Oh The Drama

timapter

timapter

Veteran
Hey everyone.

So Im 5 days into the new drama I'm on, which is a decent-ish budget show (for SA) of around $1mil. I was enjoying writing a sort of diary for the reality show I was on (which is now airing, and Im happy to say is pretty darn good), and want to do it again for this show. I stopped the reality one because I didnt want to clog the board, but would like to do this one on a slightly less regular basis (maybe once or twice a week).

Im keen to get your feedback on challenges Im facing, and share some of the things Im learning - but if anyone objects to me doing this, please speak up and I will stop.

So here goes.
Tim
 
The show (which I will leave unnamed for fear of press leaks) is a youth drama (aimed at 16-25year olds) about the rock scene in Johannesburg, South Africa. It deals with a female lead character who leaves a seaside town in SA, to go study classical piano in Johannesburg. But the truth is that she is tired of being plain and innocent, and wants to sing in a rock and roll band.

So the show has quite young (all early 20's) actors, and features lots of up and coming SA rock bands.

So here are my lessons learned for the first few days:

ONE: An experienced and hardworking boom op is the most valuable piece of "equipment" in your bag :) My boom op/assistant on the show is BRILLIANT. Its very refreshing to have someone that learns the lines before each scene, blocks and strategises the boom while I deal with politics and setup stuff, and even tells me honestly when he can, or cant, do something with the boom alone. Its great being able to collaborate for a change.


A scene from tonight that would have been IMPOSSIBLE without a great boom op and a well placed lav or two!

TWO: Communications systems are worth every cent. We didnt have budget for any formal sort of Comtek system, and the director in fact even vetoed the expense in pre-prod! But I soldiered on and fashioned a mono com system from a few sets of Sony UWP-C1 mic systems. The director now probably thanks me for the system every single day! Thanks to Phil for suggesting I use the headphone out, which is what Im using right now until I get something better working. I just fully attentuated the sony Tx, which works perfectly. This feed is now serving my boom op, the director, and the script super/continuity lady.

THREE: Imaginative multicore cables kick ass! The shoot is on Sony HDV-Z1. Not such a great camera in the scheme of things, but we are pushing it hard. This creates a problem of where audio is stored as the Z1 has no TC in/out, and production had no budget for a 744t and slate (like I wanted). So we found ourselves bashing my audio umbilical (a very short, poorly suited one), as well as a BNC, even on glidecam/steadicam rigs! I phoned the local cable gurus, and they created an umbilical with dual XLR, stereo minijack return line, and also BNC for us (20 metres!). This has allowed me to sit and mix that show since we received the cable, as well as only run ONE cable to camera which is simple to bash. It'll also let me take a split of the video when my screen arrives!


Exterior night shoot from last night - you're seeing the Sony Tx feeding everyones com's, and the one 302 mixer (we're using two on the show. 442 would have been better probably, but money is tight). Thats the DOP and director in the BG, with a cam assist bashing the magical multi core cable.


FOUR: It can be an interesting question on how to do your mixing when you have only two tracks to go to. For instance, I'm often faced with a situation where my boom op asks for me to lav mic one person he just cant reach on a line or two. Thats no issue - ch1-boom, ch2-lav. But when we need more radios it sometimes becomes a question of: should I drop the boom and give two tracks of lavs (ie - iso tracks), or should I run boom and give a mix of the lavs on channel 2? Id be interested to hear opinions. Depending on the situation, Ive done both up til now and obviously the answer is "it depends". If anyone is a post person and has an opinion, Id like to hear it.


An occasion that I did split track lavs - SUPER high angle tree camera monkey. No room get a boom in ANYWHERE.


So, those are a couple interesting things. So far, we've shot a night at a rock club (which was interesting - Ill maybe talk about that next if anyone is interested - playback work flow, etc), a train station - also interesting, a house (not so interesting) and a public park.

More to come, questions/criticism/comments very welcome.
Tim
 
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Fun stuff as always Tim.

For a poor outdoorsy type that has been locked in the studio for the last 40 days, those are a welcome reminder of the fun of production (of course I am blocking out all the political BS that comes with that job).

If the boom is completely useless for a shot then definately dump it in favor of isolating lavs. If not, then I would use the "old school" method of mxing all those lavs to one channel. This is trickier with noisy w/l like the G2 but usually a walk in the park with the better ones.

I am impressed you went the extra distance to get your director some wireless ears. If the production doesn't pay for mine, they don't get it. How else are they gonna learn? :) I would have given them the w/l on the first day as a tease and then explained that those were rentals and they will need to pay for them if they want to continue to get them. If they are too cheap for wireless I would throw a headphone splitter at them and they can all huddle around camera together.

Of course I have grown bitter over the years. :grin:

I look forward to more pics

Cheers
 
Here in SA, not many people work with wireless cans, and Im trying to change it. So Im gonna wait until they are well and truly hooked before I pull the plug. The shoot is 12 weeks, so I have the time. Oh boy, then things will get fun!
 
Informative post thanks for sharing, I would be interested to hear about your experience at the "rock club." I have a friend who is a professional opera singer and she does a cabaret. I have wanted to shoot it. I'll probably just wire her with a G2 directly into the camera ............ waiting .............waiting..................just kidding. I plan on having professional sound on hand.

Did you record live performance for the music?
 
Am I Addicted To The Sound Of The Closeup?

Am I Addicted To The Sound Of The Closeup?

OK, so we shot a day of interiors today, and I had a pretty crappy time at times. Problem is, we are generally rigging for wide shots, and then do close ups. For close ups today, I was sticking to the Oktava MK012 Hyper. And that mic sounds FAT on a closeup.

But the wides all sound a bit thin to me. Its hard for me to judge the acceptability of the audio Im gathering. Ive considered switching to the 416 for wides, but in interiors on a wide, would this just increase my reverb to dialogue ratio even further I wonder? Opinions?

So I've been breaking out the lavs occasionally to cover the wides on my second track, but DAMN! Knocked there too, because Im still using the M152's supplied with my LM Tx's. They are SUPER hard to place effectively without excessive clothing noise, and I dont really like how they sound under clothes anyway. Any suggestions for rigging a "flat" style lav effectively? I'm thinking of just giving up on them and ordering some B6's or COS-11's tonight.

Lastly, the wides are giving me real headaches with LEVEL. I've rigged my 302 for a 0db = -12db on the Z1, in order to record some hotter signals (I can afford to lose the headroom, and I figured lower dialogue on the 302 would read in the -20's this way. I'm limiting at something like 10dB, and this gives me signal peaks of about -6 on the camera when I max out the tracks on unexpected peaks. BUT on the wides Im struggling to get the peak levels to -10dB on the 302 sometimes! I DONT want to crank my gain up higher than 3 o'clock, and i DONT want to crank my fader up higher than 3 o'clock as I can start to hear the hiss on the mixer in my returns. Am I going crazy? Whats the verdict (Oleg/Jeremy/Scooby etc)?



Anyhow, some stuff from today:

Been using blackout and C-Stands a lot on our interiors to try and subdivide rooms into smaller sections where I can afford to. This pictur below shows how we halved a room to try and kill that "boxy" room sound. The result in conjunction with the Oktava was great. The scene was a casting, and we used a prop 416 on a fixed C-stand/boom to cover the audioning actor, and the difference between hyper and shotgun was VERY obvious to me. Not a whole lot worse, but I prefered the oktava VASTLY.


Acoustic Treament

Those are the issues and triumphs of today. Got the day off tomorrow. Thank goodness, Im a wreck! Later... Tim
 
usually i run + 4 dbu tone to -20 dbfs
mix for average picks are hitting +10 dbu +12 dbu , the limiters are set for +16 what live me with 8 db of headroom until the brick wall or better to say the hard limiter you have before a2 d converter

put the camera output level for +2v , it is still to low but it get you some reference you are good on tape
wind off
nr off
the camera has very dissent sound and the gain structure is better then the dvx
 
hey oleg, hope you're doin ok there in the war zone...

my concern is that for this show in particular, its very difficult for me to get my peaks up at 10 dBu with some of the dialogue/shot constraints we are having - it would involve me putting all my dials at maximum, which is obviously not too desirable.

all the other details i am running - 2v output, wind off, nr off, etc.

I just worry that the levels im sending to tape are already sometimes too low with this show - thats why im using the -12 reference.

thoughts?
 
war zone? - what war zone , you need a fresh paper:-) , just finishing another low budget **** with 750 hd .
by the way 1 milion what $, rand? budget with sony hdv ?
 
by the way you can export the tc from z-1 tru the lunk link or work free run and only slate ones in a couple of hours
 
yeah, i havent even SEEN a paper in a while. but theres always a war going in the east somewhere.. its a sad thing. glad things are better where you are now.

i was off on the budget, its about maybe 800,000 US$. I dont want to even get INTO where that money is being wasted, or how much the producer is pouring into a new ferrari, but there ya go.

Thanks for the TC tip... We were working free run on the reality show, so I know that one, but didnt think about the other idea..
 
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Ok, so just wrapped the day for Week 2 and thought I'd do a bit of an update to this thread.

Heres some stuff I learned/experienced this week:

Manipulating the Lighting-
Ive become very into finding and eliminating offending practical light sources in one of our principal locations (a house). The gaffer loves that I take an interest (sort of), and has been very accomodating of letting me kill practicals that are hurting me. We've hit some SERIOUS shadow problems on this show, but it seems like these are being resolved now that the lighting/sound department are working much closer together.

Lav Hassles and Victories-
The lectro m152 lav is NOT a good mic for concealed applications. Actually, its horrible. Ive had some real hit and miss applications on the show, but clothing noise with that mic SUCKS. Im curious though - how do you guys mount flat style lavs under clothes - it seems the sticky triangle system is not really suited to this sort of mic, so Im curious what you guys are doing. Had some great victories using lavs as plant mics, though - been using them quite a bit to this end - check out the pictures.

Mobile Recording-
Had a lot of car scenes this last while, and approached them all quite differently, check out the pic of the lavs in the Chrysler Grand Voyager. We also did a full on boom swing inside a moving bus which was very interesting. Pics below.

A Good Actor CARES About Sound-
We've got some SUPER great actors on the show, people that are always open to listening to my feedback on the levels they were hitting etc. Lets face it, sometimes you need to ask for more level. And WE are in the position to tell them how they are translating on the mic. All the actors I've been working with really appreciate it if I tell them which takes their levels dipped on, as it helps them make sure they are sounding good on camera (strange term). Ive got really into working with actors to fine tune dialogue delivery points and head angles, and also level continuity. And it makes a BIG difference on my life!


Our 1st AD in a SA Informal Settlement


Car Mount - 2 Lectro 100's in a Chrysler Grand Voyager roof cubby hole, with M152 lavs.


Killing troublesome shadow throwers - little roof lights. Used black foil and tape.


Shooting in a moving bus - full on boom work in a bus! Used the Oktava MK012 after trying out the 416 and deciding the Oktava was doing better for that setup.


This is a wireless lav plant I used on the train last week - we had some dialogue outside the cabin I wanted to get a close sounding option on, so made this rig and worked with the director to block the actress into a spot where delivery would be good for the mic. Its sometimes amazing how much better a lav works OFF the body as opposed to ON it.



Hope this was a good read for anyone that checks it out... im WIPED out, we worked around 80hours this week, i think. Today we shot 11 minutes, which was a serious rush of a day.

Cheers,
Tim
 
Topstick wig tape works really well instead of triangles. You should be able to find it or something similar at wig and costume shops.

With Tram/Sonotrim/M150 style mics you can often hide them on the breast plate/cleavage of most men. Assuming they have some pectoral muscles. That can be a noisy area depending on fabric, chest development, and other random unpredictable factors but some strategically placed Topstick (subtly placed on either pec) can kill that alot of the time. Othertimes you are just screwed and have to get really creative.

Gotta love it when you have a camera dept and talent that cares about sound. I jump at any chance to work with DPs that will actually flag off shadows for sound. It is often in the talents best interest to make our jobs easier, otherwise it's just more time in the studio later. Experienced actors often understand that and will cooperate but it's espeically cool if the younger ones actually care.

Speaking of which, some of your female talent looks pretty young, how are you dealing with the getting them laved? I did a TV show with a TON of underaged girls and getting help from wardrobe everytime I needed to deal with their lavs was an absolute nightmare...and of course they all wore sports bras and polyester shirts.

Love those pics. Always looking forward to more. The lavs in the car seem placed just ripe for some phasing issues, maybe not, can't really read the perspective on that photo. Did you mix those or keep on seperate channels? Cool cubby hole, if all cars had that our job would be so much easier.

Cheers
 
wabbit said:
I jump at any chance to work with DPs that will actually flag off shadows for sound.
Click to expand...
This question definitely comes from lack of experience... but how do shadows affect sound? Shadows from the boom op getting in the shot?

-shawn
 
Tim,

There is also a surgical tape called Hypofix that I use...it is pourous (sp?) and sticks like crazy. It's used in hospitals to hold IV lines in place. You can put it right over the head of the mic and it works wonders. I rarely bother with the triangles any more.

As far as sticking in the actor's "cleavage" be sure to offer them the chance to shave before sticking it right on the skin. Did you see 40 First Dates???? ;-)

Phil
 
shawnmaddock said:
This question definitely comes from lack of experience... but how do shadows affect sound? Shadows from the boom op getting in the shot?

-shawn
Click to expand...
You got it. Often a DP will light the hell out of scene so there is no room to get a boom in without getting shadow. A helpful DP will provide some flags to allow you to get in there somewhere.

It does go the other way too. I talked to a mixer who knew a situation where the animosity between the sound dept and camera grew so bad the DP would go out of his way to light the boom out of the shot. Not a common story but you do hear those tales from time to time.

Cheers
 
ptalsky said:
As far as sticking in the actor's "cleavage" be sure to offer them the chance to shave before sticking it right on the skin.
Click to expand...

But if they shave later you end up with that stuble that scraches the sound all to hell. I always warn actors about the chest hair being pulled out but guys' masculinity and desire to look tough usually makes them blow it off. Generally I try to discourage any shaving unless they are those Bear types and their chest hairs are actually gonna create noise rubbing on their shirts. Even then you better make sure they have shirtless scenes coming up.

I think it was on RAMPS I read a tale of a sound guy who was fired for having an actor shave for his lav when later he had to do a shirtless scene and the director freaked out when he saw the actor's shaved chest. Probably more an urban legend but I could certainly see that happening.

ptalsky said:
Did you see 40 First Dates???? ;-)
Click to expand...

I did but refresh my memory on that one :)

Cheers
 
Steve Carrell (sp?) goes in for a waxing (he has a very very hairy chest) - very funny scene that they did in one set of takes (for obvious reasons...) Lots of hair being removed. ;-)
And whoops - it was the 40 Year Old Virgin - Not 40 First Dates. D'oh!

Phil
 
You know, I thought of correcting you to 50 First Dates but figured, why bother, since there was no confusion...color me wrong. :embarasse
 
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