wrong code to be recorded for the rest of the tape.

2. If you are using time of day code the TC on the Bars and Tone will be out of sequence for the rest of the tape. So it confuses automated chase lock in editorial or when logging the tape.

It is always best to do bars and tone just after that tape is loaded to be shot and do not remove the tape until it is completely recorded.  That way it serves as a double check that your settings and connections are still valid and lets you confirm that the TC numbers are correct for everyone. Checking the Bars and tone after recording serves to verify that the recording device is still working properly. (No head clogs or bumped audio settings etc)

Pre "Striping" (a misuse of the term since you are not "Striping" the entire tape) may save 30 seconds at the beginning of each tape reload break, but any brief time saved will not be well spent if you end up with a bunged tape that no-one notices until you have shot for an hour.  It is a false time saving.

---Courtney

They mean "stripes" as slang for bars, not in the post-production sense of pre-striping, what we used to call blacking and encoding, as was done to the master before a tape edit session.

The real reason to bar and tone a tape is to check alignments of the audio and video levels as well as monitors, and to provide a snapshot of how the camera was working in case there is a problem with the tape later.

Philip Perkins

[wbrisett]

Thanks everyone for the comments. I guess my shock was him assuming I understood HOW to stripe a tape using his camera (a Sony I had never worked with before)... I'm still not convinced that he understands the details of the camera because the 'B' camera operator was able to show me how to get to the menu where I actually have dB's marked on the audio bars, where as the 'A' camera op, told me "it is what it is with these smaller cameras." ... hmmm, right.

I don't mind helping out, but expecting me to know how to use his camera I thought was a bit much. In my mind it would be like me asking him to format a DVD-RAM disc in my DEVA.

But all is well and today he did his own striping, which he almost had to because he had more time than I did as I had to jump between Camera 'A' and Camera 'B' for various interviews.

Wayne

[Marc Wielage]

Pre "Striping" (a misuse of the term since you are not "Striping" the entire tape) may save 30 seconds at the beginning of each tape reload break, but any brief time saved will not be well spent if you end up with a bunged tape that no-one notices until you have shot for an hour.

We've always just called this "head formatting the tape" in post. In a previous lifetime, when I worked in local news production, we would sometimes head-format tapes in advance when we knew we'd be in a situation where we'd have very rapid tape changes.

To me, though, if a camera operator asked me to format a tape on a camcorder, I'd look puzzled and say, "why? Don't you know how?" C'mon, it's part of the cameraman's job, not the sound mixer's. If it were a close friend and it was an emergency, I'd say OK, or if it were a war and we were being shot at, I can understand. But for this? Naaaa. Get a camera assistant. Even a low-paid intern can learn to set time code, hit bars & tone, and press record. That ain't rocket science, not even with HD.