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Well last year was a great year for me. Got lots done and met so many nice people as well. Got loads of new gear, least new to me, and am in the process of upgrading my sound cart as well. A terribly slow process to deal with that is. And this year proves to be a most interesting one as well. Off to Africa and Thailand on a documentary in April for four months. So watch here and my Voices page as well. Will be starting up a small production company as well. So many things to do and time is always against us it seems. In closing I just wanted to say thanks to everyone that supported me (especially my wife and employers) and I hope to meet you in this very exciting New Year!
Cheers
Peter
Popularity: 2% [?]
Got a frantic call from Christal Curry of Goodspot in Hollywood California, she was wondering if I could help her out recording a Voice Over here in Vancouver. She had called others, but was feeling the panic of not being able to actually talk to a real person (versus an answering machine).
Am I busy?? No… (now was that a sigh of relief I heard on the phone?) Next… It is a rush project and would I be interested in helping out? … Sure!
So I ask what is it all about? Now this is where things get really interesting.
Christal replied (more or less):
It is for the US State Dept. and Hillary Clinton’s presentation speech to the United Nations and Matt Damon is doing the Voice Over.
Glad I was sitting down as I have never been handed so many name drops in a single sentence.
Next Richard Kaufman (Director) gets a hold of me and he wants to make sure that he can work with Mr Damon – Richard is in LA and he suggests Skype. So I figure out Skype – and all is good – well almost. We have voice but no Video as my little net book is too slow for that. Richard is very accommodating and is fine with just voice. Worse case scenario is we use a cell phone.
I show up on set and meet up with Colin O’Hara (Mr. Damons person assistant) who is a HUGE help in finding a place for me to do the VO piece and liaising with Mr. Damon (who is a very nice down to earth guy by the way) and getting him to my little set - again, thanks Colin! So I set up and wait for a turn around (a break in filming), so we can get this done.
Colin gives me a call and says 5 minutes. I give Richard a call (the place we ended up with did not have a solid internet connection – so the cell phone was employed) and he is to call me back in 5. Mr. Damon comes in (a little sore as he hurt his back – ugh!) sits down gets on the phone with Richard and off we go. Fifteen minutes later we are done . Mr. Damon says thanks – shakes my hand and is whisked off to set.
Colin comes back makes sure everything is alright and I send the sound file down to LA to Richards Post guy (Mark) and two days later, the piece is done.
So the point of all this? It is amazing how fast and how spread across the world we can all be and yet still get things done in an amazingly timely fashion.
Oh and thanks Christal and Richard for such a unique opportunity – and yes – it was fun.
Popularity: 9% [?]
Had a very interesting discussion with the Camera guys (Nick and Jackson) on “Joanna makes a Friend” about …The Slate.
They were wondering why I didn’t have one. So I replied because it is your department. To which they informed me that if it was a dumb slate they would bring it, but if it was a smart slate (aka Time Code Slate) I was responsible for it (which we both agreed was weird). So we bantered this back and forth. I argued that since I don’t use it and camera seems to not treat the slate as nicely as if it was their own… why should I supply a piece of gear that (1) Gets the Cr@p beat out of it by the camera department and (2) I don’t use or really need because all my stuff syncs up just fine.
While neither really made any headway in the argument. What they finally came up with is that is just the way it is – Sound is responsible for the TC Slate because Sound is the Master Time Code. So I couldn’t argue that point, that we are the Master…and since they were using the Red, and it does love to drop TC which would make Sounds TC …dependable. Fine.
Yet…who is ultimately responsible for the TC Slate(bringing it to set)?
So off to research land I went (gee isn’t the internet a wonderful thing?) and I came across this. The Camera assistants manual which lists the slate as part of the Camera Departments domain.
So much as I wanted to prove my case in my favour…I couldn’t disprove it either with only one reference.
Thoughts anyone????
Popularity: 13% [?]
This year so far has been stellar. Highlights include – both good and bad- Lost 1 terabyte hard drive and a lot of pictures and files from work…Bad….the rest is good.
Covered some ceremonies and interviews with the King of Hawaii and the King of Tahiti.
Did a MOW (Movie of the Week) with Rick Schroder and Laura Bell Bundy. Most challenging show I have done to date.
Spent 3 days doing an Aquafresh commercial – which was a lot of fun with Tom Suski aka Scott to me. Sorry Tom.
Spent 10 days up in Whistler BC doing the TELUS World Ski & Snowboard Festival. So on the mountain skiing with my gear-for the first time in…a very very long time. Yes boom pole and all.
Couple of PSA’s and a bunch of stuff for my friends. That is it for now. And it has been FUN!
Popularity: 21% [?]
Well once again time has marched on and we are another year older and yet another year wiser….I hope. It was a very good year and I would like to send a blanket thank you to everyone that came out and helped me out and of course the production that we were working on. It was a good year, over all, and I met and worked with a lot of really talented people this year. Thanks to everyone and have a GREAT 2011.
Cheers
Peter
Popularity: unranked [?]
Less than a year to go before I depart. I think I started gearing up for this trip about 6 months ago… or even earlier. I write about it now because it is becoming more and more apparent in my thinking.
Batteries/power are the big thing. How to deal with being out in the middle of nowhere, no power and you have a ton of batteries to charge at the end of the day. So you take enough batteries for two…maybe even three days. Now what. Solar power seems to be the answer. And getting enough power, that is portable and light weight so that you can charge EVERYTHING is a huge concern. Camera batteries, wireless batteries, mixer batteries, recorder batteries, batteries for portable camera lights and cell phone batteries! What in our lives these days doesn’t take power. Yes I will be in a hotel now and then – but not often enough to make this all work. The search continues.
The second big concern is too much weight. You have restrictions on what you can and cannot carry as well on board plus the overall weight that one would have to physically carry. Ugh! So it will be interesting to see how I can cut corners/weight and make it all work.
Popularity: unranked [?]
Ok so the title is a bit of a nerd/ tech joke about the Red One that relates to a hilarious video on you tube called Sound Mixer Hell. All joking aside the Red does have on going issues which I will address here and if there is any thing new in the world on this please let me know.
Here we go….
First what is said on the RED ONE forum on audio:
as of 2010
Sound Problem on Red One
Can Someone Help me ? I have a Sennheiser MKH416 P48 Boom Mic and i cant be able to make the sound work on the Red Camera, I have all the Cables and adapters from Red, but i cant make the Phantom Power Enabled in the Sound Menu, because i believe that this microphone needs Phantom power to Work, So can Someone help me make this Microphone works on the Red One Camera ?
Thanks
Another with reply…
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Senior Member
Join Date: Jan 2007
Posts: 110
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 Mixing line level and mic level inputs on the camera – any issues
Let me preface this by saying I’m not reporting any kind or problem or have heard of any issues – just checking ahead before we begin some more complex 4 channel recording situations than our past Red audio work.
For instance, for an upcoming shoot I’ll have 2 mics going through the mixer and out line level into the camera, but I also want to use 2 backup mics just going directly into the camera at mic level to keep everything as discreet channels without bringing in a second field mixer. We are normally just recording 2 line or 2 mic level inputs on any given shoot, so I just want to know if there is anything I should be looking out for.
I don’t expect any issues, but I thought I’d check.
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 07-11-2010, 11:21 PM |
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Member
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: Chatsworthless, CA
Posts: 93
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I wouldn’t do that. Use a 4-channel mixer so that the mixer handles everything. Keep it simple.
Why use backup mikes at all? Seriously, just get it right the first time, and it’ll be fine. We don’t use “backup mikes” on separate sound recorders, beyond having a lav on most speaking actors and a boom. Having the luxury of multitrack is a good reason for using a separate sound recorder. Even better, get an experienced sound person who can contribute to the success of your project.
As the old saying goes: “when it sounds good, the picture looks better.” __________________
www.cinesound.tv | location sound / post-production consultant |
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Now as a mixer we want to be known as “the Good Mixer”. Not “the Bad Sound guy whose gear doesn’t work” guy. So when we look at the RED we sometimes don’t have the time or knowledge to find out various things about the camera that the operator may or may not know. Example: What REVISION are the Audio boards? The Rev 1 boards were …not good …and the Rev 2 boards are better but still not great because now that will depend on cabling and adapters. And since I don’t want to stress out about what may or may not be right on the camera since it is not my gear, I simply take the stance that it is better to rely on a known quantity (and quality), rather than spend the time (sometimes not insignificant) to determine the condition of the camera (what upgrades,what cables are going to be provided, and what firmware version is installed).
Now there is also the occasional firmware issue that raises its ugly head in sound recording / playback on the RED plus the meters are less than what is desired as they are not labeled well at all. Now if I take a guess and put tone up I can get a reasonable gain setting out of the unit and even get good audio. And if that is the only way then I will grit my teeth and “HOPE” for the best and this is very stressful. Now here is the other rub. The RED by default is designed for pretty pictures and audio is somewhere down the line. So my little Recorder, which cost me about $5K (with all accessories), is going to not only sound better than the RED, but will have better control and better monitoring of the audio path than the RED and if it comes time to CRUNCH the audio at the top of its scale, the RED will fail much quicker.
Next known issue is time code. Not remembering firmware revisions, time code at one point in the game took up to 15 minutes before it showed up in the camera after jamming. Lately jamming has been much better as long as the power doesn’t go out on the camera OR the camera doesn’t have a RED moment then the time code will last as long as the batteries/power will. Otherwise you have to rejam every time. So if you are in a rush to get a shot then this can be problematic. Especially if you have a lot of accessories on the camera and getting at the time code Lemo jack is a pain. It is not like a slate where you can Jam it and leave it – it is like a baby that needs constant attention.
Now this mistrust is from personal experience I can’t speak for the general consensus of the professional sound community. Very few people will record directly. I have done it once successfully now- out of 30 some odd RED show.
To put it in perspective :
If you were in the camera department, would you use a camera that had 80% of the resolution, significantly reduced dynamic range, and had a spotty history, even if the issues have supposedly been worked out?
Didn’t think so. You would go with the solution that you have been using with a proven performance and wouldn’t take a chance on your name – cause NO ONE WILL BLAME THE CAMERA and EVERYONE WILL REMEMBER YOUR NAME and not in a good way.
If someone asks me if professional results can be had with the RED, I will say “yes, absolutely”. I just don’t happen to trust it when I am using it for audio. The potential for quality is always higher with dedicated sound gear, and more importantly, sound crew.
Last but not least, is the relative knowledge and flexibility of the Mixer. If they even want to bother with the whole mess and have more knowledge on camera sound and the quirks of time code on the camera than most of the camera crew.
Popularity: unranked [?]
I met Jason Goode on a previous shoot and he asked me to come out and help him on a weekend on two shorts he was doing. So what else am I going to do on a weekend? So out I go. Now a boom op was provided – who had done student projects : his name Cory Manning. Now his mother (Susan) I had met in a previous shoot. Small world. Now Cory has a lot to learn but he has skills and isn’t afraid (at lest too much) to push the envelope. Which is nice. So I have been keeping him busy and he gets it. Steadily improving -a pleasant surprise. My point? It is surprising that some film school grads come away without attitude or pretense and get into the work force and actually want to learn what was not taught to them in school.
Popularity: unranked [?]
It was just a pick up day but it was nice to see familiar faces such as Robyn Wiener, Kelly-Ruth Mercier, Luke Barlow, Josh Alkof, Stephan Heincke and Dawn Mollerup to name a few. My Boom op was a new one to me - Jason Seagal (who has skills) and Jes Mathieson who came along for the ride (and who has skills) as well. I am so glad that they came out. They carried the day for me which I am ever grateful for – thanks Guys! I am always happy on set especially when the job gets done regardless of the circumstances (I got sick and wasn’t my usual plucky self and the “Boys” helped me out significantly).
Popularity: unranked [?]
In February I did a feature called Cold Spots and it wasn’t a very good experience for me. In short a lav mic went missing and the Production (well the Producer) stiffed me on it. It is a long and involved story of a screw up on my part, lots of things getting damaged and missing on their part and me having to pay the bulk of it in the end. I think that is all I will say on that. The one positive aspect of the show was a young gentleman by the name of Jes Matthiesen who helped out. He was great company on this little hiccup in life and worked very hard – even though he wasn’t getting paid , not even his gas. Moving on.
Popularity: 26% [?]
Ed Brando (of William F. Whites and long time acquaintance) emailed me that he had a project in January (Yes I know I’m behind here but hey read on…). He wanted to know if I was interested in helping out doing what I do. Well anytime Ed has a project I’m willing to help because he is one of those guys (hard working , honest and speaks his mind) which I like and admire (he doesn’t know this so don’t tell him….). The Director is Brent Cote whom I haven’t worked with and the script is …interesting/brutal – hard to describe and no I’m not going to give any of it away you will just have to watch it. And because of the nature of the beast it turned into a boom/mix with me/myself & I handling a boom and two wires. I must admit it was a bit of a stretch – again because of the script. The actors (all) gave great performances with Tahmoh Penikett and Aleks Paunovic in lead roles. Now I have worked with Aleks before in China so it was nice to see and work with him again. And the rival chemistry between Tohmoh and Aleks was amazing. This great short will be screening on July 8th, 2010 @ 7:30PM at the Vancouver Film Center.
Popularity: 31% [?]
2009 has been a challenging year not only for me but for the world as well. On a personnel level it has been very fulfilling and the people that I have met have been good solid people, people of their word and have kept me honest to myself as well. On a business level it has been a bigger challenge, with some shows being more rewarding than others. And still people have surprised me by actually taking notice of sound along with camera, lights and the many other talented people that make up a film set. I would like to thank everyone that employed me this year, befriended me and most importantly to the people that actually gave a shit. Really.
Best of the Season to you and Yours
Peter
BTW What’s so wrong about wishing for Peace on Earth after all?
Popularity: 43% [?]
Yes indeed. Been a very lazy boy, working when I want and having fun. Sounds good until you wake up and realize that you really miss working harder and doing more. Meeting people on set and the challenges of the job are always changing. So it is time to step back in to the world of busy and get going once again. Thats alll. Besides it has been so long since my last post …..scary really. Oh and I’ve decided to start a small production company doing shorts , so if you are interested just drop a line.
Popularity: 44% [?]
 Some jobs you do for the money, some for the travel and others for the challenge. On this shoot I was doing it ….why was I doing it again? Let me explain.
Got a call from Adrian Cox of Rugged Media. Nice guy (over the phone and in person) and he needed help on a shoot that was going to be in outlying regions of Williams Lake in the Interior BC. It was a Sunday travel, stay the week, then a Friday travel back. So it wasn’t for the travel.
Next he informed me of the budget. Ok then it wasn’t for the money.
And it was only really 2 pages of dialogue. So it wasn’t for the challenge.
And yet I said …”Yes”.
So here we are , the crew, up in Williams Lake, outside in the Sun for 12+ hours a day during the hottest most brutal heat wave that the Province of BC has seen. Forest fires surrounded the area and the forest was so dry that every footstep cracked like firecrackers. And I asked myself – “Self…why am I doing this?” And I had to smile – even though my lips cracked.
Cause I love what I do. Now in spite of all the seeming hardship it was fun as well. Getting some of the dialogue was a challenge and working with new people is always nice.
Popularity: 27% [?]
 When anything is designed, it is the best at what can done given time, price and other constraints we are bound by. And things work. So what if they work BUT you want/need them to be better. This is when I get my thinking cap on, soldering iron out and do a little research. Now, some of this is dead simple, if you know how to solder. If you don’t you can always take it to someone who can solder. Either way it can be done. So this is what I have. This shows the mixer before I got started. A nice 8×2 Board. Great EQ and very clean. Runs off 6 c cells.
The first thing that got done (from Audio Services Toronto) was 8 direct outs pre EQ, pre Fader. This enabled me the future option of feeding an 8 track digital recorder that was in my not so near future. It also enabled me to feed my SoundDevices 744T 4 track recorder some Direct Outs as well. So this was good.
Now as work got me into different situations I noticed that the light on meters in the mixer were too dim They didn’t allow me to operate in weak to moderate light without compensating for where my external light source was coming from (ie I don’t always have the luxury of AC when I need it). Plus they took a fair bit of juice to operate. So I took out the single filament bulb (12v) and put in 2 small LED’s.
So here is before (the regular light) >>>>>>>>>>> and with two LEDS . 
You can easily see the needles glow even in regular light. The interesting thing is how easy this little mod was. No holes to drill just get the parts and solder them together. The only tricky part was that the LEDs threw off so much light that I had to cover them with heat shrink -without heat shrink it made it look like things were on, when in fact they were not. With that all done I was able to view the meters in total darkness and read a manual if I wanted!
Next on the lis t was to replace the Direct/Return switch along with the talk back and slate mic switches. I found that they got dirty and noisy quickly. I replaced them once already and having to replace them a second time wasn’t my idea of fun. The first time I did replace them, the traces on the circuit board stripped off. So I had to lay down new trace wires – a real dogs breakfast. One thing is for certain though – you destroy the old switches in taking them out. Got some miniature DPDT switches and placed them where they needed to be by soldering on some lead wires. They fit quite nicely and work well. Replacing them takes about the same effort BUT the advantage is that the switches are more common and you don’t have to touch the printed circuit board if they have to be replaced.
With fine detail work a good soldering station is worth its weight in gold. Magnifying glass or in my case goggles are the best way to ensure your work is not bridging connections. And lastly tweezers with heat shrink on them to help place wires in small tight places. The heat shrink helps to dissipate heat so when you are placing the wire it doesn’t melt.
NEXT…
A whole host of things. I found that all the extra boxes that I had attached to the mixer made it difficult to pull out and quite time consuming to re and re or change batteries.
These boxes did the following: made monitoring two decks possible without plugging or replugging headphones in and out of the decks or mixer, Record -pause of the HHB, the CL-1 from SoundDevices made plugging a keyboard in and remote record possible, being able to monitor via a speaker in between (to give ones ears a rest). So I figured that it could all go inside the Mixer without too much of a hassle.
Coming soon… how I fit it all into the mixer.
Popularity: 48% [?]
Every year I do around 12 “freebies” to help out the struggling Indies. To give back and help people out. Now most of these are on ultra low budget Videos and Movies. I like to be able to contribute and to just help the process of making a better film for people. Some shoots are well organized with plan “B” options if the weather is foul or certain aspects of planning are not met, which is great . Others leave it to the Gods of the Movies – which don’t always answer their prayers. It makes life interesting.
Now some of my peers think that I’m crazy for doing this, helping for free or a greatly reduced rate and yet I feel that it is important to help others learn and understand the craft and make it better. Or at least to get young directors and producers to appreciate what you are trying to do on set. I won’t be rich but I will be happy. To show them the skill set and tenacity that you approach getting what you want out of sound. And the question that I get asked the most needs to be repeated…
What do you (the Sound Dept.) need and what do we look for?
This is most often asked by people new to the industry – although I have run into some people that are in the Industry that really do need to read this…twice.
The most obvious is quite locations devoid of anything that you can’t see in shot. Examples:
Sirens, waterfalls, jets or planes, boats, compressors (refrigerators, freezers, nail guns etc), heavy traffic, horns honking, people screaming, drunks heaving, weed whackers, snow blowers, .. you get the idea. Unless of course the sound plays in the shot. So yes it is OK to hear a firetruck if you see a firetruck. But if you are doing a period piece, Jets are not ok. Now check for everyday sounds as well. The heavy traffic that we hear we filter out and ignore. Since microphones don’t have a brain, they can’t filter out that noise – they hear it all and consequently so do we. Now if traffic “plays” great. Remember to listen like a child, cause they hear everything. And we just want to give you the best sound we can. Next if your shoot is happening on a specific day scout it on that day. It wasn’t like that on (insert day here) is too often said on set and people must learn or (you fill in the blank here).
So , so far this year I have already done 7 little ones and look forward to a few more.
And in a final quick note. Scarlett Bruns (a local producer) made mention of a great idea that I thought that I would pass along. She takes a small recorder with her to record the locations as she is looking at them. And as she mentioned that “…Boy does it pick up a lot more than we want to hear!…” That is what we hear. Thanks Scarlett.
Popularity: 43% [?]
Now have a Lectrosonics Venue system in my Cart. The Microns have served me well and I will use them when I need to. The size of the units, power consumption, range and overall performance are quite good on the little (and I do mean little) Lectrosonics SMD transmitters. Have also modified my Audio Developments 245 to be a little friendlier on set for me. Which translates to doing a better job.
Popularity: 45% [?]
It has been a little quite these days so I tend to get into what I call Design and Improvement Mode (DIM for short). It is when I come up with some brilliant(least I think so) idea that I can incorporate into my gear or make to replace or improve upon an existing idea or design that makes on set life easier. With that I shall give it a page and document some of these changes so that others might use them. I guess I’m always working really.
Popularity: 44% [?]
I just wanted to wish everyone a safe, fun and prosperous New Year.
Cheers
Peter
Popularity: 42% [?]
I think I worked on one of the first RED VIDEO CAMERAS with BLOOD: A Butchers Tale and all it was, was a small lens box attached to a MAC. It didn’t like Audio then and it doesn’t much like Audio even now. In the Video world it has made a huge splash and yet I really don’t see why. Inexpensive? Maybe. But with all the accessories that you have (NOTE: HAVE TO) to add to make it functional it still comes in at about 60K+ so it ain’t cheep. They are working on it but here is the kicker that I see – you are the BETA testers for them , and you’re paying for it. The picture is good and I’ll leave it at that, cause that isn’t my area. Now they do boast 4 audio inputs. Great! Well almost. There is no audio scale at all to line a tone up to and getting to the menu to set it up is a little crazy. Next. Time Code. Well we changed it, it showed up on the screen, but not at the LEMO. Still had the old TC. So we waited for 10 minutes to see if it would change. It didn’t. So we jammed that time code. Great. Well almost. Somewhere during the shoot, it did change. Now we caught it at lunch, but that sure won’t help the work flow will it. So right now I’m working on a show called Under the Apple Box by Ellie Fox and we are working with a RED. The last one I used on Attila Lucas SEEDS didn’t like audio either. So any solutions out there? Let me know, cause I’m really looking for answers.
Popularity: 45% [?]
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