SouthBySoWhat
Well-known member
Hi there, that was a wall outlet. We're both using 7506's.
Even more lessons from the field... 1st feature.
- Thread starter SouthBySoWhat
- Start date
Hi there, that was a wall outlet. We're both using 7506's.
SouthBySoWhat
Well-known member
Day 4 pending....
Day 4 pending....
Sorry for the delay, we wrapped at 4am, and I've got to head out now. We were out in the boondocks shooting a comedic low-speed golf cart chase scene. I was on the cam cart getting wireless ref audio from the talent. It's all going to be unusable due to gennies, horrible wind and the cam cart was a Gator which is very loud. Oh well....
I'll do a more thorough write-up later. Wish me Happy Birthday! :2vrolijk_08:
Day 4 pending....
Sorry for the delay, we wrapped at 4am, and I've got to head out now. We were out in the boondocks shooting a comedic low-speed golf cart chase scene. I was on the cam cart getting wireless ref audio from the talent. It's all going to be unusable due to gennies, horrible wind and the cam cart was a Gator which is very loud. Oh well....
I'll do a more thorough write-up later. Wish me Happy Birthday! :2vrolijk_08:
Allan Black
Veteran
Yep happy birthday :beer:
Cheers.
Cheers.
SouthBySoWhat
Well-known member
Thanks! Just got home from yesterday's (day 5) all nighter. Right as "cut" was called on the martini, the entire cast and crew broke into "Happy Birthday", complete with candlelit cheesecake.
SouthBySoWhat
Well-known member
Happy birthday! How old?
41... Yikes. I actually just feel like a 13 year old who has gotten a lot of bad news.
SouthBySoWhat
Well-known member
Belated Day 4
Belated Day 4
Like I mentioned previously, this was a night shoot plagued by horrible sound conditions. I simply rode on the cam cart getting wireless audio: 2 G2 sets, each actor lav'd - stock G2 lavs on chest (I find them good for hostile conditions) using Rycote stickies and overcovers under the shirts. I kept up with the sound report on each take and while the sound is unusable for production, it will be a big help in adding to my onsite ADR list and also as reference for sound design. The reverse was an OTS on the cart that was chasing the bad guy so we didn't use the noisy Gator and I had to walk along with my fully loaded Eargonizer and my little red headlamp, with which I was called a futuristic organ grinder.
It was a tough shoot for Grip/Lighting as we had very limited distro and they had to create a controlled lit street environment with only a handful of instruments. They did a great job and as always, I was fascinated with the rapid fire ingenuity those departments require.
Belated Day 4
Like I mentioned previously, this was a night shoot plagued by horrible sound conditions. I simply rode on the cam cart getting wireless audio: 2 G2 sets, each actor lav'd - stock G2 lavs on chest (I find them good for hostile conditions) using Rycote stickies and overcovers under the shirts. I kept up with the sound report on each take and while the sound is unusable for production, it will be a big help in adding to my onsite ADR list and also as reference for sound design. The reverse was an OTS on the cart that was chasing the bad guy so we didn't use the noisy Gator and I had to walk along with my fully loaded Eargonizer and my little red headlamp, with which I was called a futuristic organ grinder.
It was a tough shoot for Grip/Lighting as we had very limited distro and they had to create a controlled lit street environment with only a handful of instruments. They did a great job and as always, I was fascinated with the rapid fire ingenuity those departments require.
SouthBySoWhat
Well-known member
Day 5
Day 5
This one was a bear. It was a gala scene that is the climax of the film. Lots of extras in Halloween costumes, red on the weather radar. Several pages of dialog to cover. Waterfront restaurant. Tons of ducks.
I anticipated the worst and decided to rig up all my stuff like day 2:
442 direct out to R4-Pro. Hirose snake out to camera B.
302 Mix in to 442. Main outs to Tascam HDP2
442:
Around 1am we were approaching lunch when the sky fell in. We were out on an outside large deck that had a heavy duty tent-like high ceiling top which was sufficient but we had to kill everything for about 90 minutes to get things safe again.
As it was my birthday I had a few pranks played on me, cricket iPhone sounds on talent, grips beeping things randomly between takes, making me think an MOS was a real take, etc...
As it was a party scene there was access to alcohol and I was dismayed to realize that a small faction of actors/staff were drinking early on. We were already behind the 8-ball due to weather, time and on-the-fly monkeying with the shot lists, leading to having to forgo certain setups. I'm no poster boy for temperance, actually I'm hammering wine right now, but booze and work = el zilcho. Fortunately it was only about 3-4 folks, but they were key to the scenes and I know the shoot (and morale) suffered slightly for it. I'm sure it was an isolated situation but it rubbed me the wrong way.
The sun was up as were wrapping cables and loading out. I stayed and helped on the load out and we had some proper beers once the truck was loaded. Thankfully off today and I got to see my boy for more than 15 minutes today after a 4 hour siesta.
More after tomorrow!
Sean
ps STILL waiting on my shelf kits for the Rock-N-Roller. Their big US distributor will no longer be carrying that line at the end of the month so happy hunting on that stuff. I found some stuff in stock at: performanceaudio.com
Day 5
This one was a bear. It was a gala scene that is the climax of the film. Lots of extras in Halloween costumes, red on the weather radar. Several pages of dialog to cover. Waterfront restaurant. Tons of ducks.
I anticipated the worst and decided to rig up all my stuff like day 2:
442 direct out to R4-Pro. Hirose snake out to camera B.
302 Mix in to 442. Main outs to Tascam HDP2
442:
- Boom
- Lectro 200D
- G2
- G2
- Handheld dynamic (part of scene)
- G2 utility - sometimes lav, sometimes lectern mic (SM58 with buttplug)
Around 1am we were approaching lunch when the sky fell in. We were out on an outside large deck that had a heavy duty tent-like high ceiling top which was sufficient but we had to kill everything for about 90 minutes to get things safe again.
As it was my birthday I had a few pranks played on me, cricket iPhone sounds on talent, grips beeping things randomly between takes, making me think an MOS was a real take, etc...
As it was a party scene there was access to alcohol and I was dismayed to realize that a small faction of actors/staff were drinking early on. We were already behind the 8-ball due to weather, time and on-the-fly monkeying with the shot lists, leading to having to forgo certain setups. I'm no poster boy for temperance, actually I'm hammering wine right now, but booze and work = el zilcho. Fortunately it was only about 3-4 folks, but they were key to the scenes and I know the shoot (and morale) suffered slightly for it. I'm sure it was an isolated situation but it rubbed me the wrong way.
The sun was up as were wrapping cables and loading out. I stayed and helped on the load out and we had some proper beers once the truck was loaded. Thankfully off today and I got to see my boy for more than 15 minutes today after a 4 hour siesta.
More after tomorrow!
Sean
ps STILL waiting on my shelf kits for the Rock-N-Roller. Their big US distributor will no longer be carrying that line at the end of the month so happy hunting on that stuff. I found some stuff in stock at: performanceaudio.com
Last edited:
Sean,
You'd actually have been better off if the actors were wearing your B6 lavs today... waterproof. Their own PR literature claims that you can soak a B6 overnight in a glass of your favorite soft drink and still use it in the morning. I'm taking their word for it on the overnight bath, but they're immune to sweat, rain, spit-takes, and drink tosses.
I have B6s and love them, love them, love them. I still subscribe to the idea that there is no one mic that can do everything, so a diverse collection of lavs is a wonderful thing, but I do use my B6s more than any others.
And I agree... drinking on the production job is not acceptable. I love the post-wrap beer, but there is so much going on on-set that any minute lapse in judgment can kill... literally.
You'd actually have been better off if the actors were wearing your B6 lavs today... waterproof. Their own PR literature claims that you can soak a B6 overnight in a glass of your favorite soft drink and still use it in the morning. I'm taking their word for it on the overnight bath, but they're immune to sweat, rain, spit-takes, and drink tosses.
I have B6s and love them, love them, love them. I still subscribe to the idea that there is no one mic that can do everything, so a diverse collection of lavs is a wonderful thing, but I do use my B6s more than any others.
And I agree... drinking on the production job is not acceptable. I love the post-wrap beer, but there is so much going on on-set that any minute lapse in judgment can kill... literally.
SouthBySoWhat
Well-known member
SouthBySoWhat
Well-known member
Thanks, Phil. Back-order city there. 
I've got one shelf and a laptop arm (don't even know what it looks like) supposedly coming from midi-classics and the other shelf and deck kit from Performance Audio (hopefully by Friday).
I've got one shelf and a laptop arm (don't even know what it looks like) supposedly coming from midi-classics and the other shelf and deck kit from Performance Audio (hopefully by Friday).
SouthBySoWhat
Well-known member
Day 6
Day 6
It's so easy to get behind on logging things. The days run together.
Yesterday was all at the mansion, I'm already struggling to remember the setups, as today was a non-stop party train of stuff.
Big lesson. NEVER volunteer remotely valuable personal belongings for props. I had agreed to loan one of my camcorders (Canon HG10) to the production, under the condition that it NOT be the one that gets "smashed" (there are two in the script). The props guy takes it and lo and behold I realize that he screwed up and made mine the wrong one ( it didn't get smashed, but it needed to be tossed and i had just watched the actor get overloaded and hurl a cellphone into a headboard at 90mph). I would have revoked the use of it altogether but it had already been shown in a couple of setups and I was kinda against the wall.
As before, the blocking of the two cams was seriously preventing any useful booming (more on that from tonight later) and our second scene for the day was changed to be shot in a frickin 4 car garage with angles that prevented dampening, plus the thing was so big that the meager attempts at getting blankets and my owens corning panels situated were pretty useless. It was to be lav city with some strategic plant mics and a locked down boom from below. My boom op was pretty discouraged by the end of this one.
I chest mic'd everyone (thankfully my two damaged mics (EMW and a B6) arrived before my call time), and again broke out the 302 and the HD-P2 to supplement my 4-trk setup.
Gotta crash, will write up today's stuff asap.
Sean
Day 6
It's so easy to get behind on logging things. The days run together.
Yesterday was all at the mansion, I'm already struggling to remember the setups, as today was a non-stop party train of stuff.
Big lesson. NEVER volunteer remotely valuable personal belongings for props. I had agreed to loan one of my camcorders (Canon HG10) to the production, under the condition that it NOT be the one that gets "smashed" (there are two in the script). The props guy takes it and lo and behold I realize that he screwed up and made mine the wrong one ( it didn't get smashed, but it needed to be tossed and i had just watched the actor get overloaded and hurl a cellphone into a headboard at 90mph). I would have revoked the use of it altogether but it had already been shown in a couple of setups and I was kinda against the wall.
As before, the blocking of the two cams was seriously preventing any useful booming (more on that from tonight later) and our second scene for the day was changed to be shot in a frickin 4 car garage with angles that prevented dampening, plus the thing was so big that the meager attempts at getting blankets and my owens corning panels situated were pretty useless. It was to be lav city with some strategic plant mics and a locked down boom from below. My boom op was pretty discouraged by the end of this one.
I chest mic'd everyone (thankfully my two damaged mics (EMW and a B6) arrived before my call time), and again broke out the 302 and the HD-P2 to supplement my 4-trk setup.
Gotta crash, will write up today's stuff asap.
Sean
Allan Black
Veteran
Thx. appreciate you taking the time to do this.
Cheers.
Cheers.
SouthBySoWhat
Well-known member
Day 7
Day 7
Wow, getting behind. Very long days. After we had a mishap with one of the crew falling asleep behind the wheel after an all-nighter, the hours are getting much more official.
Today was the appearance of our biggest "celebrity" and we only had her for one day so it was to be another manic one. It was all at the mansion location, so high-ass ceilings in the master bedroom, bad-for-boom (and room treatment) camera angles, business by the character (pulling a lot of jackets from a closet) that made her lav intermittently bad. A noisy mattress plastic cover (it's a show-house and everything in it is brand new), no working video village, etc made for nail biting fun for me.
We had props stealthily remove the mattress plastic (and replace it later). We only really got one good partial boom pass (I had her wild the lines stomped on by the jackets much later, and barely managed to coordinate it, and it probably won't match the tone of the others too well). Blessedly, the remaining setups with her were paint by the number exterior shots and a couple of short in-vehicle lines.
Once she left, we had a single remaining outdoor to indoor setup where the three protagonists are breaking into the bad guy's home. This was a nightmare as the crew's hours were about to run out, I had to wire three cast members in about 6 minutes and there was an outdoor fountain that no one could turn off in time, which harpooned the outside dialog (which they were mostly whispering).
The one positive thing that came out of this day was that we (the sound team and the editor) managed to finally affect some change in the Director/DP workflow and put our foot down about making arrangements for closeups to get useable master dialog. Lavs are great tools but are a far cry from a properly placed short shotgun or hyper. I've made the Director listen to several examples of their shooting methodology and I think it's finally sinking in.
Day 7
Wow, getting behind. Very long days. After we had a mishap with one of the crew falling asleep behind the wheel after an all-nighter, the hours are getting much more official.
Today was the appearance of our biggest "celebrity" and we only had her for one day so it was to be another manic one. It was all at the mansion location, so high-ass ceilings in the master bedroom, bad-for-boom (and room treatment) camera angles, business by the character (pulling a lot of jackets from a closet) that made her lav intermittently bad. A noisy mattress plastic cover (it's a show-house and everything in it is brand new), no working video village, etc made for nail biting fun for me.
We had props stealthily remove the mattress plastic (and replace it later). We only really got one good partial boom pass (I had her wild the lines stomped on by the jackets much later, and barely managed to coordinate it, and it probably won't match the tone of the others too well). Blessedly, the remaining setups with her were paint by the number exterior shots and a couple of short in-vehicle lines.
Once she left, we had a single remaining outdoor to indoor setup where the three protagonists are breaking into the bad guy's home. This was a nightmare as the crew's hours were about to run out, I had to wire three cast members in about 6 minutes and there was an outdoor fountain that no one could turn off in time, which harpooned the outside dialog (which they were mostly whispering).
The one positive thing that came out of this day was that we (the sound team and the editor) managed to finally affect some change in the Director/DP workflow and put our foot down about making arrangements for closeups to get useable master dialog. Lavs are great tools but are a far cry from a properly placed short shotgun or hyper. I've made the Director listen to several examples of their shooting methodology and I think it's finally sinking in.
SouthBySoWhat
Well-known member
Day 8
Day 8
Location probs today, so we ended up with some thumb-twiddling time. I personally don't enjoy sitting idle so I grabbed my bag and one of the golf carts to get some foley of it. As it was quite windy I doubt much of it was useful. I also took some time to begin wading through the takes of our villain, another 70's TV star who we used for 8 days and he was a great guy to deal with. I knew we had some scenes that the audio was absolutely unusable for due to conditions on location and I wanted to compile a list of wild lines to grab before he wrapped (end of day 9). The Edirol R4-Pro is really easy to use to go through the files and isolate the different tracks for monitoring only what you want to hear.
My Rock-N-Roller cart finally showed up with the shelf and deck kit. I used it with my bag on it's side on the shelf and so far I really dig it. Definitely get the R12 as it has real wheels all around. I will be tricking it out more as time goes by.
We had a lot of wind at the exterior location and I finally got to break out my K-Zep which handled the wind nicely. It does attenuate the highs a bit and my novice boom op needs some practice with it as he was having a hard time guestimating his axis on the talent.
The rest of the shoot was back in the ghastly 4 car garage and we were back to lav city again. Grrrr.
Day 8
Location probs today, so we ended up with some thumb-twiddling time. I personally don't enjoy sitting idle so I grabbed my bag and one of the golf carts to get some foley of it. As it was quite windy I doubt much of it was useful. I also took some time to begin wading through the takes of our villain, another 70's TV star who we used for 8 days and he was a great guy to deal with. I knew we had some scenes that the audio was absolutely unusable for due to conditions on location and I wanted to compile a list of wild lines to grab before he wrapped (end of day 9). The Edirol R4-Pro is really easy to use to go through the files and isolate the different tracks for monitoring only what you want to hear.
My Rock-N-Roller cart finally showed up with the shelf and deck kit. I used it with my bag on it's side on the shelf and so far I really dig it. Definitely get the R12 as it has real wheels all around. I will be tricking it out more as time goes by.
We had a lot of wind at the exterior location and I finally got to break out my K-Zep which handled the wind nicely. It does attenuate the highs a bit and my novice boom op needs some practice with it as he was having a hard time guestimating his axis on the talent.
The rest of the shoot was back in the ghastly 4 car garage and we were back to lav city again. Grrrr.
