Finally participated in the Moontower Comedy Festival. Covered a stand up showcase at the Velveeta and then a strange iPhone app ‘branding experience’ at the State Theater, featuring different comedians and even Puddles Pity Party, which was probably the best thing about it.
633 again, with a UH400A for board feed and UH400A and 416 for audience reaction.
Had the pleasure of a few days with esteemed news shooter, Jack Rayzor. We were doing live shots for MSNBC, including Chuck Todd’s morning program. The hill we were on could be none-windier and I found myself having to get creative to ensure adequate wind protection for the many folk we ushered through. Highlights included Graham Nash, Jim Brown, Maria Shriver, and Jesse Jackson, who wandered on to our little set to shake hands. It was a ‘pinch me’ week.
All wires with a boom in a zep for uh-ohs.
Another Horseman of Austin’s Apocalypse, The Circuit of the Americas racetrack out by the airport, has brought untold riches to a few chosen ones here. Had the opportunity to interview one of the track’s designers, literally on the track itself. It was Kevin Schwantz, I believe.
Simple, two-camera setup, all lavs.
Ah, the Magic Castle! Ever since I was working in LA, way back when as a puppeteer, I’ve always wanted to check it out. Turns out I got to spend most of a week there, taking in all the history. I even got to meet my hero, Dan Castallaneta, who couldn’t have been nicer. Coat and tie required, however. It was fun to be out there during Oscar time…
Richard Turner was doing several shows there, I wired him and bugged the table with two OST mics, as there was no time to wire the two helpers.
Shot out at Spiderwood Studios. All on the CMIT.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXBxpQHPRnI[/youtube]
Judy Greer is Judy Great. That is all…
Had an unexpected, yet fun 11th-hour gig materialize today. It’s a food-related show featuring Anthony Anderson, who’s touring the US to visit unique individuals who’ve distinguished themselves in the culinary culture.
Simple setup, two wires, a smart slate and my trusty 664. Three DSLRs to shoot the demo.
30 production days later, this beast is has been put to rest. 16 flat tires, multiple horse incidents and assorted broken gear complimented this rollercoaster that took us all over the Lone Star state.
My bag-centric approach proved to be the right call, many locations were not cart-friendly and being able to jump in a creek bed at a moments notice was a blessing. We remoted a sharkfin and a helical most of the time and I used my other sharkfin for my boomer’s IFB. A Comtek BST 72-216 fed the director and both cameras scratch tracks for dailies. We hung my Lockit on the Epic and the Red One used as B-cam had a non-functioning timecode port, so all it’s footage will have to be hand sync’d. Have fun with that!
My PSC RF Multi SMA bit the dust the first day, replaced it with an Octopack and never looked back. My UH400A that we used on Zero Charisma for booming began having range issues, so it needed to hit the Mothership and we used a UM400 and a phantom box to get by.
More gear fun… We were doing a daytime campsite scene, I glance down and smoke is drifting up lazily from the antenna port of my Comtek base station. I yanked power (it was connected to the genny) and pulled it out, smoke continuing to come out for the next couple of minutes. Sigh. Another toy heading back to home. I had a portable Comtek tranny available to limp us by.
Other than a couple of broken wires, that was the last of the gear accidents.
This was a challenging shoot, largely due to the use of the B-Cam, lots of wides and tights were being used. We were also constantly chasing the light, as the days are a lot shorter this time of year.
Overall it was a fun crew, we had our laughs when we could and we’d get a game of Ninja in whenever possible.
Ponderosa Rig V2
Starting a new indy flick that happens to be a Western next Friday. Knowing from experience that locations on these can be unfriendly at best, I decided a cushy cart setup would not be the best approach. I decided to go full on bag for this. I’ll be able to be static quite a bit I’m sure, but I want to be as portable as possible at any given moment. I’ve included 7 wireless, my Comtek BST and this will be the first real torture test for the PSC RF Multi SMA antenna distro. I’ll be able to send signal to all the receivers via the standard whips when conditions are on the go, and easily be able to hook onto the sharkfins when we’ll be staying put for a bit. I’m nervous about the distro as it’s been back to the mothership twice now for RF amp defects. I banged on it quite a bit just now and it seems to be playing nice. I prefer the bigger BST in the bag when it’ll fit as the XLR connections are far less prone to physical noise and interference.
Ponderosa Rig V3
Ok, so the PSC Distro crapped out 15 minutes into the first day of shooting. Bummer. It’s still at the Mothership for the third time now. I spotted an Octopack for sale and immediately bought it and somehow the dude got it to me from New York during the storm stuff. Why I waited so long to get one of these is a mystery to me. Since selling my Venue I wanted to get a cart and bag friendly distro setup and this has been perfect thus far.
Currently in Portland, OR, subbing for the very last two weeks of COPS 25th season. Having never been to Portland I jumped at the chance. The weather’s been fantastic and I found an awesome disc golf course at Pier Park. The cops have been fun to work with and the shooter and I are getting several stories in the can.
