Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1524736
42 FA L L 2 0 2 4 I C A S Q U A R T E R L Y I COULDN'T BE SITTING THAT LONG? If I'm being honest, I have to admit that there have been times in my life where the word "denial" was sometimes confused with the river in Egypt. And also, being the stubborn type, I couldn't help but hold on to the section of the excerpt from Dr. Laskwoski that said, "with no physical activity." After all, I'm a film worker and I move around a lot! But how would I truly know if I didn't take an honest inventory of my daily activities? Was I coming home after a 14-hour day doing a vigorous workout and eating a healthy diet on set? How much sitting was I actually doing versus moving around? The days for me on set average around 12 hours, and we typically complete four to six pages per day. In between scenes and lighting setups, I can usually stand up, stretch, and walk around to move a bit. However, in episodic productions, things happen very quickly, so I tend to do a lot more sitting at the cart than I'd like in between setups. Getting the chance to stand up and move around could often take hours. I was able to determine without a spreadsheet that I was easily sitting over eight hours a day with little physical activity! DESIGNING A NEW CART Having worked the last 10 years on my last sitting cart, I learned a lot about what I'd like moving forward. I wanted the cart to be lighter and the gear needed to be more accessible with improved modularity. With a standing cart in mind, I launched out to design a new cart. To accomplish this, I decided to research the best of what I could find in existence from both manufacturers and other mixers. I was particularly impressed with INOVATIV's offerings since I had seen other mixers using the Deploy as a standing sound cart. I was especially attracted to the rigging capabilities of the Deploy and learned a lot from its design, but ultimately decided it was going to weigh too much for me. So, I decided to team up with custom cart fabricator MetalDozer to build a standing cart. Speaking of Dozer carts, my friend and mixer Rodney Gurule CAS had recently commissioned Dozer to fabricate his design, which attracted me because of its modularity, size, and weight. I met up with Rodney to tour his cart and, with his permission, I used his design as the starting point for my build. Next was the challenge of taking that framework and modifying it to create my standing cart. What I learned is the ergonomics of a standing cart require a lot of thought, experimentation, and specialized rigging. I'd highly recommend MetalDozer. He's easy to work with and has built many carts for sound mixers over the last decade. He specializes in custom lightweight builds and ships them all over the world. ON-SET DEPLOYMENT As I write this article, I've been working with a standing workflow for about four months now. Some of the immediate benefits I'm noticing is that I feel more alert and less tired throughout the day. Also, my communication with producers, directors, and my crew while working at the cart feels more natural and I think my overall presentation on set has greatly improved. Adding a small Remote Audio SpeakEasy on the top of my cart also allows me to keep the headphones on in between longer setups while still staying in communication with my crew. It's not uncommon while working at my cart to have AD's, producers, directors, and other crew stop by and have various conversations from a simple hello to more important collaborations regarding the scene or upcoming work. If you've been at this a while, you know that good communication with your crew—both within the sound team and interdepartmentally—is a key factor to your success in the results you can achieve creating the optimal conditions for clean capture. Picking up my finished sound cart from Jason Dozer at MetalDozer in Braselton, GA.