Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1277960
Summer 2020 – LOCAL695.ORG 39 unparalleled opportunity to address some longstanding issues in the workplace under the banner of safety. Shorter working hours are under serious consideration, industrywide, as a way to avoid stressing immune systems and reduce fatigue-induced sloppiness and mishaps. (Somewhere, Haskell Wexler is cheering.) Time has always been the issue; moving forward, everything will be slower and more diffi cult than before; time will be an even more precious commodity. The work that we do in video engineering and production sound is dependent on so many factors outside our control. The best remedy is prophylaxis, done in anticipation of future problems. Knowing our craft, anticipation, communication: these are the tools we must use, more than ever. Pre-Production This is the time to dig in and solve problems before they happen. Analyzing the script, doing your breakdown, reaching out, and communicating with the departments and individuals who will have the most impact on your work. In feature fi lms, pre-production tends to be more leisurely with a bigger window to identify and solve problems; our participation is expected and we can be an integral part of the process. In episodic television, we may be hired late in pre-production, and invited on the fi nal tech scouts. We'll attend the fi nal production meeting but due to our crew size, it will be impossible for us to participate in the scouts or meetings during the season. We rely on information from other departments to keep us ahead of the curve. One possible benefi t of the new guidelines is that scouts and meetings will be held online which may make it easier for us to "attend," though it will still be challenging for us to participate, again due to our staffi ng and our on-set responsibilities. The drawback is not having that time off- production to get to know the players before the shooting starts by bonding with the other players during the long van rides to the locations. This time of FaceTime and Zoom meetings is a great opportunity to be an advocate for sound in pre-production. It is incumbent upon us to take advantage. Your job interview with the producer(s) and director is when you can ask about shooting style. Will this be a cameras-on- dollies show or handheld? How many cameras, and will they approach the scenes with similar lens sizes and head room? Removing overhead mics with visual effects, known as painting out the boom, has become pretty commonplace; is this a practice they can employ? Who are the crew members who must be provided video monitors for live preview and playback and where will they be located? By asking lots of questions, even if the answers change on the day, you'll be ready. Radio Mics They are not going away, mixers are too heavily invested in these tools to give them up and neither will our colleagues in editorial and post. In episodic, it is expected that cast will be wired, and they will come by the Sound Department fi rst on their way to set. I'm not saying that we should wire everybody in every scene; sometimes it's not necessary or wrong. However, if everyone, including the cast, is OK with it and it's expected, why not? Even if it's not in your mix, it might provide the one piece of track that allows the Dialog Editor to enhance the scene and avoid ADR. We'll do it safely and effi ciently to keep all the arrows in our quiver available and ready with the one thing that brings us in closest contact with cast, in concealing the mic and having it sound not just good but great! Since we have already broached the subject of using the fantastic and increasingly more affordable technologies available for visual effects, how great would it be if we could bring that tiny mic out into the open, just a little; how many problems would that solve? While not as easy as painting out overhead booms, exposed lavaliers can be removed by VFX. The VFX Supervisor on my last show estimates about fi ve hundred dollars per shot, with the cost diminishing with subsequent shots. If you haven't read the story about the Oscar-winning sound on Les Misérables, do not delay, look up the 695 Quarterly from way back in Winter & Spring of 2013 (it's on the website) and you'll learn some things about how to take an impossible situation and make it sound great. Video Village With the need to minimize the number of crew members on the shooting set in Zone A, much more remote video monitoring will be needed to provide live preview and scene playback to multiple crew members in many locations. Video Assist Technicians and Video Engineers can provide a wider reach for video distribution with expanded Wi-Fi for near-set use, as well as network and cloud streaming for much broader coverage, capable of relocating some crew members far off the stage and reaching anywhere in the world. Locations All too often we arrive at a location that seems to have been chosen for all the wrong reasons. Sometimes not just for sound, but for every other department as well. There is a myriad of reasons why this happens, but when a