While I very much enjoy the accounts of all the complicated goings-on on big feature films and welcome stories from the mixers, boom operators and playback operators/maintenance men of the challenging problems they have encountered (and hopefully overcome!), I humbly offer some useful things I have come across in my less glamorous world of one-man-band sound recording work for regional TV.
More and more it seems to be the norm in TV to require the Sound Recordist to operate two radio mics (or more) plus a 416 (or 816) on the pole.... and sometimes to do all this while walking backwards, guiding the cameraman! Just give me a broom and I'll sweep up the floor at the same time. But a couple of 'toys' have appeared to make life a little easier and make the job more feasible for someone with only one pair of hands.
| I recently bought a Filmtech LSP4 mixer, and apart from its exceeding every requirement I have made of it, it has the facility to plug in its side a remote pot which controls input channel 1 (or channels 1&2 if you wish). Strapping the box with a rotary pot on the pole lets you control the level of the mic while keeping your hands on the pole. That way you don't risk dipping the mic into shot while you momentarily take one hand away to tweak the mixer. Of course using other inputs at the same time presents the original problem, but if they are radio mics, then with any luck their level isn't going to change too much and if it does .... that's what the LSP4's excellent limiter is there for. Naturally it is desirable to set the radio mics up properly beforehand, getting a proper level and setting the level controls on the transmitters and mixer appropriately. |
| The other 'toy' comes from Ravencourt and is called the Video Betabox. It enables the Soundman to monitor the video output of the Betacam down the audio umbilical cable - everything goes through the one 8 pin plug and socket, Left & Right Audio In, Left +Right Audio Return plus video signal, so when connecting or disconnecting with the Betacam you have just the one plug to scramble after. There is no crosstalk between the video and audio signals and during vox pops and other unrehearsed modes of working it is so useful to glance down and see the size of the shot. I use a little domestic LCD television receiver with an audio-visual input, Velcro'ed onto the mixer's Portabrace bag and as well as helping me out, it also impresses the directors no end! Sometimes the cameraman can use it as a rough check on his colour balance. Never has the Soundman been so popular. |  |