this lossy codec

After an oh so refreshing weekend involving several consecutive naps I returned to work with invigerated spirits. Yesterday was a little odd (full moon – go figure) and it ended up being short too. So far we’ve only been attempting a couple pages a day. Nice pace compared to the usual 4-6. Maybe that’s why this shoot is scheduled for 3 months…we’ll see.

The day might have been shorter still except for some technical issues that needed ironing out. In the end it was a minor fix but I got the credit for it, redeeming me for the moment and ensuring my job security for another week. Next week I guess I will have to engineer another dilema for me to fix.

Best of all, I was able to snag a pic of the set. Totally cool old run down movie theater lobby/balcony. Unbelievably, this whole building is built inside one half of the sound stage.

Last day of the first week of principle photography (that’s what they call all the real shooting with actors and whatnot – the next 3 months are all ‘principle photography’). Pretty tough week. Contrary to popular belief, the ‘utility sound’ position is NOT the easiest job on set (though that is what I overheard the otherday). The challenge relates to the diversity of the duties involved (which change depending on the movie, the scene & most significantly, the Sound Mixer). Basically, he tells me what to do and I do it (or try to do it – with a margin of success vs. failure). As anyone who has worked under a boss knows this can get stressful. But I am doing my best to keep a cool head (& keep my hands from shaking while taping a microphone to D. W.‘s chest – he’s very cool though, just intense).

Everyone else on the set has been very gracious & cool as well. G.O., for instance insisted on playing a ‘soundtrack’ while I mic’d him (some old school blues – definitely a cool guy). The directors, Allen & Albert H. are totally chill as well. They’re young (or, uh, er my age anyway) and hip & seem interested in having some fun while we make this movie.

As for the title of this post, I guess it’s sort of an inside boom op joke. Panatape is this gizmo that sits on the camera and uses sonar to provide a digital readout of the distance between the camera and the action. Just one of the noisy parts of a modern movie camera. The ‘conspiracy’ part just refers to the age old battle between sound (or “good”) and camera (or “evil”). Whether the boom is in the shot or camera is making whirring & grinding noises, it blows my mind that this hasn’t been worked out before.

Currently cruising down HW-54 in southeastern Kansas en route to KC for the holidaze. WordPress (& it’s companion iPhone app) is awesomely handy. Now, I’m not driving, mind you. That was last night for the first leg if the journey. Our start was later than hoped (a noonish departure turned out to be 6:30pm). Around midnight, eyelids heavy, we pulled into the El Rancho Motel in Elkhart, KS. At least we made it out of NM. The El Rancho Allowed pets and was decently cheap ($60). Looked like a popular place for hunters.

Another 6 hours over gradually rolling hills and plowing (ha) through golden colored fields and the sun sets behind us. The landscape of Kansas has a calming (some might say somnombaliatic) quality. So much open land, like a boat on the ocean. Of course, the land is very different from the water. For one, while the land can be built upon the surface of the water is more tenuous. The give and take relationship of a sailor with the sea is an everpresent necessity. Not so with those who walk the plains.

“Plains”. What of this word? A cursery glance at etymonline.com reveals that the history of this word is long and mysterious. Simple, undecorated?

Ok, ok, ok already. Like a telltale heart beating under the floorboards, as is the constant refreshing of the browsers of my audience, haunting me with questions and uncertainty – “did the movie finish?” “did he die before it’s completion?” “what of it you jerk, don’t leave us hanging here” and so on and so on. So here you have it. Though some time has now veiled my memory I’ll try to recollect.

The truth is that we were moving so fast on that final day in a rush to get through and it may have been the coldest day for us yet so that I rarely had a chance to pull off my gloves to get my fingertips close enough to exchange electrons with the screen of my iPhone (that’s how this happens you know). As for specifics, I did feel like I had one of my consistently best booming days. Pulled off some tricky maneuvers and captured some quality sound. Felt good. After lunch the production handed out our wrap gifts; doc west shirt, hat, belt & buckle(!), crew picture and a letter from Julio (the director). We shot until way after dark and it got colder and colder. The final scene was of Terence (doc west) getting hit on the head by a falling beam. It was kind if odd because due to the nature of the beam gag eveyone had to be out of the barn and film and sound had to be operated remotely. Strange end to the shoot.

That night was the wrap party which for me went until about 3 and required such an amour of recovery that I’m still not sure if I’m recovering from the shoot of the party.

So that’s it (oh yeah, ‘check the gate’ is what the director says to signal that the last shot was good and we should move on. It refers to the film gate and making sure it is clean(no hairs or gunk). Idea being that if the gate is not clean then there may be a problem with the last shot and we would have to ‘go again’).

Now I am in the midst of selling a few different older macs in hopes of buying a new MacBook. This had better happen soon. As of today my phone is my computer.

Thanks for following the blog folks. I will probably slack off for a while as I only tend to get fervent about this when I have some interesting project going on. Until then…the photo is from yesterday, driving down hw14. The clouds were really wild and at one point this materialized.

Well the final few days are going smooth. The weather has been holding off and the crews’ spirits are high. Every shot, every hour and every minute bring us that much closer to wrapping. To top it all off, on Tuesday we were surprised to be visited by a contingency of Tibetan Buddhist monks (oddly enough, I dined at the table next to them the day before). After lunch the crew entertained them with soccer tricks, juggling, accordian and animal tricks. Then, the whole crew gathered together and the monks chanted a blessing for us. I’m certain that to many their low gutteral tones were strange but I was grinning from ear to ear (this branch of Buddhism is close to my heart). After that, purified by blessing, we finished the day.
Today, we burnt down the barn.

Yesterday was spent booming in the sheriff’s office (and ultimately a picture wrap on the sheriff, Paul Sorvino). His presence will be missed by many as he was always telling stories and playing characters and (of course) singing Italian opera or old cowboy songs.
This morning, as my alarm stirred me, I had a dream vision that getting out of bed would require me to do so without making any shadows (this is a major part of booming). It’s a good thing this show is almost finished. It’s beginning to haunt my time off.
If you want to check out a trailer for the movie it is already available here. It looks pretty good. I think the sound needs a little finishing. Sounds a little over tweaked (not my fault).
Anyway, we ended the day (& a short week for thanksgiving) waiting for the sunset to get a shot of Doc riding out of it. All in all a pretty mellow day. Almost no dialogue, just the ambience of horse hooves.

The pic here is a good example of what my perspective has been all week. It’s the ‘poker tournament’ and that means shot after shot of disqualification rounds of bit part characters with no dialogue in a room constantly being pumped full of ‘safe’ but irritating fx smoke. On the upside, we are shielded from the wind and, actually, it can get pretty warm up on my post on the balcony, due to the several thousand watt lights around. Somehow I make it through another day without knocking something over or getting the pole tangled in the morass of wire and rope suspended from the ceiling.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.