Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1525020
Fall 2024 – LOCAL695.COM 23 And this decision was a fairly easy one to make. After booming three features in a row, for just about a year, all out of town, my then 3-year-old daughter said this upon my return: "Are you going to stay in mommy's house now?" Friends, that's called a guilt grenade, and it went off in my face. I was therefore ready: physically, emotionally, and spiritually to "move up" to Production Mixer, and that simple sentence was the Universe shouting: DO TV, STAY IN LA WITH YOUR FAMILY. So, I did. In early 2005, I was mixing a 13-episode series called The Inside. From day one, the crew was looking for the next gig, and I heard about a new TV show called Grey's Anatomy. The first season of twelve episodes had been shot, and the show premiered as a Sunday-night mid-season replacement that March. Obviously, the show became a sensation, and I heard they were "crewing up" for the second season. I pulled out all the stops to get an interview, and for some reason (maybe they were tired of interviewing sound folk?), I was offered the job before I drove a block from the studio. What makes this a story to be told is that, in these twenty-one years, the technology and culture of filming a TV series has evolved and I moved along with gear upgrades, producer regime changes, a pandemic, the collapse of the network TV series paradigm, several strikes, and the ever-growing frantic desire to "shoot quick." To begin this rambling saga, 2005: I had a HHB Portadat and a Sound Devices 744. I turned in the CF card and the DVD-RAM, plus the DAT "backup" tape. The 744 gave me two ISO tracks, as well as the L=0vU/R=-10vU. I had six Lectrosonics SMV transmitters, Schoeps mics, Sennheiser 416 mics, and a Mackie 1402 mixing panel. Maybe eight of the old crystal Comteks. I used the Schoeps mics indoors, the 416's outdoors. I used the