Jericho 2....day 7

Well...thanks to the Jericho Rangers and BlogCatalog, I no longer have to wonder if anyone ever reads this blog. Thanks for all the comments and shout outs.

Yesterday was quite a day, long and hot. We started the day at 6am, pretty normal for a Monday here in LA...but it was a 14 hour day and I rolled in my door at about 8:30 last night. Exhausted and it's only the first day of the week.

The cast and producers went to ComiCon this past Sunday and we heard the stories. It was an amazing turnout to the panel. They were absolutely blown away by the response and fan support. The fans really own the show. If it weren't for all of you out there, we would all be doing something else this year...but Jericho lives. Lennie gave me the run down of all the questions, the cheers, the Rangers...he's hilarious. We laughed...and watched more YouTube Jericho videos. Yes, we watch them...

We complete episode 201 today, with 202 coming right on it's heals. Back out at the farm on Wednesday. Hot...

PWP

Jericho begins

Still have no idea if anyone ever reads this thing...

We started photography for Season 2 of Jericho this past week.  Lots of changes in the crew, as many left for other shows at the notice of cancellation.  We have an entirely different Camera, Grip and Electric department.  The show is looking great and we have some great stories developing for the fans that brought us back.  We hope they are as excited as we are.

This past week found the crew deep in a ravine, yet again.  Very rough terrain with no real level ground.  My sound cart was doing okay, but I think it would have been a lot easier to just do the mini-rig that I have been thinking of building.  The mini-rig will consist of a SD 442, SD 744, 3 radios, and a Comtek transmitter all in a Petrol PEGZ1 bag.   So, I put the order in and should have it for our next trip down the rough road.

Here's something for our Jericho fans:

NT2 and the water...

We only had 5 days to complete on National Treasure 2, though they were a very difficult 5 days. It consisted of 6 actors being close to neck deep in rushing water delivering 6 pages of dialog. We gave up on radios right off the bat because the packs would be below water level, and the rushing water would dowse the mic capsules immediately. We opted for two booms, bagged up as best as possible to keep dry. Not much kept dry.  On day 3 we lost both boom rigs to the water, with 2 MKH50's going under. The booms were wireless, so the transmitters went too.  A heavy day for loss and damage.  We also lost a Time Code Slate somewhere along the way. I'm probably no friend to the production accountant right now.

All in all we recorded a pretty good guide track for the sequence.  The rushing water noise, along with the pumps, shouting crew, etc. didn't make for an ideal recording situation.  

My crew really dug in and did their best to get the best tracks possible. Thank you to Robert Maxfield on boom, and Patrick Martens and Jeff Zimmerman as Sound Utility. Great job guys.

Now, I've got to get all this stuff cleaned up for Jericho. We start production in less than 2 weeks.

PWP

SF for the Weekend & finishing up NT2:Book of Secrets

Went for a quick weekend trip to San Francisco, which is close to an impossibility.  A quick weekend trip anywhere is very difficult these days with the state of air travel.  And a trip for only 2 days to San Francisco is almost futile.  Well, we tried it and had a good time.  Though quite a bit rushed to do just about everything.  Had a couple of good dinners, and did some shopping around Union Square.  We stayed at a very swanky boutique hotel called Hotel Diva on Geary street.  The first night almost killed the entire weekend.  I booked the trip through Travelocity, which meant that I had no input as to where or what our rooms might be.  We ended up with a room directly on top of the truck delivery and trash pick up.  Also right in front of the Geary Theater which is the current home of Jersey Boys.  The noise was unbelievable.  We were about to check out at 3 am and head to the airport to hop on a plane back home, when they offered to "upgrade" us to a more pleasant room.  Well...the new room had a bigger bed, a desk lamp that actually turned off without unplugging it, no street noise, and a clock radio that was actually plugged in.  Disaster averted by the night desk clerk.  We enjoyed the rest of our stay very nicely in the swanky, Euro styled Hotel Diva, which had very cool internet lounges on almost every floor.  My suggestion if you plan to stay there....call ahead and ask for a room as far away from Geary street as possible.

Tomorrow I take over sound duties on National Treasure:Book of Secrets.  There is only about one week left of production, but they have gone over and the mixer had to leave for previous engagements.  Looking forward to working with Jon Turtletaub again.  We worked together on Jericho for quite some time.

PWP