Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1277927
C A S Q U A R T E R L Y I S U M M E R 2 0 2 0 33 Follow Cart With every great sound cart comes the less distinguished follow cart. That is until now. Jerry Yuen, who's worked with me for 15 years, built from the ground up a follow cart to lead all follow carts. He reimagined the practical uses and new uses posed by our new technology and came up with one cart that virtually covered the bases of three. Using 80-20, he fashioned drawers for the 26 transmitters, 16 PSM (IFB) receivers, 30 Comteks, 40 sets of headphones, blimps, other headphones, earwigs, batteries, adaptors, mic mounts, cables, boom poles, lav mic box with 50 various lavs and massive wiring kit, additional cart battery, umbrellas, and other weather covers. You name it, it was on the cart (see pic). The goal was to be a two-cart, independent, fast, mobile unit. For reference, on The Doors, I had a full truck of carts. On The Producers, I had six carts. For Across the Universe, we were down to five and with The Greatest Showman, it was four. But none approached the complexity and volume of the equipment needed for West Side Story. Conclusion I am so happy this Spielberg project kicked me in the ass and forced me into the future. To take all the information that's been locked up in this analog head and push it into the expanses of digital is, as Jerry Garcia would say, mind- blowing. It took a while to embrace the new world but I have to say, it's pretty damn good and I'd never go back. All the limitations we had in days past are gone. Sure, some may long for the old analog sound—Wylie Stateman and I brought Dolby SR to production sound because we loved that sound. I even dragged a 100-lb Dolby SR unit all over on The Doors, in Thailand on Born on the Fourth of July, and then JFK. So, if anyone has nostalgia, it's me, but this new world is good. Mixer's perspective of the cart. The follow cart and wiring kit.