Sankens, Trams, and Mickey Twos

Best experience with multiple wireless to date. Good thing, too. I was recording an 8 page scene, shot on film with the director following his actors around a living room with an Aaton XTR Super 16mm camera on his shoulder. The master shot was using all 360 degrees of direction, which means no place to hide microphone cable. The camera was handheld and moving, with no video assist, which means an unpredictable frameline to keep a microphone above. The take was about 8 minutes long, which is far too long for most arms to hold a boom overhead with precision and grace. Fortunately, we just happened to have excellent professional wireless on hand.

I used Sanken COS-11 microphones for the first time. The thin, square, rubber mounts proved to work very well against the evil that is known as cloth noise. We adhered them to the inside of the actors’ shirts with clear and chewy 3M Adhesive Transfer Tape (a.k.a snot). The mike head rests in the open via a cut out in the mount, just behind the fabric without contact, and moves with the shirt so there’s never any friction on the grille. The only time I heard cloth was the inevitable sound of a shirt shifting around while an actor walks briskly, luckily not over any of his lines. Put your ear down near your shoulder and move your shirt with your hand to hear what that sounds like.

Two days earlier we used Trams to wire the talent. I have to say that the voice sounded clearer with the Tram versus the Sanken on that set. However, I suspect different microphones work better with different circumstances. The Sanken on the lead actress yesterday sounded absolutely delicious. Wiring technique is not a hard science because there are too many variables—every voice, microphone placement, and wardrobe is unique. Nina enunciated her words clearly, with pleasant tonal qualities, and she was wearing a cotton T-shirt. We used a backup Sennheiser ME 2, as our fourth lav, for the boy playing her son, tucked just inside his collar to sound more open then on his chest. His voice came through a little less clear. It was sort of like listening to someone talk with their hand over their mouth, only not nearly that extreme. The difference is subtle enough that I doubt an audience would notice, but it’s quite a difference to gear heads. I read that the MKE 2 performs higher than the ME 2, which is the standard issue lav with the G2 wireless kits. I used one once about a year ago, recording customer testimonials for Quickbooks, but I couldn’t tell the difference back then.

Trams rock, Sankens are dope, and Mickey Twos are a’ight, for my fellow ‘up and comer’ sound guys. One thing is for sure, transmission reception is lightyears better with Lectrosonics transmitters and receivers. I’ll write about that later.

The shoot went very well, despite not having many opportunities to boom. I never heard any signal drop-outs, clothing didn’t overlap with any dialogue, and voices sounded more like someone speaking in front of you, rather than someone speaking while your ear is resting on their chest.

Sound Depth of Field

So I was sleepless last night after having been in bed only 3 hours, and decided to try reading on the couch. Good time for the deeper concepts of David Sonnenschein, which I don’t have the patience for normally. I’ve picked up and put down the book so many times, I can’t remember which parts I’ve been over. Terms like "emotional inventory" and "musique concrète" demand a mode of creative thinking that doesn’t jive with my practical side. He’s showing the artistic potential within a mostly technical craft. It crosses the wires in my brain because I know the conditions on the battlefield of production don’t allow for such artistic freedom. It’s like how military warfare could be more like performing ballet. I came to a place where he wrote that people can only subjectively discern one or two sounds at a time, any more would blend together as one sound. “Bullshit,” I thought.

I fetched myself a bowl of leftover spaghetti, and put on the DVD the director lent me as an example of great sound design. I sat with my ears maybe 18 inches from the speakers of my TV, with my face in the spaghetti, and listened to the opening scene of the movie as the light from the picture glowed around me. You can actually hear a lot of distinct sounds without the distraction of the visual sense. I was fascinated that no matter where it was in the movie… no more than 3 sounds were going on at any given moment, and many times just one sound. They actually killed the background sound of cicadas in the desert when a car radio started, and when the radio stopped, the cicadas faded back in. This was the answer I was looking for regarding the sound equivalent of focus, or depth-of-field.

Earlier today, actually, my wife wanted to show me how clean the Wilhelm Scream* is in Pixar’s Lifted. It was very clean, albeit also very wet because the character falls down a hole, but I noticed something else. When the story continues aurally as the credits burn in on screen, we hear each sound separately, like they each take a turn without overlapping. Alarm clock, bird tweets, yawn, bed creak, Wilhelm, and body fall. That is fascinating! Now, certainly this is partly do to the comedy of a cartoon. Mechanical rhythm from what appears to be organic is funny. However, I think I’m on to one of the secrets to the magic of movie sound.

One sound at a time accomplishes two goals. It directs the audience’s attention to an object and it is heard clearly.

A scene between two people talking in a car came later. The sound of the car running was mixed very low. It seemed to be at most one third of the volume of the voices. The dialogue dominates unrealistically, but it works. Sound design served the story. That’s the key I’m striving to achieve.


*The Wilhelm scream was burned into my emotional memory as a stormtrooper falling when I was very young, because I watched and rewatched Star Wars so many times growing up. It's like your memory of a guitar solo in a song. When you hear it out of place, sampled in another song, you notice! I have been aware of the stormtrooper scream in movies just as long as I can remember but I never really could convince my friends that it was true. Well, I was right.

In The Works

Going to be doing post production sound for WWJD. I'm obsessively organizing myself for the project: contacts, schedule, budget, calendar, lists. My first screening was Monday night; I saw the third cut of the movie. Picture lock should be happening sometime next week. Meanwhile, I'm carefully planning out the hours I'll most likely spend based on past experiences. Also ran a test OMF conversion, which revealed an odd problem that I hope can be fixed before picture delivery. As always, when I'm ramping up to work, I'm reading my technical books like crazy to see what else I can learn to prepare a smoother workflow.

I also met with the head sound guy at a production company, who may have some freelance production gigs for me next month. As fate would have it, I got a call last night for a live event happening tonight. There will be a filmmaking discussion on stage among five people at a theater in Beverly Hills. Today, I'll be running up to Coffey to pick up the mikes, the mixer, and the cables, to hook into the theater's system. Scary thing is, I've never seen this place, nor will I be permitted to load in until 30 minutes before showtime! Wish me luck.

Deva

Let me tell you about the Deva. When I started looking outside of college for professional audio gear, my Google search stumbled upon a blog by Glen Trew. His Memoirs of a Sound Mixer spoke of working on Jersey Girl, a Kevin Smith movie. I like Kevin Smith movies. Cool. Hey, he's working with Vilmos Zsigmond! Vilmos was one of the only 2 cinematographers that visited my school when I was there. So this is what it's like on a "real" set. Glen included some pictures of his equipment, too. It was my first time seeing a cart. I studied his labelled jpeg with boyish wonder, soaking in all the components. I'd never seen a mixing board outdoors before, and my, how boxy it looks. How cool is that? He's got little monitors on his cart, and a surface for taking notes! It all seemed so logical. Of course this is how a sound department should be. Why could I have never imagined it? Boy, I felt like I had just ducked underwater and seen the rest of the iceberg. Names like Sanken, Countryman, Lectrosonics and Zaxcom, names that are industry standards, I had never heard of before. At this point, I pretty much only knew the name Sennheiser, what a Fostex FR-2 and a Nagra was, and my Sony MDR-7506 headphones. I had know idea that the sound department handed out headphones for others to listen, using Comtek transmitters and receivers. Hey, I remember the cans I wore on the ESPN Racing said Comtek on the cups. Curiously, I had never seen a DAT recorder, because its time had come and gone, replaced by solid state recorders. Glen's main recorder was capable of 4 tracks! My first glimpse of a multitrack recorder was Zaxcom's Deva. Today, the Deva is up to 10 tracks, writes to an internal hard drive and to compact flash cards, instead of DVD-RAM. Many of the production sound mixers at Jeff Wexler's forum use one. Phillip Palmer, the first production sound blogger I found and the inspiration of this blog, has gone through about three versions of the Deva. I have been following the mythical machine for over a year now through the lens of the internet telescope. Last weekend, I finally got to try one out.

Hat Trick

Good time last Friday. Thanks to Shahin for insisting on bringing me aboard Gabe Michael's webisode.

I finally tried out a hat rig. Dave was wearing a necktie, and I had originally placed the microphone inside the knot with the wire running inside his shirt. That sound was working, there was no cloth rustling, but his voice was slightly muffled from all the fabric in the tie. I repositioned the lav to inside his shirt, just to the right of the buttons over his sternum. This sound was clearer, but too bassy. It was like resting your head on someone's chest as they talk. Dave was wearing a cap that day. I looked at the brim and my eyes lit up. The brim is tilted downward when he stands, nobody would see a mike capsule sitting just an inch in front of his forehead, the mike would be out in the open more like an overhead boom. I asked Dave if I could try it and he was game.

Here's a close up. Smooth. The wire runs along the middle of his hair and then down inside his collar. It wasn't even visible from the back!
There was a wide shot outdoors of Dave playing guitar and singing. Obviously, my boom placed the mike as close as I could while staying out of frame, which turned out to be diagonally about six feet away. The guitar was loud, and its sound bled out to the concrete steps and the surrounding buildings. The audio mix of the boom getting that and the lav picking up voice louder than instrument sounded amazing. I love when you get two perspectives in a stereo pair. Sounds like the environment is really alive.

Butter

Ahh... Nestlé's Butterfinger. Big name. Big candy bar. Tiny budget. Say what??

Yes. This is one of the lowest paid gigs I've had. It's a scheduled 12 hour day, plus an additional two for those going on the last minute tech scout. The budget for the entire sound department (the sound mixer, the boom operator, and the equipment) was a whopping $300. *Gasp* We pulled favors from three other places to complete the sound package. We wanted five microphones out there: 1 boom, and 4 wireless. Sy's kit so far is a 4 track recorder, a boom, a bag, and the necessary cables. The 2nd A.D. lent us his 3 input mixer, the 1st A.D. lent us his little buddy, and our Alma Mater lent us the other three wireless kits. I bought a roll of snot for $4.25.

Since my last job, I really felt the deep need to be uber-prepared, so I decided to go up to location two hours early for the tech scout. There's not much I could do as a sound guy on a tech scout (since the location is already locked down) other than advise against noisy spots and try to stake out my boom operating territory. However, I liked the idea that I'd have plenty of time to scan Griffith Park for open RF frequencies (the tip of the Santa Monica mountains overlooking Hollywood on one side and Burbank on the other sees a lot of radio-TV signals). The Sennheiser G2's are much less convenient than the Lectrosonics, in this regard. See, the Lectro receivers can scan the 256 selectable frequencies in it's block of UHF and present a graph on the little display screen to give you an instant idea of which radio frequencies are cleanest at your location. It takes about 30 seconds. The G2 receivers can only scan 4 selectable frequencies per bank at a time (There's either 7 or 8 banks plus a customizable User bank), and it only tells you which of the four is best at the time you scanned, at your location. The only indicator of the strength of radio energy on or close to the frequency selected is a row of 7 bars fluttering on and off as a miniature peak meter, and a green LED labeled RF which will be on when receiving strong RF. So, it doesn't scan the area and report back which frequencies are open, it only reports which of your four channels with the least interference. This becomes a ten minute task now, as I go through each bank of four channels looking for the one that is least evil. Stop. Okay, as I am writing this blog, I've been referring to the online manul to make sure I got the facts straight, and I discovered an error in my thinking. Actually, the SCAN feature tells you how many of the 4 channels are free. Boy that would helped to know. Jiminy Christmas. Alright. Well, the only times I get to play with these is when I'm on set, since I don't any, and only when I'm having issues. However, if none of the banks have enough free channels, you're still going to have to find freqs by trial and error through the User bank. There's 1440 different choices! Needless to say, it's not a quick fix. That's why I wanted to be there early.

But that didn't happen. I hitched a ride from the A.D.s that day, but they got held up at Budget because the 12 passenger van they reserved was not there. Had to go to the downtown office to pick one up, holdiing us back about an hour and a half. Got to location about a half hour early, but my partner in crime had volunteered to pick up walkies from Wilcox, fire exitinguishers from another place, and make a stop at Location Sound for adapter cables. The poor guy showed up about 20 minutes after call time, (missing breakfast) with most of our gear, including the wireless. The D.P. was going to use natural light during the day, so with no lights to set up, the whole crew had to wait on us for about 30 minutes. Luckily, the mixer brought a print out of L.A. TV stations' frequencies, so I knew which channels not to even try. The snot tape worked great on the ME 2 lavs. I never had to change the tape, and they stayed put under the talents' shirts for the whole day. I just left the wires on them and removed the bodypack transmitters during breaks. We had just a bit of drop-out at one spot on one actor, but otherwise, the wireless worked perfectly. Good thing, too. Booming was another story.

Normally, on a shoot that's been prepared, a scene will be covered from several angles (wide, medium, close) and there's plenty of chances to get the best sound, which is always from a well-placed overhead boom.* This shoot was so run and gun, that the D.P. operating the camera wouldn't know what his frame was supposed to be before shooting. That makes it a challenge. I want to get in close but I have to keep one eye on the camera and guess how wide or tight he is, so I can ride the frame without dipping in. The focus puller had it bad, too. It was all guesswork for us during the day.

*Lavs can save your soundtrack sometimes, but they don't have the same response, and they often must be placed on the chest, making actors sound a little bassy. It's like putting your ear on someone's chest and listening to them talk. Booms sound amazingly clear and natural comparatively. There are techniques to help this trouble with lavs, but generally you can always tell which track is a boom and which track is a lav.

After lunch, and our transition into night shooting, the rest of the day went swimmingly. Great sound. We won. There was a fun moment on one tracking shot of feet running through the woods. The Gaffer took a china ball on the end of a pole and boomed the feet for a little extra fill. Naturally, I'm doing the same with a microphone on the end of my pole. We ran together on opposite sides of the tacks as the dolly glided alongside the running actor. Just before the take, with our arms up in a mirror image I looked at him and he looked at me and we smirked.

Rough

7 wireless on a dead man's mixer...

This job was a quick response to a request from Richard. I got a call just after 5 PM Wednesday for a Friday morning shoot, covering a room of advertising folks talking about the creative process. Seven actors, seven lavs. What are our options? Got it. I immediately called Coffey Sound to figure this one out.

I could have rented a Deva 5.8, and had 8 isolated tracks (7 lav, 1 boom) and a stereo mix. That was the most expensive option at about $150 for the Deva. I could have gone dirt cheap and rented an 8 channel mixer ($50) and 7 hardwire lavs ($20 ea.). Instead, I went sort of middle of the road and asked for wireless lavs and a mixer. That may have been a mistake.

On Thursday, I was still waiting to get confirmation of the shoot. Once that was greenlit, I coordinated between the producer and the rental man to make sure our rentals were covered with the credit card authorization and the certificate of insurance. It's part of the biz, although not my direct responsibility if a producer is renting the gear. On my way to North Hollywood from Long Beach I still didn't know if I was going to be walking away with rentals or nothing. It all worked out. I walked away with Lectrosonics UCR411As, UM400s, M152s, and a Mackie 1604VLZ-Pro. I was so excited I had to drive to Pasadena to show Shahin. Beautiful stuff.

Friday morning traffic was exceptionally bad. I left at about 7:15 and did not arrive until 9:15 AM in West Hollywood. There was only about 30 minutes to set up. Normally, this is not a problem. This time, however, I had to wire seven people, each taking about 2 minutes. The boom had to be placed, the cable had to be run out to the phantom, and then to Shahin's 744T recorder. Seven outputs from the receivers needed to be connected to seven inputs on the mixer, and the main outputs of the mixer had to be connected to the recorder as well. Sounds simple enough.

"Complications arised when..."

1. One mike clip was in two pieces.
2. One antennae was not the right length.
3. No signal from lav #5.
4. No output from lav #'s 1, 2, 3, and 4.
5. Overload on random inputs, weak on others.
6. Main out did not sound as clear as Control out (used for monitoring).
7. They want to shoot right now!

All I could do was attack each problem one at a time, following the signal flow. Shahin carefully reconnected the two microphone clip pieces. I attached the only antannae that was left and hoped the discrepency of 2 or 3 millimeters* would not matter at such close range. I went over to the man wearing the #5 transmitter and checked what the dials were set to: 1 and 4. Sure enough, the corresponding receiver was not set to 14, it was set to 88. Fixed that. All of the receivers had different output levels in their menus. I set each of them to +4 dB, which I was told would be standard line level. It wasn't quite right for the Mackie, as I had to turn the trim pots down almost all the way, but the seven inputs were consistent and I didn't have time to fuss with it. No output from the first 4 lavs had me stumped for a few minutes. Mind you, at the same time I'm doing all this troubleshooting, I'm getting distracted by the producer asking me questions. I hear "What's going on?" and "I need solutions." The solution, without allowing time to explore fixing the signals, is to go with the boom only. The line is direct, clean, and will get everyone in the room. Not what he or the executive standing across from me wanted to hear. The executive said he wanted that close-up sound, "That's why we have this here." He walked off, and I told Richard, "I understand where he's coming from--" and he cut me off with, "He is the vice president of this company," and "He's my boss." I was attempting to get across that I acknowledged the demands and was working towards getting them satisfied. The pressure to go even inspired me to offer this alternative, "Would you like to take a look at it?" Daniel told me to try swapping inputs to determine if the cables or the jacks were bad. A good troubleshooting idea that had not popped in my head just yet. Lav #1 did come through when I plugged it into input #5. Then Daniel pointed out the routing buttons beside each fader. Aha! The little grey rectangle labeled "L-R" had not been pushed down to route the signal to the main output (stereo). One at a time, I quickly pushed each fader up while the others stayed down, to be sure each line was loud and clear. Good. Good. Good. Good. Good. Good. Good. Suddenly, Richard is calling for picture up... but I'm not finished yet. There's still the matter of the muddy sound we hear from the mixer via the recorder.

People were too anxious. The executives wanted to just document a casual, seated discussion about some of their successful advertising campaigns. However, they did not really know what they were going to say in advance. So, tape would just roll and hopefully, some little gems would pop up in the staged casual conversation. They didn't want anything fancy, which hindered Matt from creating a Rembrandt with every frame. Poor room choice, flat lighting, and improvised content. One thing they were decisive about was getting done by 2 o'clock. Did they even care about what they were making?

I bet if one of the cameras was off color balance, they would wait.

The next 3 hours Shahin and I pulled at our hats for a rabbit. New problems surfaced. The main outs: one line was definitely louder than the other, the other crackled a couple times from a bad connector or cable, and the sound was still muddy compared to the clarity of the phones out. I did, of course, try plugging in to that jack but it caused terrible distortion. Looking back, it may have worked had I turned down the monitor volume. There was just not any time to experiment. We were shooting 15 minute takes. A strange intermittent buzz showed up about halfway into our session. Shahin discovered it was coming through the 744's power cable. Once detached, and on battery only, the intermittent buzz went away. I chalk it up to dirty power from the office building. To put a Band-Aid on the muddy mix, I boosted the highs from my end so that more would come through to the recorder. What a mess.



*We needed an antennae for a block 21 transmitter (brown tip) and we had an antennae for a block 22 (red tip).

Guessed Alumnus

Friday I got a call from Drue Metz inviting me to be one of the guest alumni at the first ever Film and Electronic Arts Orientation. The event was designed to introduce the department to students of the major and incoming freshmen. The courtyard of the UTC hosted a hamburger and hot dog cook-out with a few tables set up as booths for the Equipment Room and some other program information. The big reference monitor bought last semester was out, showing the promotional video Gol and Alexis put together. I rather like that video. I can be spotted briefly on the Balloons crew, and so is a clip from my movie. Shahin was the cook, grillin' burgers! I got to know Trystan Savage-Tate, the dependable teenage grip on Charlie, a little better. He is an entering freshman to Cal State Long Beach and he asked which courses he should take. I like him. He's quiet and bright. Moments after three o'clock, guests were shuffled in to the University Theater to hear the Drue, the Dean of the Collage of Arts, the Chair of the FEA Dept. speak enthusiastically about the future of our film school at CSULB. Generous contributions have enabled the department to upgrade the facilities and purchase new film gear. The latest installment of $500,000 was just deposited in May from our favorite anonymous donor (*cough* Spielberg). The faculty present was asked to come down to the foot of the stage to be introduced. Then came my turn. Nathan, Alexis, and I were called out from the seats to walk down and give the students an idea of who we are today. Nate and the lovely Jew on my right went first, answering the three questions quite casually with a bit of humor. Here I come. "When did you graduate, how was your FEA experience, and what have you been doing since?" Public speaking never feels as natural as a conversation between friends, even though I should have been at ease here. I had an empowering introduction. Drue naturally called attention to my long hair, and my fun name is always received well. Did he call me studly? When I spoke, I felt that I must not fail to get the words out at a normal rhythm, to combine candor and optimism, and punctuate the end with an entertaining statement. I can't remember what I said. It all blurred together and soon it was done. Here's what I know I mentioned: "Be cool with everybody," A quick anecdote that I was probably one of those guys Nathan mentioned who just came to class and watched movies until I got to talking to the boys in the Equipment Room, and put up a sign. An affirmation of the importance of networking, as had been stated earlier, and a testament to my experience: I've worked on forty four projects and, except for two, all have been from referrals. I just pick up the phone and say, "Ya, let's do it!" I guess I could remember most of it. The rest of the afternoon was filled with smiles, hugs, and many new faces approaching me to compliment my words and ask for advice. That's a nice feeling.

Of Mice and Men

It wasn't really the best laid plans from the outset. I smelled trouble when I first saw the tentative schedule at the production meeting actually listing a 16 hour day and four 12 hour days. Two brothers wanted to make a short comedy for about $20,000. They knew Matt Hill, the producer/co-writer of Charlie, and he was the connection that reunited most of the dream team from Cal State Long Beach back for another show: Matt Irwin as D.P., Chloe Weaver as 1st A.C., A-Rod as Gaffer, Daniel Woltosz as 1st A.D., Shahin and I on sound, and many, many others. The catering was wonderful. Homemade cookin' from Victor and Fabian's family. I didn't mind so much that the locations were far from home. I "renegaded it" with a bag to sleep at friends' houses and catching rides to get there. Trouble came from unforeseen, and unnecessary set-backs that turned our shooting schedule and the budget into a fiasco.





Saturday. Upland. Empty store on 2nd Avenue. 7:00 AM Call.
Out the door at 5:55. Arrived at 6:59. A white grip truck sits by the back door, some of the key crew is there, the crafty table is up, and inside are a couple of guys laying down thin, charcoal-colored carpet with a staple gun. The set construction is not finished. We had only one shot off by lunch. My wife bet me I wouldn't be finished until three in the morning. Close. I was ready to drive home at 2:22 AM. Tired but awake, I grabbed my Hot Hands and went to collect sandbags, wrap lights, and pick-up trash. These are my friends, after all. Home at 4:30 to unwind from a ridiculously long day. No time for that. I was checking email when my clock radio alarm went off at 5:01, as it had the day before. Time for bed. My ride is picking me up at 11:30. 20 hours on set. 5 hours of sleep.

Sunday. Lancaster. Avenue G and 40th St E. 1:00 PM Call.
I came to around 10:00 AM and felt sort of awake. I showered, packed a bag, and got out to the front lawn just before Chris Simone, the 2nd A.D., showed up to give me a ride. Long Beach to Lancaster took 2 hours. We arrived to two CHP cars, our Grip truck, a few personal vehicles, and no key crew there yet but Woltosz. Closing down a section of this road in the desert cost $1,300. Daniel had been careful to ask questions at each agency at every stage of securing this location. Nobody mentioned roadsigns. The CHP informed us that we had to provide official roadsigns: two MEN AT WORK and two ROAD CLOSED. No place nearby was open on Sunday and one place would've charged $600 to make them. Then the Four Aces Motel was remembered. It's a movie set, after all. Did they have signs to close a road? Yes. We gave them 80 bucks for whatever they had. Good thing the CHP officers waited. Our production could have been shut down. They sat in their air conditioned vehicles for the most part, with the engines running, and came out to eat our food. Look at all the Red Vines in his hand! This location had maybe 12 cars drive by within the 5 hours we were there. Worse still, the picture car arrived two hours late. It was ratchet strapped to the wrong type of trailer, making its roof about 6 feet off the ground. "This is not going to work!," M.I. affirmed to M.H. Matt hand-tightened the straps as much as he could, effectively compressing the shocks as far as they can go and lowering the car about ten inches, better than nothing. We were slow to start again. A carmount had to be configured with camera and lights. 1st shot was off sometime after 5 PM. Not much time before sunset. We couldn't get the wireless hop clean fast enough, so I ended up hiding in the back seat behind the actors with a wire to the recorder. I think we did about three takes, punched in for a tighter shot (and Shahin gave it a try hiding in the back), and then the crew stopped to set-up a hostess tray on the rear right window for an insert of the dashboard Jesus. Suddenly, it was unclear what the set-up was. The hostess tray was removed before camera was mounted, and the picture car was being driven off the trailer. Sun was too close to the horizon. Got to get the wide shot of the car passing by. Shahin and I had to scramble to get the recorder out of the car, leave the cables, and run back to basecamp for another boom mike. Writer/Producer Fabian saw me heading back and gave me a lift in his car. He pulled up to our crate, I grabbed the Zeppelin and hopped back in. As we were driving back, the camera was facing our way and about three people were waving their arms and shouting to us to get out of the shot! Fabian pulled over quick, the picture car drove by, and the camera got one take, barely. Not a big deal for sound to miss this shot, but the rush was the kind of event that makes me think, "What the fuck just happened?" There was no advanced knowledge of that shot. We had with us just what we needed to stay inside the car. No announcements, no communication. The only way Shahin and I could prepare was to watch closely and guess where the camera is going to next, while simultaneously wrapping or preparing equipment inside a car that's only entrance is through the window, Dukes of Hazard style. It seriously happened in a flash, there was no time to talk to those making decisions on the fly. Afterwards, company moved to a large office building owned by Daniel's Dad, where we had two shots to get. We didn't leave there till 3 AM. I don't know what happened there. I rode with Matt and Chloe back to their new place in Burbank. Shower. Water. Listened to A-Rod talk about his grip Yasu's mastery of English yielding some creative descriptions. They were at a drive-thru and the lady at the window had a lazy eye. Yasu said to A-Rod, "Her eye is remote, like a horse." Ah, laughter can feel so good when I'm exhausted.
On the couch and asleep by 7:30. 15 hour day. 5.5 hours sleep.

Monday. Fontana. Large asphalt lot. 3:00 PM Call.

Up at 1:00 PM. I dreamt that I lived with Matt, Chloe, and A-Rod and there was a conspiracy among them to turn me in for a murder I committed while working at a Target Store. Once captured, I was tied up in a dark room where someone cut off my hair while Clint Eastwood took photos of me. Then I was lead into a war room showcasing a luminescent table-map of terrain in the center, where the four of us were given new identities and assigned a reconnaissance mission in the Arctic Circle. I shared this over coffee and toast with Boysenberry Jam, just before we left at 2 PM. What hiccups would we find today? First, our delivery of the generator did not come with a key to open the vents. Luckily, Kris Hidalgo knew how to pick the simple lock with two bobby pins. Next, the set needed the letters "UNITED STATES BORDER" and the promised painters never showed. Hidalgo, our production designer, stood on a scaffolding doing it himself with blue masking tape for 12 hours, while we covered other angles until the sun came up. Mostly a good day, though still way too long. Went to Shahin's home for a real bed. In fact, I got to stay in my own little house with personal shower, since his family was on vacation. Dead tired at this point. 18 hour day. 6.5 hours sleep.

Tuesday. 4:00 PM Call.
We left at 3:55. This day actually kinda flowed. However, at wrap we were promised two P.A.s to guard all the equipment during the day, so that the elaborate lighting set-up didn't have to be struck completely. We wrapped at dawn. Only Daniel, Shahin and I were left at 7:30 AM. We stuck by him. He called the director, the co-producer, and the owner of the location three times. The owner finally showed up at 9:10 AM. Stayed with Danny till about 9:15 AM. Went home with Shahin. He made me a tuna pita with ketchup. Exquisite. Watched a bit of Forrest Gump. Asleep by 11:00. 18 hour day. 7 hours sleep.
Wednesday. 7:00 PM Call.
This is the day. When I wake up, it's 6:00 PM. Ya. Not going to be getting down to Coffey Sound. And what can I say? One pistol. One SMG. The two actors peel away from the border inspection in the Plymouth Belvedere with guns out. No firing. The weapons guy didn't look happy (Why was he even there?). The D.P. and I were sad pandas, as well. He had even taken a one day class on arms for this. I was going to use an old dynamic just out of frame, our old 416 about ten feet away, and the new 416 twice that distance facing distant buildings. The actor was wearing a wire, and I was ready to take the microphone away for the gun firing takes. I had seen a list of SPL numbers measured from a shooter's ear for 9 mm rounds. Listed were 157, 154, etc. I was thinking about inverse square law and max SPL for the mikes which averaged 130 dB. A post I made at an online forum for sound people generated a lot of replies. We had ear plugs. I had a plan. The producer did not. I found out from the D.P. that we didn't have a permit to film at the location in Fontana. Those of us with some common sense decided to change the scene from guns a blazing to guns threatening the guard as they high tail it out of there. Sigh. We were under a lot of pressure to get the rest of the film done by sunrise. This is the kind of day where the sound team is totally ignored because everyone is scrambling to ready the set-ups for camera. D.P. would shout, "We're just going to shoot it!" or "If you're not lighting this scene, clear the set!" and one was even, "I'm rolling now!" with no A.D. call, no slate, and no heads up of any kind. It was a battle to be out of the way and prepared at the same time. And yet we won. It all sounds golden. I did say to the mixer, "Man, what's the deal with this schedule? We're not fighting a war, we're making art!" He laughed and laughed. Home in Long Beach at 11:00. Kissed my wife and went to sleep.

I will only have good memories of What Would Jesús Do? The camaraderie I get from working so many hours with folks I consider my friends is something special. The long hours, the production-stalling hiccups, and the sleep deprivation will be remembered from this blog, and of course Matt's signature on the oversized check prop summed up the experience succinctly when he wrote, " Fuck. -M.I."

Thesis Circuit

Saw a familiar face this morning going through yesterday's RED footage. It was Chris Hall, from Weak Species. He said, "Are you on the thesis circuit?" Funny. This was Day 2 of another USC thesis, Good Grief. I've seen a few other SC students from Empty Quiver. Matt and Jill are grips again. I see J. Guy's name on the G&E list. He was D.P. on Species and Gaffer on last summer's pick-ups of The Samurai of Strongsville, Ohio. It's great to see Beth Jackson again as D.P. because she is mindful of sound: she is attentive to noises and grants us the space we need for close mike with no shadows. Landon and I are grateful.

That's right. Landon again. He recruited me for this eight-day shoot to be the mixer. It's not much money ($50 a day) but it's work, and this has been a dry summer for me. Plus there's the added glamour of working on a production from the Peter Stark Producing Program. Ha. Ha. Ha. I'll sum it up this way. Big toys in the hands of newbies. It doesn't seem to matter where people get their film education, everybody has to learn by doing, and this is the first time ever on a production for some of these graduate students.

Take this "crane" for example--a 23 foot jib arm on a Fisher dolly.

Now it is understandable that a complicated movement will take longer to set up and rehearse, and eat more takes before it comes out right, because nailing a smooth move is tricky and demands practice. Call was 7:30 AM. The first shot was after 11:00 AM. I stood on a second floor outdoor walkway, covering the action of high school students making out, which is what the camera glides over to from the opening treetops. Take after take, as the camera swooped over, I swore that matte box was pointing right at me. Landon's voice in my headphones assured me that they were using a long lens. Landon and I had carefully examined the monitor in Video Village during rehearsals to be sure of the frame line. I was safe as long as I was to the right of a mark of blue paper tape. Besides, they (the camera department, the Director, the A.D., and the gaggle of "producers" sitting in director chairs under a shade tent facing the screen) would have said something if I was in. Upon completion of Take 11, the 1st AD says that boom was in the shot. Naturally, after having so many takes without a hitch, Landon asked where they saw me in the frame. "Oh, he's been in every take." Wow.

Now I've Seen Everything

Just filled in for Landon who was filling in for a guy named Paul this week on Weak Species, a USC thesis by Dan Faltz. I met and worked with David Lankton, "sound editor, sound mixer, boom operator, and sound recordist, and one half of MISO Sound." MISO Sound is an inside joke. It stands for Maximum Impact School Of Sound. To record a punch, you punch with the microphone. To record rain, you drop thousands of lavs from an airplane. That's the joke. He and Paul are starting their freelance work with a Sound Devices 722 recorder, a 302 mixer, a Sennheiser 416 short shotgun mike, and Senny ME 2 lavs on the G2 100 wireless kits. I'm really surprised by how popular these are. I guess I didn't really think the wireless kits in film school were the same stuff professionals use.

Doing a bang-up job standing in! This is 1st A.D. Dana, standing in for the lead actor. David sets the plant mike for a dolly shot that won't allow for an overhead boom (shadow).

Weak Species: masturbation, rough gay sex, marijuana, child molestation, and gardening sheers. Just like high school! Now, as the boom operator, I got to see some of this up close, like forced oral copulation in the boys showers. Quite impressive. Those actors deserve respect. I liked Dan's directing. He reminded me of my college acting instructor, Michael Mufson. He communicated well, and he showed good instincts.

Action!

AT835b, FR-2, and sniper rifle. Thank the Supreme Court ruling.*




Three shoots in one week.

Landon and I reunited to boom for Shahin last weekend at the Four Aces Motel in Palmdale. 105 degrees, hot wind, and Waterbabies SPF 50. Gusty winds gave us lots of rumble across the microphones, despite our Rycote Windjammers. There must be a better way to cut the wind noise. I had a magical moment indoors, though, on Day 3. I moved in perfect synchrony with the actress, floating the 416 just eight inches from her mouth as she stepped forward and backward in an emotional tirade. My lips mouthed her lines, my eyes teared up with hers, and I became an extension of her. We performed together. This is the true art of the boom mike, my friends. Stay on mike and dance with the actor.

No time for sleep after wrap on Sunday, I had to be in Tarzana by morning. I was looking forward to this shoot. Nicolas Bordage referred me to the producer, Didier, who had a boom op cancel for family reasons. This is the first time I've met a production sound mixer, who has actually made a career out of it. I spotted him right away in the parking lot at Columbia College: van, cart, and long, white pony tail. I walked up to him and we just knew who each other was without an introduction. I said, "Love the hair," and he said, "Love the hair!" Then we hugged. That is quite funny actually, in retrospect. Dean is a super-nice guy, with a friendly face, and a great sense of humor...and also long hair. I'm not kidding, this could be who I am in twenty years. I was pleased to get to know his style of mixing, and especially his way on set. I get a little bothered when the A.D. says, "this next one is M.O.S." There's no reason not to roll sound. You might hear something awesome, and it absolutely does not save time to skip it. I usually have to do a little diplomatic battle by getting the director on my side, since it's the sound for his film I'm here to get. Dean was so smooth. He simply said in his kind voice, "Aaa, let's roll sound. I love sound," as if we all just playing around having fun. It was that easy. The A.D. smiled and said, "we're shooting with sound." Dean also is practical about his kit. "Hey, it works. Use it." This comment about some of his 'cheapo beepo' gear, like his little iPod sized wireless receivers for the director and the script supervisor, with earbuds. He doesn't think its necessary to subject expensive Comtek stuff to losses and damages. And you know what? No one knows that the Landmark Audio Technologies FM350 receivers are cheap except other mixers. He still uses a Comtek M72 transmitter on his cart. I enjoyed my time with Dean and his old school Robopole (now my new favorite over K-Tek, Gitzo, and PSC). We used a 416 with Senny blimp, and G2 wireless with ME 2 lavs. The lavs truly surprised me, because they are the same ones used in film school, and not Lectros that are so popular on features and television. He also introduced me to snot. Somehow in my two and half years of shooting student shorts, I had not come across snot tape. It is the best way to attach a lav that I've seen yet. No more folding triangular footballs out of gaff tape, or troublesome clips and attachments.

I cut my visit short one day, to sub for Landon on another USC short today. This is a real fun group. Silly script, a bit like Scrubs with the pace and the outrageous gags. S.W.A.T. team recovers a nuke mistakenly delivered to a young geek waiting for his new barbecue grill. Really goofy and actually funny stuff. I damn near burst out laughing in the first take of the day. The director, Robin, also had me suit up as the driver of the black Lincoln Navigator who is also the sniper. What a great time I had playing guns again. It felt a lot like my childhood.

*The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that Americans have a right to own guns for self-defense and hunting.