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Do you remember your first movie?


Matt Radlauer

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Up until a few week ago, I had never mixed on a film... Most of what I do is ENG, reality etc. I have done some scripted work, commercials etc but nothing of the magnitude of an actual film.

The script was originally written as a play but adapted to film as a tribute to the writer who is suffering from ALS. The Director is a very close friend of the writer and is hoping that the film will gain distribution but more importantly raise money and awareness for ALS.

The other aspect about this film is that it is filmed in conjunction with Arizona State University Film program. Each department was headed by a paid professional, but the rest of the crew were working for their internship grades. Participation required! As department heads we were also asked to give a workshop presentation regarding our respective fields. This was also something pretty new to me!!

Given the budget we had 12 days to shoot a 105 page script with 2 units. 1st unit shot on an Alexa and a C500. Fisher Dolly and track etc with principle filming on 360 degree blackbox stage. 2nd unit shot exteriors, dream sequence etc.

As for my setup, I cobbled together a cart and built a dual recording system with a Soundcraft Expression SI1, an SD 664, and my Macbook. Let me just say right off the bat, Dante...is AWESOME!

The rest of the setup was 3 SRb's and a wired boom into the SI, then pre fade Direct Out to 664, then Post fade into the Boom Recorder. This setup worked amazingly, and my OLD white macbook handled it very well! The SI was great, and it sounded nice! I built several mixes for comteks, and a hard wire speaker in video village. I also built post fade mono mixes to the 664 and Boom recorder. I sent the mono mix to camera for scratch and synced everything up with the TRX900CL and ERX's.

The script was very dialog heavy so I was given a lot of latitude for pickups and wild lines etc. Oh and by the way, my boom op?? He was an intern who was assigned to me and had never boomed before!! In the end, he did a hell of a job and had an amazing attitude the entire way. He listened, he took direction and caught on pretty quick under some difficult circumstances.

For anyone who knows me, they know I am not the "passion project" kind of guy. I don't work for subway tuna, and I could care less about my IMDB credit. There was something a little different about this from the start, and it came full circle for me when the man who wrote the script made his way to the set for a visit...If you don't know what the affects ALS has on someone, just getting out of bed is an accomplishment. Physically you are incapacitated...mentally you are as sharp as ever. What an EVIL disease to have!

When he came in with his wife, the cast and crew erupted in cheers and applause. He wasn't able to stay long but just him being there for a little bit? And seeing the joy and appreciation pretty much filled my cup! Then last Friday we had a nice front page article in the news paper about the writer and his film. That was pretty cool.

After wrapping, I can't honestly think of a better and more fulfilling first movie experience! This is something I definitely will NEVER forget! Premier is set for sometime in Dec..

http://www.postmarkedmovie.com

 

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You did good, both technically, personally and spiritually. The cart you "cobbled together" looks very functional and it obviously got the job done. The only thing signal-wise I would question is why you did not send PRE-fader to Boom Recorder along with the post-fader isos you mention. You've got the track count with Boom Recorder and I have always considered that isos are most useful pre-fader --- never quite understood the value of post-fader isos.

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You did good, both technically, personally and spiritually. The cart you "cobbled together" looks very functional and it obviously got the job done. The only thing signal-wise I would question is why you did not send PRE-fader to Boom Recorder along with the post-fader isos you mention. You've got the track count with Boom Recorder and I have always considered that isos are most useful pre-fader --- never quite understood the value of post-fader isos.

Thanks Jeff, and John!

Every mic was pre-fade ISO'd to the 664. And everything Post Fade in Boom recorder. because of its age, I was not confident in macbook to be the main recorder, otherwise everything would have gone there. I have a much more reliable computer at home but it would have been far too cumbersome to make that work on the cart. In the future a more robust laptop is on the list...Oddly enough, when I was testing I had it setup that way and then changed it to post fade for some reason.

You are right though and I could have sent everything pre-fade to BR. Next time!!

I will also mention that I was extremely lucky that on such a long shoot (for me) that other than some weird issue with an XLR, I had ZERO equipment failures. I prepped and tested my setup for nearly 2 weeks before the shoot!

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Nice cart, Matt. Envious that you can throw together a cart with that sort of reliability, then crank out a project with it all. On-the-job-training a boom op in the process is only an added accolade; the emotional connection, a nice bonus. Young minds creatively soaking up location production, too. Sounds like it was fun. Much admiration.

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I do remember my first movie, and my rig was WAY WAY WAY less hip than what you had there…..  Rob Nilsson's breakout movie "Signal 7".  Shure mixers, Swintek wireless, horrendous locations, shot in 4 (long) nights in the rain, with sound recorded to….3/4" Umatic video (wild tracks on cassettes).  Mark ("the immortal") Berger managed to hose the production sound off enough that the movie got distro, a whole lot of festival play and made Rob's career.

phil p

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Thanks Rachel! I definitely got lucky with my intern. At the end of the shoot he told me that before the film he had never considered audio as a path to film.. so we might have a boom ninja in the works with him!

 

That is so awesome Phil! Definitely a memorable experience I am sure! I am extremely lucky to have as much gear as I do. I can't imagine shooting an entire film in 4 days in different bad locations!! We went 12 and 1st unit only had 1 location, and it was still a tough manage.

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"Cool Breeze", black exploitation movie (in the same arena as "Shaft" and others), produced by Gene Corman, Roger Corman's brother. I had barely ever recorded any production sound but I had the right last name: Wexler. I think Gene thought that being Haskell's son was somehow going to insure that I knew what I was doing --- that, and a warm body willing to work unlimited hours for $450./week with equipment! I knew I had a lot to learn so I hired a friend who was not a Boom Operator but was a teacher. Tom Holman (known to the world now as Tomlinson Holman, father of Lucasfilm's THX and other achievements) was a teacher in the film department at the University of Illinois. Friend to Andy Davis (this being Andy's first movie as a DP --- Andy went on to direct "Under Siege", "The Fugitive" and lots of other hit movies), it was Andy's suggestion I hire Tom. So, every day on the set, I would ask Tom questions: "what does this switch do?", things like that, and Tom was very instructive, a really good teacher, his boom operating, not so much. The gear, some purchased, some rented, some "borrowed" from the University for the 3 week shoot, consisted of Nagra IV, BMT-II Mixer, AKG-CK9 shotgun mic, a 415 and I think one 405. We also rented 2 Vega wireless with ECM-50s for the 3 scenes where we thought we might need them.

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I will also mention that I was extremely lucky that on such a long shoot (for me) that other than some weird issue with an XLR, I had ZERO equipment failures. I prepped and tested my setup for nearly 2 weeks before the shoot!

That's very wise. I always prep and test my gear all day before we pack the truck for day 1. The number of little things that could possibly go wrong have given me sleepless nights. I can generally sleep when I know I've prepared for every possible scenario (assuming the schedule and call sheet is believable). 

Edited by Marc Wielage
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  • 2 weeks later...

Big Al's Dogs was my first film. Shot in Nashville in the late 70s. Doesn't even rate IMDB now. Cast was primary Opryland talant, lead was Al Lewis (Grandpa, of Munsters). Recorded with a Nagra III. Subway was not around then, but I do remember lunch from Nautilus sandwich shop. Any free meal then was appreciated.

gt

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The first movie I mixed was in 1975 up in Angels Camp,Ca. All ext. with people playing and singing and of course tons of Dialogue. I had a Nagra III, a 415,a 405 and Swintech Wireless also my mixer I had built copying Kirk Francis's mixer made out of Kudelski pre-amps.They used 2 Arri 2 C's with furniture pads wrapped around them.They had the guts to mention that they had to loop two lines of dialogue.I thought maybe they were kidding.It was called "Play me some Mexican Music".you will not find it anywhere,thank God! I actually had a great time.

 

                          J.D.

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Heartwarming story to keep for your collection, Matt. You're lucky, prepped well and reaped the rewards.

My first feature length project was not so beautifully endowed.

"Rainbow Bridge" was the title. Never finished shooting, thank goodness. G&E got drunk out of hand at the hotel, the crew was booted therefrom as a result, breaking the kid-director's bank, so we all went home thankfully before we were scheduled to crawl belly first 1/2 mile down the streamy hole to the cavern/lake we were to shoot in. The stupid idea was to tie in to the country road light pole not far from the cave entrance and run cables down, down, through the stream down...where some folks would surely have come close to death.

We were also lucky.

Nagra 4.2, Senny 416, two lavs and a buttload of 100' and 50' XLR cables and not even the benefit of ENG or reality work in my pocket, just years of roadie/live stage mix stuff and 4 months shadowing Bill Daly, David Pratt and Joel Holland.

Edited by Jan McL
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These are great stories! Love reading about the gear used especially from the more umm seasoned folks in the group. 

I am very lucky to have this resource (jwsound) as well as some great friends in this business that have helped me along the way.. There are a lot of people out there that will tell you how and what to do, but reading this forum and some of the FB forums has been a great place to learn about what NOT to do...and has helped me approach situations in different ways.

It didn't really dawn on me until I did this project...I had some self doubt as to weather I was ready for something like this. Then I started putting together my cart...I had ideas, made them happen, tested them for hours/days and it all worked out in the end.

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