Production Sound & Video

Fall 2025

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Fall 2025 – LOCAL695.COM 27 that the big feature, yet documentary style, would yield a lot of opportunities for bag rig work as we would need to travel shoulder-to-shoulder with camera. We established our good rapport with Key Grip Adam Kolegas and crew to ensure there would always be a seat for us on the Grip Trix cart, or in a follow golf cart, ensuring close proximity to talent and camera. My rule of thumb was if Focus Puller Lucas Deans was in a moving vehicle, I should be seated next to him. The Grips were also instrumental in assisting the secure mounting of antennas to these moving rigs. After we left the lot, the shots got even more complex. In Episode 104, "The Missing Reel," on a night exterior scene in Hollywood, we started with the camera high up on a crane, as the camera then drops to the ground where it lands on the car on a "hostess tray" type side rig. Seth and Ike then whip a U-turn on Sunset Boulevard and end up parked on the opposite side of the street up the driveway of the Château Marmont. They then exit the car and continue inside the hotel entrance. In that shot, there was a redundant bag rig in the car while we were squirreled away with the sound cart at the top of the driveway in the side garage. Our Wisycom LFA antenna cables were remote one hundred and fifty feet from the driveway to the edge of Sunset Boulevard. These were split with Nick's RF Venue Diversity Fin antenna on my cart. We were playing zone coverage with our receivers and recorders. Sometimes these situations required a method I learned many years ago on a few reality TV stints, like The Osbournes and Top Chef: Masters. We called it "catch and release" whereas multiple bag rig mixers would all be receiving talent redundantly, on their individual rigs. This gave us the flexibility to stick with Sarah Polley, Catherine O'Hara, and Seth Rogen on "The Oner" a specific camera operator but dial in different talent mics as they came and went in our camera zones. We implemented this strategy several times throughout the show; either carrying the actors with a bag rig to within the range of the cart or vice versa, mixing a scene on the cart and having the bag rig cover them as they travel. A notable example of this came when we filmed the now infamous "The Oner," Episode 102. Before I explain the technical side of the "The Oner," it is imperative that I mention another collaboration that was paramount to our success on this location heavy series. Shooting at both "Silver Top," the iconic John Lautner residence perched high above Silverlake, but also the other many breathtaking locations high in the hills. I've had the good fortune to do many shows with the transportation department, led by Keith Fisher and Captain Doug Weaver. Doug called me up two weeks before the show began to discuss load-in. We had come to realize on our past shows together that working from a Shorty 40 truck with liftgate was preferable to being in a trailer, as it could drop us right at the front door of many locations without skipping from a trailer to a stake bed, even if the Shorty 40 would have to be moved farther away during shooting. That would have utmost importance as we filmed at houses with tiny driveways, high above the city in the Hollywood Hills, miles from base camp. Additionally, a great captain like Doug Weaver understands the significance of the pecking order as to who lands at set and when. This would never be more crucial than in The Studio. Not only were many of these locations very difficult to get in and out of, they were also chosen for their magnificent 360° views of the city. Once you got to these sleek mid-century modern houses

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