Okay, the fog has cleared. We had the wrap party last night for Rikers...it was a great party. I can't say enough about the director and producers. They were very sensitive to each department, and especially the sound department. Charles Winkler is truly one of the best to work with...bar none. I hope to do many more with him.

Now...about HD/24P. The camera equipment was really not up to the task in my opinion. Way too many failures for a location package. I couldn't believe how many times the gear went down. If it wasn't the fiber cable it was a board in the camera... I really think Sony has failed in the ruggedness of the F900 and F950. It is fine for the studio, but on location...forget it. It does not save any money. You end up shooting far more throw away material in search of the perfect take. In a normal film set up, everyone prepares for the take in the same manner...rehearse, last looks, shoot, fix, repeat. With the advent of HD, it seems we just shoot the rehearsal and never get really set for the real "1st take". Things start being overlooked, which are usually caught during the rehearsal, and you end up with printed material that has flaws in continuity, dialogue, camera movement, lighting, and whatever else. Then, just because you can, sometimes they never cut and you do the scene 2 or 3 times before anything is fixed. A real bummer for every department. I'm not sure the actors like it either. It's not just on this production that I saw this happening, I've seen it on EVERY 24P show I've worked on.

Now it may seem that I'm venting here, but it really concerns me. We are going for quantity over quality. Not a good trade in my opinion. But, it is just that...my opinion.

I had a few hiccups in gear on this show, but mostly recurring problems that I'm working out. I am considering going to the new Yamaha 01V96 mixer. It is really a great set up for location recording. We'll see....

We wrapped Rikers last night, or I should say this morning...at 7:30am. It was a great experience for our whole crew...I wish them well with the movie.

Cleaning and repairing gear this coming week...nothing on the horizon yet. Day calls most likely.

Two weeks into production of Rikers, and halfway done. Big prison riot scene this past week, very difficult...but well done, I think. I have really enjoyed working with our director and producers. Their attention to all aspects of production is excellent and appreciated. This project will end far too soon for me...

The Jeff's have had their hands full this past week with lots of wires and gear. We were all over the place. My cart looked like an installation...thankfully I didn't have to move for the big scenes. Since we are doing this show on 24P/HD, we tend to move the village as little as possible...sort of shooting around the video world. This has made my antenna loom very essential. We are running the antennae out as much as 100 feet for each set up. It's far better than running multiple wires all over the set, and moving for every set up. I'll try and go into more detail after the show.

We have also done quite a bit of testing for Lectrosonics on this project. There might be a modification to the UM400 series in the works.

We're a week into production. It's a fast paced shoot, not much down time...if any. The actors are great, I'm very impressed. We're having to wire a whole lot more than usual, and than I hoped...but all is sounding good. The DEVA is getting a work out.

Jeff Norton is getting quite a workout as there is little or no rehearsal for anything. It's a very spontainious deal everytime we roll. It make for a very exciting picture.

More next week...

Prep and camera tests went well. We're using a new deck from Sony, a portable HD deck that will record 4:4:4. I'll be sending digital audio to it for scratch track editing. The master audio will be the DEVA, which will be used for the dialogue edit. The camera boys had their hands full for the test, so Jeff and I hung out on the perimeter. All was fine.

We start production tomorrow on a stage downtown. We're there for 2 days then we head to Nelles Prison camp for 12 shooting days.

I'll be testing a stereo mic rig and a new ear wig system on this show. Peter Devlin has graciously loaned me his two systems for testing.