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.
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.
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