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Who Are You?


Jeff Wexler

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One of the good things for me running this Discussion Group with the forum software from Simple Machines (this is true with other software as well) is the statistics report that is available. Under "stats" I can see who has been contributing, what topics have a lot of attention and which hold very little interest for our members. By studying these stats I hope to be able to dynamically moderate this Group in much the same way a moderator would deal with a group of REAL people in a real room (I think you know what I mean). That brings me back to the subject of WHO are our members (and I'm not back on my original thread about nicknames and handles, I'm well over that).

What I would like to see, for those who wish to, to have our members post something about themselves, even if just a really brief bio or where you are geographically located, where you work, etc. I do not wish this to be any invasion of privacy in any way (and in any case, like everything else on the Internet, feel free to fabricate --- just kidding).

For example, I see that Phillip Perkins has posted more here than any of the rest of us (except for me of course) and I think lots of us might want to know a little bit more about Phillip.

So, do what you want with this idea and just ignore it if I'm off base here or others feel that this is not interesting.

We have over 200 members now and I'm really enjoying my participation in the Group.

Best Regards, your host,  Jeff Wexler

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Just another sound dude.  My very basic website www.philper,com, not up to date.  (there is a new one done but there are some issues with the pictures).  IMDB too.  I haven't been at this for quite as long as Jeff, but close, and almost entirely outside of Hollywood.  At this point I'm about 50/50 production and audio post.  (And thus two businesses worth of gear and technique to research and pontificate upon....)    Working during NAB, so maybe next year I'll meet some of you, unless you go to AES the next time it is on the West Coast, which I will certainly be at.

Philip Perkins CAS

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Larry Long

Wilmington NC , I  work from Baltimore to New Orleans. Moved to LA for a moment and just did reality stuff ( not my bag baby ). Pretty much been busy the last 12 years doing TV and Feature work as a mixer. Having to travel more these days and that sucks. I'm 42 years old, in love with a beautiful woman,enjoy playing and listening to music. Just started writing scripts last year, I kind of enjoy that though I 'll stick to sound for the moment.

Hmmm... well that sums it up really,

Larry

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Hi, I'm Phil, and I'm a sound junkie.

Seriously, I work mostly in Northern California, and as I have mentioned before, I work on both sides of the camera.  You can seem some of my acting stuff at:  http://www.philtalsky.com

Sound-wise, I got my start on Halloween 9:  The Return to Haddonfield.  This was shot on spec (with the commitment from Moustafa (sp?) to pick it up if it came out good.  Well, I was acting (Sheriff Hoyt of Haddonfield, and yes, I survive) and one day they were short-handed and asked me to hold the boom...well the rest is history.  I had as much fun holding that stick in the air (or laying on the ground for one scene in a room with mirrors on all the walls) that I decided it would be fun to learn how to do this.  I signed on to a ultra-low budget feature to record (bag-style) and had a blast again, so I started researching, buying equipment, doing more projects and now I've done about 30 low to no budget projects (quite often with me being the only one on the crew being paid.)  Would I like more of the high-paying gigs, sure I would.  But, I figure, don't these low budget guys deserve good sound too?  So I limit myself to only buying new equipment after the current batch is paid for, and always have fun....well almost always....4am in 30 degree weather at a herring processing plant wasn't the most fun I've had...and I still can't get the fish smell out of my cables....

My production company Web site is:  http://www.bwgproductions.com (but it is about a year and a half out of date across the board...resume to equipment).  I've also directed, been a camera op, gaffer, grip, AD, additional direction, etc.

Phil

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Greg Sextro - East West Audio, LLC (website is currently under construction - but hopefully something will up by the end of april)

I've been working in sound for film since before graduating film school in 2001.  I do about 80% audio post and 20% production.  (I'm looking to make that a bit more 50/50 though)  Curently I reside in NYC, however I am a native of the San Francisco East Bay and have spent some time in L.A. on a few small post gigs. 

Regards to Mr. Wexler and everyone else roaming this site for helpful information here and on ramps.  I can't even begin to say how valuable of a resource you guys are!

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Andrew Bellware. I've done a variety of sound things for a tad over 20 years, a lot of theater sound design, and directed a few no-budget movies. Since 2000 I moved from corporate broadcast to production sound for low-budget (and mostly terrible) movies. I'm a Metacorder user, mostly because I hate writing out sound reports.

I also have a little audio/video post suite in Manhattan in a theater ( www.theatresource.org ). My main website is www.braidwood.net but I also keep a blog at http://empiricalpleasures.blogspot.com

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I'm probably the guy in the audio business the longest on this group. Been involved in audio since 1957 as a hobby. Got started professionally in 1962 with a radio station in NY. Then moved on to various recording studios in NY working on Ampex decks with razor blades & splicing tape. Great fun back then doing 24 mics to one track mixes on an Ampex 300.

Then on to production companys in both NY & Chicago as production sound mixer & technical director. In S. Florida for the past 10 years. Most of the work is spots & video talking heads. I turn down any work that requires me to walk & carry equipment.

Spare time & passion is competitive trapshooting. If I should win the $82,000,000 Florida lottery tonight, this will be my last post here.;-))))

Eric

 

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My name is Crew Chamberlain, yes that is my real name, and I post around as old school. I'm a 4th generation Californian, and a 1st gen to Hwood. I graduated USC film in 75 and have been in local 695 since 78. I started out to be a editor, but had the good luck to fall into sound. I've been a cableman, boom op, and since 88 a mixer in LA, living the dream. The 1st. half of my career was working on films, where I was fortunate to work with a lot of good people, on a number of good movies. Since 88, I've done nothing but commmercials in LA with all the Directors out here.  My sound mentors were Jeff Wexler & Don Coufal, Jim Webb, the late great Keith Wester, Roger Daniel, and to some degree all the folks I've worked with over the years. My brother was my boom op and is now a mixer. My niece is now my boom, my nephew is a cableman on CSI, and my son is a P.A. and is working on becoming a boom op. As you can see in my family, when the door opens, we bum rush our way in. To some degree, this is me.

Regards..... old school

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Take Vos - I live in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

I am currently a software engineer and I started programming from a young age. However most of my professional career I have been working on business software, as I am very technically inclined I mostly worked in coupling different systems together.

As for my audio career, I learned working with audio gear, 24 ch mixer, tape recorders and effect equipment, when I was really, really, young. But then I stopped working with audio for a long long time, until I met some friends that worked on some short movies and event registrations.

We never really had sound equipment just recording audio on the camera. When we where filming a beauty pageant (The most fun one I've ever seen BTW, I was laughing the whole time, even during editing) I at least thought of getting the stereo mix from the house audio into one of the cameras and two mics pointing to the audience to a second camera. During editing I found out how important continues audio is, as if you switch tapes of a camera you can easily cut to an other camera, but without audio you don't have anything. This is the reason why I made Boom Recorder.

I am also busy trying to make a sci-fi feature film, I hope I can use the revenue from Boom Recorder to finance this venture. Except now with acquiring my first house I haven't had time to work on my script.

Cheers.

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I am pleased that so many of you have posted "who you are" and from the looks of things, everyone is interested in this. We have 208 registered members as of today and this topic, "Who Are You" has been read 131 times so far! So, here goes:

Jeff Wexler:  I turned 59 years old yesterday, April 18th. I grew up in Chicago, have been around the film buisness (way before it was called the "Entertainment BUSINESS") all my life, riding around on the dolly at the age of two. My father is Haskell Wexler (who hates being called "the legendary cinematographer") and contrary to the documentary made by my half-brother Mark ("Tell Them Who You Are") my father has been not only a hugely talented cinematographer and director, he has been and continues to be a wonderful father. I went to college in San Francisco, earned my Masters in sociology, planning to teach social sciences at the college level. No intention to enter the film business, did not want to follow in my father's footsteps (large shoes to fill), so I pursued what I believed would be my career, that of school teacher. My father got me a summer job in 1969, working on a film directed by his old friend, Hal Ashby. The film, "Harold and Maude" changed the course of my life. I worked as a production assistant assigned to the Art Department and the whole experience was amazing --- I felt totally at home on the set and really enjoyed the contribution to the movie. Hal Ashby was so terrific and so appreciative of the work that I did, that I got an up front credit, shared with two associate producers, and I was just a P.A.! That experience sealed the deal, I was going to abandon teaching and start working in the industry. I wanted to do something more technical than the art department, I had always been a real gadget freak, so it was going to be Camera or Sound. I wasn't going to do camera, so it was SOUND that I chose.

To make a long story short, I started doing sound in 1970, low budget non-union films, it took me 5 years and a class action lawsuit to get into the union, and I then started doing decent movies. I was fortunate as well to hook up with a lot of very talented people, Don Coufal, Crew Chamberlain and others, and we are all still friends. Don and I continue to work together, for the last 28 years, having done 56 movies. In 1980, Don Coufal, Roger Daniell and I were offered by Hal Ashby, his post-production company, Northstar Media Sound Services which we ran for about 15 years. Having Northstar allowed me to experiment with a new format, DAT, and I was the first to use DAT as a production sound recording medium. Later, I was the first again to use the Deva on the west coast, ushering in the use of non-linear file based recording to the industry. Over the years I have gotten my teaching chops back, guest lecturing at USC, UCLA, teaching at AFI, hosting and on the panel for numerous seminars and workshops, and am presently the co-chairman with Wolf Seeberg of the Education Committee in our Union, Local 695. I have mixed 70 feature films, been nominated twice for Academy Award, won a British Academy Award (BAFTA) for "Almost Famous" and nominated once for an Emmy for Billy Crytal's "*61".

So, that's about it.

Regards, 

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Dutch productionsoundmixer ( Amstrdam based) ,after 2 years as a P.A on commercials and features,I started with sound in 1987,did a famous (Dutch) travelshow for 6 years ('87-'93)and went around the world about 8 times .We had to travel 'light' but carried 13 cases anyway...and this was 'docustyle' on video ( Beta SP)/small crew ( 5 people) in those days.

After that worked as a Soundassistent on 2 features ("Wings of fame","Flodder in Amerika"): operating the 4.2 and the 4 stc ( overhere the 'soundhead' used to be the boom op; this is changing now,although I still operate the boom because of 'setpolitics' : the boomop position is still not a fully/well paid job overhere )

Since 1999 mainly serials ( dutch 'detectives')on 16mm ,and commercials (35 and 16).Currently shooting the best watched 'detective' on dutch TV :"Baantjer".

Recording on Sonosax Stelladat 2 DAT ( for editing ,2tr mix) and HD ( 744,24 bits for audiopost.), with AD 6 ch mixer,Neumann's( 81,82 )Schoeps ,Sanken mikes,Audio Ltd and Micron (new) radio's diversity's and very nice cart by Ursta ( no longer available...)Thats all Folks!!!( no website,and IMDB is not accurate at all in my case....)

David Carmiggelt

Production Soundmixer

The Netherlands

Ps : And ,Yes ,I know 'Roberto' : a  respected collegue/barbuddy of mine :-)

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Hi Folks!

I´m Tony Muricy, a brazilian soundman living in Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro.

I was born the same year Eric Toline started getting involved with audio, 1957!

I started beeing a studio assistant in a film mixing studio here in Rio, then have been a boom op, and finally a sound recordist, specially because my children were born and I had to raise my earnings!

I´ve been a soundman for 22 years now.

I´ve been doing all kinds of shoots during this time - from features to commercials, from docummentaries to reality shows, from video clips to political campaings.

I´m also a founder of our brazilian soundmen association, APSC.

I´m a music lover, a chromatic harmonica player.

I have a twin sister, Maria, who also deals with film sound, but as an sound editor. Now she has her own finishing house, and I think it´s really fun that we both work with film sound, me recordind, and she editing and mixing...

And it´s a honor to be able to join this group, thanks to Internet and Jeff´s iniciative!

Tony Muricy

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

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Thanks for offering the opportunity to get to know each other a bit better, Jeff.  I've learned a lot from your site; it's great to see people with your experience offering your knowledge.

My full name is Tim Elder.  I've been in the business of production sound for a few years and was previously an assistant engineer at several post production studios in New York City.  Got involved in production sound mainly because I've always wanted to work on sets, although I do love aspects of post production sound and still do sound effects and dialogue editing on a couple of films a year, mainly during the winter season.

I'm a third generation sound guy, my father was a post production sound engineer for many years and his father built sound equipment for various studios in New York in the 50's, 60's, and 70's.  My father would have much preferred that I become a lawyer.  I am not in the union but I am hoping to change that soon.

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My name is John Steigerwald and I'm an audioholic, gadget freak and obsessive Jeeper.

I spent 15 years in music as a studio engineer, a live mixer, a production manager and a tour manager.  I switched fields when I moved to Vegas and the opportunity came up to try something different.  I'm still young in the production sound business (been doing it for about 2 1/2 years now) but I've found my background in live audio has definitely helped me establish myself faster.  I've only been working in the broadcast market so far, mostly reality and truck shoots, but I'm hoping to get my feet wet on a film sometime in the near fuirture.  I am currently the Bravo Team Audio Supervisor for Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. 

The biggest challenge I've found since trading my Midas XL4 for a Wendt X5 is familiarizing myself with a whole new set of microphones (Not like I ever put shotguns or COS-11s on guitar amps or drums..) and how to conceal them, and keeping track of all the various timecode scenarios for any given shoot.  Mostly stuff I didn't deal with much when I simply handed a singer a 58 and walked away.  I'm by no means any kind of expert, but I like to think I've done pretty well getting myself up to speed.

Both Jeff's forum here and RAMPS have been an invaluble service in helping me make informed decisions with respect to techniques and gear and I look forward to continually learning and growing as a result of their existence.

Thanks to those of you who take the time to help us 'little guys' along the way.

-Steigs

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My name is Chris Newton. I live and work in Ottawa, Canada. I work mostly in television: series, documentaries,reality,newsmagazine. I work in film also: movies-of-the-week, short films, some independent feature work, occasional commercials. I have been involved in the business since 1975 (community access cable TV in Winnipeg), and recorded/boomed  my first commercial (Nagra 4.2) in 1976. I have worked in TV news, corporate, live sound, live theatre. I was predominately a cameraman until the late '90s, when I decided I liked sound better, and liked having a functional back and shoulders. These days with some of the big audio rigs required, maybe I should have remained a cameraman.

This is an excellent site. thank you Jeff Wexler.

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Scott Lynam,  Omaha, NE  Sound Person

I got started almost 20 years ago when I started free-lancing for one of the baby bells. I’ve been a PA, grip, electrician, sound recorder, camera operator and truck driver. On some shoots, I can still end up doing all of these jobs.

Two of my favorite questions are: What’s your other job? Can you do enough of this to make a living? Most people don’t understand free-lancing, but then I don’t understand why people go sit in a cube everyday. And yes, I do make a living at this and no, I don’t have another job.

I got started in sound after having a boom put in my hands, told to hold it over somebody’s head without hitting them, watch the meter and make sure it doesn’t go in the red. From there I started buying equipment to make sure it was all there and working after using stuff abused by others. Now I have a DAT system and a video system and its all one man band over the shoulder work. I’ve learned it all by OJT, reading and running into a few sound people through the years. I do mostly Commercial work both in film and video, corporate videos and news.

The work and money are lean at times. I’ve thought about getting out or finding something else to do, but I just can’t find any other job like this.

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Hi, I'm David Glasser and I live in Sydney, Australia, where I was born a bit before Jeff, and possibly a little later than Eric, in July 1945.  I started dabbling with sound recording around 1959.  After graduating high school I did one year of Electrical Engineering at Sydney University, but decided that sound recording was my vocation.  I enrolled at the Marconi School of Wireless (such a quaint name now !!) in Sydney and graduated with a Broadcast Operator's Certificate of Proficiency in 1964.  I then worked for 3 years in live television, firstly as a studio boomie operating a Mole Richardson platform boom, and then graduated to mixing live drama and variety programs.

In 1967 I traveled to England and spent a brief time with BBC foreign news as a location sound recordist/camera assistant before going to Toronto, Canada, where I lived for 5 years.  I worked at the local CTV afiliate (CFTO) and recorded many of their location film programs.

Since 1972 I have lived in Sydney, freelancing as a Production Sound Mixer on feature films and television drama.  Our local industry is in the doldrums at the moment, with only 4 dramas being produced for national television this year.  We can only manage 4 or 5 cinema feature films a year so the competition for work is really fierce.  I make ends meet by doing news and current affairs gigs for the local networks, as well as corporate and commercial shoots.  I am now recording on a SD 744T and use Lectrosonics radio mics.

Many thanks to Jeff for making this very informative and friendly newsgroup possible.

Best wishes,

David Glasser, ASSG - (this is my accreditation from the Australian Screen Sound Guild).

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If I should win the $82,000,000 Florida lottery tonight, this will be my last post here.;-))))

Eric

Ohh I was so close but no cigar. So I'm off to NAB in a few hours to see if I can get luckier at the tables.

Hope many of you can join us at the mixers party Tuesday night in Las Vegas at Fireflys on Paradise, 6:30pm.

Eric

   

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Happy Birthday Mr. Wexler:

Ron Scelza,

                        I won’t start in the beginning that was a very long time ago: 

Only  60 years ago my head popped out and I started recordng planet earth! Things haven’t changed much –

An added  200 Gigs of external memory,  and a  Deva V.

USAF Communications 1962 -1966 , (bunch of schools),  I.A.T.S.E., late Sixties (bunch of schools) , Gomillion Sound  CA.,  Seventies, (bunch of schools) --Production Sound -- My  thanks, thoughts and respect for the mentors of my life… “Save some work for the FOLEY guys”.

   

Currently enjoying it all, on location  with “Gill Cates, “ Director:  Jon Cates, Editor.

A 35mm, Feature Film , “DEAL”.  (A coming of age story: Benevolence, Good sportsmanship,  Integrity …. A twist..) …. …Great crew, Great Cajun food,  Great Production Sound.

Enjoy it all.

http://www.RonScelzaSoundRecording.com

Sincerely

Ron Scelza C.A.S.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Thanks Richard for the nice bio...  it is true that we go pretty far back in time and although we don't necessarily see much of eachother we have a lot of history. I don't remember if you go back as far as when SSI was behind Jerry's Liquor on La Cienega. It was good see your name on some classy current features.

Welcome aboard.

-  Jeff Wexler

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My name is Bartek. Once upon a time I was destined to be a musician, however upon discovering that talent was in short supply, I decided to study Audio Engineering. After a brief romance with the recording industry I found myself working on film sets and loving every monent of it. I prefer feature work, love the challange! I work mostly on Indie features, Don't have IA membership... yet.

Compared to most of you guys I am a rookie. 24 features.

My biggest fear comming out of college was not having a Studio System to further my knowledge.

I find this forum to be a fantastic place to echange ideas and pick up chops from the masters.

Thank you everyone,

Bartek

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  • 3 weeks later...

My name is Steve Eagle and I live in the Universal City area of Los Angeles. I am a marketing specialist for Coffey Sound and love interacting with sound mixers and boom ops every day. I'm probably the youngest here at 25 years old. I graduated from Emerson College in Boston, MA in 2003 with a degree in Audio/Radio Production, and a serious intent to get involved in post-production sound design and film soundtracks. Thus, I moved to LA because Boston had very little to offer in that area. After experiencing the extremely stiff competition LA is known for, I decided to take a different route and see how else I could stay part of the audio industry without necessarily being absorbed into it. I am quite content working where I work and keeping my audio skills reserved for personal, rewarding projects. One of those projects is running a small independent record label, which includes internet marketing, digital distribution, event promotion and album mastering. Music and audio are my passions and I intend to continue pursuing both as I become more situated in this great city.

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Hey guys (& gals if there are any others out there:)

My name is Sara Glaser.  I'm an L.A. native with no family in the biz.  Once I figured out what I wanted to do I ended up at UCLA extension for Recording Engineering, Songwriting, & Music Business.  I started working in recording studios back in 1998.  (Swore I'd never do film only music...guess who was wrong?)  I worked in music as a recording & mixing engineer both in studios & freelance for a few years.  Then work slowed up and I wound up working at a non-union house as a restoration sound editor working on MGM's DVD re-releases.  Cleaned up about 26 films in 3-5 languages each in the space of about 2 1/2 years.  Work slowed up again (imagine that!) and a mixer friend of mine from Memphis (Louis McKay III) asked me to join the tour he was on when they came through town.  (They were on their last leg & I'd mixed a few dates with them the previous year)  Anyhow, I did and ended up co-mixing FOH (Front of House) for the west coast leg of Al Green's tour in 2003.  Finished off the tour as his monitor engineer at the Monterey Blues Fest that year.  Came back to the studio in time for layoffs:)  Looked around and decided I missed the sun.  Took some grip friends advice and tried location sound.  It's a challenging obstacle course:) and different than what I was originally trained for but I'm enjoying the ride.  I made it into the union last fall and now I'm just trying to move onto bigger & hopefully better things.

I don't go to a cubicle every day & I get to see the sun (or rain)!

Thanks for the forum Jeff; I'm eagerly soaking up all the info and advice people are posting.

Cheers,

Sara

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