this lossy codec

Ok, well nothing really that exciting. Coming back to the grind after 3 days off incrases my sense of lethargy and makes time drag. Not that it hasn’t been exciting. Monday we dragged (drug?) a guy down mainstreet from horse. That was actually pretty cool. I was too bored to take a pic though. Today we have been shooting in the saloon, pumping it full of smoke and shooting people playing cards. Woop-DEE-doo. At lunch Will, one of the prop guys, juggles some bowling pins so Lenny grabbed his accordian and joined in. A pleasant break, lifting our spirits for a brief release. Still, shooting indoors means we won’t be constrained by the sunlight so who knows when we’ll get out of here. Btw, did I mention there a 3 Bretts on this crew? 1 each for camera, grip & sound. As there are several more members of the other crews than sound, people rarely speak to me directly yet I hear my name all day long. A few people refer to me as “boom” as in “hey boom get out of the shot” or “hey boom getout of the light.”. I don’t mind. There is safety in this kind of anonimity.

A couple days off makes me recall how nice it is to have someone telling me what to do. Without it I just wander. For instance, yesterday I took the dogs for a walk and ended up on the top of the mountain behind our house. It took about 2 hours to get there, over rough terrain. The trip down went much quicker as I had found the road. Beautiful day. Probably about 60 on top.
Btw, the kronos concert was lovely. My favorite piece was the one written by j.g. Thurwell. This is the guy whose stage name was Foetus (with albums like ‘Scraping Foetus off the Wheel’). Pretty intense stuff needless to say.
Pix of mountain top to follow.

Well, I am actually typing on a real keyboard right now. For unknown reasons I have been unable to get my blogs posted from the phone lately. This has lead to a bit of a lull. apologies.

I will now try to catch up:

Mostly, its just the same old rigamarole, with the added adjustment of daylight savings which makes 4:30 that much earlier. Its cold as well but luckily its been warming up to around 50 or so by the afternoon. Night falls early and we are often wrapping by 5ish. Usually I sit down on the couch for about half an hour and pass out. Not much fun for Dani.

Meanwhile, my papa has been aboard Rum Runner, sailing south in the Caribbean 1500. He’s getting to be old hat at this. You can follow his progress here. They’re almost finished so check it while you still can!

Also, of note: I took a couple days off this week to check out David Hykes at the Sound Healing Conference. Though the conference itself is a little foo-foo for my taste they often attract at least a few interesting folks. Experiencing what Hykes can do with his “voice(?)” is pretty phenomenal. I have a couple copies of his groundbreaking vocal album “Hearing Solar Wind” it stands as one the most profound recordings I own. Really unbelievable. Highly recommended. The record, originally released in 1983 has just been reissued on cd (25th Anniversary Remastered edition). Anyway, I went and checked him out. Turns out he considers himself in the lineage of
Terry Riley and Lamont Young which made sense (and shouldn’t have surprised me). Cool guy and with his feet pretty firmly on the ground. Several times he made efforts to separate himself from the many types of sound healing charlatans (my words) and the the “crap” (his word) which they produce. Pretty tough audience to dish this out to. He was threatening to shatter their paradigms. Still, he didn’t do that great of a job explaining his alternate view. Perhaps he was intentionally being cryptic and evasive so that people wouldn’t build him up into a guru. Or else he just knows that “the keys to the kingdom of heaven are within you” and that nothing he can offer will be anything but a novelty.

In the end I did finally feel like I shared some sense of resonance with him when I inquired, “Do you think synchronicity is related to harmonic resonance?” To which he replied with an emphatic YES! And then I told an anecdote about watching the presidential acceptance & succession speeches. I noted that during McCain’s speech I heard an airplane dopplering (you’ll have to imagine an airplane sound going down down down as it flies farther away) and during Obama’s I heard a helicopter going up up up. What does this mean? Even as my fingers fumble at the keyboard in an attempt to explain I now understand why David’s talks seemed so opaque. Language…lacks. I’m not giving up but perhaps its too much for a blog post. I’m going to go eat and then go see Kronos Quartet!

Although I meant to, time and busy-ness kept me from putting together a post for Saturday. Which is too bad as there were indeed some highlights. Some of which have faded from memory but luckily I have some pictures to help me recollect.
We had another fight scene and somehow I was lucky enough to take this picture (while booming – no east act) from my hip, w/o looking. Pretty nice shot I think. The other one hardly captures it but at the end of our lunch break, Lenny, the lighting key, played accordian while Julio (the director) played hacky sack (tennis ball, really) with a bunch of the crew. It was a gem of a moment. Actually recorded some audio of it and I’ll post it if I ever get the time.

Friday (11/7): As the days have gotten colder the times when I can bear to take my gloves off to type a blog post on my iPhone has decreased. Today though, is not so bad. The sun is shining and, after a few shots outside, we have moved into an old farmhouse for the rest of the day. At least something to feel good about (even as the 5th day gloom of a 6 day work week lingers).
Back at home we awoke this morning to an inside temperature of 47′F. YIKES! Ah, winter in Golden.

All the warm fuzziness left over from last night’s presidential election results was lost in the frigid and biting windstorm that enveloped our entire day of shooting today.

Another week begins, now with call time even earlier (thanks to daylight savings). Hit the alarm snooze at 4:30 and finall make it to set around 6:30 (after an hour long drive listening to more of Neal Stephenson’s ‘Anathem’ – incredible!). We’re at Rancho de las Golondrinas which seems to be a relic of New Mexico’s past. As we worked outside the first part of the day the golden yellow leaves began to fall. Today was the day. There were no leaves on the ground when the we arrived but they covered everything by midday. Later, while we shot inside some of us took a break and watched the multicolored sunset behind the golden leaves. It looked like a movie set.

The days are certainly getting shorter. Shooting outside the past couple days certainly showed that. Depending on the sun to light the town square for the brawl / gun fight / injury of young boy limited our shooting time to that period with the sun providing the necessary illumination. As the sun fell closer to the horizon and the shadows of buildings began to creep across the set the pace of shooting ramped up to a hectic pace. Eventually the sun dipped below the distant hills, but that didn’t stop us. The light crew jumped into action; raising up one 18,000 watt light to the position the sun held previous and supporting it with several other 6k’s. By the end (long after dusk had settled into night) the temperature had fallen back down into the frigid range. Sheesh. Luckily, even fake sun gives off a little bit of heat.

Ok ok ok. Started slipping afain on the blog. I’ll try to type this out with numbed fingertips in the early morning day break. Past couple days have offered new lessons in the art of boom.
Saturday was in a another ghost town, thia one in Gallisteo. Crazy bunch of old movie town seta around here. Monday brought us to the saloon with mirrors, lamps and othe various sundry obstacles. Tuesday was outside in the arroyo following folks on horseback. Today is the fight scene. Swinging cranes and a whole cavelcade of extras. Amazingly, before noon I’m down to my t-shirt. Depending on weather you are in in the sun or shade the temperature seems to shift 30 degrees. Indeed, by early afternoon I’m hiding from the blistering sun in the shade of old buildings.

Yessirreebob. Apparently, Val Kilmer has a ranch 30 minutes north of Santa Fe. Nice place. Still, for me it meant waking up extra extra early (4:30) to make it there. The first scene of the day was people on horses crossing a shallow stream. Pretty wide though and not much I could do but provide some ambience. In my spare time I reflected on the date (a semi-personal holiday) and researched what else had occurred on this day in history (10/23). Of course, there is the Creation of the World. Then there is Introduction of the iPod. Both significant. Connected? Hmmm.

Later in the day was a little more eventful. More strong winds and dust blowing. And me chasing Paul Sorvino and Terence Hill with the boom while they ride horseback. Near mayhem.

New Mexico weather can be a strange beast. Today started out cold. The wind picked up real strong by mudmirning, blowing sand and dust in swirling eddies around the center of town. Many experienced crew members donned snow goggles. By midafternoon it was still cold and windy but the sun now blazed down on top of us, threatening to burn any exposed skin. Harsh environment here…that’s for sure.

Starting to slip a bit on the posting routine. Days are getting harder. Yesterday was incredibly brutal, ending in a classic new mexican sand storm. Pretty much the whole day was spent on a gunfight scene. It had about 15 different shots (camera angles) and of course 2 cameras rolling at all times. Today was shorter and, I suppose, easier over all but the sun was really beating down and now there became 3 cameras (1 wide & 2 close ups). This situation can really screw the boom guy. Let’s just say it becomes more of a challenge to stay out of frame. So, there were some rough moments. Ok. Too tired to write. Here’s a pic of the fake bonfire from today.

Looking back on week 1 (from the couch – ahhh). Some memorable moments and general reflections :

The strange mix of Italian & Apache on set at the Indian village in Zia. Paul Sorvino singing opera around the campfire. Hearing someone remark that I was really good at what I do (today). Finding out that the movie will be dubbed to be aired in Italy. Max, the DP telling me how sound & camera work together. The moment after a take when Julio, the director, ecstatically exalts “bella, bella” as
If it was the most beatiful shot ever. The smell of frankinsence wafting through town (special effects smoke). And just think, this is only week one.

Yesterday was busy so no time to blog (this is from my phone remember). Today, required waking up at 4am so I could leave at 5 and drive 1.5 hr to Zia Pueblo. It was cold (and dark) then but by now (9:20) the sun is beating down on us and the red earth. Another beautiful, if awkward) location.
Unfortunately, the hiway runs right next where we are shooting. It never ceases to amaze me peoples ability to disregard acoustic information while remaing singularly focused on the visual field. Oh well, “it’s going to be dubbed anyway.”

The pictures show the view up to the shot and then the view back down the path. The actor playing the Medicine Man is Raoul Trujillo who played Zero Wolf, the bad guy in Apocalypto.

Btw. Because of the cramped space up there, Eddie is booming with the mixer over his shoulder. Hence, I have time to relax in a teepee down below and blog away. The day is young…

By midday I am back out waving a boom pole around, dodging 3 cameras and a camera boom while trying not to cast a shadow on set. It’s a neat scene, with tan skinned locals playing the Apaches. In between shots they joke in English slang and talk on cell phones. It’s a funny juxtaposition with their period 1880s garb.

After chapping away under the New Mexico sun all day Maxamilio (one of the Italians), the DP, spoke with eddie and I about how he appreciated our work and said he would always do what he could to help out (in a shot). Specifically, he mentioned putting up a flag to block a light from hitting the wall behind the person in frame so that I wouldn’t cast a shadow behind them. Very cool. I wasn’t sure if he did it on purpose or if it was a happy accident. Apparently, he prefers to use a very subtle form of communication with the boom. He also told me he sometimes makes a little “click,click” sound with his mouth to alert the boom to being in frame. “it’s the same sound I use to control my dogs,” I told him. Funny. I guess we’ll give it a shot.

Something passed through my awareness today that signifacantly altered my perspective of my job. An actor, Paul Sorvino, said something about…”it doesn’t matter, it’s all going to be dubbed.”

Then it struck me. This movie was being made for Italian television. All the dialogue I was struggling to capture was going to be replaced with Italian dubbing. WTF? And more importantly why was I capturing this sound at all? Perhaps a union requirement I suppose. Does it matter? Well, it certainly takes a bit of the pressure off. I’ll still struggle to reach for every sylable, sure. But the priority now seems more about making sure to stay out of the shot. Strange, strange indeed.

In midst of first week out on a western called ‘doc west’. I’m booming and we’re filming outside of Santa fe. Lossycodec.com/blog for more.

Back in “Holy Sand” (Bonanza Creek) with horses and cowboys everwhere. Not much special to remark about. Just getting focused on the details of my job. Booming is a very interesting sciece / art. Perhaps the only place where audio and yogic assanas meet. Often the position one must assume for lengthy periods while not moving an inch while holding a 15+’ pole strait out over someones head. It’s a cool gig.

The pic here is of ‘bacon’ the dog preparing for his close up.

Today we were back at Bonanza Creek except this time at the town instead of the mine. It was a Saturday and it was cloudy and windy. These factors and others added up to a fairly challenging day. Actually, the morning was not
at the town but just outside of it, on the rocky and difficult terrain around a hill. If you have never pushed a sound cart (couple of hundred pounds) over dirt and rock you won’t really understand. We did it though. Worked out ok.

Actually, it wasn’t until after lunch that we were in the town, which was pretty much a fiasco. At first the scene was supposed to be outside of the ‘General Store’ but strong winds and a inclimate weather forecast (eg. severe thunderstorm warning) pushed the scene inside the store. Subsequently, preparations began for the scene there (you know…lights, dolly track, camera positioning, etc) and just as we were about to film…KA-BOOM! A thunderclap. Moments later, a downpour. For a while we all stood around on the rickety porches of the old timey buildings taking pictures of the flooded streets. Eventually, they sent us home. Ahhh home. A Day Off.

Just wrapped (cough, cough) after spending pretty much the whole time in this mine. Another interesting location (and out of the sun!). Crazy dusty though. Luckily there was an opening in the ceiling allowing some air flow (which also allowed for fully extending the boom pole before carefully lowering it to just above the action. Can anybody say torque? Yes indeed that 20′ pole gets a little heavy.

First day of ‘doc west’ requires getting up at 4am to drive 2 hours way the whole heck up to Ghost Ranch in Abique. Still dark when i arrive and colder than it was when I left the house (higher altitude). As darkness turns to light a gorgeous landscape is revealed. Boy is that nice. Good job location scouts.

After wrangling some gear to be portable Eddie & I (and most of the crew) descend a fairly gnarly cliff/path to a small canyon. Soon the sun is up and layers begin to shed. All goes pretty smooth. The climb back up the cliff was a little rough. What are we, at 8000′? The pic here is looking back up the cliff (Eddie is walking in front of me). See the little specs up at top on the left? That’s the top.