this lossy codec

]I’m not sure if it is how busy I’ve been (or not been) or something weird in the stars but I just haven’t had it in me to spill some verbage onto the interscapes. For the record, we are back on the sound stage, out of the blowing wind and so, not eating as much dirt. Which is certainly nice. Still, something is a little not right. I guess the bloom is off the rose and I’m just ready for this gig to be done.

Last week Governor Richardson made a surprise appearance on set. I was standing nearby and caught a bit of the discussion he had with the producers, directors & cast. He asked them about how the incentive program had helped the movie, about how capable the crew has been, etc. Everyone had a lot of good things to say all around. Hopefully, that will keep the business coming. Afterwards Richardson shook hands with some of the crew and Denzel called all the New Mexico folks in for a group photo.

Speaking of photos, somebody pointed out this link that has a picture of yours truly booming Eli himself. A further search today turned up this link to an Entertainment Tonight video with another shot of me booming.

As has been the pattern this week, one heinous day is followed by a beautiful one. I wish there was more to write about than the weather (or lack thereof) but today was a pretty slow day. More fx shots with very little dialogue.

We did shoot a second take of the scene we shot yesterday (& I think a 3rd as well). That took us to lunch. Sheesh. It was a complicated scene, involving the aftermath of an RPG hitting a house, with dead people, return gunfire &…oh I shouldn’t give the whole movie away.

Short week this week. We’re off tomorrow (Friday) and back at work on Sunday. So, unless something interesting happens soon…uh, not bloody likely. Right now we’re sitting around waiting on a reset for this shot. Probably another hour or so to go. Zzzzzz.

Unbelievable. Jeff Knudsen, our 2nd boom op, broke his collar bone skateboarding this weekend. Is this show cursed or what? I’m starting to refer to it as the ‘Spinal Tap Drummer Syndrome’. Anyway, really tough break for Jeff. After two weeks the team had just caught our stride and Jeff & I were both looking forward to booming some more scenes together. Ah well, he’s supposed to be all healed up in six weeks so he’ll miss this show but (hopefully) be ready for the next one.

Luckily though, David called up another familiar face to fill the boom spot – Eddie Santiago. Long time readers may remember that he was the mixer I boomed for on Doc West. He’s another great guy & I’m glad to be working with someone I already have a raport with.

Regardless, with wind gusts up to 45 mph there isn’t much to be happy about. We’re still located in the same dirt-pile-on-top-of-buried-landfill and it’s pretty miserable. Luckily, shot-wise today is pretty kush. Very few lines and mostly special effects shots (exploding Cadillac flipping through the air, flaming body parts raining down, etc). So while Eddie is out booming such oddities David & I are seeking shelter in his tent.

Looking at the pile of dirt that accumulated on each piece of equipment regardless of the tent made me really wonder how my lungs were handling this. (cough, cough..)

I have posted some photos collected from Cole’s movie life.
Full resolution downloads are available. Also, you should be able to upload photos as well.

Cole
Gittinger Photo Gallery

Fortunately we mostly shot inside today as the weather was mostinhospitable. Apparently, at higher elevations there was some pretty major snow accumulation. No snow for us though. Just a cold, dirty, dusty wind. While David was get blasted and burried in his new tent from Pop’n'Work Jeff & I were inside the house double booming. No wires today…we were ‘being bold’. It felt good to be surrounded by the focused intensity of the scene, practicing the mystical art of boom fu. It was a sharp contrast to what was going on outside. Going out required donning goggles (at the very least) & pulling a bandana over my face. This was just nasty. Even with the tent the gear got covered with dust. Btw, did I mention the location was a buried over landfill? Presumably, this explained the large quantity of plastic tampon applicators scattered everywhere. Maybe it was part of the set dressing though, hmmm…

The scenes seemed to go well. They were fast paced, hand-held camera jobs, requiring Jeff & I to move quickly and hand people off to one another. I couldn’t help thinking how surreal & unlikely it was that I would be here, booming such major talent, so early in my career. Jeff helped out a lot (as Cole always had) by giving me tips on position & whatnot. But when the camera rolled it came down to walking the thin line between acoustical instinct & cinematographic paranoia (ie. staying out of the shot). We stayed out of the shot & David seemed happy with the sound. I felt pretty good about it. Would have liked to get a little closer to Eli & Solara as the walked out the door, though.

When they handed out call sheets we discovered there was no call for tomorrow (Friday). I guess the impending storm freaked them out. As it turns out, since they called it (Murphy’s Law being as it is) the storm barely touched Albuquerque. Oh well, another long weekend (only 3 days work this week though…).

Not sure if the nastiness of the dust filled wind comes through but here’s a picture.

Please join us in celebration of the life of
Cole Gittinger

This Saturday, March 21
2 PM until 5 PM

KTAOS SOLAR STATION
#9 State Road 150
Taos, NM 87571

This is a casual gathering. Everyone is welcome to speak.

If you have questions or need additional information, please call Dennis at 575-770-6697.
Please feel free to forward this information. Thank you.

(Having trouble getting the map posted here. Please post a comment requesting it and I will email the map to you.)

Somehow we carry on. Even as humanity has struggled to accept and understand the passing on of its brethren, the constant momentum of time is a balm on the wound of loss. Each day it is a little easier to cope with Cole’s passing even though contemplating it for any period of time brings back the grief. I hope his family is doing ok. As for me, I’m just trying to meditate on letting him go and being at peace with it. It’s important to let him go so he can move on. His passing really doesn’t seem so different than the way he lived his life. Like someone mentioned in the comments, just another wild adventure he’s on. Off by himself on the biggest adventure of all. He’s probably grooving away in that great jazz club in the sky.

Cole was always wary of my blog, preferring to called ‘boom guy x’ instead of his real name. Why? I guess it cramped his style. He said it was something about anonymity or someone finding him…As if his name wasn’t going to be on the credits anyway. “Besides,” I tried to tell him, “who reads my blog anyway?”

Well, both he and I were vindicated today when comments about Cole began to flood my inbox awaiting approval. It appears someone was in fact reading my blog and it was to find information about him. Cole’s family had found my post, presumably, while searching for information about his accident on the web (as I had, unsuccessfully). I guess Cole was right! Still, I am glad to have gone against his wishes to remain anonymous if I have benefited his friends and family in some way. If you knew Cole, please read the comments linked to at the bottom of the previous post and feel free to submit your own. Furthermore, Cole’s good friend and his boss & mine, David Brownlow, posted a really wonderful memorial on the ramps (rec.arts.movie.production.sound) board. Several folks have shared there as well: In Memory of Cole Gittinger.

As for me, today was rough though probably not as hard as yesterday. Of course, ‘the show must go on’ as they say and I heard a couple people mentioning how they felt it inappropriate to be shooting today. I understand and I have felt that way before, but honestly, I couldn’t think of a better way to process than by working. Further, the outpouring of love and support from the crew was really spectacular. Kind of like a family coming together to support one another. People across all departments loved & respected Cole. Still, it was hard and every hug I got brought tears to my eyes. I suppose it will get harder as the days go by and the ‘conscious’ outpouring of compassion is forgotten by many. As for me, I just can’t imagine getting used to his absence.

Before I sign off I’d like to leave you all with something that was shared at the wake I was attending Saturday night. Actually, it was something being shared there from a previous wake. A small child, upon seeing all the adults trying to cope with the passing of a close one said, “You know, she went straight up.”

If Cole passed from this world in any way like he lived in it, then he is there, unburdened, free and finding his own way. Blessings & Peace in your passing, my friend. You will be missed.

While we finished shooting some insert shots of the ‘engineer’s shop’ scece I had the chance to shoot the breeze with T.W. At the request of the directors he had brought (delivered actually) an old ‘barrel piano’. I’d never seen one of these things. Sort of like a player piano crossed with a music box. The barrel itself is quite large and, presumably, not interchangable meaning this is a ‘one-tune-instrument’. Unfortunately the barrel had become swollen & cracked from exposure over the years (over 150 of them). It still could be wound up and rotated but it was all catywampus so it played no recognizable tune.

In between takes I struck up a conversation with Tom. I had a compilation called Gravikors, Whirlies & Pyrophones that he had written an introduction to so I asked him if he’d built any instruments lately. He told me that he didn’t really build them (though he had friends that did) but sometimes he said he’d go into a hardware store and bang on stuff. He then mentioned Reed Ghazella, the godfather of cicuit bending, and Harry Partch, the godfather of experimental musical instruments. This opened the door for me to tell him about my own creations (the ‘electroacoustycle’ & circuit bent speak ‘n spell – with an obvious nod to Mr. Ghazella on that one). How cool it was to wrap with him on such familiar subjects.

On the down side, once his scenes were finished he mentioned his impending flight & was scurried off to get de-wardrobed & shuttled to the airport. This meant the sound crew was robbed of the chance to record Tom playing (er, plunking) the hammers of the barrel piano. Instead, we recorded the sound of the wind up motor running and the few disonant plinks & plunks that still made contact with the barrel. Then “boom guy x” (name witheld at his request) manually played the hammers in leu of Tom. Saddest part of all, fair readers, is that somehow I neglected to snap a pic of Tom or even the barrel piano for you all to see. Sad sad sad. I’ll see if I can get on from the set dress guys.

Today’s end wrapped us out of Carizozo (or the ‘zizo’ as we have dubbed it) and sent me back to Santa fe.

Today brought a change of atmosphere. Gone (uh, for now) is the smoke filled (what is that stuff anyway?) stages & stresses of wrangling cable over powerful electric cables that pollute our pure, clean audio w/ yucky RF & 60 cycle hum noise. No, now we are in the open air, fresh and comfortable. But wait a second. No, wait. The sun is getting higher. It is getting HOT. OH GOD, the HUMANITY, please make it stop.

Oh well. there was a brief period of comfortableness. Too burnt to write any more. And this is only the beginning of outside. It’s only February and already burning up. Sheesh.

Another day in the sun but the forecast is a little milder (still, a high of 70 all week here in Abq). Shooting pace was a bit slower as we were now dealing with special fx (amputated limbs squirting blood, etc – fun stuff). Still had a little dialogue to shoot though. All was going smoothly until about 3:30 when out of nowhere up comes a dust storm. Wooooeeeee. To try to paint a picture, the crew was stationed underneath a culvert (almost a tunnel) in the middle of a deserty-landscape. In fact, from the looks of it, the set had been dressed with more sand & dirt to make it properly emulate a “post-appocolyptic wasteland.” Anyway, as you can imagine, the tunnel channeled the wind & dust strait through it and, with the same suddeness that a real appocolypse occurs, transformed the set into a man vs. nature scene. Quickly, those prepared donned goggles (& some masks) and commenced to assisting those without. Pretty intense, especially thinking that in all likelyhood we’ll be seeing a lot of this weather.

Still, we pulled off a couple good shots that, thanks to the dust & wind, really captured the landscape the movie is attempting to portray.

Oh yeah, the pix:

- an attempt to show how close aircraft were flying (in this one – a huey)
- the tunnel itself
- my dirt covered mug

I’d be writing more if things were more interesting. Not that it’s boring but my duties are certainly mundane. Also, the pace of the work is way mellower than previous movies I’ve worked on. One gets the feeling there is lots of money (& subsequently- time). Often enough we (the crew) end up having the shot set and are waiting around for the talent. At this point, at least, it’s nice to not have a producer breathing down your neck to hurry something along. I rarely feel any pressure while wiring someone on set. That gives me the opportunity to focus on wiring well (It certainly can be done poorly). So that is likely the most crucial aspect of my job.

What else?

Let’s see, highlights of week 2.

Working with G.O. Besides being an incredible actor it turns out he is a very cool guy & gracious to work with as well. It’s amazing to see him go from his English accent to a western drawl (while seemingly channeling the spirit of William S. Burroughs) in the blink of an eye. What else can I say? It’s only the 2nd week.

Lowpoints?

Not really a huge deal but this jamming the timecode of the Red camera every 30 minutes or so is kind of a drag. I’ll spare you the technical details…

In other news, the world suffered a tragic loss yesterday in the death of Ed Grothus, owner of the Black Hole and inspirational peace activist and artist. It’s sad he didn’t live long enough to see his Doomsday Stones put into place. Let’s hope his memory lives on.

I found these strange formations growing out of the ice cube tray over the weekend. Kind of freaked us out at first. Still blows my mind a bit. A quick search of the googlewebs for “ice cube odd growth formation” didn’t fail me. In fact, there’s a plethora of info out there on this strange formations. Best place to start is here, a site dedicated to ‘ice spikes’ (as they are called) with a collection of links on the subject. Pretty cool stuff. My favorite is the An account of a walk across a frozen Lake Erie in 1963 with a description of ice spikes as tall as telephone polls!
The last pic is from earlier in the winter back at the Farm in Kansas. Perhaps this ice covered rock can be explained the same way…?

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.

In all the hullabaloo of catching you up on my recent activities I totally neglected to wax on about stuff unrelated to me (or maybe not!.  On Wednesday I got an email from a friend alerting me to the sad passing of television superstar Patrick McGoohan.  Unless you grew up in the 60′s and had a fascination for british conspiracy shows you might not know him.  McGoohan was the creator, director, producer, writer and star of one of the strangest and coolest shows of all time, The Prisoner. Now, to be fair, he didn’t write and direct all 17 episodes but he did the original 7 and is credited with conceiving of the concept for the show.

Basically, he plays a retired ex-spy who is kidnaped and taken to a resort community and given the title “Number 6″ (to preserve anonymity everyone is given a number).  The president of the Village (as it is called) is Number 2 and the series shuffles through a new number 2 pretty much every episode (as 6 thwarts their ability to crack him).  Meanwhile 6 is continually asking “Who is Number 1?”.  The whole show is considered a mythic psychodrama and often the action takes place inside 6′s head while doctors use drugs and technology to manipulate his dreams and ego.  The final 2 episodes are arguably the strangest thing I’ve ever seen on tv (although Lost & Fringe are getting pretty close). The show was shot during 67-68 so you can imagine the cultural forces at play that were influencing the storyline. 

So, then later on I got another email from a friend alerting me that Ricardo Montalban diedthe same day.  Now, I didn’t notice anything particular odd at first about 2 television stars dying.  A follow up email pointed out that it was a “bad day for guys whose shows took place on imaginary islands” (Now, unless you are muchyounger than me you will recall Montalban as “Mr. Rourke” from Fantasy Island.  Now, ok ok ok. Thats not that weird  right?  Except that Lost (another show about a disappearing island that has taken  obvious inspiration from The Prisoner) is  premiering its 5th season next week! Now I’m starting to think those guys on Lost are starting to jack with the  space-time televisual cortex.  

I’m even starting to notice other connections…like the similarities of the map of where we’re moving to & this map from the Prisoner….

Back in ‘the Q’ after a lovely break visiting the fam back in ‘the K’. I put aside the blog while there to focus on the beingness rather than being the observer. This is an experience I am well familiar with and I suppose I have developed an awareness of when to withdraw behind the veil of my perceptive mechanism and make conscious commentary on events around me and when to surrender myself unto the waters of life and allow them to wash over me. To this point it has pretty much been an either or situation. Perhaps someday I’ll develop the ability to exist in the world while simultaneously scripting a narrative about it. Unfortunately, my time has grown short and now I must dive back in.

As I sit here on the cusp of what (historically anyway) will be viewed as “the late naughts” it is customary to put to rest that which is left behind. Arbitrary, really. Still, for whatever reason humans find habit in mapping development, movement and “progress” with markers in the outside world. Hence, the New Year’s Resolution. Generally, I tend to resist making this kind of momentous gesture in fear that a failure to actualize it might gradually chip away at my ‘wholeness’ (As Master Yoda says, “Do or Do Not, there is no try”). Furthermore, the assertion of an “I” at point “Now” making a decision to be “Not this” but “This” challenges a perspective I have intentionally been developing and experimenting with for some time – that all things merge into other things and attempts to divide “this” from “that” or maintain “beingness” against “unbeingness” (or vice versa”) will only succeed as a momentary blip against the eternal flux and flow of constantly shifting uncertainties. There is no “there” there. The building of the castle continues even as the oscillating waves gradually deteriorate the foundation.

Oh well, maybe next year.

After selling a couple older mac notebooks I just scored 17″ 2.5ghz for 1500! Shawing!

Getting down to the leftover scraps. No more thanksgiving sandwiches. Maybe enough for a thanksgiving shake.

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!