|
|
Posted by WillStG on 09/14/06 03:30
HiC wrote:
> I would think the reason they've got the gig on a high profile show is
> they're supposed to know what they're doing, part of which is being on top
> of this kind of thing. I can understand a mic dying, even after it's been
> checked. But this was someone having their thumb up their nose.
How do you know the mixer had his thumb up his nose? Have *you*
ever mixed television before? There are plenty of ways to get bagged.
The guys at the facility down the street can be using RF's on your
frequency, or you could have ENG guys covering a story nearby using
RF's that knock your mics down. This happened to Barry Manilow's vocal
mic on a NBC Today show appearance a while back, his mic went dead on
air. Or your floor assistant can just forget to turn the mic on. Or
he can put the wrong mic out. He can forget that there is a lavalier
mic on the same frequency as the stick that he has left on - two mics
sending on the same frequency will cause a mute condition. Someone
could have knocked the mic off the stand sometime causing it to fail.
A hardwired mic cable can unknowingly get kicked out of the wall by a
stagehand. Someone can bump up against the patchbay cables and bust a
military connector. Or someone could drive the lighting genie over
your audio snake,
Sometimes _the talent_ will turn a mic off, or if it gets touched
by a Stage Manager _they_ can unconciously (and stupidly) inadvertently
turn a mic off. Even a DGA guy. I use a pull down prefade option if
it is available on a console, so I can constantly (and nervously) keep
checking all my mics with a flick of a finger. Some consoles you have
to punch a button, some consoles don't have a separate prefade speaker
output and you can only check by interrupting your mix - not optimal by
any means. If I don't see talent on a camera monitor, I check their
mic to see if they've left the set and turned it off. If they do then
it's THEIR FAULT, but my attitude is "not on my watch". Some guys
figure if they crash and burn because they break the rules, maybe they
won't do it again. But I figure a lot of people are like you, and will
choose to blame the audio mixer first and ask questions later.
Really experience just means you've been bagged before, and now
know what to look out for. Doesn't mean you have to take a hit for
someone else's error or if equipment fails, particularly if you have
warned them or it's due to management trying to save a buck by risking
air.
Will Miho
NY TV/Audio Post/Music/Live Sound Guy
"The large print giveth and the small print taketh away..." Tom Waits
Navigation:
[Reply to this message]
|