Dealing with last minute cancellations

whitneyince

Thankfully business for me recently has been very good and I have been working for reliable and quick paying clients (NBC News, UPN Network etc…) I already had a planned trip to South FL to see my family so when I got a call for a low budget short film in south fl I changed around my vacation so that I could do the film and see my family. Well to make a long story short I was suppose to get our schedule today and got this email instead, “Bad news. I have lost my cinematographer to another, much higher paying job. I am sorry, but the shoot is off. If i can offer a last minute compensation of $50 for your troubles, would that be ok?” My answer is of course no as less than 24 hour cancellations mean full payments. But I broke my own rules with this shoot I didn’t get a deposit and don’t have a signed deal memo or contract so shame on me, at least I have more time to spend with my family.  But this should serve as a warning to all of us when working with new clients to spell out your polices and always try and do the following:

1. Get a deal memo or signed contract I also always try to make sure I have an email from the producer stating our agreement as well.

2. Always make sure you have equipment requirements, hours, day rate and terms of payment spelled out in writing

3. Go with your gut if something doesn’t feel right it probably isn’t

4. Only work for a wage your comfortable with.

Upgrading my Mac Os to Leopard

whitneyince

Since a own a fairly New Macbook I decided to upgrade to Leopard because I am a gear head and always like to have the newest and coolest toys even though I only use my macbook for personal stuff and not any audio work. The upgrade went well until it finished and my machine was running slow so I did a fresh install of Leopard and now everything is working great no issues at all. I really like many things about Leopard including “Time Machine” , “Spaces and the ability to use the apple Y key to open documents and preview them. I have also upgraded 3 other family members Mac’s with no issues. I find that doing a fresh install is a little bit better than just doing an upgrade, however both work well. One final note always back up everything before a upgrade in case of a problem

The expanded job of the production sound mixer

whitneyince

It never ceases to amaze me what is now expected of the sound mixer. A thread on Jwsound.net reminded me of this VIEW IT HERE  It is a fellow mixer talking about his responsbilites on a 30 million + feature where he is also responded for the VTR since there is no video village. As defined by WIKI a sound mixer is “A production sound mixer or location sound recordist is the member of a film crew responsible for recording all sound and sound effects on set during the photography of a motion picture,” Click Here to read the whole definition.  As you will notice it does not mention anything about  being responsible  for video,  Comtek’s, or other on set communication, which increasingly we are also in charge of without extra wage or assistance. It just plan sucks and then we are blamed when this devices don’t work correctly especially in the lower budget world I work in I tell people I am not a walkie expert or a video expert if I was I would probably would be making more money than I am now. I  just want to be a sound mixer and do a good job at it is that to much to ask? Sometimes I think so.

My Return from vacation

whitneyince

I hope everyone had a safe and good Thanksgiving this year. I have been traveling and taking a break from my technology filled life. I also filled in for one day on a low budget feature while I was on vacation it was a easy day and always nice to make alittle bit of extra money to cover the hundred of dollars in gas I had to purchase while driving this holiday season. I never like filling in for a day and using someone elses equipment or in this case equipment from a film school. My recorder for the day was a Fostex PD-2 !!!!!!!!!. I haven’t used a PD-4 in 4 years and a PD-2 in 5 years. I had forgotten how annoying DAT is and the lack of Pre Record as well. But the shoot went well.  So stay tune for more posts and posts everyday

The cost of being a sound mixer

whitneyince

This posting is a bit more “tongue and cheek”. Anytime I need to buy anything for my sound package it seems that I always have to spend at least $100.00 and usually end up spending closer to $150.00. As an example I needed a “Y” BDS cable and 2 vampire clips BAM over a $100 already. I also suffer from “G.A.S”  Gear Acquisition  Syndrome badly and always want to buy the newest coolest gadgets but who doesn’t. I also find it funny when a producer who is making far more than me expects free equipment add ons (Just because your last mixer wanted to give you free gear doesn’t mean I will” I still think it is horrible that no one wants to give you anything extra for a Zaxcom Hop considering it is the single most expensive piece of equipment I own. But it is all part of being a sound mixer