my setup for recent indie feature

M

matthewd5

Veteran
cart-at-barn.jpg



hope nobody minds but i came across a production still that i took of my setup at a recent shoot i did and we haven't had any threads with people posting their bags/carts etc. in a while.

most of the time i had all of my sound stuff on one cart and this video/sound capture thing that i was also manning on a similar cart next to me but in this picture its just the video rack cart and my sound stuff is on the video rack/cart and on my appleboxes.

about the only thing not in the picture is the holophone and my boom because my boom operator was inside the barn and this picture was taken during a scene being filmed inside the barn.

i setup my stuff outside because there wasn't a lot of room in the barn once you added the actors, extras and many props and it was easier for me to be outside.

the slate is blurred out because in our contracts we can't even mention the title of the movie until after it has been released.
 
You want photo's of me sitting in front my computer in sweats? Because that's all I have been up to. Part of the reason I love your "Oh the Drama"postings Tim. Reminds of the joyful world of production that lies outside my window. Of course 2 weeks into the next production I will be wishing I was back working in my studio.

Such is my bipolar, grass is always greener nature.

I see you went with the Rock n Roller cart Matt. How is it working out for you? Is it tall enough to sit and work at?

Your apple boxes look grip dept colored "wood finish". A helpful tip; paint your apple boxes some odd color and stencil "Sound Dept" on it. Otherwise one day or another some grip is going to walk off your apple box.

Cheers
 
Scooby,

Since Matt hasn't answered yet, it's a Deva (either IV or V, I think he said he was working with a V, which is a 10 track recorder with a built-in DVD-RAM burner and lots of other very cool features - industry standard recorder).

Matt, cool setup. I'm also curious about the Rock n Roller - I'm thinking of getting one with two shelves - would love to hear how you like it.

Phil
 
I just ordered a Rock n Roller myself. Should arrive today, in fact. But I can't seem to find the shelves anywhere in stock, at least not last week. Right now, I have one backordered at Filmtools for a week or so. I already plan to make my own bottom shelf but I think you need to come up with some solid mounting brackets to build your own top shelf.

I don't recognize the black unit in the rack. I guess it must be the 'video/sound capture thing' ? Who makes that?

Thanks for the pic, Matt.

-Dan
 
Thats a Wafian HDDR isn't it? Pretty slick unit, I am suprised that they had the same guy mixing and doing the DIT thing. Why the Sound Devices recorder and the Deva? What mic where you booming with?
 
Deva eh? Yes i've heard you chaps speaking highly of those. They don't appear to be the industry standard here.. We just hook up loads of 744s all together.

A thread of pics is a good idea! Although, wabbit in his slacks!? well.. if you must- but go easy on us! :D
 
Usually people will run a 744 as a back up to the Deva. It's very common place here in Hollywood. I like the headphone sofites.

-Dave
 
Dave_Fisk said:
Usually people will run a 744 as a back up to the Deva. It's very common place here in Hollywood. I like the headphone sofites.

-Dave
Click to expand...


Gotcha. Although that wafian HR-1 does allow for at least 2 channel audio (for now) so maybe triple redundancy? Back up the 8 tracks to 4 and the 4 tracks to 2 makes perfect sense :laugh: Just kidding.

I am curious what camera was used to feed the HDDR?
 
the white thing is a Deva V. it was super sunny out and i really didn't have time to put the polarizing filter on my digital rebel xt...

the deva is nice but certainly wouldn't work out of a bag very well, it is the production companies but i have custody until further notice...the original plan was to do another indie feature next summer, so i have the Deva V, the holophone and the wafian.

the camera is/was a canon xl h1. not my favorite camera normally, i have no interest in HDV whatsoever but when you take the HD stream out of the camera via a bnc cable carrying a digital stream of the video before the evil hdv compression you get a damn fine picture.

i was more than a little surprised that the wafian only did two channels of sound...

the only reason for the Deva V was the holophone.

almost all of the dialog for the movie was recorded using my 442/744t setup right out of the bag.

90% or more was on the schoeps cmc6/mk41 and about halfway through the movie i broke down and ordered the cut1 filter, the reason for that was a pretty important scene was in a restaurant/pub.

we were shooting after it closed and when i did the sound location scout it seemed relatively quiet but when you get rid of all the patrons there were so many things humming...we unplugged everything we could find and then a few more, i was crawling around on the floor trying to reach the plugs on some of the coolers they had that are never usually turned off.

i got it fairly quiet and a big part of that was the schoeps and the excellent high pass filters on the 442.

if i had it to shoot again i am pretty confident the cut1 would have gotten rid of everything that i wanted to.

i almost wish we had to reshoot that scene just so i could try out the cut1 to see what the difference would be...

the rock 'n roller cart you see there is my original one, i am pretty sure it is the r6.

when the shelves came out i was bummed to find out that i couldn't use them on an r6, you had to have an r8 or better so i got an r10 to be safe.

one strong suggestion, do NOT order ANYTHING from HandTrucksRus.com

they pop up first usually under google because you can buy keywords. when i ordered i said that i had a specific deadline that i had to have not just the cart but the shelf and that if they couldn't deliver the shelf by then that i didn't need or want the cart.

they said no problem its in stock. they took my money and then a week later told me they were backordered on the shelf and then ignored my emails asking for a full refund.

the cart arrived like 3 or 4 days before the deadline i had given them for EVERYTHING.

i wound up going to the hardware store and getting these neat brass inserts, you drill a hole of a specified size and then you use a LARGE flathead screwdriver and drive the brass inserts in. the inserts are threaded on the inside and the outside.

so once you screw these brass things into a piece of wood it then becomes something you can put a bolt into.

so i made a shelf out of some really great finish grade plywood, i think it was birch.

then i cut out the ends so the shelf would extend between the side uprights. then i drilled a hole through the uprights and put a hex head bolt with a washer through the hole in the side and into the shelf.

then on the side i put smaller brass inserts and mounted a small wood thingie and put hooks on both the left and right ones.

so on the left i had hooks for a bunch of xlr cables and on the right i put just three hooks (the fancy PSC ones made for their carts) i put a Large one for the 10 pin cable snake that goes from my mixer to the camera and a medium one for the PSC 50 ft. duplex cable with the box at the end for the boom op so he or she can plug in headphones and an xlr from the boom. the third hook was for my headphones.

luckily i had a rack mount hardigg case i had bought a few months ago as i was planning to build a high end rackmount machine to put into the case along with a rack mount APC UPS so i could run DVRack on location and not worry about a laptop getting carelessly ruined!

you can't really see it but on both of the uprights i drilled holes in the center going from top of the handle through to the bottom, then i put some 5/8th spuds that are held on with a 3/8 16 allen head bolt.

so on the right one there is a bogen shelf with a 5/8th female socket and a thumbscrew, on top of that shelf is a small square of plywood and then on top of that is an lcd monitor that came with the wafian and i took an old lcd base i had in my basement and drilled holes and put wood screws so there is no way the lcd can fall off the cart!

on the left side is a matthews grip head so if i was going to be swapping mics and taking down the schoeps and putting on a 416 i could put the mic that wasn't in use in that grip head to keep it safe and secure.

i did the same thing on the R10 cart and i also made a bottom shelf. you just need a nice thick piece of plywood and the better the grade the better it will come out...

i couldn't find anything big enough to go around the center long support so i got some long wood screws and some generic steel plates at the hardware store and put four of them spread out and screwed into the bottom of the bottom shelf.

for both shelves you get some really good plywood, cut it to shape, do your hole drilling for brass inserts and whatever then get some 3M 77, it is a spray tack. the 77 one is good because it gives you a few minutes to reposition stuff. then you goto a place that does higher end car stereo installations and they usually sell you the gray or charcoal colored fabric that they use when they build custom subwoofer enclosers etc.

you spray the wood and carefully place the fabric on it and evenly smooth out the fabric so you have no bumps or places where it is stretch more or less than the rest of it.

when you are done it looks better than the shelf that the rocknroller people sell.

i eventually got the rocknroller shelf (not from the idiot at HandTrucksRus.com but from B&H

it turns out that ANYBODY can become a reseller of the rock n roller carts and then you just bill people and the rock n roller people drop ship for you.

so the HandTrucksRus.com seems to just be this one guy.

i can post more pictures later of the R10 with the hooks and the shelves with the fabric covering...

but right AFTER i built all of this (i went like 12 hours a day for 3 days as i HAD to have the cart for a super low budget feature i did in the beginning of the summer, someone on here and i apologize but i can't find the original message right now, gave me the address of a guy who makes or imports carts that look a LOT like the PSC one but his sell for a lot less.

the carts sound great but all he had was a really fuzzy 4rd generation drawing that he faxed me.

if he could just get a few decent photo's and a line drawing it would be so much easier to compare...

for me the rock n roller cart works pretty well because my primary vehicle i drive to shoots is a jeep wrangler so the rock n roller carts shape/size is perfect for me.

the other more traditional sound carts are better suited for a station wagon or SUV or even a small car as long as the back seats fold down.

but for me i can put the rock n roller cart in the back of my jeep fully assembled.

i take off the xlr cables and put those in a large canvas tote bag or put them in a storm case (like a pelican but better)

then i throw the largest production bag that porta brace makes on the bottom shelf and put my sound bag on the top shelf and i'm pretty much ready to go once i throw the xlr cables on the hooks.

the appleboxes in the picture were sanded, stained and then polyed.

i've never seen any grip ones that look like this, that is why i took the time to sand and stain them.

i have one that is still new/unused and unfinished...if i can find a cool sound department stencil i may try just sanding it down really well and then spray painting the stencil in something like red and then poly the whole thing.

matthew
 
:shocked:

Very informative post Matt.

Does the Rock and Roller even collapse when you have the shelves added?

If you have a lazy weekend, photoshop and cut some custom stencils with your company logo or whatever and then go to town labeling all your equipment cases, applebox, whatever. Be careful, it gets addicting. At one point I was considering stenciling the cat.

If you are still in a typing mood Matt, I am very curious to here how the Holophone audio turned out. Did you run some test before shooting?

Cheers
 
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