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Dead Cats & Live Cats


Marc Wielage

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Maybe I got that from Florida, 25 years ago -- we always called them "dead cats." When one of my Siamese would get out of hand, I'd show her the Rycote and say, "I could use another one of these, so watch out."

Rycote has always called them "Windjammers," but that's not as funny as Dead Cat.

--Marc W.

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  • 3 months later...

We always call it the "Dog" on my team. Or let's say I call it the Dog...

CrewC

I don't like using the term "dead" in any context --- we've used "dog" as Crew states, but most often it's "Fifi" (in memory of the unfortunate little French chien who probably gave its life for our craft).

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indoor only Eric? Thats a nice looking kitty.

Thanks, he was an abandoned cat that I kind of adopted. He's a part time roomie. It's like having a teenager here, hangs out here during the day and goes out from 7pm to 7am. Does all his business out side so no litter box here.

Eric

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I don't call mine a dead cat either, both I and my boom op are cat people with multiple kitties. That term is not amusing, we just call it the windsock or windjammer.

Mine are afraid of the thing...won't go near it at all. If you bring it close to them, they'll just hiss at it or jump back about a foot. They must have heard the term somewhere. haha

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Softie, Windjammer, and Windsock are all unique and specific items. They're not interchangeable terms as you often see on eBay.

On set, when a lady crew member looks up at my Windjammer, smiles and comments, I sometimes ask with a straight face if she'd like to pet my furry. Other crew members then get to snicker and comment.

Kids seem especially enthralled by them. Several years ago I was working on a documentary during which we were filming people standing in a long line. This one little boy was staring up at my modified Softie on a Schoeps (I eliminated the large rubber donut and cut it down to just a big furry ball).

I was used to kids wanting to reach up and pet a furry -- which I normally resist -- but, during a point when we were not shooting, I decided to indulge the kid and lowered the boom so the little guy could reach it.

The kid freaked! He must have thought this tribble was coming to eat him!

I catalog this one in the "no good deed goes unpunished" file. (Although I don't necessarily believe that.)

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