The Coffey Audio Files - Winter 2008

Production SoundPost Production Hardware Software Tech Tips Interviews News Lee Strosnider Career Retrospective Sounding Out Vietnam by Robert Kennedy Sound Devices CL8 Portable Audio Mixer Solice Audio Mixer The New 8 Channel Mixer from PSC COFFEY AUDIO FILES THE VOLUME 20 | ISSUE 3 | 2008 www.coffeysound.com Sound Mixer for Dr. Phil & NFL on FOX Michael Stock ALSO IN THIS ISSUE: Eli Stone Nicholas Allen, talks about his approach to recording the popular ABC show. Will Hansen discusses his travels to Poland while recording audio. Blow Out Jim Tanenbaum revisits the 1981 soundman thriller directed by Brian De Palma Body of Lies Richard Van Dyke takes us behind the scenes of director Ridley Scott’s new film. dream machine There’s never been a wireless system as flexible or powerful as Sennheiser’s new EM 3732. It’s loaded with features designed to make your life easy - so you can concentrate on the performance rather than your gear. • 90 MHZ switching bandwidth • Do it yourself tuning in 5 kHz steps - maximum flexibility • Very intuitive menu settings - fast setup • Ethernet port for computer monitoring and control. Integrates all NET1 functionality • New compander circuit is backward and forward compatible with all Sennheiser 3000 & 5000 series pro wireless gear • Daisy chain up to 16 channels without the need for an external antenna distribution system EM 3732: the wireless Introducing the Sennheiser EM 3732 Advanced Wireless Receiver www.sennheiserusa.com Table of Contents The Coffey Audio Files 2008 Volume 20, Issue 3 President: John Coffey, C.A.S. Editor in Chief: Steven Wolstrup Advertising Inquiries: Contact Steven Wolstrup at (323) 876-7525 or via email at [email protected] Publishing: The Coffey Audio Files is published with postage paid in the State of California. This publication may not be quoted, reproduced or reprinted in any form without the express written consent of Coffey Sound, LLC. Printed in the USA. All images are copyright of their respective owners. Coffey Audio Files Online: Visit us online at coffeysound.com and download the free PDF copy of this and other issues of “The Coffey Audio Files” magazine. This PDF may be freely distributed, but may not be quoted, reproduced or reprinted in any form without the express written consent of Coffey Sound, LLC. Interested in Contributing? Please contact us via email at [email protected] or by telephone at (323) 876-7525. IN THIS ISSUE 03 Coffey’s Brew A Message from the President. Photos from our 20 year Anniversary party held at John Coffey’s home. The Sound of Eli Stone by Nicholas Allen C.A.S. 21 Blow Out Jim Tanenbaum 25 04 20th Anniversary Party Body of Lies Richard Van Dyke 31 06 Michael Stock: Sound Mixer for NFL on FOX & Dr. Phil Cover Story! Sounding Out Vietnam Robert Kennedy 37 11 Will Hansen On Location in Poland Tech Zone: 15 Lee Strosnider Career Retrospective PSC Solice Audio Mixer The New 8 Channel Mixer from PSC! 41 43 Product Highlight 43 43 45 Schoeps CMD 2u Digital Mic Sennheiser MKE-1 Lavalier Audio Glossary (M-N) Product Highlight: Sound Devices CL-8 Controller for 788T 44 THE COFFEY AUDIO FILES Phone: (323) 876-7525 | Fax: (323) 876-4775 3325 Cahuenga Blvd W | Los Angeles, CA 90068 THE COFFEY AUDIO FILES Phone: (323) 876-7525 | Fax: (323) 876-4775 COFFEY’S BREW: A Letter From The President 20 YEARS AGO! That’s when I first filled out that government form to begin doing real business as Coffey Sound. Here’s my story: There’s not enough space here to talk about the years before that, when I was staying up half the night to load gear into lockers I built along the side of my house for the next day’s driver’s pick-ups. I wish I could say that we were an overnight success, but I’d be lying. So cut to 20+ years later, how did we ever get to here (and how did I get this old)? Well, the first reason we made it was that I had another job for 18 of those last 20 years. Otherwise, I would have gone broke many times while expanding and trying to keep the doors open. In fact, buying the properties to place the business in turned out to be way more profitable than the business itself. It all started with me renting a little extra gear to my sister and some other mixer friends on the side. I wasn’t making much money at it and definitely had to keep mixing to pay my house payment (something that never changed). Then, in 1992, I was mixing a 15 week mini-series in Kansas City called Burden of Proof, when someone from my local audio store called me and told me I was cut off, that my account was closed. After begging him to reconsider, to no avail, I put down the phone in shock. How was I going to get what I needed to do my current job in the Midwest? I was panicking. Remember, this was distant location before cell phones and the internet. It was almost impossible to call from your hotel room during working hours. My very fine boom operator back then, Beau Baker, calmed me down and I survived that mini-series by having my sister go in there to buy what I needed sent to me….until she was cut off too, near the end of my show. So, I then decided to open my own store. It all happened by accident. I really did it because I felt forced into it. I looked over at my local 3rd person, Buck Robinson, and asked him if he wanted to move to California. He was fresh out of Nebraska University and planned to marry his girlfriend soon. So, life wrecker that I was, I told Buck that if he drove out to California, I would give him a job running Coffey Sound and he could sleep on the couch (which he did for one year) and bring his girl out later. To show you how little I knew, I thought I would just call all the manufacturers and they would be overjoyed to open me as another dealer in this territory. Was I ever wrong! In fact you could say that I was completely naïve about the audio sales business in general. I used the products as a sound mixer and knew all the reps personally, but they were not going to open me until hell froze over. So now I had opened a store with nothing to sell. It went on like this until I got an incredible break when the main local audio dealer in LA had some legal problems. It was like a miracle happened, and overnight I had the manufacturers lined up at my door to open me up. Of course we all know that those issues at my competitor soon disappeared, but by then, I finally had the dealerships I needed. Sounds good, right? Wrong. My own problems were about to begin. Now I needed to buy enough inventory to carry minimums of shelved stock. That would take a small fortune. All my money was tied up in rent and paying my one employee, so I couldn’t afford to carry much inventory. It was a huge cash flow problem for any small business owner. So for the next ten years, I plodded along, sinking every nickel I made as a production mixer back into the business. Several people offered to partner with me along the way, but I did one thing right, I said no. I knew that partners rarely make it because there is no pie to split up during the long growth period. It takes years of starving, so most partners wind up hating each other in the end. I answered to 1988 no one and took no money out of the business for the first ten years. That allowed me to slowly get to the point where I could afford to hire enough employees to service our customers properly. After about fifteen years in business, I finally had enough employees to open a separate sales, accounting, inventory, rental and repair departments. Still, the remaining problem was always there. We couldn’t make enough money to afford carrying sufficient inventory, until I finally sold the business a couple years ago. That’s when our real growth began to happen fast. The new owners infused cash into the business. We could now say “yes” almost every time anyone needed anything. We also could afford to pay and keep better qualified employees and compete heads up with every audio company in the country. Since then, I now, I spend 99% of my time as the President of Coffey Sound. It’s a title I enjoy much more than ‘owner’. I sleep better and I work on sets only a few days a year now, just to pick up my minimum union hours (I changed my classification to third person). So 20 years have passed and I reminisce: Who will fill Andy Cooper’s void? We’ll always miss our good industry friends like Mike Denecke, Neal Stone, David Ronne and Keith Wester. Boy, have we ever seen a lot of changes in our years? Just look at how we record sound now. In the previous 20 years, we barely saw any change as we cruised blissfully through the Nagra years. Recording two tracks of stereo on tape was once considered groundbreaking. When we added time code…oh my, wasn’t that a big deal? Then, in the last few years, technological change kicked into high gear. We went from analog tape recorders to DAT tape recorders to tape-less digital recorders in a very short time. Now, even the most expensive recorders are really the best deals in years considering that back in the ‘90s, a new time-code Nagra IV STC sold for around $16,000. However, the rental rates we received were much better then than they are today. (The poor studios can’t afford to pay those kinds of rental rates to mixers anymore because they need 15 producers on every show.) So my good old Nagra is now a boat anchor, ah, I mean collector’s item. Let me state here and now that Coffey Sound would never have been able to succeed without the trusted assistance of Buck Robinson and Fabi Allen. Fabiola and I have now been teaming together for over eleven years. She handles the day to day chaos of the office like a maestro working an orchestra, which allows me to schmooze with you. Fabi is very special to me and I respect her immensely. I also want to thank my wife Nina for putting up with a workaholic. More thanks to Fuzzy Anderson, Lisa Barcela, Noise Barnaclo, Sean Buckley, Juan Cisneros, Cosette Copperfield, Bradley Craig, Gary Day, Steve Eagle, Sherrie Esposito, Mike Evans, Vinnie Fatato, David Fisk, Forrest Forbes, Sherrie Gal, Dan Garza, Bryan Golder, Jeny Gonzalez, Jeff Haley, John Harnois, Jon Hicks, Chuck Homyak, Jaime Ignacio, Brian James, Robert Kennedy, Carla Kent, Mary Dixie Kirkpatrick, Margarite Maldonado, Matt McGowan, Jeff Melendez, Pablo Moleno, Kristie Moran, Richard Parissi, Jennifer Paro, Jeff Patrick, Thomas Popp, Chris Silverman, Matt Toungate, Brian Wittle, Alan Wolstrup, Steve Wolstrup and all the many other fine current and ex-employees of Coffey Sound. I don’t compete with mixers for jobs anymore, but I still enjoy visiting you on sets and working a few hours as a third person because I like to stay in touch and pursue my new goal… to become the Kevin Bacon of Sound. I also want you to know that I’ve always strived for the excellence that I knew could be achieved. It just took 20 years to get to here and I promise to keep improving Coffey Sound every day for you as we head into the future. Most of all, I want to thank you and all the many others who passed through the doors of Coffey Sound over the last 20 years. Sincerely, John Coffey, President of Coffey Sound 3 The Coffey Audio Files | Issue 03 2008 COFFEY SOUND’S 20th ANNIVERSARY! 1988-2008 The Coffey Audio Files | Issue 03 2008 4 . . Mike mixes all of these down to a stereo mix. Two wireless booms constantly roam the audience to pick up comments from audience members. Phil wears a wireless Sennheiser SK5012 with MKE2 capsule. at any one time together. There are four satellite feeds and five telephone lines using Innkeeper PBX Systems. in order to craft his final mix. Phil is finished for the day once the primary taping is over. live sound mixer extraordinaire at work. The isos and video are recorded to their server. wears the same transmitter but with a Voice Technologies lavalier. The Doctors and Fox Sports. Everyone on the production crew treats the show as a live broadcast. though it goes to tape. then Dr. 16 stereo channels of audio accompany each video feed. Most of his schedule is taken up on the sets of Dr. Mike usually mixes from over 50 microphone and Line signals. So the crew has to be sure to get it right the first time. Dr.COVER STORY Michael Stock Live Sound Mixer for NFL on FOX & The Dr. Up to sixteen guest members wear Sennheiser wireless and a dozen microphones hang over their heads for audience reaction and applause. Phil. There are some instant pick-ups at the end of show. His wife Robin. Phil Show By Robert Kennedy 
 John Coffey and I recently visited Michael Stock. Mike’s objective is to The Coffey Audio Files | Issue 03 2008 6 . Michael is the A mixer on both shows and he gave us a great tour of the sets and the tools of his trade. Spending nearly every day in front of one panel or another. Mike doesn’t miss a beat. The only 7 The Coffey Audio Files | Issue 03 2008 . Terry Bradshaw.COVER STORY make sure the line cut (done live) will go to air with little or no tweaks. The talent never seems to stop talking about football. Sometimes they go long because the doctor still has work to do. Each of the talent wear two Sennheiser MKE2 lavaliers and two Sennheiser 5000 series transmitters to ensure they can always be heard if one unit fails.

The mix is accomplished using a Studer Vista 8 board. Mike said the show is truly like a therapy session. Mike’s technical mastery seems essential to his ability to mix without letting his blood pressure rise. The day we were with him Dr. He now has 40 assignable knobs and a touch screen for each channel. He used to monitor his mix via two Mackie HR824’s and two Yamaha NS-10M studio monitors. He operates both units with natural ease. Howie Long. His fingers seem to magically find their way to the correct faders as he tells us about what’s going on around him. He can even expand that to visitors like us. Phil was covering deadly antibiotic bacterial infections contracted during hospital stays. and multiple monitors and IFBs barraging the senses. He has to lean occasionally. He also has attention left to watch the show and consider its subject matter. the mix suite is more like an extension of his being. he simply calls it up on his Studer. With a gigantic mix panel. but upgraded this year to a JBL Professional LSR 6328 fed by AES. Mike expressed immense respect for the work done on Dr. Jimmy Johnson and Michael Strahan are the current studio analysts alongside host Curt Menefee. A guest may spend an hour-and-a-half on the couch sharing private details and un-containable emotion. Phil’s couch. Located in a state of the art building on the FOX lot in West Los Angeles. the Built Ford Tough FOX NFL FOOTBALL SUNDAY studio is a bit of a frenzy. that’s layers deep with signal. He will occasionally pause conversation to play a musical cue while performing multiple fades. 

It was amazing to watch Mike have the ability to do his job while conversing with co-workers under pressure as a team. Digital mix panels must have been invented for Mike. He never has to roll his chair down a long row to tweak a setting. The show previously used Euphonix but Mike sought additonal flexibility in this Studer board. but for the most part his arms and hands do all the work. To the left of the board they recently replaced their “Instant Replay” 360 Systems with an Enco which Mike uses for musical cueing. Luckily. There are countless rows of flat-panel monitors and running timecode. but the best view is through a wall of tinted glass that reveals the room’s complexity and sophistication worthy of NASA. This technology allows them to call up stored footage more quickly and en mass.COVER STORY John Coffey discusses mixing for Fox NFL Football Sunday with Michael Stock. Mike doesn’t have to deal with triple the playback sources as the system exceeds their requirements. where people may occasionally puff a cigar. professional and fun.” interrupted by the AD announcing that they will be live and starting the countdown. It’s not the only data-based video/audio system on hand either. The writers do their best to finish explaining what they’ve written on the sheet of paper they leave with the talent. Mike has his own window into the control room beneath also connected to rack mounts. It’s connected to a rack-mounted proprietary computer via fiber optics inputs and outputs are on panels “Mike usually mixes from over 50 microphone and line signals. The atmosphere is often his myriad of flat-panels and between his speakers. The room is dark and silhouettes of people wearing IFB headsets are very busy. Mike’s mixing panel is once again the Studer Vista 8. There’s the same banter seen live across the US taking place in the buildings. There is also a system affectionately referred to as Elvis. The crew is professionally calm and the atmosphere on a Sunday afternoon is relaxed. The best explanation for Elvis is that it is basically a professional Tivo™. The control room makes movie sets of newsrooms look slow moving. at any one time together. at least for now. FolThe Coffey Audio Files | Issue 03 2008 8 . It’s silver and blue design looks worthy of alien technology. Outdated equipment is nowhere to be seen. green room or the rooftop. in order to craft his final mix. This isn’t surprising given the number of games being shown simultaneously on large flat-panels and embedded in the talent’s shared desk. The engineers at Fox Sports have managed to rid themselves of tape this year which tripled the number of playback sources available. way you can tell whether they are on the air (besides the On-Air sign) is by their posture. The digital board is now fully utilized instead of connected to analog. Richard starts playing along with an instant replay Fox Sports Sound Effects: Richard Becker. Richard Becker is the sound effects wizard member of the Fox Sports Net audio team. His product is a stereo sound effects mix to accompany replays. Richard literally plays the football game in sync on his piano-style keyboard which has game-specific sound effects. which he creates in real-time as it goes to broadcast.” lowing the wires would likely lead to a server farm holding incredible amounts of football games and highlights ready at a moments notice to be called up and played for the world. Richard works in a unique world of his own creation. a midi controller (standard piano keyboard) and a terabyte of categorized sound effects. recorded and pre-mapped before the live broadcast. With a computer. Mike has screens labeled LZR-1 through LZR-8 which show all of the games they are following that day. He has a welladorned mini-studio in the back of the mix suite on the Fox Lot.COVER STORY John Coffey on the set of “The Best Damn Sports Show Period. It’s a true AES facility providing a stereo mixdown. a Yamaha DM1000. The Studer Vista 8 9 The Coffey Audio Files | Issue 03 2008 . Crunch. growl. even though I know it was really Richard Becker at his keyboard playing the game we think we hear! Robert Uhland 2nd Mixer FOX Sports Audio Team: Robert controls all of the music playback and all “real time” video playback. I would swear I heard the ball hit that goal post. The Coffey Audio Files | Issue 03 2008 10 . This is truly a 3 man team. perhaps “anticipation.” by holding a key to introduce a crowd loop that sets the mood.” He has several loops to keep things fresh and represent the reactions of the crowd. Just listen to the next big game and you may even hear a subtle “ping” when the football hits the goalpost. helmet hits and countless other sounds result from Rich’s key-mash and the result is lush. The sounds of running and catching the ball and a particularly punishing 3-on-1 tackle follow closely in time. When the football players spring from the scrimmage line. thud.COVER STORY “Rich mashes a series of keys that trigger various sounds heard when 2 tons (literally) of human meat covered in pads collide. yelling. The show could not be done without his contribution. Rich mashes a series of keys that trigger various sounds heard when 2 tons (literally) of human meat covered in pads collide. So I rent. After pondering all the variables I decided to take a familiar approach: Cooper 106. Short story. Unfortunately they are so young that they don’t know to ask for it and are sent back to Russia. Poland. and it went a little something like this. Much to my surprise it was two completely different people who had gotten in contact with me through him. under a train station. I came up with using a carnet(a government bond against the value of the equipment) and a shipping company with the power of attorney to handle the equipment. The next thing you know. my equipment got stolen. A BDS power system powered the rack and the Comtek base station.8. living by themselves. a production company based in Warsaw.. Originally I went into the interview thinking that it was with a director that I had worked with a few years prior. Will Hansen and my boomy Mike Luce to come out to Poland for a summer adventure. so I called around to find out what to do. Thanks to Scott Stolz for pointing me to Ron Judkins who pointed me to Ivan Sharrock. Hell yeah! The film takes place earlier in the century with three young children. Thanks Lukas Karwowski for the referral. I then 11 The Coffey Audio Files | Issue 03 2008 . I run with Sanken COS-11s. At first I wanted to go small and all high tech. they worked perfectly. as that’s what I do these days. Eventually they run into a policeman who holds them as refugees and hopes that they get amnesty. but that story is for a whole other article. But I couldn’t find anywhere to rent.Will Hansen on Location in Poland Earlier this summer I found myself in an interview with the owners of Kid Film. I had to figure out just what I wanted to bring with me. Thanks Panavision for that. Deva 5. Thanks to those guys. A mini Cooper with a 788t and the WB VR Field Unit with FM transmitters. we’ve negotiated a contract for me. Slowly they make their way to the promised land and have many experiences. I powered the Cooper and the Deva via two 32 amp hour batteries courtesy of Panavision Polska. Check out his movie called “Mala Wieka Milosc”. a nice romantic comedy..CS3Es. in Russia. Schoeps and Nuemann KMR 82i’s(which held the brunt of this exterior film) Then it was on to sending the equipment over which I had never done. A wonderfully shot movie from my perspective. Then one day they decide that it’s time to run away to Poland for a better life. 4 411a’s in a rack unit and a Comtek BST-25. I think I changed the IFB frequency once for fun because I wasn’t using them. That was way way more than I ever ended up with before. construction (power saws). I realized what type of movie I was involved with one day when we were shooting by a lake and we spent a great deal of time placing flowers in the foreground for composition. I constantly found myself thinking how good the lighting looked. cows. chatter. No problems in or out. It was quite the backdrop for Dorota Kedzierzawska (director) and Arthur Reinhart (DP) to make their movie. For the first time I feel like my ears tuned to a completely different place. A funny side note. I found myself not distracted at all by the dialogue. when I was in the interview I asked if the script was in English. Will Hanson and his cart overlooking a beautiful Polish landscape. When I would look at the monitor from my cart. and helicopters. The Coffey Audio Files | Issue 03 2008 12 . It was so quiet between the planes. Cool thing about that is. sense to me that they would want to bring me all the way out to Poland. We shot the film on the Red camera (which is awesome by the way). motorcycles. like a lot of things over the summer. The boys were easy to wire since we established a wiring routine that to them became SOP. cars. After Ivan told me what’s up with the wireless equipment over the pond I decided that I needed to talk to a Lectro rep for more tips. no slate…. They said yes and it made more We jammed the camera straight off of the Deva at every battery change and used no slate trees. phones. a land called Burniszki. that I went with the boom on a wire. And for one of the first times I didn’t feel like the red-headed sound step child on set. horses. Next we traveled to our location in the Northeastern end of Poland next to the Russian border.because the children in the film were not actors and it was thought that the slate would have served as a distraction to their pureness. pigs. It had been about 2 years since I had done that and you know. I ran at 25fps-48k-24bit Poly-FAT32 and burned all the info to two external drives. Boom Op Mike Luce and Mixer Will Hanson. Yeah right! The range of everything transmitted was ridiculous. If Mike Utility Man Rafal. I know. That’s my PL line for the wireless boom. Once we started filming I found everything to go quite smoothly from my end. I had decided to wire everyone all the time. tractors. I noticed myself concentrating big time on the background noise and mic placement. I then found how to list my carnet. It was all beautiful countryside with loads of lakes and hills and I had just about convinced myself that there wasn’t that much loss. something got lost in translation and the script was in Russian and Polish (they would get me an English version). so I was getting about 7 to 10GB a day for 43 days. trains. running at 25 frames. There we shot most of the film. We jammed the camera straight off of the Deva at every battery change and used no slate.knew exactly what to do. not being able to comprehend what I was hearing. With the quietness of the locations and the script in another language. Turns out that. ever ran into any issues Arthur would always say “Well we can change the shot”! This of course never happened because Mike just changed his position. Thanks to everyone on the crew for taking such good care of us. so I was really trying to get the most out of my days. Mike Luce and Will Hanson. when we were out recording wild tracks. a few days later there was a scene where he was watching his brothers fight. It’s definitely not everyday that you get to do things like this. I think right around that time I had two of the best days ever on set.swimsuit waiting for lunch to come around. including the clubs. And on set. Ohh so funny. What a wonderful experience. if I called for wild lines. We were filming right next to this huge beautiful lake and so at lunch we would eat as fast as possible. It was a place where people over the age of 50 go to have a vacation so they can go to spas and relax. It was sooo funny. In fact so much that. but the gesture reflected everyone’s approach to caring about anything sound related on set. I hadn’t laughed so hard in a long time. we were play fighting with Petia (the youngest). and Dorota loved it! Shortly thereafter we moved to a town called Ciechocinek. And we taught him the old karate chop and he loved it. Here I began to realize that things were coming to an end. so that when we were done we could all go out to the lake and go swimming. All was quiet. It was so pleasant. Once. with the stream slowly trickling and a little bush noise then all of a sudden “AHHHHHH!!!!”. so imagine putting a film crew in this kind of environment. I was given all kinds of freedom to do things that I had never really done before. That and my 30th birthday was approaching fast! I found that Rafal. I miss you already. Some of my fondest memories of my time there involved the boys. We shot a lot of the forest footage there. They didn’t know what to do with us. we were down by a stream trying to get the sound of the bushes being pushed aside to peer through. They loved us and we loved them. It was even funnier than the time someone on a different set cut the cheese during room tone. I got to spend one of my days off there goofing around with the boys by the pool and tennis courts. Next we moved to a place called Bialystock for a few weeks. Many times we would go out before or after work and record all kinds of wild tracks. By this time we were all tight and things were going very well. As Mike was doing his Foley artistry he got a little too up close and personal with the electric fence and got shocked. And in this moment he was emulating what they were doing in a comical matter and he busted out the old karate chop action. we would actually do them. 13 The Coffey Audio Files | Issue 03 2008 . Everything there would shut down at 10pm. The day by the pool. For two days I was working in my Mike Luce ankle deep in a Polish stream. .our utility man. INC. DENECKE. Smooth sailing.much. Suite 240  Valencia. I was happy to say goodbye to my twenties in a different country. Man the big 30.. It was really because of the crew making me feel like they were my replacement friends and family.com  Email: info@denecke. I didn’t even miss my friends and family. CA 91355 Phone (661) 607-0206  Fax (661) 257-2236 www. The Coffey Audio Files | Issue 03 2008 14 . It was awesome. could fix just about anything.com/ watch?v=jKLflianpMM if you would like to see footage of the crew singing Happy Birthday to me.com DENECKE. Luckily not much went wrong with the equipment out there. PRODUCTS TO HELP YOU FOCUS ON SOUND. just how I like it. Check out http://www. Saying goodbye is never easy and I would certainly jump at the opportunity to come back out to the EU to film. INC.denecke. It was an amazing experience that changed my life. Then the day of my birthday arrived. It’s funny how serendipitous things are at times. We took over one of the local parks in this retirement community and jammed. Just a few weeks after my birthday I found myself doing inventory and packing the gear.. I took to calling him the Mad Scientist. If you ever get a chance to drink vodka all night on your birthday with a bunch of Poles I would highly recommend doing it. He was great. DCODE TS-C DCODE SB-T 25030 Avenue Stanford.youtube.. I had learned photography while in high school. I accepted the fact that there were things I couldn’t have because all my friends were in the same situation. For a poor farm boy in the depression. Terre Haute had 8 active stages and I worked them all. With my training and experience in Terre Haute. I was born on a farm in Indiana during the depression. I was a happy child and was not old enough to realize what my parents were going through. By the time I was out of high school the depression had ended. I came to California in 1951 to study film at UCLA. photographing all their plays. My father ran a small country store on my grandfather’s farm. my father was working and they could afford to send me to college. I have wanted to work in motion pictures. My father had a nervous breakdown and my mother who had retired when I was born returned to teaching to make ends meet. 15 The Coffey Audio Files | Issue 03 2008 . I did a lot of stage work during this time. We were poor but we did not go hungry thanks to the farm. I knew my way around a stage. sound. The depression was ending and my father was recovering. When I was about 10 my father lost his store and my baby sister died before she was a year old. I spent 2 years at Indiana State University in Terre Haute Indiana studying theatre and radio. and stagecraft. Two of my friends at UCLA were Carol Burnett and James Dean. but enough to reinforce my desire to be a part of them. I worked on some little theatre stage shows in Hollywood. My father paid my $50 a semester tuition and I earned a little money taking actor photographs and doing some commercial photography.Career Retrospective Lee Strosnider Since I can first remember. One of the few luxuries we had was going to the movies. I went to a “little red schoolhouse” with 8 grades in that room. it was a far cry to think of going to California and becoming part of the movie business. I worked at the Post Office on my first Christmas vacation and earned enough money to buy a professional camera. I learned a great deal which I could later apply to motion picture work. I also became photographer for the theatre dept at UCLA. Carol lived just a couple blocks from me and was as poor as I and Jimmy was little better. I could do lighting. Not often. I had more than some who had to come to school in raged clothes and sometimes without shoes. I worked on my first film. I liked recording sound because it was possible to get better sound than it was to get good photography with the conditions under which we had to work. This involved making promotional films for a company in Atlanta Georgia. 1956 to 57 was the worst period of my life. photographed and organized the films with one assistant. One day in 1962 a group of people came to ask me to record sound on their picture. It taught me a lot about organization. I made $150 a week from which I also had to pay my expenses. I returned to Hollywood in 1956 just as low low budget independent films were getting started. we were learning our craft. I was good at laying up A and B rolls in 16 mm. He was a cameraman and later also became a sound mixer. I photographed it in southern California and got some impressive photography. I followed up with “Spider Baby. beach pictures were all the rage and we . directed. I shot a short dramatic film. I traveled all over the country and made industrial and promotional films. It was my first opportunity to shoot 35mm. I followed this with “The Sky Divers” and several others of the same ilk. I photographed much of it and was the only technical person on it. a dubious distinction. and knew the basic principles. I worked there for about 3 years. along with some friends from school. who became a good friend. We later worked together quit at bit and have been life long friends. followed By “Thrill Killers” for the same group. Through some mutual friends I met Ruth Roberts who was a producer on the Loretta Young television show. My father died and I was barely able to make my rent of $75 a month. She gave me my first professional job doing routine polishing and reading scripts for the show. I was making a little money editing. That summer in Calif. They had a cameraman. a newcomer named Vilmos Zsigmond. I learned the basics of film making. Independent pictures were getting better. It was an educational film made by a teacher and some students from UCLA. I returned to Atlanta to do a couple more films there. The film was never finished but I used the footage to get my next job. Also involved was another cameraman Laslo Kovaks. In the summer of 1954. I wrote. I met Austin McKinney on that show. but had worked in radio in Ind. It has something of a cult reputation as being the worst film of all time. I had no film sound experience. I had a serious operation with a long recovery. The picture was “The Incredibly Strange Creatures who Stopped Living and Became Mixed Up Zombies”. I recorded the sound on both. so the main money I made during this period was from that. My first theatrical film was “The Beast of Yucca Flats” in 1958. My still photography business was very lean. In 1965.” Word was getting around that I was a non union sound man and calls started coming in. “Since I can first remember. I have wanted to work in motion pictures.” 17 The Coffey Audio Files | Issue 03 2008 . The film was quite successful and played Gruman’s Chinese. I had some editing equipment and bought a 35 Arri. I did four independents with Laslo Kovaks and one with Vilmos Zsigmond. This was followed later by film classes at USC. Lee Strosnider and Bill Gocke on a M. This was a satisfying experience and soon the word got around and UCLA asked me to teach a night class there. While I was working. I took 2 seminars with Ansel Adams. It was quite an experience. head of the motion picture department at Choinnard Art Institute. Stanley Kubrick liked him and put him in several of his films. He produced a film called “The Worlds Greatest Sinner” which was one of the most outrageous films ever made. Producing my own pictures was a goal and I started buying equipment to that end. documentaries and educationals between features. The most notable I did was “Beach Ball” which had the distinction of being the first picture for new groups called The Supremes. (later changed to Cal Arts) asked me to teach a production class John Coffey. As soon as I was supporting myself with film work I stopped doing commercial still photography and did photography for pleasure. which greatly improved my work. One of my interesting jobs during this period was working for Timothy Carey. The introduction of the Eclair NPR opened up the The Coffey Audio Files | Issue 03 2008 18 . This escalated until I rented a second apartment for the equipment and I hired my friends to help out when I was working on a film. The people in the area were quite friendly and I enjoyed the experience though it was one of my most physically difficult shoots. Lee Strosnider and his cart in extreme weather. They made computer systems for the military. It was a heavy loss. In 1965 I also worked on several of the Disney short animal and nature films which were so popular at the time. He has fabulous stories. I still have it today and enjoy spending a couple months a year there. He had a fierce personality and subsequent problems on many of his films. I worked there for 3 years and was able to get ahead financially. I have benefited from his influence to this day. Work was very lean in the independent field in 1962 and I took a job making films for a company called Librascope. I was doing a lot of commercials. Ed Burns and Chris Noel were the stars. They had very little sound and asked me to double on 3rd camera. I added a transfer service and soon had 4 people working full time and was renting and selling equipment to many of young independent film makers. Tim was a notorious character actor who was one of the most colorful people I have met. I did some editing work on the film. it was good to get back there for a rest. He was a good actor and a very interesting person. when I was not working. In 1968 my mother passed away. We were closer than we had been for some years. as we were working with loggers in quite rugged country and a quite temperamental cougar.all did our share. Art Center. A Disney animator named T. Friends started renting my film gear. The Righteous Brothers and The Four Seasons. Hee. I was hired to do the sound on a feature length film called “Charley the Lonesome Cougar”.W. It is a totally different life from the one I live here. I liked Tim a lot. notably “Paths of Glory” and “The Killing”. After Leaving Librascope the independent business was growing rapidly. Two of the Disney nature cameramen were on the film. “It brings out the farm in the boy”. I inherited the farm. and City College.O. It was shot in the Logging country of Idaho. Left: Lee Strosnider & Bob Hope on Saturdays. primarily the Navy. She had been spending the winters with me . I have friends from school who still live in the area and we get together often. I kept some of the equipment. Austin was working with Jim Cameron so I didn’t have a chance to work with him very often. Sam Peckinpaw. We had both worked for Roger Corman on many of his films. I spent a lot of time on the boat traveling on the Mississippi over 3 years. I made a lot of friends who later went on to bigger things. Sonny Bono and Adrienne Barbeau. He had rented the gear from another company and they had told him how to set it up. Joseph Von Sternberg and the like. In 1980. I spent the next 10 years traveling all over the country on an assortment of films good and bad. ending with “The Terminator”. It was quite a challenge working well below zero. I worked for Warners.Cinema Vierte field and we were suddenly doing a lot of walking around with hand held equipment. Richard Davelos. Having worked on so many independents. Roger was starting an ambitious project called “Battle Beyond the Stars”. I worked for Charles Googenheim on political films for Pat Brown. I also had the pleasure of working with some fine actors during this time. I had become so busy with film work that I sold most of my film rental company. In 1977 we moved to larger facilities on Sycamore Ave. If you know Jim you know that he immediately understood the problem. Andy McLaglin. When the first day’s dailies arrived there was no sync pulse and the dialog was distorted. I worked with some fine directors at the time. Jim. this time it was union pictures though. I fixed him up with what he needed and there were no further problems. Joan Baez. I told him the problems. and things were much better. Norton Simon. He worked with James Cameron 19 The Coffey Audio Files | Issue 03 2008 on that and several other films for Corman. He financed our stock car racing picture called “Pit Stop”. It was a decent picture but I realized that I did not want to be a producer any more. This was the start of a lifelong relationship. They gave him the wrong information on the sync pulse and the wrong power supply for the mikes. Ron Howard. and Lucile Ball. Jim has been a great help to me over the years and I value him as one of my closest friends. Mel Ferer. In 1979 I was taken into the union and things opened up for me. Bing Crosby. I have been interested in Steamboats. It was a great experience. With my college buddy Austin McKinney who was making a name as cameraman. I worked at Disney Paramount. It was quite an experience and we learned a lot. It had Wayne Rogers. which I rented out of my house. My business was growing faster than I could keep up with it. the mixer arrived. along with some of his friends were producing a low budget film and I was doing the sound transfer. Bobby Kennedy. George Burns. Very shortly. George McGovern. Henry Fonda. Jayne Mansfield. we decided to make a film. Fox and Universal but it was at the The Burbank Studios that I found a home. It was an education on its own. Delbert Mann. One of the biggest I worked on was a Mini Series for Paramount called Top Of The Hill. Jack Lemon. I still have some equipment which I rent to A young Lee Strosnider behind the camera . and Columbia for a number of years. a steamboat. I decided I wanted to produce one. I also worked with Haskall Wexler quite a bit during this time My rental business expanded rapidly and in 1971 I moved into a business location on La Brea Ave. Ronald Reagan. Elke Summer. Don Siegel. and Brian Donlevy as the stars. I had seen him around but didn’t know him. I called Dick and told him about the problem. His name was Jim Tanenbaum. In 1978. We had Ellen Bursten. In 1972 I made a series of promotional films for the Delta Queen. Austin went to work for him doing special effects. on the Mississippi. one of the producers. It was shot in Northern Canada in the Winter and was very cold. Steven Spielberg. Austin later worked with Cameron on 4 films. Bob Hope. Since my work in the South. In 1969 A friend of mine. mainly to old customers who were my friends. Notable were Jimmy Stewart. Dick Compton. Alan Cranston and the like. there was a big change at TBS and we regulars were out looking for independents again. had been doing special effects and was not familiar with sound. He originally operated from his home but soon got a building on Cahuenga. I started buying gear and sub-renting from him too.Lee Strosnider working with Bing Crosby. He started adding other equipment and developed his rental company. There are many others which are not listed. I have been fortunate to have had many treasured friendships over the years. friends. I didn’t realize at the time how much fun I was having. The boom man was Bill Gocke. I had a long a varied career and enjoyed every minute of it. John and I got along very well. IMDB lists 70 features and TV shows along with a variety of other things. I wish I could start and do it all over again. The Coffey Audio Files | Issue 03 2008 20 . I am very happy for his success and consider him one of my close friends. Things seem to have raced along until I retired in 1989. Soon we had people going back and forth with equipment. He sub-rented from me quite a bit. I miss working very much but wouldn’t be able to handle it physically now. I was not far from him and he was still sub renting from me. When John finally got his dealerships. In that year. I recorded sound on a film called “To Find My Son”. He did an excellent job. John started renting walkie talkies and I occasionally sub-rented from him. which has lasted through the years. His name was John Coffey. We became friends. I had not met my third man before. I am happy so many still exist. differing personalities and unruly locations 21 The Coffey Audio Files | Issue 03 2008 .A. A typical day on Eli Stone can involve seven or eight pages of dialogue. “Eli Stone” is created and produced by Greg Berlanti (“Brothers and Sisters”. Amid all of this we capture intelligible. Julie Gonzalo as Maggie Dekker and Jason George as Keith Bennett. They deal with wide and tight. loud and soft. Eli transitions from the church of capitalism to defending what is morally right. These visions include. Sam Jaeger as Matt Dowd. Tuesday night at 10:00pm on ABC. I now find myself in a happy place where they both collide. “Eli Stone” captures what I’ve seen take months to achieve on a feature. but are not limited to. Ronald Wright (microphone boom operator) and Charles Homyak (Utility/2nd boom). seemingly brought on by a brain aneurism. nothing is missed and the technology allows us to maximize the set-up and move time. Chen as coming from a higher power. Matt Letscher as Nathan Stone. and two company moves all of which can easily take a week on a feature. James Saito as Dr. Eli challenges corporate impropriety by following his visions. the one-hour episodic “Eli Stone”. All of the on and off camera dialogue is recorded at all times. who can deliver what is needed for this challenging project. “The Practice”) for ABC/Disney Television. Loretta Devine as Patti. blazing battlefields. a production dance number. Chen. “Everwood”) and Marc Guggenheim (“Jack and Bobby”. famous pop stars singing. Victor Garber as Jordan Wethersby. I am fortunate to have a solid crew. Natasha Henstridge as Taylor Wethersby. They are invaluable assets to the department.S. Eli Stone is a San Francisco attorney from a successful law firm who finds spirituality through a series of hallucinations and events. and solid dialogue. interpreted by Dr. balanced. It stars Jonny Lee Miller as Eli Stone. Ronald Wright. Nicholas Allen and Charles Homyak I spent many years booming feature films and subsequently transitioned to production mixing in network television. For a TV show. elaborate musical dance numbers.The Sound of Eli Stone by Nicholas Allen C. The second season premiers on the 14th of October. and flying dragons. “Law & Order”. This year I am trying to advance the “Digital Sound Cart” thing by connecting to a server space dedicated for Production Sound needs on the Disney lot network. It is the first step to eventually eliminating all media and delivery costs for production sound. I record as many of the show’s audio promos and voice-overs as possible and the The Coffey Audio Files | Issue 03 2008 22 . Bob Kellogg at Disney Sound editorial is setting this up. No more time-code needed for playback and it is sample accurate. Transfer separates the ‘A’ and ‘B’ tracks and when there is music playback it is sent line level to the 744T and printed to the ‘C’ and ‘D’ tracks. The separate time code interface is needed to preserve the incoming code if we need to speed vary the master tracks (pull up/pull down). No track is primary. This second computer runs Pro-Tools for playback and analysis. Although Optical media and hard drives can record virtually unlimited durations. Signalscope for real time digital metering (such as simulating LM-100 specs) and Windows XP (in Parallels) for BWF Widget Pro.4LE. This MAC also handles all extra network delivery duties. Also. At the sound cart I capture (in a two track-Nagra sense) all inputs matrixed to two tracks. The Pro-Tools is externally clocked from the Apogee/744T via SPDIF chain and stays in perfect frame sync. tight scheduling and adherence to the old Fostex DV-40 specs has us breaking a minimum of three times daily to ensure on time delivery.with our main goal always primary: acquiring story driving sound while integrating smoothly with the other crafts and artists. Another Intel MAC Mini is networked to the first and shares the main drive (Raided Terabyte) Drive that the Metacorder writes to. The music is played back from an M-Box Pro with ProTools 7. Dailies are printed sum mono for DVD output. I have run Metacorder on a MAC mini PPC for the last four years through an RME Fireface 400 without a glitch. Time code is sent from the 744T to Metacorder via an M-Audio transit USB interface. The two track is recorded on a Sound Devices 744T which sent AES from an Apogee Rosetta 200 (the A to D is done in the Apogee). CA Nicholas Allen’s Sound Cart two-track stream via SPDF (from the Rosetta 200) is imbedded as tracks one and two in the multitrack. which has four tracks available. The SPDF provides digital frame reference to the RME and the entire chain is word clocked together. I am getting 12 tracks of real time mirror out of the MAC mini’s on board DVD-RAM drive so all recorded media is an eject button away allowing film breaks and reloads to be virtually instant. a On Location in Pasadena. The show edits on Avid HD. handles for dialogue editing determine A or B track placement (and isn’t always perfect). Individual pre-fader out isolated tracks are recorded into Gallery Metacorder. The only obstacle I see is the Telecine/Tranfer companies. production sound will be stuck handing legacy format. New technology is changing the way media is transferred between the film set and editorial. limited track count disks that another human must deal with (and presumably charge for). Since I keep the whole season on my drives I can upload any of these right to the server. Soon. Quality control as we knew it has changed and been replaced by word clocks and where your local wi-fi connect is. Until they get on board.Boom Op Ronald Wright Utility/2nd Boom Charles Homyak picture editors will call for specific pulls from the multitracks. The cost savings are already apparent in that all of the extra tracks go up to the server now and never see a transfer house or a drop of gas to deliver the disks. Modern audio capture is a fast developing and challenging profession. No longer can we argue whether the change 23 The Coffey Audio Files | Issue 03 2008 . find a way to charge for server space or are eliminated from the chain all together. I hope to deliver it all electronically. Editorial can deliver set playback tracks to me via the server and any quality control issues that arise I can reprint right to the server and an editor can load quickly it into the Avid or Pro-Tools. with his extraordinary cart.A. The Coffey Audio Files | Issue 03 2008 24 . we must now figure out where we fit into it and how we can remain important to the quality of the process we call production sound mixing. hopefully they will let me play! Nicholas Allen C.is coming.S. I am personally up for the challenge and look forward to my kids’ toys. Next. I chose to remain an uncredited consultant because… “Blow Out” was shot from November 1980 to March 1981. The prop person had placed a mike on a floor stand inside the heavily-padded isolation booth set. Realizing what he has. starting in Philadelphia and finishing in L. playing a low-budget sound editor who was recording effects for an exploitation picture when he inadvertently captured the sounds of an assassination of a presidential candidate.” He looked puzzled for a moment. “Jim. and trying to get their evidence to the public before the killer (John Lithgow) murders them too.” That set the tone for the show. Hearing a “bang” before the sound of the tire blowout. Now he and the only other witness (Nancy Allen. permanently to work overseas).THE PRODUCTION MIXER’S CUT by Jim Tanenbaum 23 The Coffey Audio Files | Issue 03 2008 I wore two hats on Brian De Palma’s “Blow Out”. In addition to being the production mixer. Brian came over to my sound cart. I don’t care what the truth is. if it’s not visual. but it kept the actresses from getting close enough to the glass window to properly light their faces. If it’s not exciting.S. then. “What is he cueing: ant farts?” I asked Brian. and shuttling a large Ampex reel-to-reel deck back and forth. and I like it. or lose it altogether. Such as Travolta recording sound effects of wind in trees (in the scene where he records the assassination) . I can’t use it. One of the first scenes we shot involved Travolta cutting effects for a rainstorm scene. still married to De Palma at the time) are fighting the authorities’ cover-up. the second of 5 features I recorded for him (before he left the U. ‘Ant Farts’. I get it.A. “Well. They wouldn’t be in a padded sound booth. or rather one hat and a pair of headphones. it looks good. Or at least a hallway. would they?” “Right. we filmed the scene where two actresses were trying to have their screams recorded to replace the production track of a coed being stabbed to death in a school shower room. they’d probably go into a real bathroom to record the screams. his fingers flying over the buttons in a fraction of a second.” But he shot the scene in the booth nevertheless. if it’s not dramatic. he syncs his track to a silent Zapruder-style film of the car “accident” that supposedly was the cause of death. can I place the mike overhead?” “You can place it anywhere you want. “Ant Farts” became my standard answer to all his questions. although it didn’t stop De Palma from asking me question after question until (and after) we wrapped. he discovers a frame with a faint muzzle flash visible in the roadside bushes. However.” The director scowled. “Oh. It stars John Travolta. I was also the technical consultant. “Thunder is this long (spreading my hands a yard and a half apart) at 15 IPS. On an ‘el cheapo’ production like this. and opened the slate mike. and had props substitute a wooden dowel wrapped in aluminized Mylar. He wanted to shoot closeups of the Nagra III’s modulometer to be used when Travolta was recording various sound effects. “Now. Ken Nishino. when John adlibbed and threw the mike in the river. Travolta was called to the set to “confer with the director”. Brian had on a potato the size of a feed bag. But Travolta got his. And later. and the crew broke for the usual half hour. but John kept asking. with a bare 815. John started to laugh and turned away. crouching behind Rimas is Vilma Szigmund. a week or two later. He never asked Vilmos about potatoes again. Vilmos Zsigmond. “bounce. Apparently. He fought his way through the crew to the front. The very first day of our shoot he asked the D. When he stopped laughing. Brian. not even a foam sleeve. But Travolta took it very well. with both Nancy and John wearing potato noses. and our producer disappeared for almost 2 hours. bounce. strapped to her face with an elastic band. Drip…drip… drip…drip. Travolta had not been happy with the photography on his previous movie.P. Vilmos. “How are we going to do this. We had a good caterer. John had arranged the gag in advance. until they pointed down to the “shotgun mike”. But the Nagra IS mysteriously disappeared – perhaps incorporated into Brian’s home hi-fi system. Then he managed a hearty laugh. Jim?” he asked me one day. day after day. I thought they were watching dailies and eating take-out. Brian had the production company buy a brandnew Nagra IS for Travolta’s character to use. still floating on the surface of the water.” It took Brian even longer to get it. you won’t make my nose look like a potato. The Coffey Audio Files | Issue 03 2008 26 . so they obtained a well-used Nagra III for the show instead. but then decided it looked too “snazzy” for such a poor guy to have. where Brian and Nancy were huddled together.” I said. but he did blow it once. will you?” Vilmos reassured him. the look of horror on my face greatly amused the prop guys. Standing with arms folded Brian De Palma. Brian thought it looked more “sexy” that way.. “Thud.Far Left: Jim Tanenbaum CAS. it had a potato skin windscreen. Several weeks into the show. Center crouching Rimas Tumasonis. De Palma is fairly knowledgeable about sound. She turned around. and was wearing a hollowed-out potato skin over her nose. only to be confronted with a sea of potato-noses – the entire crew was wearing the handiwork of our camera assistant. Then I pointed to the meter on my 4. and when the mike dipped in frame. “Do we need to bring in a stuntman for the stabbing victim’s body fall?” It took me a moment to realize he was serious. we shot a scene for the gag reel.2. but when we were shooting days. . any of the surfaces. and I mixed these down to mono.) Back then. The handler placed it on a rock.P. and a frog croaking. the Nagra drew a lot more current. but as the minutes passed. Rimas Tumasonis. and subsisted on Philly cheesesteak sandwiches that were brought in. and I was using a Sela mixer which ran on the recorder’s internal 4 AH Ni-Cad batteries. and the company’s III when it wasn’t on camera. glorious heat. Vilmos took a liking to me. In those days. even though we couldn’t drill holes in. equipped with free-standing shelves and workbench. (I bought a stereo IV-S and an 8-channel Satt mixer after the shoot – having seen/heard the advantages of multi-tracking. This was a real challenge for acoustic treatment (which the producer didn’t think we needed. when it froze to death. it probably needed to be warmed up (as did we all). to run 5 Vega diversity radio mike receivers. and… heat. and two improvised “wallspreaders” on the top. These shots certainly seemed to me to be 2nd unit. In the subfreezing weather. but hell on his back and arms. De Palma invited me to come along so he could talk to me. close to the museum. so we could pop in occasionally to thaw out (with the excuse that we needed to “dry out the equipment” or “warm up the batteries”). The frog was next. But cold sound cart batteries really were a problem – one that surrounding with hand warmers didn’t fix. and “Blow Out” had lots of them. and then everything tented in with Insul-Quilt batting hung over cables tied off to the marble columns. but Brian didn’t want to lose the three hours it would take (to drive to town. and with a full crew. (This was before lithium batteries. usually up 4 flights of narrow. 2”x4” open-frame walls fastened to it on the bottom. and it became obvious that the frog had “croaked” a long time ago. We were driven for an hour or so. to a wooded area up the Wissahickon River (a creek.) One night. Then we were supposed to break for “lunch”. but my boom operator.2. the hero amphibian remained motionless. and spent the next four hours photographing the owl. After half an hour. (Occasionally. two antenna amps. and the Nagra two more. and I became a permanent member of the Fine Dining Club.) Philadelphia in the winter was not the most pleasant location to shoot exteriors. actually). Many of our exteriors were shot in or near Penn’s Landing. until I had him come down and try to talk to me from ten feet away). My recorder was a Nagra 4.Then one day. The Sound Dept had its own office in the museum. built in the new-but-never-occupied Port of History Maritime Museum building (now the Independence Seaport Museum) with its beautiful marble floors.2. even though I had it lubricated with special light-weight winterizing grease. Wonderful.) I took to plugging in to AC and running the chargers whenever possible to keep the batteries warm – then they would last for 3-4 hours after I unplugged. but there were still limits to how many “layers” of sound you could get on a mono track. (Aluminum – no carbon-fiber back then. or sets. where the caterer was set up. 27 The Coffey Audio Files | Issue 03 2008 . The Sela had four mike inputs. Brian decided to shoot only two shots: a closeup of an owl turning its head. Someone pointed out that being cold-blooded. let alone croak. since the City had let him use it for free. and work lights. a multicoupler. marble ceilings… But the producer loved the museum.) And he had brought along his Boilermaker 32’ pole – great for the crowd scenes. and could have been done on our “stage” in front of some greens (and MOS to boot). too. I had only 20 Amp-hours of 12-volt batteries on the cart. our construction crew produced a miracle in short order: 1½ inches of plywood on the floor. but our director wanted to do it himself. (Since I was with the director and the D. winding stairs (it’s amazing how much Rimas and I managed to lighten my cart when the grips were too busy to carry it up for us). but I had to keep them on charge. or even glue stuff to. Fortunately. marble walls. I discovered that the bigwigs had been going to various fancy restaurants for gourmet lunches. Production mixers really had to mix in the “good old days”. I didn’t have to worry about the company starting to shoot before I got back. but it didn’t move. A 1K was moved in. Finally given the green light. particularly the many night ones. and back). so we went on meal penalty for the rest of the night. I cheated and iso’ed some tracks to my back-up 4. The interiors were either practical. managed to get the long takes even though his fingers sometimes froze to the fishpole. most actors were good about not overlapping when they were offcamera. the smell of roasted frog legs assaulted our noses. the City of Philadelphia gave us an abandoned station. (If the river slowed down. But on the third hand. and catalytic heaters. and the water temperature was 32. Five minutes later. however. but the sound van was usually the farthest. The 3-hour lighting setup was incredibly complex. The Coffey Audio Files | Issue 03 2008 28 . We were stuck with the big semis. and we made thousands of dollars in penalties. were not happy when they were laid off. the drivers would move heaven and earth to get the camera truck closest to the set. Our mixed-blessing sound vehicle didn’t last out the show.O. (To be fair.A. (We wound up building a full-scale set of the bridge abutment and riverbank. a carpeted floor. And of course. covered in graffiti. slightly-plump woman who wore thickly-insulated dayglo-orange overalls. and waited. earning her the nickname “The Pumpkin”. and smoked incredibly stinky cigars while they played cards. The producer wound up having to re-hire all the teamsters. and wardrobe and makeup.P. Then the stunt double. The other departments had to find such space on these trucks as they could. he had to be rescued when all his muscles cramped up from the cold. Another night. the air temperature had fallen to 20°. Working all night without a meal break became S. As the schedule and budget grew at an alarming rate. using the tank on Stage 15 at Warner Bros when we came back to L. No one made fun of John after that. Travolta absolutely refused to go into the water. jumped in so at least we could shoot the wide shots. the producer loved it – it was free. For the scene on a subway platform..) Trouble came from beneath the streets as well. it would freeze solid. The now-superfluous teamsters.) “Blow Out” was the first show I worked on where sound had its own vehicle: a beautiful black cube van with hardwood paneling. but then most of them had nothing to do except sit around play cards.) By then.) At this point. The next morning. even though they often couldn’t get anywhere near the practical locations. the drivers were nice guys. On the other hand. but Rimas’ skill and experience enabled him to find the one good spot for his boom that avoided both shadows and reflections. mostly from (New) Jersey. and waited… Seems there now weren’t enough drivers for the cast and crew vans – something about needing “two drivers and a helper” for each of the big rigs. grip and lighting. it was roomy and warm.. a cheerful. wearing a wetsuit under his wardrobe. because he couldn’t afford another day to change back to the small trucks. (Visual reflections that is. We set up under a large bridge that spanned the Schuylkill River (don’t even think about trying to pronounce it if you’re not from Philly). one of the many reasons our 10-week schedule became 20. we were working on the scene where Travolta rescues Nancy from the submerged car. Brian loved it: filthy. On the one hand. the acoustic reflections off the curved underside of the bridge were another challenge.001°. We scouted it a week in advance. rust stained walls… I loved this location too – it was far enough away from the active tunnels that I could record usable dialog there. And gals – my favorite was Olivia. the producer decided to economize by replacing the multitude of smaller trucks with a few gargantuan ones: camera and sound. the crew waited for pickup at their various hotels. producing a chorus of “sissy” catcalls. all the teamsters hung out in there. everyone had to leave now. The scene we shot in there covered the entire area. I managed to prevail upon the Fralinger String Band to go into a nearby alley.tv . and finally made my way to the end of the alley as they continued playing. asking him for advice.But on the day. Burbank. the scene where one of the units supposedly shorted out and burned a hole into the stoolie’s stomach caused a problem for me after “Blow Out” was released: a number of actors I worked with refused to let me put radios on them. When we finally wrapped out of there.D. CA 91502 1-800-WEXLER-1 www.) But at wrap. While I wish I really did have radio mikes that worked as well as ones in the movie. The (factitious) “Liberty Day” parade scene involved 5. the reverberation enhancing what would otherwise have been an insufficient distance. which was fairly quiet half-way in. the pulled-up grip tape made a ball 18” in diameter. and closing down all the streets around City Hall (no CGI). (Directors never lie. I recorded some of the music standing close to the band. particularly in the crowds of extras. the first of four who worked on the show). Victory Blvd. But the next day. Another huge setup was the 30th Street train/subway station.A. then walked past them (which avoided the tramp of many feet) for a moving perspective. We had several massive scenes to shoot. the musicians immediately began removing their instruments and the A. she produced many excellent recordings.wexler.. I had to put two transmitters on each actor. courtesy of the City’s Public Image Dept. Brian agreed. Susie was so worried she spent most of the night on the phone with her husband back in L. Wexler’s Workfl ow Solution PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT TECHNOLOGY PRODUCTION BROADCAST EQUIPMENT SOLUTIONS RENTALS Wexler is the leading rental house for end-to-end production workflow: STAFFING Broadcast IT Engineering Video Audio Post-Production The latest technologies The most experienced staff SERVICE ENGINEERING HIGH DEFINITION WORKFLOW 1111 S. we arrived to find a sparkling-clean.) I used every 3-pin cable and most of the 5-pin I had (about 2. and every foot of cable had to be taped down because the station was open to the public. In addition to sync tracks of the Philadelphia Mummers (fancy marching bands). freshlypainted and deodorized station. multiple marching bands (no CGI). and my radio mikes (unlike those in the movie that sent a perfect signal across town from someone wearing one in the subway) had limited range. and said I could take them somewhere quiet for an hour or so after the company wrapped. full-size helium figure balloons (no CGI). and send them off tomorrow on their own.000 feet) to connect them. (re-recording mixer Bill Varney).000 extras (no CGI). and hide the receivers near opposite ends of the station. I wanted to get wild tracks of them with various perspectives for later use as ambience in the parade scene. didn’t care what Brian had said. (No frequency-agile units in 1980. Brian wanted sound recorded from several widely-spaced locations at the same time – but he didn’t let me know until the night before. The cast and crew waited out the many hours it took our Art Dept to restore its former appearance. I told Rimas and Susie Varney (my cable person. and play several of their numbers (without marching). that I would give each of them a Nagra. . The first thing that I had heard from production was that Ridley wanted the actors to be able to either speak to one another “live” or have the audio from the other side of the conversation played back to them over their phone. and now a chance to work with a real master.” I was already on another film when I got the call to see if I was interested in working on Ridley’s film. I was excited and scared to death at the same time. Roger Ferris (played by Leonardo DiCaprio).Opportunity Calls. three of his films have won Best Sound Academy Awards. After all. I carefully maneuvered my way out of the previous film. The majority of phones used in the script were cell phones. I’ve been lucky enough to have worked on a couple of “dream jobs”. So I kind of knew going in that this would probably be the challenge of my professional career. First was “American Beauty” an amazing amalgam of talents both in front of the camera and behind it. Unfortunately.” and of course my personal favorite sound track was for “Black Hawk Down. including the distant location work in Morocco. then came “Crash” an interesting look at Los Angeles and it’s peoples with a terrific ensemble cast. Ridley Scott on “Body of Lies. I then called my friend Sherrie Gal at Coffey Sound and asked her about “phone taps” and she directed me to the website of the JKAudio line of phone taps. Production Mixing “Body of Lies” By Richard Van Dyke Like everyone who works in the film business we all dream of working with the top professionals in the business. There was only one scene that had more than three speaking parts in it. the reality is that usually we work with whomever will have us. but I wanted to impress Ridley Scott.” which the talented Jim Stuebe replaced me on. and one possible household landline. The story was mostly about two characters.” “Gladiator. What a great picture to impress Ridley with my skills. I had read postings on the internet by William Sarokin in regard to his experiences working with Ridley on “American Gangster” and the challenges that he faced on a day by day basis. Dream jobs are few and far between. landline or even satellite. I had always held Ridley in high esteem as a direc31 The Coffey Audio Files | Issue 03 2008 tor of movies with exceptional sound tracks.” I had two weeks of prep in Washington. the Streets. I thought this was going to be a very simple job for me. My first thought was that there must be systems to do . and Ed Hoffman (played by Russell Crowe) and the majority of their scenes together involved telephone conversations. “Step Up2. I not only wanted to succeed. “Body of Lies. “What have you gotten yourself into!” After reading the script I felt a little more comfortable. “Blade Runner. So I first reread the script to see what types of phones we were dealing with. cell.” My one stipulation was that I would be doing the entire film. DC and the first days were spent sitting in my hotel room thinking. the telephone handset audio tap. I went to Radio Shack and bought a standard landline phone. After four hours and some change I was finally informed that Leo was in Hawaii and would not be available to do the test. One day. I next waited for the usually mandatory production meeting. On the day I sat in the lobby of our Washington production office and waited for my moment. and the audio inline tap. She took one look at this scene and backed out of my room. and I was going to use the hotel’s multiline phone as well as my own cell phone. while I was learning to tap into these phone lines the maid came in unannounced to find me with phones spread all over my bed. and my mixing panel and recorder also in the room. I was told that Russell would be in Washington and Leo would call from Los Angeles and that was to be our test. the Daptor Two. So in my room I learned that you could tap into any type of phone that anyone would use. Sherrie sent them out to me in Washington. I found the taps that I wanted. me wearing a headset. because talk radio uses these types of devices all the time.Jason Petty with Ridley Scott this with. for call in listeners. I’m sure she thought that I was some internation- Boom Op Kraig Kishi and Third Jason Petty al spy. I had gotten a note that Ridley wanted to have a show and tell of the phone system and be able to hear how it would work. where we usually go through the script page Leonardo DiCaprio and Ridley Scott meet with the Script Supervisor The Coffey Audio Files | Issue 03 2008 32 . and I felt somewhat prepared. and his brother Tony’s. style of shooting. My crew was to be Kraig Kishi on boom. I decided that what I was going to do was to put wireless mics on all of the speaking actors in our film. My thinking behind this was that there would be one sound track that would cut together from camera to camera. along with some very good quality lavalier microphones. Brahim Ait Belkas.” No scripted dialogue but plenty of sound effects to record in sync.” by page and discuss with all departments our needs and desires.” and walked away. Pietro Scalia. this time really focusing hard on any possible needs for the sound recording aspect of this film. As usual I didn’t sleep very well the night before production began. I had been thinking to myself how best to handle the issue of working with the multiple cameras that are a trademark of Ridley. and a simultaneous recording on my Deva II. I’m Rich Van Dyke and I’ll be your production mixer on the film. Ridley came and explained to everyone where the cameras would be and what we were going to start with. Microphones were Sennheiser MKH 70’s for exteriors and interiors were done with a Schoeps hyper cardiod microphone.” But. “God help you…. The production couldn’t see through to bringing Jason with us to Morocco. if I could please supply them with several different “mixes” for the various cameras. this was necessitated by the fact that I had been asked by the editor. It became apparent immediately that this would be like no other film experience I had ever had. Sanken Cos-11’s are my lavalier microphone of choice and I use the Lectrosonics Digital Hybrid wireless microphone systems. and a local guy Jason Petty as our third in Washington and Baltimore. My first thought was. The other potential issue was working in Morocco. some thirty years ago. but it was a busy day with lots to accomplish and he was being pulled in all directions. I was a little taken aback to say the least. Now some people might say that the word “quality” does not belong in the same sentence as “radio mics. I stumbled back to the cart and spoke with my crew as to how we would attack this first of many challenging scenes.” extending my hand to be shaken. Ridley replied. The first day of production we were scheduled to film the sequence know as the “Amsterdam Market bombing. thoughts of multiple cameras danced around my mind all night long. So I had to make sure that we had everything we would need before we left for Morocco. the Sanken Cos -11’s. I not only wanted to succeed. Having never met Ridley I took the opportunity to introduce myself to him after the first rehearsal. and so we had a local hire in Morocco. and some adlibs thrown 33 The Coffey Audio Files | Issue 03 2008 in. and still maintain the same sound quality. it went something like this. my feeling is that radio mic technology has improved tremendously since I started mixing. I use their “six pack” multicoupler. where a phone call to Coffey Sound for supplies would not be quite as quickly resolved as it would be in the states. “Hello Ridley. I also decided to go with two wireless booms. I was to find out shortly thereafter that there was to be no production meeting. My recording package was what it has been for some time. my trusty Cooper 108+1 mixer recording to my Deva IV. but I wanted to impress Ridley Scott. This would . “How’m I gonna get my heart out of my throat!” I went back for the fourth time and reread the script.“So I kind of knew going in that this would probably be the challenge of my professional career. In the past. The editors loved this and were very pleased that I was able to deliver this for them. There was a necessary reason for this in that Ridley frequently shoots in both directions at once. The actors have to adjust to the fact that they must give their best performance for each take. This is why there was no production meeting. or laying cables through the shot of one of the cameras. This was yet another challenge that I had been asked to achieve. would give us a general idea of what we would be doing. I like to use a dynamic microphone close to the explosion. and then moves on.one is a Shure SM58. and the other is a Beyer M58. The first one the “Amsterdam Market Bombing” we were set up one block away and when they blew the car up with the bomb. I have two mics that I like to use . and so on. if not more. one in Washington. usually using no less than three cameras with one setup he gets a master and either a medium shot or close up. Most of the time these tracks are used just for the editorial process and are replaced by the sound editing team. I would label my tracks. or gun fire. or two close ups. usually one of the Sennheiser MKH70’s pointed in the opposite direction to add a little echo or reverb to the effect. Peter Kohn. DC and the other in Balti- more. He averages five to six takes per setup. we were showered with safety glass from the windows of the Range Rover parked next to it. The Coffey Audio Files | Issue 03 2008 34 . Each day seemed to start about the same. and they may have used our sound for these effects. I also was sending the wireless mics to separate tracks as isolated unaltered tracks when we used the radios. and Hoffman also speaking to Ferris at his son’s soccer game. The scenes were Ed Hoffman dropping off his son at school and speaking to Ferris on the phone. Being wireless enabled us to keep up with the camera crews in working quickly and efficiently.” that each camera “sees” and here Deva IV with it’s eight tracks available worked terrifically. spectacular. The whole front of a row type house was blown across the street and stunt men and cars were thrown about. Ridley had contacted the rerecording mixer Scott Millan. Ridley had thoroughly checked everyone out and figured that they all knew what they were doing. would have to find individual tracks and make their own “mixes” for the image that they were working with. I then use another mic. or “mix. Someone like Ridley expects the people around him to know what they’re doing and be ready to do it at a very high level. they the editors.” We filmed two spectacular bombing sequences in America. and also the playback track when we were in phone call situations. all shot at the same time and no more than seven takes of each set up. So there is a different track. Russell Crowe and Leonardo DiCaprio are two of the most professional actors I have ever had the pleasure of working with. including myself. we shot two scenes and wrapped before lunch. you were driven to the location and you would set up and our assistant director. By the end of the first week I really felt like we were holding our own by turning in good tracks and providing the editors with their different “mixes” for each camera.help them in post to deal with syncing which “mix” went with what camera.” Fortunately for me Scott gave me a glowing review and that’s how I got the job on “Body of Lies. A camera mix. I didn’t think we would ever be able to keep up if we had to spend time wrapping up cables after each set up. We had great success with recording some of the automatic weapons in the desert. and I was really up for the challenge to see if I could do this job and succeed on this level. The first day we filmed with Russell Crowe. Master and all coverage. I had recorded explosions before but these were truly epic special effects explosions. To say that Ridley shoots fast is an understatement. BC camera mix. The next was the “Manchester Row House Bombing” and this was just as spectacular. Both are traditionally used as handheld mics for either singing or interviews. who mixed “Gladiator” and had mixed my film “American Beauty. Is that too much to expect? I don’t think so. I had worked with Russell previously on Leonardo DiCaprio on the set of “Body of Lies” Richard Van Dyke on location. with bigger louder and wilder explosions. Then Ridley would arrive and you could just feel everyone rise up and be ready to deliver their best work ever. but Ridley loved the quality of her voice through the phone and Leo heard a real actress give him a performance. rather than a script supervisor reading off camera lines. but he’s a patient man. There were also some scenes that Leo liked to have his dialogue coach. I usually did the playback from a small Sony digital mini-disc recorder/player. I used my Blackberry to send the audio to the practical cell phones used by the actors. Then when shooting Leo’s side of the call. and we all had to call the United States so we could conference in all three phones. but don’t bother me once I’m on set. although I swear there were some days when he was tired that he didn’t understand our English as well as he did on other days. and Sony’s Sound Forge. Michael “Mickey” Castellano. We recorded Russell’s side of the phone calls first. The actress playing Leo’s wife was in Amsterdam. Our man Brahim was great. This was a nightmare for Kraig who would attack the first actor who came in to get them wired up before the next one came in. only to be yelled at for messing up the wardrobe before it had been approved. Courtney Goodin’s BWF Widget. my Blackberry to his practical cell phone. The one the actress was on was the one that Leo would answer her call on and the third was mine that 35 The Coffey Audio Files | Issue 03 2008 I would pull the audio off of. but coming from Ridley he was honestly sincere and I was truly humbled. Now this is very high praise from someone like Ridley. Many times during the nightly dailies viewing Ridley would mention that we were giving him the best production sound he had ever heard. was an electrician who wanted to transition into sound work. This all worked very well except for one time when we were deep in the Atlas Mountains of the Southeastern Sahara Desert and away from cell service. and as I was doing the cueing of the playback. Leo was different in that he was fine stopping by the sound cart and having Kraig wire him up. I also used two computer programs. Apparently none of the wardrobe had been approved before shooting. Kraig had gotten sick from eating the local food. we would playback Russell’s side to Leo over the cell phones. but all in all it worked quite well. and so when each actor arrived on set before Kraig could get to them he had to wait for the outfit to be approved by Ridley. I must say that Kraig Kishi is one of the better boom operators at positioning lavaliers and making them quiet. Very nervous time for me. call him and do the other side of the call with him. We also had to work with two novice sound assistants. The only problem with this was that Leo liked to improvise. In Morocco. Very frustrating for Kraig. Russell’s attitude is I’m wearing it if you need it and if you don’t fine. The phone calls actually went extremely well. A great guy and very hard worker Jason was thrown into the mix every day working with a wireless boom and capturing whatever his camera saw. Judy would call Russell on a practical cell phone and we would record Russell’s acting. Jason Petty we had worked with on our previous film in Baltimore. Judy Dickerson. I used these programs so that I could “see” the track and be ready to cue it when Leo was done adlibbing.“3:10 to Yuma” so I knew that he preferred to have his set costumer. One amazing scene was one where Leo’s character was called by his estranged wife. it caused me to have a couple of false starts while doing the scenes with him. as it had been arranged that way as per my request. and though weak still came to work every day without complaint. Usually I’d check my rear end for smoke after a comment like that. do the wiring of him and have it done before coming to set. About half way through production Ridley started giving us very kind praise of our hard work. Tim Monich. Kraig and I met by our sound assistant during our week of prep there. Kraig and I did most of the work and tried to give Brahim lesser tasks to perform. (Thank you Kraig for your diligence and all of your hard work and great effort). although he . His frustration came in the form of the costume designer. The show was stressful for us on several levels. This was a call to Russell where Leo is trying to get him to send the “predator” observational aircraft away. Most of Russell’s phone calls were done with the assistance of his longtime dialogue coach. I find these easy to use and cue from. we were in Rabat the capital city of Morocco. Mine came this year in the form of an invitation to work with Ridley on his next film “Nottingham. listen to “Body of Lies” and you decide whether or not we succeeded or failed. The Coffey Audio Files | Issue 03 2008 34 . and provide the sub mixes for the different cameras. and that it was best to start with good clean dialogue and then bury it beneath whatever sounds he wanted to add. traffic from a second floor room. and traffic at intersections. I had a great time on this film looking back. remains to be seen. and source music found in the many shops in the medina. and this show was no different. Hopefully the invitation will still be there. Thanks again to Sherrie in sales and to Coffey Sound’s rental department for all of their support in the making of this film. I would get up early on my days off. saying that he thought our sound was “too good”. the film has been pushed to springtime of 2009. or director. Opportunity called and the challenge was thrown down and I truly believe that Kraig and I stood up to the challenge and overcame all of the obstacles presented to us. He was concerned that there wasn’t enough of the background in the sound track. Now whether or not the audience will notice this. and I’ll be available. and I had told him that the sound editors will add whatever he likes. Having survived the production Ridley was once again very complimentary to Kraig and I. producer. But you be the judge. and apparently there is a difference between the Arabic spoken in Iraq and the Arabic spoken in Morocco. I enjoy doing this. I also gathered wallas in market places. the best compliment comes in the form of a return invitation to work again for the same. called medinas. An interesting note about this was that our film is supposed to take place in Iraq. 5:00 AM to go and record the “call to prayer” from the towers of the local mosques. while in the middle of it I was very stressed out by the pressure I was putting on myself to deliver a high quality product every day for every shot.too would boom many shots for the multiple camera setups.” Unfortunately. As for all of us. I also always love to record wild tracks while on location. ROBERT KENNEDY TRAVELS TO VIETNAM WITH THE ACADEMY OF MOTION PICTURE ARTS AND SCIENCES I recently had the privilege of traveling to Hanoi. We spent full humid days lecturing and running hands-on exercises with the help of 3 wonderful interpreters. We also managed to carve out a few days for seeing the country accompanied the entire time by Don Rogers’ gracious and entertaining wife. well… anything. The climate of Vietnam could have been designed by a mad scientist to 37 The Coffey Audio Files | Issue 03 2008 . Drivers maneuver like schools of fish around obstacles and road rage doesn’t seem to exist. Diu-Anh. Vietnam with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) on a goodwill mission. Don Hall. Liz. Michael DeGregio of the Ford Foundation and Van Ahn. The flow of traffic and the rules of the road are drastically different from the US. Weeks earlier we had laughed when we heard the locals complained about Vietnam being “too noisy” to record production sound. A number of days were devoted to traveling to production houses to see the state of the industry with regards to sound.. We loaded up into taxis and my jaw soon dropped to the floor. After flying for 17 or so hours we passed through customs in Hanoi. Aside from the loud motorbikes and constant horns there we other impediments to recording clean tracks. but in their hands we simply walked through without so much as a sideways glance. our local assistant hired by Ellen at AMPAS met us at the airport. the VIP assistant to the head of the communist government-run film department. John!) I found myself in North Vietnam. Two weeks after being introduced to Don Rogers by John Coffey (thank you. Horns fill every roadway and are used to signify the driver’s intent to do. Motorbikes form the majority of travelers and right of way seems to be determined by who has the most nerve. Don Rogers. Humidity. Clay Davis and I spent two weeks teaching the principles of production sound mixing to 29 sound professionals working in various aspects of Vietnam’s film industry. Our taxi driver honked about 5 times per minute. Now we understood. We had previously had concerns about importing all of our equipment without hassle. Michael had led the search for appropriate students and told us about the background and current position of our students as we stepped outside into a wall of heat and humidity. Serious heat and humidity. It had a long table with a ragtag bunch of chairs around a table circa-1960. and clips from about ten other movies to demonstrate the power of sound in filmmaking. Donald C Rogers.” Clay concluded after tapping the wall and clapping his hands. and Chuck Searcy (VEG). We drove for about 30 minutes down circuitous roads to a beige colored complex that appeared deserted. I presented all of the microphones. Our host brought us to the room he thought most appropriate for our classes and it floored all of us. only large holes and curtains where windows might go. There were two studios available for use. “It looks right. Post—Production Supervisor and teacher at USC to this group of sound professionals in a flurry of sight and sound punctuated with firsthand stories. a Sound Devices 744T and even a Sony Nguyen Trinh Thi (Interpreter. He covered subjects from ambience to voice-overs especially dialogue editing. but the room was decades ahead of their initial suggestion. The fact that the projection booth had water literally dripping from the ceiling barely phased me. The English speakers of the group had a hearty laugh when an audience question about the punching sound effects in Raging Bull was translated. the ENG-style mixers. Clay Davis. but it’s not. On that day I was on my own without any interpreter and it took some time to understand what was happening. just overgrowth and we seemed to get funny looks from street vendors as we made our entrance. score. The lot in front of the building had no cars. a beef steak was hit and recorded at close range. The Coffey Audio Files | Issue 03 2008 38 . We entered a nearby door and got our first dose of the situation on the ground. I had brought a sampling production audio equipment including a portable sync sound package and a straight-to-camera budget package. but not the kind that it needed for a post-sound mixer to perform their work with confidence. “How did you record the man being punched so well?” Don H assured them that the actor was not actually beaten. Patching stereo audio through the booth gave a great example of the culture we had entered. After Don’s came my presentation of the equipment on which we would be training the group. cause problems with electronics. UHF wireless. room tone and sound effects. accessories. We were too shocked to laugh. Don Rogers had some sort of zen ability to understand where everyone was coming from and formed a schedule for the coming two weeks. The room had visible treatment. It was as though we had stepped into a Viet Cong general’s meeting room in Apocalypse Now. He played clips from The French Connection. Donald Hall. Whenever I left the booth. They must have been taught one way to set the system up and assumed I was mistaken whenever I turned random knobs.From left to right: Robert Kennedy. Director of Love Man Love Woman). A small blackboard was half obscured by the bust of Ho Chi Minh. The first was a small ADR/Foley stage which was being used at that moment. the Vietnamese technicians would change the settings back to where they had been. The room had no windows. Nguyen Thi Van Anh (VEG). boom poles. diagenic music. A bust of Uncle Ho graced this stage as well. One of our first destinations was the government documentary film center. Don Hall lectured first with a Power Point presentation in true stereo. We immediately called it home. Robert Kennedy and Don Rogers’ Oscar™ enjoy lunch. I removed my shoes before entering the room in accordance with custom (the floor was far too gone for it to be a practical effort) and set to work patching into their Mackie in anticipation of the following day where we would be introduced to our students. Elizabeth Rogers. It was more of an edit bay than a mix stage and Clay made an enduring observation. a Denecke slate. A projector and screen were already set up so I went to work hooking in Don H’s Mac for his opening PowerPoint presentation. After touring the facility and a few edit bays we came upon a 200+ seat movie theatre. That was the “right way” and I was challenging that ten minutes into our introduction. He brought his decades of experience as a Supervising Sound Editor. both with fogged up doors. on which he was the Supervising Sound Editor. Every student wanted to buy it. They also were challenged to mix lavs and a boom together. The students were impressed. not surprising given that my sentences took longer to say in Vietnamese. I focused on signal-to-noise ratio as a central concept elucidated by drawings and demonstration. Our next exercise was to make a recording on location. I assembled the sync sound package and then challenged them to do the same. There were wildly varying levels of success. The mixes were rough. . One of the mix stages we visited resembled a museum more than a functioning studio. but we could hear the volunteer “actors” loud and clear. The end of each of our final days were devoted to Clay Davis’ lecturing and question answering. Don Hall directed the boom/mixer/beta snake setup and I directed the sync sound setup. With one sync sound package (with wireless) and one boom-to-mixerto-camera package we set a scene on the street. 39 The Coffey Audio Files | Issue 03 2008 We continued hands-on exercises the second week. When Clay hit the stage he was bombarded with questions. the traffic loud and the coaching constant. Students came up one by one and attempted to crossfade between two pre-positioned mics. The best received piece of equipment was the rubber mount RM-11 for the Sanken COS-11 lavalier. The scene was our friendly volunteer “actor” counting to ten.969 islets. I stood over each mixer’s shoulder and helped them understand how to do each mix. and visits to numerous government-run and independent film. Using the information I had just presented. Each group took turns recording a scene. We took them back to the theatre and played back the footage so they could hear their work on real speakers. meetings with the government film department. Some got a good mix on their first effort while others managed something passable on their third. Our students were absorbing the material and rose to our challenge. Each group did the same then we played back these results which elicited jeers and cheers. a UNESCO world heritage site. I took care to flip every switch and turn every dial to a random position but the students managed to set the mixer up quite well. The students warned us that the city was too loud to record so we tested that theory. These young men were more bold and outgoing than any others in the class and had occupied the front row. With all 20+ students looking on I went through the setup and explained to them any mistakes in their setup. is it?” “Please teach us everything about post-production too!” Clay deferred creative questions to the two Dons and did his best to understand what was truly being asked. We designed a scenario in which an actor would travel from coverage on one boom mic to a second over the course of a scene. I tired out two of our translators in the process. He reiterated the importance of signal-to-noise ratio and covered digital audio theory in greater depth. Back in Hanoi we found the gentleman who mixes AMPAS hosted farewell dinner for Vietnamese Cinema Department and interpreters. The air was stifling. demonstrated how to boom and provided a basic theory of recording dialogue.Robert Kennedy in Ha Long Bay. He lamented the lack of a proper facility in which to teach post-production and also our diminishing time. The excellent reputation of Todd-AO (Clay is a co-founder) must have permeated this far because students thought Clay could answer the unanswerable. but each group made recordings. I started my lecture and demonstrated the proper use of each item. Each group had the opportunity to boom an interior scene. Don Rogers mixed while I boomed for a demonstration and we managed a take with no boom-shadows or other issues. Pictured behind him are a few of the 1. Our final exercise was a simple crossfade. After a couple of days I had explained the important functions of each unit. HDV camera. The best mix in the class was done by a younger woman who was embarrassed to even try. “How can I record the sound of someone’s thoughts?” “Digital isn’t worth the hassle. We found time for many other activites including two press conferences. We traveled to Ho Chi Minhh city for a day to see government and private facilities. Each successive group performed the task with increasing accuracy and made us very proud. It was usually an errant line/mic switch or engaging phantom power when it wasn’t necessary. too low and the boom was almost always in the shot.. Students from Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) jumped first at the opportunity to assemble the sound package so I put five minutes on the clock. bring me around Hanoi on a motorbike for some night life. Our students took us out for a final lunch at which the beer flowed freely. Van Anh. He was pleased that we thought so highly of him as. Van Anh’s colleague. Weeks later we met at the Academy to share our experience with the international committee. I was especially fortunate to have Tran Quang. a hand-embroidered table cloth and a plaque from a temple we had visited. His mix stage lacked proper speaker placement and EQ. We took our hosts to lunch as they did for us the following day. The committee applauded our efforts and several members offered personal thanks. We gathered each morning for breakfast and each evening for dinner. I received a great tie. private and governmental. Their thanks was sincere and moving. The business of our trip finished with heartfelt goodbyes. I couldn’t resist bringing my MKH50 and the 744T for some sound gathering on my final evening. Liz was wonderfully entertaining. was incredible. We traveled to Ha Long Bay and enjoyed the local wisdom of our tour guide. but he seemed to be carrying the weight of the post-sound needs for the whole of Vietnam. He still operated his analog board though a new Digidesign Icon was set up and ready to go. he was under appreciated. We went to markets and temples. the Ford Foundation and the Vietnamese government were finally on the same page so that more work can begin. in Vietnam. Our discussions were always engaging and I was honored to be welcomed into their world.” He affirmed Clay’s belief that we shouldn’t try to speak Vietnamese because we are more likely to put our foot in our mouths than communicate. Perhaps most importantly we learned that directors were speaking throughout takes rendering even a scratch track useless. The skepticism of our intentions had passed thanks to Don Rogers’ explanation of AMPAS and it’s mission. Their poor soundtracks were not solely a lack of good production sound.the majority of films. like many sound professionals. The trip was a great success and we look forward to the day when Vietnam produces feature films with production dialogue intact. Don Rogers’ written report explained the situation on the ground and the considerable effort remaining to get the Vietnam film industry to a point where they can sell their films to foreign markets. The Academy cared for our needs and their local organizer. . “Rex. The Academy. We managed some time for leisure throughout the trip which I will spare the details. We presented our students with certificates of attendance and they offered us nice gifts. Don Hall did a wonderful job recounting our efforts. He informed us that he performed his final mix in Thailand on a proper stage. as was Don Rogers and his stories garnered from decades working on the best films. When switched to its right side position. There are 6 more signal routing switches that are 41 The Coffey Audio Files | Issue 03 2008 . Only the finest electronic components are used in the construction of the Solice Mixer. There is also the ability to route audio signals to the remaining 8 mix busses and main outputs via a flexible switch matrix. reference tone oscillator. The top left routing switch is labeled “MIX 1&2” This switch routes audio through the Pan Pot and onto the 1st and 2nd mix buses and corresponding 1st and 2nd main balanced outputs. slate microphone. built in private line. The Solice Mixer is built in a rugged. the signal is not routed anywhere. four separate stereo headphone feeds with many source selections. This new mixer offers eight input channels along with eight mixing busses and a compliment of outputs. All of the silkscreen lettering is printed sub-surface on Lexan overlays for years of heavy use. it will feed Post-fader audio to the mix buss for which it is labeled.Tech Zone Cheat Sheets | PSC Solice Audio Mixer PSC Solice Audio Mixer By Jennifer Paro The new Solice Audio Mixer from Professional Sound Corp has been designed to fulfill the need for a portable field mixer with extensive signal routing capabilities. The mixer also includes eight channels of output metering. elegant milled billet aluminum side panels. 12T and 48PH mic powering. An AC power supply is included. iPod input. Each and every routing option can be accomplish either as pre-fader or post fader for maximum flexibility. When switched to its center position (Off). Penny & Giles Faders and Neutrik connectors. a full duplex boom communication system. Please note that you can use the pan control to fully assign the signal to output 1 or 2 or anywhere in between. The “LINE OUT” switch routes audio to the direct line outputs located on the rear of the mixer near the corresponding input. continuously variable high pass filters and a responsive limiter. All eight of these switches have three physical settings: Left. You can use this control to adjust your direct output signal level to your recorder. laser cut aircraft aluminum housing and features. basic remote recorder roll controls and more. the signal runs through a rotary level control labeled as “Line Out”. This includes NKK switches. Each input channel also features a direct line output. Individual Input Channel Signal Routing (channel assignments) Each input channel has eight (8) signal routing switches. These direct outputs are used primarily for feeding multi-track digital recorders when recording one separate track per actor. which can be operated either pre-fader or post-fader and includes a separate level control. The Housing is finished in environmentally friendly and durable powder coat paint. center and right. When switched to the left. Each input channel includes super low-noise microphone pre-amplifiers with fully variable gain structure. In addition to the Line Output switch. A sturdy aluminum slide-on cover is included to protect the entire panel. the routing switch will feed Pre-fader audio to the mix buss for which it is labeled. The Solice Mixer’s input channels feature extreme flexibility in signal routing for use in today’s demanding applications. Verify that the signal phase inversion switch is set to its normal (facing left) position. NKK Sealed Switches. 6.4. 6. 2. Individual Input Channel Operation: 1. Parametric EQ. Dynamic. 5. the LED will glow orange. Only use this when you have a phase difference between two microphones in close proximity to each other. 2. 3. Turn on the mixer by pressing the “Power” button. Set the input level switch (mic or line switch) for each channel to the corresponding level that you will be connecting to that particular input.6. The various buttons will light up indicating the mixer is powered on. you have several hundred different combinations available for your use. Pre or Post Fader Assignable • Individual Channel Meters for both Pre and Post Fader Signal Levels • 8 Mix Busses for Extreme Versatility • 8 Balanced Outputs on Full Size XLR’s and also on a Multi-Pin • Sunlight Readable LED PPM Metering on all 8 Outputs • Slate Microphone • Remote Roll • Private Line . Adjust the variable high pass filter to eliminate unwanted low frequency noise such as wind or air conditioning rumble. 2. P&G faders. Here are but a few examples: • Eight direct line outputs to a multi-track recorder and a stereo submix on outputs 1&2 for dailies • Eight direct line outputs to a multi-track recorder and four stereo mixes to feed four video cameras • Eight direct line outputs to a multi-track recorder and Two 4 Track mixes to feed two RED cameras • Eight direct line outputs to a multi-track. Raise all four of the master faders to the maximum position. one stereo sub mix for dailies and stereo mixes for up to 3 cameras In addition.5” (42 cm) Wide. The Coffey Audio Files | Issue 03 2008 42 . 8. Set the headphone monitor selection switches to your desired settings. 4. 16. 4.Cheat Sheets | PSC Solice Audio Mixer Tech Zone labeled 3.25” (41 cm) Deep.provides one way communication to 2 boom operators • Comm .100” (2. These are used to route the signal to those corresponding output busses and the main balanced outputs. Press the reference tone oscillator switch again to turn off the tone. Press the reference tone oscillator switch and note that the main output meters all read “0”. This can be the supplied AC power supply or a battery of 9 to 18VDC. Connect mixer to an external source of power. 14 Lbs Solice pricing: US$9995. PreFade Listens • All Channel Assignments Can Be Assigned Pre-Fader or Post Fader • Individual Line Outputs on Every Input Channel. The LED will activate Green for a “0” meter reading and RED to indicate limiting.5.5 mm) laser cut aircraft aluminum • Dimensions: 16. Make sure the tape/direct push button switch is in the direct setting (lighted green) 7. 3. With the channel faders down. or 48 PH) on each channel to the correct setting for the type of microphone you will be using. adjust the level of each pre-amplifier as you observe the input channel meter. Neutrik Connectors • Housing formed from 0. Adjust the pre-amplifier gain so that the meter just occasionally lights the “0” or top green LED. If both occur at once. Set the mic powering switch (12T.7 and 8.provides full duplex communication to 2 boom operators • Speaker Output follows Mixer Headphone Selection for Playback Jobs • Balanced Outputs available on a Multi-Pin Connector • Operates From External 10 to 18 VDC • Built using only the finest components including. the Solice Mixer offers its main XLR balanced outputs repeated on a multi-pin connector for your convenience. Turn all headphone volume controls fully off (counter clock-wise) 5. Overall.00 PSC SOLICE AUDIO MIXER CHEAT SHEET (cut out and put in your wallet) Overall Mixer Operation: 1. Turn on the channel limiter by switching on the limiter switch.75” (7 cm) High • Weight: Approx. Features of the PSC Solice Audio Mixer: • Super Quiet Pre-Amps with Fully Variable Gain and Precise Limiters • Infinitely Variable High Pass Filters • 8 Input Channels with Mic Power. The CMD 2U was nominated in 2005 for the ”mipa” (Musik¬messe International Press Award). Special marking: the letters ”xt” engraved on the back of the connector housing.Tech Zone HIGHLIGHT PRODUCT Cheat Sheets Sound Devices 788T Schoeps CMD| 2u | Sennheiser MKE 1 Schoeps CMD 2u Digital Mic By Jennifer Paro Schoeps proudly introduces the innovative new CMD 2u AES digital mic preamp. but the internal A/D conversion eliminates analog interference and signal losses either in the cable or at the inputs of analog preamps and mixers. One of the great features of the CMD 2u is the ability to hold up in any environment with no fear of condensation. clear. Schoeps also offers the CMD 2U “xt” – the 40 kHz Version. It is built to achieve unsurpassed sound quality in all situations.00. It is sonically equal to the Schoeps’ CMC-series analog microphones. The MKE 1 is virtually invisible and designed to withstand sweat and moisture. Features • Great strengths – small microphone • Very small dimensions (3. Instead of the standard 48 Volt phantom powering. The digital amplifier expands the Schoeps Colette modular microphone system allowing any Colette capsule to be used with it. This input can be found on such devices as the Sound Devices 788T. and can be used with any Schoeps Colette capsules that are axially addressed rather than side-addressed. it operates with the digital phantom powering of an AES 42-type digital input. Its special gauze and multipurpose cap offer additional protection from moisture so that it only picks up ideal sound.3.3 millimeters. The MKE 1 is robust in every respect. natural sound with low ambient noise • Thin (1 mm diameter) and robust cable. This version has frequency response to 40 kHz and beyond. Sennheiser MKE 1 Lavalier Mic By Jennifer Paro The MKE 1 is Sennheiser’s smallest clip-on lavalier microphone . The Kevlar reinforced cable with molded anti-kink sleeve minimizes handling noise and makes this a microphone you can rely upon completely.3 mm capsule diameter) • High maximum sound pressure level (142 dB) • Very high speech intelligibility. The CMD 2u is priced at $1249. The MKE 1 stands up better than other clip-on microphones to harsh live conditions. pleasant treble • Full. flexible with minimum handling noise • Very sweat-resistant due to protective membrane • Flexible tubes for attaching the microphone with clips or adhesive tape Delivery Includes • 1 MKE 1 clip-on microphone • 1 MZC 1-1 small frequency response cap • 1 MZC 1-2 multi-purpose cap • 3 make-up protection caps 43 The Coffey Audio Files | Issue 03 2008 . The CL-8 also allows two additional recording tracks for a total of ten tracks. users also have the ability to solo an input in headphones so they can concentrate on a specific track within their recording. limiter. Inputs can be assigned to Aux tracks pre. polarity. With a push of the input knob. Allows quick actuation of input settings such as high pass filter. including highpass filter. The CL-8 makes the 788T an affordable. Setting up in the field is easier with the CL-8 which allows users to quickly assign inputs to the main left and right record tracks. polarity. the CL-8 Controller adds additional features to the 788T recorder. The CL-8 is now available for $985. and slate mic. The CL-8 also offers control of several input settings. limiter. The Coffey Audio Files | Issue 03 2008 44 . Quick assign to Aux 1 and Aux 2 track. solo. and mute. Used in combination with the 788T. LED’s indicate when signals are present.or post-fader.PRODUCT HIGHLIGHT Cheat Sheets | Sound Devices CL-8 Sound Devices CL-8 Controller for 788T By Jennifer Paro The CL-8 Controller is the newest edition to the Sound Devices family. very flexible 8-channel recorder and mixer that can be used for both portable and cart based productions. The CL-8 features 8 rotary fader knobs that control the input fader volume on the 788T while the original input knobs on the 788T act as input trims. The CL-8 can be connected to a keyboard through the controller’s USB keyboard pass-through port. CL-8 Features: • • • • • • Eight rotary faders allow recorder gain controls to function as input trims Quick assign to L and R tracks. Located on the side of the CL-8 is a button for slate making clear marking of tracks easy. A keyboard can also be used with the CL-8 through the USB keyboard pass-through port. These new tracks can be used to provide auxiliary sends for more comprehensive setups. Adds two additional tracks to the 788T (Aux 1 & Aux 2) with CL-8’s associated firmware. mute. Alternative systems used in Europe and some Asian countries are PAL and SECAM. and buzz Noise floor Normally the lowest threshold of useful signal level (although sometimes audible signals below the noise floor may be recovered). and volume. Typically.S. Noise gate Used extensively for controlling unwanted noise. The milliampere is the most common unit used when measuring quiescent current drain in consumer audio electronics. such as attack and decay time.400 Hz to 3kHz. Such things as hiss. pops. Manufacturers will often provide both an RMS and Max power rating. Memory The word most commonly used to refer to a system’s ability to retain specific information. complete with level controls on all inputs. that produce music. Negative feedback is frequently used in designing opamp circuits and audio power amplifiers. hum. such as synthesizers and sound cards. Midrange (mids) The frequency range above bass but below treble that carries most of the identifying tones of music or speech. stations. but can also include additional characteristics. crackle. time. Refers to the standards used for video broadcast and playback signal parameters in the U.and other preference settings that are electronically stored and governed. MIDI Musical Instrument Digital Interface. Near Field Sound. the given value for the maximum power rating is twice to three times that of RMS. From a more accurate technical perspective. such as preventing “open” microphones and “hot” instrument pickups from introducing extraneous sounds into the system. Microprocessor A multiple semiconductor IC device that can be programmed to perform a variety of tasks. an audio processing device used to add. Negative feedback The dynamic comparison of a fraction of the output signal to the input signal at the input to an amplifier in such a way that the amplifier regulates it’s output signal for maximal conformity to the input signal. this is the point where the velocity of molecules emitted by the radiator is out of phase with the sound pressure wave. a standard for controlling devices. Any point where the direct sound emission is measurably louder than the reflections of that sound. Midbass Mid level bass. This is especially obvious when the listener is in close proximity to high frequency emissions. It is usually from 300 . NTSC National Television System Committee. a MIDI representation of a sound includes values for the note’s pitch. N 45 The Coffey Audio Files | Issue 03 2008 . combine or sum multiple inputs into one or two outputs.. from around 100 . At minimum. M Mono monophonic sound.Tech Zone Audio Glossary M-N Maximum power rating The maximum wattage that an audio component can deliver/handle as a brief burst during a musical peak. particularly. usually frequencies just above the sub-bass range.400 Hz. Noise Perceived sounds not in the original soundtrack. Japan and other countries. Mixer At its simplest level. A method for reproducing sound where the signals from all directions or sources are blended into a single channel. length. Milliamps A unit of measurement of electric current equal to 1/1000th of an ampere.