Hi all,
I just completed a shoot that gave me a chance to shake out all of my new equipment so I thought I would report in on the experience, lessons learned and new equipment reports, all rolled into one.
This was a first time shoot for me with this production company, who specializes in narratives that are all improv. I came prepared for a sit and mix, and it ended up much more ENG. They run two cameras on every shot, and at times need audio just for one camera, and some times need it for both cameras (some of the setups are just simple OTS/OTS, but with some, there is considerable distance between the cameras.)
So, new experience and lessons learned:
1. Always show up with everything. I left many connectors and other cables at home (most for my ENG kit) because this was going to be sit-and-mix. I really needed many of those pieces.
2. Always quote a day rate and specify it is for 10 hours. The crew call was 4pm, and we wrapped at 6am this morning (we were targeting to wrap at 1am). Fortunately for me, the producer was a stand-up guy, and they paid me for the extra time without me even having to ask. The other good news was the drive home was easier because it was light out. ;-)
3. Be flexible, friendly, and helpful, even when you're exhausted. I was thanked by so many people for just that, and they are already talking about booking me for the next shoot.
Equipment:
1. The ListenTech's (Comtek equivalents) work great! Tunable, no need for a mono-stereo adapter for headphones, no frequency chips, AA batteries, good reception. They're a bit bigger than the Comteks, but the price is at least half. I picked up Panasonic "digital" headphones for them for about $20 each, and they work very well (comfortable and good sound and they fold up to make transporting them easier). Side note - two of them also worked very well under my SD302 in my Petrol bag to raise it up...I had broght my bag just to transport the mixer and recorder, and ended up using the bag all night. See note #1 above.
2. I am loving the SD 302. On several shots we had to run two booms and because of the distance (and my missing cables) I could only run one boom into the mixer, so the other one went directly into the camera. Well, out came a G2, and I attached the Tx on the second camera, connected the Rx to the audio return on the 302 and I could monitor both mics and make sure the levels were essentially equal. It was perfect.
3. If you are using a K-Tek boom, I strongly recommend you get your boom op a pair of those knit work gloves with the little rubber dots on them. They give the boom op some extra grip, and help avoid hands rubbing up and down the poll.
4. As far as the Petrol bag goes, I think I need to spend some more time with it to set it up better. I also need right angle plugs all around. With my recorder connected to the 302 (Tascam HD-P2) I could not leave my timecode cable connected too. (Of course, if I had brought my XLR to RCA cables I usually use with the recorder for line-in, I wouldn't have had this problem...see note #1 at the top).
5. I love my Countryman B6's. I have said this before, so I won't gush here again.
6. I picked up an inexpensive cart at Lowes that works great. It is one of those wire-rack types of carts, with three shelves. Cost my a whopping $50 (the wheels were extra) but it works great. The wireless Rx's can hang from the rack and stay out of the way, and every thing fits really well. And, it fits in the back seat of my car without taking it apart. And it cost $50 instead of $500 or more for a "professional cart". It would not be great for outdoors (the wheels aren't big enough) but for interiors it was great.
7. One of the things I left at home was the harness for the Petrol. Would have saved my back a bit, but fortunately, most of the time I could put the bag down on something and still mix.
8. Another nice benefit of a timecode slate became clear last night: I couldn't keep any kind of reasonable sound logs, so when they are trying to match shots with the audio I recorded on my recorder, they can refer to the TC on the slate and match it to the metadata in the BWF to get the right audio file, even if they don't actually use the TC for syncing. (Question: Does anyone know how long the batteries generally last in a Denecke TS2-SB? They lasted over 9 hours last night, but I've never pushed them that far before.) Oh, and another benefit of the TC slate...especially on a low-budget shoot...it really impresses people. ;-)
Wabbit, was it you that was interested in my Comteks? I think they're going up for sale this week. PM me....
Anyway, that's all I can think of right now...I may add to this post later...I'm going back to bed. G'night all...
Phil
I just completed a shoot that gave me a chance to shake out all of my new equipment so I thought I would report in on the experience, lessons learned and new equipment reports, all rolled into one.
This was a first time shoot for me with this production company, who specializes in narratives that are all improv. I came prepared for a sit and mix, and it ended up much more ENG. They run two cameras on every shot, and at times need audio just for one camera, and some times need it for both cameras (some of the setups are just simple OTS/OTS, but with some, there is considerable distance between the cameras.)
So, new experience and lessons learned:
1. Always show up with everything. I left many connectors and other cables at home (most for my ENG kit) because this was going to be sit-and-mix. I really needed many of those pieces.
2. Always quote a day rate and specify it is for 10 hours. The crew call was 4pm, and we wrapped at 6am this morning (we were targeting to wrap at 1am). Fortunately for me, the producer was a stand-up guy, and they paid me for the extra time without me even having to ask. The other good news was the drive home was easier because it was light out. ;-)
3. Be flexible, friendly, and helpful, even when you're exhausted. I was thanked by so many people for just that, and they are already talking about booking me for the next shoot.
Equipment:
1. The ListenTech's (Comtek equivalents) work great! Tunable, no need for a mono-stereo adapter for headphones, no frequency chips, AA batteries, good reception. They're a bit bigger than the Comteks, but the price is at least half. I picked up Panasonic "digital" headphones for them for about $20 each, and they work very well (comfortable and good sound and they fold up to make transporting them easier). Side note - two of them also worked very well under my SD302 in my Petrol bag to raise it up...I had broght my bag just to transport the mixer and recorder, and ended up using the bag all night. See note #1 above.
2. I am loving the SD 302. On several shots we had to run two booms and because of the distance (and my missing cables) I could only run one boom into the mixer, so the other one went directly into the camera. Well, out came a G2, and I attached the Tx on the second camera, connected the Rx to the audio return on the 302 and I could monitor both mics and make sure the levels were essentially equal. It was perfect.
3. If you are using a K-Tek boom, I strongly recommend you get your boom op a pair of those knit work gloves with the little rubber dots on them. They give the boom op some extra grip, and help avoid hands rubbing up and down the poll.
4. As far as the Petrol bag goes, I think I need to spend some more time with it to set it up better. I also need right angle plugs all around. With my recorder connected to the 302 (Tascam HD-P2) I could not leave my timecode cable connected too. (Of course, if I had brought my XLR to RCA cables I usually use with the recorder for line-in, I wouldn't have had this problem...see note #1 at the top).
5. I love my Countryman B6's. I have said this before, so I won't gush here again.
6. I picked up an inexpensive cart at Lowes that works great. It is one of those wire-rack types of carts, with three shelves. Cost my a whopping $50 (the wheels were extra) but it works great. The wireless Rx's can hang from the rack and stay out of the way, and every thing fits really well. And, it fits in the back seat of my car without taking it apart. And it cost $50 instead of $500 or more for a "professional cart". It would not be great for outdoors (the wheels aren't big enough) but for interiors it was great.
7. One of the things I left at home was the harness for the Petrol. Would have saved my back a bit, but fortunately, most of the time I could put the bag down on something and still mix.
8. Another nice benefit of a timecode slate became clear last night: I couldn't keep any kind of reasonable sound logs, so when they are trying to match shots with the audio I recorded on my recorder, they can refer to the TC on the slate and match it to the metadata in the BWF to get the right audio file, even if they don't actually use the TC for syncing. (Question: Does anyone know how long the batteries generally last in a Denecke TS2-SB? They lasted over 9 hours last night, but I've never pushed them that far before.) Oh, and another benefit of the TC slate...especially on a low-budget shoot...it really impresses people. ;-)
Wabbit, was it you that was interested in my Comteks? I think they're going up for sale this week. PM me....
Anyway, that's all I can think of right now...I may add to this post later...I'm going back to bed. G'night all...
Phil
with 100mw out( the output is adjustable by the way , 100,50.20 and 3 mw ) it has 60-70meters range as the lectrosonics with 100mw out , and the range quit depends on the rf conditions in the shooting aria .
rogar-BigGrin(DBG)