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5 hours ago, Izen Ears said:

  There are nefarious forces afoot in the garment industry.  Fabrics can apparently be labelled "cotton" while in fact including other substances.  Namely starch.  I have recently seen shirts whose tags state that they are made from 100% cotton, yet sound like silk and spandex.  We need a new government body that regulates clothing labels, the FDF or something!

  Dan Izen

This makes sense. It was a very popular brand of "100% cotton" work shirt that forced me to come up with my lav mount. One of the noisiest, stiffest garments I've ever seen. 

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2 hours ago, atheisticmystic said:

Good luck, Dan.

If "Natural Flavors" can be patented (and is anything but natural), and if Subway can put plastic and cardboard in their food as fillers, we cotton fetishists are SOL...and a doo-dah day.

I am on your side, however.

best

Steve

image.jpegand sorry...lol...Im not done with it yet.

 

I think I can see the reason for odd sound with this one...... his lav mic's broken free and fallen down to his crotch....

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  • 2 weeks later...
On January 6, 2016 at 9:19 AM, afewmoreyears said:

Funny, but the wardrobe or shoes of others on set have given me more headaches as of late... The clunky heels and hard soled shoes of the Wardrobe, Make-up and other in the vanity squad have been a problem... Further, people are all on the go while shooting, a real problem and not getting better. People simply can not grasp staying still during a shot... It is unbelievable.

  It's a real gamble with wardrobe you need to mic... One of the first things I do is get an early start to checking that out and trying to work a few things out with our wardrobe friends well Before we are ready to place mics...  Jewelry and some accessories can be worked out in advance and sometimes actual wardrobe... sometimes...   Also making sure men are wearing undershirts beforehand can help a great deal.. 

Agreed cotton helps .... Silk sucks... It's a real crapshoot these days...  It can make or break a perfectly normal day and turn it into a noise fest where you are really having to shake up the mounts. All day long...  It's our world.... 

Just ran across this post-don't check in very often these days.

A big +1 on the comment regarding shoes, and the fact that people just can't seem to fucking STAND STILL any more!

Our set is like a 24 hour house party. People never shut the fuck up, even when the director calls action. 

If any these clowns worked on a, say, an Alfred Hitchcock film, they would have been fired before lunch.

-Scott

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Quote

Just ran across this post-don't check in very often these days.

A big +1 on the comment regarding shoes, and the fact that people just can't seem to fucking STAND STILL any more!

Our set is like a 24 hour house party. People never shut the fuck up, even when the director calls action. 

If any these clowns worked on a, say, an Alfred Hitchcock film, they would have been fired before lunch.

-Scott

I've always wanted to use a bell and light for these kind of sets.

bellandlight.jpg

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Yes, why do they surprise us? The other day I was wiring up an actor with the wardrobe lady standing right next to me. All was fine. Then, after the rehearsal, in the first take, the actor suddenly wears two additional jackets, including a thick woolen one, fully zipped up.

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On 2016-04-27 at 2:21 AM, Constantin said:

Yes, why do they surprise us? The other day I was wiring up an actor with the wardrobe lady standing right next to me. All was fine. Then, after the rehearsal, in the first take, the actor suddenly wears two additional jackets, including a thick woolen one, fully zipped up.

I thought I had succesfully negotiated my way through all the wardrobe pitfalls on a shoot, was very collaborative with the department head, etc. The scene was  a long walk 'n talk shot down a staircase. After the final rehearsal, and as we were rolling on take 1 (this was on 35mm by the way), a wardrobe person rushed in just before action was called and put a shoulder bag on the actress. yep, right on the hidden mic. Me calling for a cut was out of the question with this director. I went ballistic after cut was called. Bad move, as I was now seen as the asshole in this scenario. No more robe rage from me since, just quiet diplomacy.  postscript: that wardrobe person and I are still friends to this day.

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1 hour ago, chrisnewton said:

robe rage

What a brilliant term.

Perfect storm: Expen$ive cotton shirt, starched until it was like iron. Add a businessman literally bouncing off the walls from too much coffee. Add to that: tight fitting..like skin tight. Now factor in his eight day chest hair stubble, and the results sounded like a wire brush on a two by four. Reality tv gets you reality audio. It was boom all day. 

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I used to work on a series based in Monkey World, a large establishment in Dorset that rescues monkeys and apes from around the world and gives them a pretty good life. The enclosures were too dangerous for the film crew to enter*, so when the keepers went in it had to be radio microphones: no chance of getting a boom in anywhere close. Trouble was, the baby chimps were really affectionate and used to leap up onto the keeper's chest and hug him closely thus covering the lav. My only way round this was to put two mics on the keeper, each high and to the side. They had to be buried not only because of the programme's style but if they had been exposed, the curious chimps would have had them. By putting each mic on a separate track I gave myself a slightly better chance of success.

* On an occasion I wasn't there, one of the adult chimps took a dislike to being filmed. The first stone it hurled, with horrible accuracy, smashed the camera lens. The second stone broke the cameraman's nose.

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On April 23, 2016 at 1:27 PM, Scott Smith said:

Just ran across this post-don't check in very often these days.

A big +1 on the comment regarding shoes, and the fact that people just can't seem to fucking STAND STILL any more!

Our set is like a 24 hour house party. People never shut the fuck up, even when the director calls action. 

If any these clowns worked on a, say, an Alfred Hitchcock film, they would have been fired before lunch.

-Scott

Years ago I did a screen test for Spielberg.

When he said "action", NOBODY even moved.

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On April 29, 2016 at 4:40 AM, Nick Flowers said:

I used to work on a series based in Monkey World, a large establishment in Dorset that rescues monkeys and apes from around the world and gives them a pretty good life. The enclosures were too dangerous for the film crew to enter*, so when the keepers went in it had to be radio microphones: no chance of getting a boom in anywhere close. Trouble was, the baby chimps were really affectionate and used to leap up onto the keeper's chest and hug him closely thus covering the lav. My only way round this was to put two mics on the keeper, each high and to the side. They had to be buried not only because of the programme's style but if they had been exposed, the curious chimps would have had them. By putting each mic on a separate track I gave myself a slightly better chance of success.

* On an occasion I wasn't there, one of the adult chimps took a dislike to being filmed. The first stone it hurled, with horrible accuracy, smashed the camera lens. The second stone broke the cameraman's nose.

Wow!  Chimps are wonderful and scary, although less scary if one listens to them (body language).  That one chimp that ripped off that poor housekeeper's face was easily identifiable as unhappy for weeks before that incident.

  That camera fella should be happy he didn't lose an eye!

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 6.5.2016 at 7:55 PM, Izen Ears said:

Wow!  Chimps are wonderful and scary, although less scary if one listens to them (body language).  That one chimp that ripped off that poor housekeeper's face was easily identifiable as unhappy for weeks before that incident.

  That camera fella should be happy he didn't lose an eye!

oh yessss  ;-)

 

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Hi everyone! I am a costumer/Ager/Dyer and I stumbled over this forum trying to find a way to reduce the sound Gore-tex makes when you move. Reading this I can see how important it is for sound and wardrobe to communicate! Lol 

Luckily my amazing boss is thinking of you guys and asked to see if i could do something to this jacket.

Has anyone come up with anything on set? Has there been a miracle costumer or sound person that has come up with genius idea?

So far i've just washed it over and over with fabric softener... and nothing.. it may have gotten worse.. 

 

 

 

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Welcome Kim.  Thanks for considering the sound department in your work.  So far I haven't found a solution for the fabric itself, i have to work with the talent to minimize the noise, and not wear the coats unless needed.  Also keep them from zipping them all the way up (pointless in the rain). The older gortex 70D is not too bad, especially after some wear, the newer gortex pro shell fabric is terrible, like crunchy plastic.  

There are other waterproof fabrics like Ventia that are soft and quiet, and waterproof, but they aren't as tough or as effective as gortex. 

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16 hours ago, CostumeKim said:

Hi everyone! I am a costumer/Ager/Dyer and I stumbled over this forum trying to find a way to reduce the sound Gore-tex makes when you move. Reading this I can see how important it is for sound and wardrobe to communicate! Lol 

Luckily my amazing boss is thinking of you guys and asked to see if i could do something to this jacket.

Has anyone come up with anything on set? Has there been a miracle costumer or sound person that has come up with genius idea?

So far i've just washed it over and over with fabric softener... and nothing.. it may have gotten worse.. 

 

 

 

Brilliant you're asking about this. Not much can be done about the sound the fabric makes against itself eg arms against the body etc. I try to get a 'body worn' microphone as far away from the this type of clothing as possible, the best being a hat etc (making it a 'head worn'). If it has to go near or under the fabric I try to get a layer of something 'sympathetic' like fleece between the goretex and the next garment to prevent the scratchy sound the gore-tex can make against other fabrics, sometimes using makeup sponges to create some room between layers and a quiet friction to stop the gore-tex moving around too much. Of course the problems get worse in windy conditions as the fabric flaps around. I've wondered (but not had the chance to really test these ideas out) if laminating something to the back of the gore-tex might 'dampen' the undesirable effects a bit, eg spray mounting a thick fleece/blanket like material and/or a calico and/or liquid latex, these experiments could be expensive :-) The other thing I've wanted to try, is hiding the mic in plain site on the front of the garment with the help of an appropriately coloured alternative fabric, this might even be extended to cutting out a section of the gore-tex and replacing it with a similar looking but sympathetic alternative. These types of waterproof fabrics are so bad for us they impact the boom mic as well, so I wonder if the real solution is to make replica clothing out of something completely different (like felt :-).

 

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2 hours ago, daniel said:

Brilliant you're asking about this. Not much can be done about the sound the fabric makes against itself eg arms against the body etc. I try to get a 'body worn' microphone as far away from the this type of clothing as possible, the best being a hat etc (making it a 'head worn'). If it has to go near or under the fabric I try to get a layer of something 'sympathetic' like fleece between the goretex and the next garment to prevent the scratchy sound the gore-tex can make against other fabrics, sometimes using makeup sponges to create some room between layers and a quiet friction to stop the gore-tex moving around too much. Of course the problems get worse in windy conditions as the fabric flaps around. I've wondered (but not had the chance to really test these ideas out) if laminating something to the back of the gore-tex might 'dampen' the undesirable effects a bit, eg spray mounting a thick fleece/blanket like material and/or a calico and/or liquid latex, these experiments could be expensive :-) The other thing I've wanted to try, is hiding the mic in plain site on the front of the garment with the help of an appropriately coloured alternative fabric, this might even be extended to cutting out a section of the gore-tex and replacing it with a similar looking but sympathetic alternative. These types of waterproof fabrics are so bad for us they impact the boom mic as well, so I wonder if the real solution is to make replica clothing out of something completely different (like felt :-).

 

Most Gortex coats I work with have breast pockets, and I've had good success exposing the mic under the rain flap over the zipper, the mic grill covered by a ktek ktmm felt wind cover.  There's often a HP port on the inside of the pocket too that you can run the cable through down to the transmitter if you don't want the transmitter in the coat pocket.  I mainly do this when it's raining hard and talent wants to zip the coat up all the way, which makes any placement on the body muffled and useless.  It doesn't solve the problem of the fabric rubbing on itself.  I think that will only be fixed by using a different fabric.

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1 minute ago, Wandering Ear said:

Most Gortex coats I work with have breast pockets, and I've had good success exposing the mic under the rain flap over the zipper, the mic grill covered by a ktek ktmm felt wind cover.  There's often a HP port on the inside of the pocket too that you can run the cable through down to the transmitter if you don't want the transmitter in the coat pocket.  I mainly do this when it's raining hard and talent wants to zip the coat up all the way, which makes any placement on the body muffled and useless.  It doesn't solve the problem of the fabric rubbing on itself.  I think that will only be fixed by using a different fabric.

Don't you find many of the Gore-tex fabrics get even noisier in rain fall as the surface is 'hard' so the rain drops make a patting sound?

 

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22 minutes ago, DanGreen said:

Getting the mic physically away from the gortex, ie hiding it in a hat would be your best bet.

Also maybe trying to get the actor to not move much while he/she's delivering lines. 

Scarves are good too.

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On 5/18/2016 at 9:29 AM, daniel said:

Don't you find many of the Gore-tex fabrics get even noisier in rain fall as the surface is 'hard' so the rain drops make a patting sound?

 

That bugs me less than the scraping the fabric makes.  The rain sounds like rain (justified), and it's usually not hitting the coat right next to the mic.  Of course a soft coat will sound better in every way.

Scarves and hats help, but the fabric is so noisy when moving around a boom doesn't fix it either.  

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