Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1122919
20 because I have collected the gear over so many years, I wanted to maximize your investment. Our job always starts with reading the script and I always attend the production meetings. At the meetings, I listen and create a budget for what's needed for the following week. I consider whether I need an additional boom operator, help to rig a car, or if we need a playback operator. Next, I figure out the additional gear I will need for the episode. Typically I need additional boom mics, an extra Venue, wires, earwigs with a base station, and Pro Tools playback. I submit my list before production locks the budget. Our primary boom microphone is the Schoeps CMIT 5U and for small reverberant sets, the Schoeps CMC and even the Sennheiser MKH 50. We also use the Sennheiser 8060's when there is lots of fan noise like a practical restaurant kitchen set. Ninety-nine percent of the time we are using two booms and then anytime we have a big scene, I get a third boom operator. I usually bring Dan Lipe in three days a week. We'll watch the scene and then I write ones, twos, threes, and 'W'—that's my road map for the scene. The boom operators usually have to play zones and for those areas a boom can't reach, we will use a wire. In the "Connection Lost" episode, everyone was face tim- ing. The producers and director wanted to shoot the whole thing live on the stage at the same time and on all the sets. I needed seven boom operators and an IFB person for that day. I set up in the middle of the stage with four separate channels of earwigs so that each actor could hear the other actors on the different sets but not themselves. I used eleven earwigs in all and had an additional ten as backups. We also set up the director and script supervisor with handheld mics to talk to the cast over the earwigs. Julie Bowen was in front of a green screen, stuck at the air- port. Phil, Alex, and Haley were in the Dunphy house, where I had two boom operators. Then at Mitch and Cam's house, I had two boom operators. In the Pritchett household, we had Jay, Gloria, Manny, and Luke and two more boom operators in there. I'm very happy that it all worked out! Most of the driving shots you see on the show are on an insert car. Fortunately, the majority of the time, the windows are up because we're shooting through the front windows. I'm able to use the Schoeps BLM03's. If the windows are down, I'll switch to a Schoeps 41 on a Collette or a Sennheiser MKE 1, which ends up being quite nice. However, I'll also try out the BLM's to see what they sound like. I like to put in more mics than I need and then see what works. If the From top: Mixing "Connection Lost"; three booms working it out, with Srdjan Popovic, William Munroe, and Dan Lipe; William Munroe booming Season 10; Steve in the front seat mixing a scene on Disneyland's Thunder Mountain.