Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1491103
48 S P R I N G 2 0 2 3 I C A S Q U A R T E R L Y do they want to put you on before the show starts? It's unfortunate but right out of the gate you have stuff you have to deal with that they don't necessarily want to deal with. I want to do location scouting. If they don't want to take me on the location scout, I'm out. And then, depending on the kind of movie that it's going to be, if it's a musical, I start at least a month ahead of time. I'm fully involved in their voice rehearsals and taking them through to the vocal pre-records. Sometimes it's load-in, production meeting, and scouting and that's it. So, we end up getting a very short end of the prep side of it. That's one of the reasons I like doing musicals. Plus, you get a lot of respect for doing them. They're all vulnerable and need leadership, and we as production mixers provide that for them. PP: Yeah, shows have changed a lot. For the last few years, I've predominantly done television and I've been lucky enough to work on some productions that have been large enough that they've been able to include me on some show prep. But for the most part in television show prep, we can usually get in the first episode of a season but beyond that, once the horse is out of the barn, we really rely on relationships with other departments to give us a heads up on whatever they may be talking about in all the meetings because we can't attend them. I do my best to get dialed in for inclusion on as many meetings and scoutings and whatnot as possible, as much as they will allow me. Sometimes I run the battle of budget, but I always impart on them what little money you save now saves you so much in the end. Usually, by the time I'm invited on scouts, everything is locked in. It's less a location scout and more of a survey to see what we're going to have to deal with. It gives me a little bit of a heads up and I can talk to the rigging electrician and impart upon them my desire for generator placement and things like that. SF: I was just doing an EPK yesterday. I did a big stage show recently where I was just one of the cogs in the wheel miking performers, handing stick mics out. I also did a cooking show where we were the handheld/ENG crew. So, I'm working out of a bag to shoot the green room and backstage shenanigans. Don't neglect your relationships… JW: I was watching how everyone else on the crew was doing their job, even in prep. Seeing how the gaffer relates to the DP, how the DP relates to the director, seeing how the director is starting to exercise the fact that they are the boss, to see how they deal with people. [That Tod Maitland CAS way], when I have something that I have to deal with, I understand the relationships and I don't suddenly become the sound man that says, "We can't shoot here because of…" Something else that's been very important to my career are the relationships, the human stuff. You can go to film school and learn the gear, but if you can't learn the all-important people skills and diplomacy, the hierarchy, and be able to get things accomplished without anyone even realizing you're solving a problem, the soundtrack's going to suffer. And those are the hardest things to learn. TM: Wardrobe is key. The great thing on musicals is you have a month and you talk to them ahead of time. If it's a musical, there's usually dancing and figuring out where to hide the [wireless] pack. This is usually my least concern, but it is a concern. If you can get wardrobe to sew in as many things as possible, or if there's a real problem costume coming up, [it can really help]. In prepping, the location scouts are super-important. First off, developing relationships with all your heads of departments, it's a major time for doing that. Next, [is communicating] with electric. Sometimes you need to work out where the generator's going to be. If you're in a place that's quiet, you need to have that conversation then. [You definitely want to have] those opportunities to talk with heads of department to figure out what they're going to do. Do props have anything special? If somebody's holding bags, work out what kind of bags they're going to be; anything you can do in advance. I like making it public, too. If you say it with other people around, then it really happened. PP: If there are alternating directors of photography, I can have conversations with them. I'll say, "Is there anything that pops out to you that you think I might need to be aware of?" Often, it's a "No, not really," but sometimes it's "Well, come to think of it…" I've been lucky these last few years that everybody I work Scott Farr CAS