this lossy codec

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.

After a heightened evening of more ventriloquised playback with Steve I ended the night (and the Albuquerque portion of the shoot) booming a dog named Chaos barking through a fence in fake rain. That wrapped me. And a fitting end it was. Afterwards I went out for a beer with the director and some of the producers. Good people. Good times.

Approaching the finish line on this one and time is seeming to stretch on and on. More night shooting and my body is surprisingly adaptive. Last night we were shooting at a junkyard, making our own rain. The noisy rain required us to wire the actors directly but we generally fill in with the boom anyway to capture some ambience (lapel mic’s don’t sound very natural). Well, Cole, being the generous guy he is, decided to offer up the booming for the night to me. What a guy. Luckily I had a little rain gear. Though apparently not enough. I will tell you that fake movie rain is just as wet as real rain.

I’m heading in for one more night of shooting here pretty soon (sans rain), Sunday off and then back in on Monday to reshoot because something happened to a film reel in developing. That means I’ll be doing more ventriloquism playback with Mr. Buscemi.

“That’s hollywood for you,” Steve Buscemi remarks, peaking around the corner of the bathroom stall (the picture shows my view). I was planted in the rear stall of the Route 66 gas station outside of Albuquerque while Steve acted out a phone call with Sarah Silverman. As Sarah had finished her bit last week, I was playing her part (no easy task…). Seriously, though, it wasn’t too hard. After finding out what the best take of her end of the phone call was I imported the track into Sound Studio(a decent enough little sound app for most purposes). From there it was just some inserting silence here and there and (most importantly) inserting markers before and after all of Sarah’s lines. The segments of her dialogue were then selectable on their own with a quick double click. I played each line back in response to Steve’s dialogue. The result was a kind of digital audio ventriloquism. At times it almost felt like the conversation was really happening and in fact several people told me later that everyone (the director, Steve, producers) was really impressed with how smoothly it went.

Ah well, don’t I get to feel good about something?

Only a few more days of this project and then I will have to find something else to blog about (uh…and make some $$). I’m sure something will come along, although the guys I’m working with, David & Cole, have told me they are planning on taking September off. Oh well, there is plenty to do around the house.

This week brought a major change of scenery. No longer are we communing with carny folk through long dark nights. No, this week we are shooting in an office building in downtown Albuquerque. We lounge between shots on an entire floor of cubicles. Perhaps not surprisingly, in my moments of downtime it is harder to stay awake than it was sitting around at 3am. Reminds me of another existence in a not so different place.

On a more interesting note, Sara Silverman (of comedy central fame) has joined the cast at the last minute to play the leading lady. I think she is a great addition to the cast. Going to be a funny movie.

The main cast is:

Steve Buscemi
Romany Malco
Sara Silverman
Peter Dinklage

Each is really great on their own but their chemistry together brings an already funny script to life.

For the past few days we gave been filming on To’hajellii (sp?) reservation, about 45 minutes west of Albuquerque no cell reception for anybody. Really changes the scene. Any down time is spent scurrying for shade (or snapping photos). Really beatiful location. Most of the shooting so far has been way out on a dirt road amongst some stunning vistas. More pics to follow.
Today is Saturday and I’m working and it is HOT. At least a hundred degrees. Sun screen is essential. Don’t think I am that burned yet. Been drinking water pretty much continuously today (yesterday too). Tomorrow I’m off (ahhh) and then we begin a week of night shoots out here. That may be rough. At least it won’t be hot.

Ok gang here we go again. Still posting via email from the phone, which while having an element of spontaneous creation in the midst of life certainly has it’s limitations. Like typing only with your thumb (as in singular). Hopefully I will get the new wordpress iPhone app to stop crashing on launch when 1.1 comes out. For now I’ll deal and try to get the posts happening again.

Sometime around 4am I wandered around the prison and snapped this photo of a wraith like entity sneaking out of the prison. Just so happens we were wrapping at the same time. That’s a 17 hour day…uh…at least that’s what someone told me. I can’t really count or add at this point. Anyway, tomorrow is a new day.

Today we moved inside the panoptic fortress that once was the New Mexico State Penn. This place (not surprisingly) has an odd air about it. There was a massive riot here back in the 80s. Pretty heavy duty stuff. There are all kinds of gruesome stories of what happened here during that riot. Some 33 were killed, some dismembered, some incinerated. Makes even filmmaking seem benign.
Today it seems we may get off a little early (only a 12 hr day) and instead face some ridiculously long day tomorrow. Oh well. Perhaps I’ll get some time to go explore cell block 4, the most potentially haunted place here.