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Putting a Lav on talent with/without your gear on


Southeast Sound Guy

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Hey guys/gals,

 

I recently had a shoot where I had to place a lavalier on a high-profile talent as part of election campaigning.  Often I would only get access to the talent right before they were about to come out to the public, the same time that the producer wanted me to be covering with the boom.  At one point, the producer said that a lot of sound guys just keep all their gear on (harness and mixer etc) because he was frustrated by the time it took me to get my gear on afterwards.

 

It didn't seem appropriate to have all my gear on when trying to put a lav on talent, especially a high profile one that already disliked having to deal with sound people.

 

I was wondering if indeed it is common to have all your gear on in these situations, or if the producer was just giving me a bit of a hard time.  In the future I could ask for a separate A1 or A2 assistant, but I think that they would balk at the cost of the additional personnel.  I would often have to stand-by and wait 15-30 minutes with lavalier and transmitter in hand until the talent was ready to get lav'd up since they would often be hidden away in some room with handlers/bodyguards etc, where I was not allowed access.

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Being one of only a handful of sound mixers with over 20 years of field mixing experience in Iowa and with Iowa being very hot with presidential candidates because we have the first in the nation caucus, I can tell you I have to go with the flow. I have lav'ed up and IFB'ed up most of the candidates multiple times. To the point security just waves me on to do my job after the bomb dog sniffs my butt. I'm not going to name names here but here is a brief run-down.

 

But first, doing run and gun, yes i wear my SD664, six lectro rcvrs (3 SRb) two G3 hop xmtrs, comtek xmtr, multbox XLR and beta snake and a boom. Plus I wear a shoulder bag containing four xmtrs, one b-plug, four COS-11d kits, spare batts, top stick, nexcare clear tape, nexcare padded tape, scissors (yes i get into the green room with scissors), two camera hop rcvrs (if not on the cameras already), and some other bits and bobs. I do not wear shark fins or dipoles. Yet.

 

Candidates - most of them are very cooperative. I have had good experiences with all of them. Some are more demanding then others. One wanted the smallest xmtr possible. The LM was too large. We purchased an SSM. They loved it. I told the producer we will have less range with it because it is only 50mw and people are big sacks of water that attinuate the signal. Sometimes when i am 200 feet away and the cadidate is at the rope line (floor level) i lose their transmission with only 50mw.

 

Another candidate insists on having their assistant put the mic on in private. I say okay but i need to see the wardrobe first so i can pre rig the lav with the right mount for the clothing. And instruct them on how to turn the unit on. I had to change one candidate's xmtr TWICE. It was driving me crazy i kept apologising and said every time you step behind that solid two foot thick brick interior wall i loose your signal. I can't fix that so please don't say anything important before you step out from behind it. It was a 3-cam town hall shoot that we made comercials from. They are airing now.

 

I have even been inside "the bubble" with several Presidents for multiple days during their re-election tours through the mid west where our entire hotel floors were on lock-down.

 

I'll stop after one more, i have a lot of candidate stories. Every time this certain candidate was lav'ed, they would finish thier rally or house party and immediately get driven to a town 50 miles away or to the airport without giving me time to retrieve my gear. I was always expected to drive to the next destination to pick up my gear. Extremely inconvenient for me but this is not about me. It is about the candidate and the OT was fine with me.

 

When I am asked to compromise what I think is best practices I tell the producer/ handler the potential pitfalls of proceeding with THEIR request in a friendly manner and say but I will due what you request.

 

The client pays me top dollar to have the gear needed, the skills required and the graciousness to comply with their wishes.

 

Sometimes i have thirty minutes to lav. Other times i have one to two minutes. I have been doing this since Jimmy Carter's re-election campaign. I have seen a lot of… stuff.

 

 Just my experience. I certainly don't know everything but enough to get a lot of repeat business.

 

I hope you find some of my practices helpful.

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20 hours ago, Southeast Sound Guy said:

 

It didn't seem appropriate to have all my gear on when trying to put a lav on talent, especially a high profile one that already disliked having to deal with sound people.

 

 

First welcome to the forum please put your name and info in your profile signature or introduce yourself to everyone. 

This is my 4th presidential campaign cycle and I have worked with every single candidate this cycle. You just have to go with the flow everyone is usually courteous and professional. Sounds to me more like a producer with un reasonable expectations  then anything else. 

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