Sound carts on process trailers/camera cars.

[Wandering Ear]

I'm sure I've done less trailer work than many here, but my favorite trailer work so far was on a movie recently, in an RV on a tow rig. There wasn't a trailer big enough, so they got a commercial towing rig. We sat in the couches in the back while the actors pretended to drive up front.

http://wanderingear.net

[old school]

This was yesterday. I had an actor in the front seat of the tow rig as a car phone caller to the picture car over our car com rig subbing for the blue tooth. 3 actors in the van were in 3 rows so 3 rfs Schoeps mics in the van and a rf on the actor in the tow rig and I was feeding the Alexa a wireless feed of the mix. Everyday stuff if you work off a cart.

CrewC

 

[old school]

The old sideways photo issue. Maybe JW will fix it.

CrewC

[Jeff Wexler]

The old sideways photo issue. Maybe JW will fix it.

CrewC

 

Done!

[old school]

Thanks Jeff.

[stevehawk]

I like the idea of having a separate bag to quickly get on and off a camera car.

There are also times when someone gets in a car and drives away during a scene. The bag can already be in the car recording while you're working off the cart.

Nowadays it seems production either doesn't want to spend money on any type of camera car or have a place for you to ride along in the car. I don't do trunks, and it's against the law!

Steve Hawk,CAS

[chrisnewton]

hi Crew. off topic, but do you regularly feed the Alexa (or other camera) on your shoots? it has been standard procedure on some shoots I do as guide track for post/dailies, other shoots not. for a couple of commercials alexa was the main audio recorder (worked great, sounded great) with my 744 as backup or for isos. Reds as guide tracks only (if it even works). sorry about the off topic question.

Chris Newton

[old school]

hi Crew. off topic, but do you regularly feed the Alexa (or other camera) on your shoots? it has been standard procedure on some shoots I do as guide track for post/dailies, other shoots not. for a couple of commercials alexa was the main audio recorder (worked great, sounded great) with my 744 as backup or for isos. Reds as guide tracks only (if it even works). sorry about the off topic question.

Chris Newton

Hey Chris, the job spec's are different on every job, but on the Alexa gigs I do in LA, (90 plus %), we are requested to provide a mix feed to it. I've found that a quality line level feed from a Lectro receiver works well and generates income from an older system I own. This works for me. Who knows at the end of the day if they use my multi track mix plus Iso trk's recording in the commercials or the Alexa feed track, I do know it sounds fine on air and they are paying for this service I provide. BTW, all most all jwsound topics drift off topic sooner or later and I like it this way myself. Cheers.

CrewC

[Philip Perkins]

Hey Crew--what's the Car Com rig?

 

philp

[old school]

Hey Phil, I'm using a Remote Audio Boom box 2  and a Remote Audio speaker as a Car Com rig. The Sony headphones have a mic wired to them and a ifb return so the director can hear the car actors and talk to them over the speaker. Not really the way Remote Audio intended this to work but it works for me.

CrewC

[old school]

Ops. The picture is upside down but you get the idea...

CrewC

[Philip Perkins]

Hey, your name is right side up!  Thanks--that's a good solution--very hifi compared to the intercom boxes camera cars sometimes have and better than a walkie talkie.

 

philp

[old school]

Anything is better than the walkie talkie screaming over the open car mic plant. The directors I work for love the rig. Jeff n Don have built a custom car com rig or two but this is an off the shelf soulution.

CrewC

[syncsound]

Here's a rig from a low budget horror film (genre, not the shoot itself) I did a few years ago. 2 cameras shooting 2 actors in an El Camino. Rigged a COS-11 into a Lectro UM400 above each sun visor, worked pretty well. Due to the 2 camera setup, this was the only place to go. At the time, I was doing "bag on a cart", so picking up to go mobile was fairly simple. 

 

[Alistair Duff]

Cool Christian, And look at that weather! Ill be in PDX in July, lets get together for a beer!

 

Alistair

[syncsound]

You got it!

[Philip Perkins]

Here's a rig from a low budget horror film (genre, not the shoot itself) I did a few years ago. 2 cameras shooting 2 actors in an El Camino. Rigged a COS-11 into a Lectro UM400 above each sun visor, worked pretty well. Due to the 2 camera setup, this was the only place to go. At the time, I was doing "bag on a cart", so picking up to go mobile was fairly simple. 

 

11 - 1.jpg

I hope you had fun, and I also hope you sat yourself down and hung on tight when the rig was moving.  Standing up wearing a bag on a moving car rig, esp if that bag is hard-cabled to anything else, is very dangerous....

 

philp

[syncsound]

I hope you had fun, and I also hope you sat yourself down and hung on tight when the rig was moving.  Standing up wearing a bag on a moving car rig, esp if that bag is hard-cabled to anything else, is very dangerous....

 

philp

 

I'm no cowboy. I agreed to do this as I was inexperienced and won't ever do it again.

[S Harber]

I've never understood the need to have the cart out there with the wind and the genie and all that noise. Seems like a bad place to make decisions on a mix. I live in the cab on a small OTS rig. Sets up quickly and helps me make informed decisions about what I'm hearing vs hearing things that may or may not be in the mix like wind, rattles, or gennie noise.

 

S

[Richard Lightstone, CAS]

in 1983, on "The Terminator", I had my sound cart on the back of the insert car. The insert car was leading the hero car driven by Arnold Schwartzenegger. We raced out of an alley and made a sharp left hand turn onto a downtown L.A. street, I could feel the front and back passenger wheels leave the pavement. We almost tipped over as I had to use all my strength to hold both the sound cart and myself from flying off the vehicle.

 

This was long before the days of safety harnesses and strapping every thing down. Since then, I've always sat in the cab.

In the 80's it was my Sonosax mixer and my Nagra, later the Fostex and now in the digital age, I have a bag that is a mini studio; my Deva, a Lectrosonics Field Venue and Comtek Tx - everything I need to do the job.

 

I no longer need to be a hero, just get good sound and live a little longer to talk about it.

[old school]

I've never understood the need to have the cart out there with the wind and the genie and all that noise. Seems like a bad place to make decisions on a mix. I live in the cab on a small OTS rig. Sets up quickly and helps me make informed decisions about what I'm hearing vs hearing things that may or may not be in the mix.

You must be riding in better insert cars than me Steve.... I still set up in the cab if I can but these days it seems I need most or all of my carts resources to feed the beast. Every shot is different so obviously this is not a topic with a right or wrong answer. 

CrewC

[S Harber]

You must be riding in better insert cars than me Steve.... I still set up in the cab if I can but these days it seems I need most or all of my carts resources to feed the beast. Every shot is different so obviously this is not a topic with a right or wrong answer. 

CrewC

 

What exactly do you use in an insert car?

4 Mics

A Comtek BST or IFB transmitter.

Maybe a monitor feed?

 

If you can't get that up and together in under 30 mins you better have great people skills. 

 

Go ahead and make some baroque floral build out of it but it doesn't help record good clear dialog.

 

I love being at work and hearing about the previous yahoo who needed to spend a half hour getting their cart rigged next to a windy loud place in the back of the tow rig.

 

S

[old school]

I can and do go both ways Steve. I have a bag rig I can toss in the cab. I can have my cart up, on, and running in 10 mins. I can make a good recording in most locations, even the back of the insert rig or in the cab. There is no right or wrong way to do it if you do it well. I don't find the cab that quiet most of the time. One thing I do like about the cart on the deck out back is I can see noise makers as we go along and fix them when we stop. I can visually and verbally communicate with the AD, Director, Camera, in a more immediate direct manner. Most importantly it works for me in many instances, but I will do whatever it takes.

CrewC

[old school]

Hey Scott, sorry for calling you Steve. It's not like I don't know you. Getting old and crazy I guess.

CrewC

[Philip Perkins]

I used to get bitten by situations in which we'd load up a camera car rig, drive for awhile, and then they'd want to pull the camera(s) and peeps off and do a scene where ever we stopped, maybe not near the camera car (which might need to drive away, because they were done for that day).  Besides resulting in one of my fave bad "masterpiece of production planning" situations, where you need to be both shooting and unrigging the camera car at the same time to avoid having your stuff massacred and thrown on the ground by the camera car folks, you might now be back into regular ie non-lightweight production sound.  Be sure that the camera folks will have ALL their toys with them, I learned I had better do the same.  

 

philp