Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1122919
a boom operator's job involves being on set during setups to make sure they're not lit out, etc., leaving little time to use a restroom, let alone work out. Even so, I try. I keep a set of elastic bands and dumbbells with me as part of my kit. During setups and at lunch, I try to slip away briefly to run flights of stairs, do core work, pushups, jump rope... In the end, no amount of exercise nor any specialized diet will prevent injuries when we are tasked with doing repetitive, excessive takes. Booming in the Digital Era is like being the only pitcher on the Dodgers. There are no other starters and no relievers. Every day you go out and pitch a complete game regardless of how many innings or hours. How long do you think Clayton Kershaw could perform before his body broke down? This is what is happening to boom operators. Our bodies are breaking down. I know for many in the production sound community, this seems like new information. Why is that? Many microphone boom operators when speaking candidly, will tell you that they have hidden injuries received on the job and continued to work through them. Boom operators are afraid (and I believe rightly so) that mixers are less likely to call if aware that someone has been injured even if the injury is completely healed. So, boom operators silently work through pain and injuries up to the time when an injury becomes so severe that working becomes impossible without corrective surgery. If you've been booming as long as I have, you know many boom operators who have been put in this position. I've hidden injuries too, until last year when I was hired by Loyola Marymount University to run its Production Sound Department. Just like that, I didn't have to rely on holding a microphone over my head to pay the mortgage and felt I could be more open about the situation. So I posted this question on Facebook: "Have you been injured while booming or know someone who has?" It got a lot of people talking and eventually led to the formation of the Injury Prevention Committee with me as Chairperson at the July 2018 Local 695 membership meeting. One area of interest for the committee is in technological advances, including exoskeletons. I began contacting manufacturers in the fall of last year, and I was able to get demos from two; SuitX and Ekso Bionics. Both companies are located in Emeryville, CA, and were founded by UC Berkeley mechanical engineering professor Homayoon Kazerooni, although I believe he is working only with SuitX at this time. First up was the EksoVest with Brandon Frees, Ekso Bionics VP of Sales. He and I had a number of sound professionals Located in southern Jordan, near the Saudi Arabian border, the Wadi Rum Desert looks a lot like Mars. (Photo: Giles Keyte) Brandon Loulis Station 19 Quite frankly, the human body was not built to perform the task of holding a fishpole overhead for these extended takes. Whether it is an exoskeleton or a Fisher boom or a four-person sound crew, something is needed to provide relief for microphone boom operators. Max Osadchenko ShoulderX Demo