Izen Ears Posted February 3, 2010 Report Share Posted February 3, 2010 A radio-controlled helicopter that looks like a predatory hawk. Think about it, problems at dusk with noisy birds getting all over your sound? Send out the 'hawk'ter' and make those birds will find another place to squawk! Dan Izen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RPSharman Posted February 3, 2010 Report Share Posted February 3, 2010 I bet if you send any kind of helicopter up to the trees, they might fly away. :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Wexler Posted February 3, 2010 Report Share Posted February 3, 2010 I bet if you send any kind of helicopter up to the trees, they might fly away. :-) Okay, we got rid of the birds... waiting on a plane Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marc Wielage Posted February 3, 2010 Report Share Posted February 3, 2010 I wanna know what poison spray Jeff's crew used on Samarai. I had some crickets on a shoot a few months back, and they were a nightmare... --Marc W. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glen Trew Posted February 3, 2010 Report Share Posted February 3, 2010 Banging two apple boxes together scares the hell out of all birds and quiets them down for a few seconds. But after a few takes they just ignore it like everything else. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marco Lopez Posted February 3, 2010 Report Share Posted February 3, 2010 I was told of a production that took place in a small village in Crete (an island part of Greece) during summer. They were shooting in the Square next to a huge tree full of birds and crickets (cicadas). The problem was solved when an old man stood up, took out his old 9mm and shoot 4 times in the air. Complete silence for the hour and a half!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gabi Posted February 3, 2010 Report Share Posted February 3, 2010 It has been my personal experience that cicadas completely ignore apple box banging, gun shots and fireworks. They pretty much ignore everything. Birds on the other hand will fly away for a few minutes after fireworks... I strongly believe that cicadas tend to get noisier whenever the word Action! is heard. Gabi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RPSharman Posted February 3, 2010 Report Share Posted February 3, 2010 The problem I had with cicadas, when shooting in Michigan in the autumn, is that some of them were so far a way, but still so loud. The average cricket, if there's only one or two, are typically high pitched and of a consistent frequency. These cicadas were all over the spectrum, rising and falling in pitch, and right in the middle of the vocal range. Nightmare. But I recorded a handful of cicada tracks for the editor for times in the middle of the scenes when they simply decided to stop making any noise at all. Robert Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Izen Ears Posted February 3, 2010 Author Report Share Posted February 3, 2010 Copy that, bring loaded 9mm to set to scare off birds. Here in Louisiana you can get a license to carry for a song! Cicadas well, any suggestions would be great. How about some sort of nerve gas that only affect cicadas and crickets - would someone hurry up and invent that? What's their natural predator? Maybe a recording of that blasted over speakers between takes would get them to take off. Dan Izen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark LeBlanc Posted February 3, 2010 Report Share Posted February 3, 2010 Dan, Drop by any Academy Sports, I know there's one on the West Bank and get some .22 blanks. Get the full load kind not half load, they are loud and should work well. Used them a could of times with good luck.. BTW Who DAT!!! Geaux Saints Mark L Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BVS Posted February 3, 2010 Report Share Posted February 3, 2010 If you did that in our country the Armed Offenders Squad would be down on you in no time.... I was on a shoot a while back and was being plagued by our high summer cicadas that made useable dialog impossible...I had been thinking of trying the indoor Electronic Rodent and Insect unit I'd bought to deter them around our house....it puts out 120db at around 60khz.....so I took it out on location this morning..runs on mains so connected up to the genny...plugged it in and pointed to the trees.....the cicadas STOPPED....I thought ..YES! YES! .......they listened....and then 20 secs...obviously they thought..."Interesting"...then started up again...dam!!!! Thought about putting it through a tweeter with a powerful amp.....then thought of the ramifications of everyone going deaf on the crew.... But something that occurs to me is the fact that sometimes they stop for no known reason and they all stop in sync......now if I recorded some of this with the natural stop and put it out through a playback speaker,it might fool them....maybe I'm optimistic...might try that one...anything that works using their own natural system might stand a chance.... Its been a great summer so far for dialog and a bad one for cicadas...they peak about every 7th year...or in our country every year where its warm enough to hatch them...usually by this time they are in full flight, but I haven't heard any this summer.....maybe after the predicted warm spell in the next few days. . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric Toline Posted February 3, 2010 Report Share Posted February 3, 2010 Dan, Drop by any Academy Sports, I know there's one on the West Bank and get some .22 blanks. Get the full load kind not half load, they are loud and should work well. Used them a could of times with good luck.. BTW Who DAT!!! Geaux Saints Mark L You can get 22 cal blanks at any Home Depot where they sell the stud guns. They come in all loads. Eric Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob Marts Posted February 4, 2010 Report Share Posted February 4, 2010 The playback idea intrigues me as well. I have a story of a frog chorus with the opposite results. I needed to record a wild track of some frogs to match some dialog I'd recorded during which the frogs were croaking at full tilt. I went to the pond's edge with a Nagra and just as I put it into record, for some reason they all stopped croaking after a few seconds. I sat for what seemed like an hour in silence surrounded by quiet frogs. In frustration, I rewound the Nagra to listen to the few seconds that I had recorded to see if maybe there was enough of it to loop into a longer take. As soon as the frogs heard the playback on the Nagra's speaker, they all started croaking again and I quickly flipped the switch into record and was able to get a nice long wild track. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RPSharman Posted February 4, 2010 Report Share Posted February 4, 2010 The playback idea intrigues me as well. I have a story of a frog chorus with the opposite results. I needed to record a wild track of some frogs to match some dialog I'd recorded during which the frogs were croaking at full tilt. I went to the pond's edge with a Nagra and just as I put it into record, for some reason they all stopped croaking after a few seconds. I sat for what seemed like an hour in silence surrounded by quiet frogs. In frustration, I rewound the Nagra to listen to the few seconds that I had recorded to see if maybe there was enough of it to loop into a longer take. As soon as the frogs heard the playback on the Nagra's speaker, they all started croaking again and I quickly flipped the switch into record and was able to get a nice long wild track. Great story. Frogs are hard too, because they are so loud. I am always amazed at how many there seem to be too. You expect a lot of insects, but frogs!? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
engaudio Posted February 4, 2010 Report Share Posted February 4, 2010 I went to the pond's edge with a Nagra and just as I put it into record, for some reason they all stopped croaking after a few seconds. I sat for what seemed like an hour in silence surrounded by quiet frogs. In frustration, I rewound the Nagra to listen to the few seconds that I had recorded to see if maybe there was enough of it to loop into a longer take. As soon as the frogs heard the playback on the Nagra's speaker, they all started croaking again and I quickly flipped the switch into record and was able to get a nice long wild track. Easily explained. To them you were a predator, they stopped croaking so you couldn't find them. Soon as someone gave the all clear (by croaking again) it was a signal that it was safe to resume. BVS: I'm glad you don't have the joy of cicadas at the moment, they start at around 5.30am outside my bedroom... Try spraying with a hose, works till they warm up again as It's the air temperature that gets them going. Grant. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Izen Ears Posted February 5, 2010 Author Report Share Posted February 5, 2010 That is amazing about the frogs, I too tried to get the frogs to croak after a scene where they started up just after the wide, just in time for the coverage. We ended up throwing the Sony D50 (belonged to my utility) and were able to get the frogs during takes. I love the spray water thing for cicadas, perhaps misting ice cold water will make them think it's night and they'll shut up? I'll try it in 4 months. Funny to hear you all talk about Summer when Winter just started. I bet a RC helicopter would scare away birds from a nearby tree, but if it looked like a hawk it might keep them away far and wide? No way am I bringing guns with blanks to work, that's crazy! Dan Izen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Babb Posted February 7, 2010 Report Share Posted February 7, 2010 We should get the production to hire one of these guys for starling control. Seems like a reasonable expenditure to avoid ADR. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joshua Anderson Posted February 7, 2010 Report Share Posted February 7, 2010 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sphecius Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BVS Posted February 7, 2010 Report Share Posted February 7, 2010 "and I think thats all the consumables I need....got batteries....tape...oh and can I have a large pack of Cicada Killer Wasps..." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christian Holm Posted February 7, 2010 Report Share Posted February 7, 2010 Pesky birds! //Christian Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Izen Ears Posted February 8, 2010 Author Report Share Posted February 8, 2010 Anyone on this forum know where to get these killer wasps? I wonder if you could train them, if you could hire a dude who comes by and silences the cicadas... that dude would make serious bank! And yes, a falconer would be the ideal. I wonder how much they cost? Dan Izen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BVS Posted February 8, 2010 Report Share Posted February 8, 2010 Do any of you remember a film shot many years ago(1976) in the Philippines called High Velocity as I recall.. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0076145/ Well I recall an article in The American Cinematographer at the time, where the sound mixer was having terrible trouble with the tropical cicadas. Now if you have filmed in the tropics you know what I mean..I shot in Malaysia a few years ago and heard what sounded like chainsaws,was informed they were the local 8 inch cicadas...OMG...what a noise.....Anyway,the local Philippinos had a fix for them.They banged some hollow bamboo together with a helluva whack and the cicadas went silent long enough to get a take....as long as they didn't do it every 2 minutes, it worked...so the blanks being fired sounds a good scheme.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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