I am starting to feel the reality tv and news grind working out of the bag is extremely demanding and I am hoping I can do an Indy film this summer. I haven’t done a feature in the last three years and I miss it. I have done a few movie trailers and 2nd unit stuff on some films. But in all these situations it was all out of the bag 1 film was in the woods and the others were run and gun so they were out of the bag with my boom operator. It is starting to wear on me, I miss the artistic part of my job that I am allowed to explore sound and have input. Instead this past week I was attempting to get audio in nightclubs, bars and other loud locations. So I hope this summer I can do a feature and have fun.
Tag: Location Sound Mixer Savannah georgia
Great Battery Holder
I bought 4 of these to hold all my batteries. They work great see link below for more information
The Sanken Cub saves me again
Once again the Sanken Cub-01 has saved me again. For anyone who doesn’t own this little boundary layer microphone should purchase one. I had an outdoor scene for my recent project that had three girls on beach chairs around a pool with two girls saying most of the lines. Since this shot was rather wide and it was in bright sun light getting the boompole in the right position was next to impossible and trying to lav a girl in a bikini is very difficult. So I put the Sanken Cub in between the two chairs right out of the shot. It sounded great and once again saved me. So buy a sanken Cub it is a great microphone to have
How Another Sound Mixer explained his job
This was posted by user “Kill Bill” on RAMPS and I Love it!!!!
My 12 year old daughter had an assignment to gather from her father,
“What does Dad do?”. She asked me to put down in my own words, and
summarize what I do.
So here it is..
While working in the biz as a Location Sound Mixer, I spend most of my
time trying to explain to producers why they can’t get sound people to
work for free like they can actors and PAs. If by some miracle that the
producer actually knows how important sound is and chooses me to work on
the set, and they have budgeted more than 100 dollars for the entire
sound department for the shoot, I then spend all my time planning on
getting a mountain of equipment to the actual location. I rigg up that
equipment while on the set, then wait on camera, grips, and actors to
get the camera rolling with the rare possibility that I might get 20
seconds of usable recording. This goes on for over 12+ hours every day
while on my job hoping nothing goes wrong while noting and stopping the
production for every plane, dog barking, and voice that goes overhead.
When it’s all over, I’m out of a job again and spend the rest of the
month looking for another job to do it all over again. In the mean
time, I go out and spend more money on equipment than I made on the last
job with no end in sight for equipment buying.
It sounds allot like a job, but since when do you have to pay so much to
work on your last job?
Hope she likes it..
-bill
I sometimes feel the same way Bill does but I think he expressed it well. I wish more people realized and knew how important sound is but no one is perfect. I am off to work another 14-16 hour day.
As the cameras get cheaper the sound stays the same price
On the job this week I was talking to one of the camera ops who just bought a HVX-200 and owns a DVX-100 too. He asked me if sound gear was getting any cheaper since cameras were comign down in price. My response that audio gear is actually going up in price because of the weak dollar to euro exchange. I also explained whether I am doing sound into a PD-150 or Cine Alta I use the same gear because that is what it takes to get good sound. I also told him that products like the G2 wireless are a great tool but a lectrosonics will always sound better to me. I wished audio gear was cheaing like everyone else but at least it doesn’t become obsolete as fast as cameras.
