On a restroom door

[osa]

[The Immoral Mr Teas]

Or just make sure to be very VERY quiet!

[Jim Feeley]

Ha! Did you put that up? Both funny and thoughtful. 🙂

[Philip Perkins]

Funny....but it's still the mixer's responsibility to kill mics for talent when they go off set, or even enter a private convo ON the set, like with the director.  On commercials and movies dead mics to comms unless we're rolling has been SOP forever...

[Matthias Richter]

I think this is more to prevent a TX being flushed down the drain. Not a bad idea. Too late for my ZMT4 though …

[Philip Perkins]

It happened to me too, one time by accident, one time because the actress was pissed off at the director.

 

[PMC]

On commercials and narratives I always ask the talent to tell me that when they want a private moment TELL ME. If I see them walk off set I kill it automatically. Especially, since I am often feeding a zoom call these days. 

 

I did this on my first reality show many years ago and was raked over the coals by the AD. He wanted to hear and record EVERYTHING. Yeah but modesty… NO BUTS. 

 

[tourtelot]

I had people ask to "listen in" more than a few times.  I hope I embarrassed them with my response.

 

D.

[Michael Render]

13 hours ago, PMC said:

I did this on my first reality show many years ago and was raked over the coals by the AD. He wanted to hear and record EVERYTHING. Yeah but modesty… NO BUTS. 

 

From the other end, i was offered a contract to appear on a reality competition show (that I can’t mention due to an NDA) and the contract clearly states that production can put cameras and mics anywhere, including bathrooms, without notifying you. That, and other onerous clauses, convinced me not to sign.

[osa]

21 hours ago, Jim Feeley said:

Ha! Did you put that up? Both funny and thoughtful. 🙂

We were shooting an interview in a corporate meeting room with our own gear but guessing they have presenter mics etc and ironically that was the only way i knew it was a restroom trying to find one as there was no restroom sign

[Izen Ears]

Welp, in my world that would lead to many broken lavs.  Most people just don't understand how to be gentle.  Just get a mixer who is trustworthy.  This reminds of all those warning labels that didn't exist for decades and now are seen everywhere.  Why?  Because people have gotten a lot dumber.

[Philip Perkins]

Well trained actors don't mess with their mics.  They look for the person who wired them and tell them if it needs fixing, changing, muting etc..  We soundies need to be very responsive and available for this for the protocol to work, otherwise the talent WILL start to screw around with their mics themselves.  (My fave is them unscrewing the lav mic connector at the TX thinking they can unplug the mic that way.)

[edward chick]

I once had an enterprising AD do the same thing Phillip mentioned. Instead of waiting for me to un mic the talent ( I was busy un micing two others), he decide to unscrew the ta5f connector. I happened to catch him before he did any real damage.  A good conversation with him and the Producer ensued. When money for L/D is brought up, funny how they can magically find time they claim they don’t have:)

[osa]

3 hours ago, Philip Perkins said:

Well trained actors don't mess with their mics.  They look for the person who wired them and tell them if it needs fixing, changing, muting etc..  We soundies need to be very responsive and available for this for the protocol to work, otherwise the talent WILL start to screw around with their mics themselves.  (My fave is them unscrewing the lav mic connector at the TX thinking they can unplug the mic that way.)

Wow that’s funny I was picturing unscrewing the lemo connector and then it hit me oh the plastic boot on the switchcraft side of the ta5f. I don’t know if in 20 years I’ve ever seen anybody try to do that but now that you say it I bet it will happen to me soon

[Philip Perkins]

It's happened to me several times, especially with talent who sort of think they know everything about filmmaking.