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I got a job recording location audio for a feature film, and I am use to using my own equipment. But for this one, they want me to use this particular field recorder. I read the user guide on it, but if anyone knows of any hidden catches I should be aware of that the user guide does not go into, that would be great!
Or anything I should know, would be great as well! Thanks.
Getting the machine to record is childs play. Setting up the HP filters, limiters, file naming, scene advancements, false takes, re-takes, track metadata and sound reports are not, I would not go to a paid job without having a day or more exploring an unfamiliar machine and going though as many scenarios as you can think of. You you will not have time on-set and will hold up production.
This assumes you already have the other usual PSM skills.
Ryan, I have a feeling you may be getting yourself in over your head, and that won’t turn out well for you or for the feature film.
I just saw your thread on another forum that clearly demonstrates you don’t understand why omnidirectional lavs are preferable to cardioid lavs, or why they actually do work just fine outside. This makes me think that you may not understand enough to be able to properly manage actor lavs and transmitters. There’s another thread on that forum that shows you have a hard time navigating a field mixer/recorder without numbers on the faders, and that you don’t have a good grasp on proper gain staging.
I know you’ve done some very limited “location sound” in the past on your smaller projects and have been a boom op on a couple of projects, but dealing with a single lav and/or a single boom is an inherently different situation from a feature film as a production sound mixer, moreso as a one-man sound department.
There are lots of things you need to know to do this job aside from how to use the mixer/recorder and how properly to select and place lavs and wireless transmitters. You need to understand how to sync and manage time code (both time code boxes and slate are typically provided by the sound department). You need to know which camera they’re using before production, and how that camera interfaces with time code and camera hops (if you’re using hops at all), and you need to know which cables and adapters are necessary to connect all the gak to the camera. You need to have a deep understanding of on-set protocol that’s probably above what you’ve experienced.
You need to understand what sound reports are and how to generate them (both paper versions and within the MixPre using Wingman), and to be religious about keeping up with them each and every day. Related to that, you need to understand file naming schemes, specifically the way post wants them delivered. If post for some reason isn’t yet on board, or doesn’t have an answer, you need to know how to label them clearly so there’s absolutely zero question about what they’re looking at when they open your daily project folders. You also need to know how to markup the working script before production so you know everything you need going into each shoot day. And you need to know how to work with the DIT on set.
I don’t know on which level this feature film is operating. Is it a low-level, low-budget, amateur-ish production? Or is it produced and directed by people who have some actual experience? If it’s the latter, everything above is crucially important. If it’s the former, well... I can tell you from experience that being a sound mixer on a sh*tshow film and being one of the few people on set who have a clue can actually save post a lot of aggravation. But if you’re just as clueless as the rest of the crew, well... not much can be done to save it in post. I got a phone call from an editor on a trainwreck I mixed a few years ago, when she first started working on it: “If you hadn’t been so organized with your sound files and reports, I wouldn’t have been able to put any of this together.”
And never, ever walk onto set on day 1 to start working with gear you’ve never before experienced hands-on. If you can’t get the recorder a few days in advance and really learn it inside and out, you’re setting yourself up for a disaster.
So you have a choice here. You can gracefully bow out, or recommend that they move you to boom op and find another mixer to take over. Or, you can gamble with your reputation and with the success of the feature film and try to study up before production starts. A feature film is not something to be taken lightly as a newb, and it’s not a place to test out the “fake it ‘til you make it” mentality.
Whichever you choose, and I hope you choose wisely, there are two books I highly recommend if you think this is something that you might eventually want to do on a more professional, paid basis. And remember, books and manuals can give you lots of good information, but nothing replaces actual experience.
How to Survive on Set: The Set Production Assistant’s Guidebook by Jessica Dean Rose
Yeah, it’s a guide for set PAs, but if you don’t know how an actual set works, this book is chock full of information that is invaluable for anyone looking to get into film production. Read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest.
The Location Sound Bible by Ric Viers
This is a must-have for anyone really wanting to delve into location sound production. Again: read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest.
But whatever you do, don’t jump into a feature film as a learning experiment. Sound can make or break a film.
As for using timecode to sync to the camera, I've always synced in the past by using a clapperboard only on other productions, but is a clapperboard only with no syncing time code, too 'old school', nowadays?
You think, or you know? Awareness of the level and type of production you’re walking into is absolutely crucial. Walking onto set with this in question is a recipe for disaster... both for you and for the film.
Just having been on sets before does not qualify you. And “microbudget indie type sets” can mean a lot of things, especially that you haven’t been exposed to a true, proper film set environment. If this set works as it should, even on a tight budget, will you be able to navigate it?
It is like having been a focus puller a couple of times and thinking you can be a DoP!Having been a boom op once or twice does not prepare you as a sound mixer. There are lots of things you’ll be responsible for as a sound mixer, and if you cannot do them, the film will suffer.