Hi all,
Just thought I would report on my latest day on a short being shot on 16MM. It was a good day, but as usual, the call time was way off for sound. My call time was 8am - first shot didn't go until almost 1pm. Oh well, I was on the clock the whole time, had all the actors wired, boom op trained and still sat around waiting.
Before I get into the good stuff that happened on this shoot, I ran into two problems I was wondering how others handled.
1. Camera noise. We not only put a barney (I think that's what it's called) and wrapped a sound blanket around the camera, but I was still picking up faint camera noise (we were shooting with an Arri SR2, which is supposed to be a synch camera). What more can be done to minimize the noise. I worked with mic angle, placement, etc. and nothing really helped. Fortunately this scene will have some fairly loud music running behind it.
2. Is there a way to adjust the volume on the slate mic on a SD302? It was running really hot, to the point of me nearly whispering the slates.
So, the good stuff:
1. Always make nice with the wardrobe department. I actually got them to change out some of the cloth on one of the actor's costumes because it was a really noise fabric and would have totally blown the lav. Also, they made a concerted effort to make sure there was a place to stick the Tx. As it turned out, for most of the shots I left them outside the wardrobe, both for actor comfort and because they didn't need to be tucked away.
2. I love my B6's even more than before. Both of them were hidden in plain site on two of the actors - and sounded great throughout the shoot. Even my EMW sounded good, and was fairly easy to hide.
3. It is awesome when you have a boom op that actually pays attention, has a clue, and wants to do good work. Even though he had never boomed before, he watched the rehearsals, and knew where the mic needed to be. I used my cartioids because he was inexperienced (and to match previous days) but I bet he could have used my hyper and still gotten good sound.
4. The ListenTechs worked great. No interference, great sound, helped facilitate communications with the director and boom op. They do tend to run very loud, so I am very careful to warn people before they put them on, and I turn down the volume on the headsets to about half to help protect their ears. See below for my improved setup and how I interfaced them. Another first for use of my Listentech's - we didn't have walkie's, so we put a ListenTech on the person guarding the door during takes. She could hear everything, so she knew when we were rolling and when we weren't.
5. Always make nice with the gaffer/grip/DP. Our set was perfect for booming. Low angle key light meant boom shadow was way up at the top of the set walls, well out of camera range. If it weren't for the noisy camera... ;-)
6. My set up this time was a bit different. I used my SD 302 for the boom and ran it into my Mackie. Wireless all went directly into the Mackie, and then line out into the Tascam HD-P2. I used the slate mic and tone generator on the SD 302 for slate and tone. I fed the ListenTech's via the headphone out on the SD (so all they were getting was boom, no lavs), which was fine. Also, jammed TC into the Tascam from my Denecke slate, and re-jammed a couple of times during the day. I ran the SD from my BDS, everything else from AC, no problems during the day.
Overall, things went very smoothly. The only major change I want to make is to get my sound reports made up in a two-part form, so I can always keep a copy, and provide one to post. I didn't get a backup this time, and this director has a tendancy to lose things.
Fortunately, this is not the same director that, on his drive home, stuck the CD I gave him into his car stereo and then called to yell at me because he didn't have any sound for the day. Oy, some directors shouldn't be directors. ;-)
And, I still think I need to get a t-shirt made that says, "If my headphones are on, I probably can't hear you..." and on the back it should say, "...or I'm just pretending because I don't want to talk to you..." ;-) They'll never know the truth. ;-)
Phil
Just thought I would report on my latest day on a short being shot on 16MM. It was a good day, but as usual, the call time was way off for sound. My call time was 8am - first shot didn't go until almost 1pm. Oh well, I was on the clock the whole time, had all the actors wired, boom op trained and still sat around waiting.
Before I get into the good stuff that happened on this shoot, I ran into two problems I was wondering how others handled.
1. Camera noise. We not only put a barney (I think that's what it's called) and wrapped a sound blanket around the camera, but I was still picking up faint camera noise (we were shooting with an Arri SR2, which is supposed to be a synch camera). What more can be done to minimize the noise. I worked with mic angle, placement, etc. and nothing really helped. Fortunately this scene will have some fairly loud music running behind it.
2. Is there a way to adjust the volume on the slate mic on a SD302? It was running really hot, to the point of me nearly whispering the slates.
So, the good stuff:
1. Always make nice with the wardrobe department. I actually got them to change out some of the cloth on one of the actor's costumes because it was a really noise fabric and would have totally blown the lav. Also, they made a concerted effort to make sure there was a place to stick the Tx. As it turned out, for most of the shots I left them outside the wardrobe, both for actor comfort and because they didn't need to be tucked away.
2. I love my B6's even more than before. Both of them were hidden in plain site on two of the actors - and sounded great throughout the shoot. Even my EMW sounded good, and was fairly easy to hide.
3. It is awesome when you have a boom op that actually pays attention, has a clue, and wants to do good work. Even though he had never boomed before, he watched the rehearsals, and knew where the mic needed to be. I used my cartioids because he was inexperienced (and to match previous days) but I bet he could have used my hyper and still gotten good sound.
4. The ListenTechs worked great. No interference, great sound, helped facilitate communications with the director and boom op. They do tend to run very loud, so I am very careful to warn people before they put them on, and I turn down the volume on the headsets to about half to help protect their ears. See below for my improved setup and how I interfaced them. Another first for use of my Listentech's - we didn't have walkie's, so we put a ListenTech on the person guarding the door during takes. She could hear everything, so she knew when we were rolling and when we weren't.
5. Always make nice with the gaffer/grip/DP. Our set was perfect for booming. Low angle key light meant boom shadow was way up at the top of the set walls, well out of camera range. If it weren't for the noisy camera... ;-)
6. My set up this time was a bit different. I used my SD 302 for the boom and ran it into my Mackie. Wireless all went directly into the Mackie, and then line out into the Tascam HD-P2. I used the slate mic and tone generator on the SD 302 for slate and tone. I fed the ListenTech's via the headphone out on the SD (so all they were getting was boom, no lavs), which was fine. Also, jammed TC into the Tascam from my Denecke slate, and re-jammed a couple of times during the day. I ran the SD from my BDS, everything else from AC, no problems during the day.
Overall, things went very smoothly. The only major change I want to make is to get my sound reports made up in a two-part form, so I can always keep a copy, and provide one to post. I didn't get a backup this time, and this director has a tendancy to lose things.
Fortunately, this is not the same director that, on his drive home, stuck the CD I gave him into his car stereo and then called to yell at me because he didn't have any sound for the day. Oy, some directors shouldn't be directors. ;-)
And, I still think I need to get a t-shirt made that says, "If my headphones are on, I probably can't hear you..." and on the back it should say, "...or I'm just pretending because I don't want to talk to you..." ;-) They'll never know the truth. ;-)
Phil
