O1V96 cart load up

I've pretty much completed the load of gear. There are few things left to tidy up, but the signal path test through is complete. The result is far more routing and functionality. The console is quiet, endless routing and much easier to use than originally thought. It's the equivalent of a Swiss Army Knife. I'll post a more detailed list of gear and it's power distribution later and on the O1V users group.

Cart clean up and overhaul

I haven't done all the wiring yet, but here is a preliminary look at what is shaping up. Had to do some modifications to shelves today. Hoping to have it wired up and testing audio tomorrow.

O1V96 production sound users group

There are several sound newsgroups and forums on the web currently that deal with the complete scope of production sound recording for film and television. After many emails and phone conversations during the process of my mixing panel upgrade, we felt there might be a home for a specific group that dealt with the Yamaha O1V96 and it's use as a mixing platform in location sound recording for film and television production.

Give it a look : O1V96 production sound users group

Panel swap and cart overhaul

Well, it's been a couple if years. I've had time to really get to know and use my current cart configuration. Still, to this day the best set up I've put together. But my current show has taxed my mixing panel and it's routing and output ability. So, on our break between seasons of Glee...I will overhaul the interior rack of my cart and install a Yamaha 01v96 console in place of the current Cooper 206D. I am assembling all the materials and parts now, and the project will begin in about a month. I'll post before and after, as well as progress photos.

CAS nomination

The re-recording mixers for Glee, Joe Earle and Doug Andham, and I have been nominated for a CAS award. The nom is for Outstanding Achievement in Sound Mixing for a Television Series for the Glee episode 'Wheels', directed by Paris Barkley. The awards will be given at the annual CAS banquet at the Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles on February 27. Wish us luck!!!

Glee wins Golden Globe

It was a great pleasure to see our cast and producers accept the Golden Globe for best comedy series. The other shows were so strong, and to be included in the nominations was an honor I'm sure. Ryan was kind to thank the crew in his acceptance speech...Thank You Ryan! We are so proud of the show! Congratulations to the cast and crew! And now....back to work. :) 9am call today. It should be a fun day on set.

pwp

Happy New Year

Happy New Year everyone. Adios to 2009, bring on the 10.

I'm looking forward to bringing in the new year with all my friends at
Glee next week.

Phillip W. Palmer, CAS

-- Sent from my iPhone

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

Getting ready to start my prep for the upcoming back 9 episodes of Glee. I'm adding some gear to the playback and music portion of the package. More earwigs and a thumper system most notably. We're also installing more speakers in the choir room, high school main set. It gets the speakers up and out of the way, clear of the crew while working. Saving us from getting blasted from the loud music when doing the music numbers. Probably adding some long carpet runners for the hallways, can't seem to have enough carpet.

Really looking forward to getting back to McKinley High. The show is doing very well, and we are proud of our work. It's been a long break from Glee, time to get back to school.

PWP

Las Vegas

We're done with our run on NCIS:Los Angeles. Doing some day playing and 2nd units till we go back to Glee in January.

This week we are in Las Vegas working on the movie The Other Guys for a couple of days. The show is shot in New York but they have a couple of scenes that take place in Las Vegas. My good friend Tom Nelson is mixing the show in New York and he called me to take care of the LV portion.

Today we are filming a bit of a Vegas show. Should be great. Having fun...enjoying the change of pace.

updates...

It's been quite a while since updates, sorry about that. NCIS:LA is quite a show, and takes a lot out of me. Blogging has fallen behind.

We have just about completed episode 8 for the new season and we are just getting going. Lots more to do as the season will be at the least, 22 episodes.

It's interesting that this year, both shows that I have done are picked up for full seasons. That...boggles my mind. Glee will begin filming it's "back 9" episode order in January.

New additions to the gear package include another DEVA. I purchased a new DEVA 5.8 for the cart and the older DEVA V has been put in a bag for run rigs/insert cars/etc. Previously I had a Sound Devices 442/744 combo for this purpose, but 4 tracks wasn't enough. The DEVA interface and ease of use is too hard to ignore so...I had to make the change. Plus, the comfort of having a back up DEVA on site is worth it to me.

Also, I had a carpet cart made by Brett Grant-Grierson. He has manufactured both my main recording cart and my utility cart. It's a simple "shopping cart" style, but as you might say...it's on steroids. All steel and powder coated black, this cart will not yield to the weight of the rubber mats as the rest have done!

New video and music promo for NCIS: Los Angeles. Enjoy...

Support your local sound mixer

Watch Glee this week! The season premiere of Glee is Wednesday September 9 at 9p east and west, 8 central on FOX. If you liked the pilot, you'll love the series. My crew and I are very happy with our work on this one...it was a challenge and a pleasure.

Hope you enjoy it.

PWP

Another busy day on NCIS:LA

ncis: los angeles

Sorry it's been a while folks. I'm coming out of the fog now.

We finished up Glee at the end of July, what a great run of show that was. We will know more regarding the show fate as the season airs in September. My crew and I had one day off to push the gear from stage 15 to stage 9 at Paramount and begin our stint on the new CBS show NCIS: Los Angeles. The new show stars Chris O'Donnell and LL Cool J. We've been at it for a couple of weeks now, and have settled in. Pretty much a 180 degree spin from Glee... Lots of moving around and locations on this new show. Getting my legs back on, after spending so much time on stage with the Gleeks.

More later...

Bust the windows!

New music video from Glee!!

3 booms, no waiting

Harsha Furst, Devendra Cleary and Patrick Martens. Episode 112/Glee.

Added another Venue

2 wide band low Venue's on the main cart now.

Boom Ops

My crew for the last year. A great team. Patrick Martens on boom and
Devendra Cleary is 2nd Boom and Playback. Can't thank you guys enough.

the day after

Last night Glee premiered to about 11 million viewers here in the US.  We're quite happy here in Gleeville, high fives all around.  There was much celebrating in New York this past weekend, with the cast appearing at the FOX upfront presentation.  Now the hard work must continue.

We are finishing up episode 8 of our 12 episode order.  After completing this episode, we will have 3 days of clean up photography to finish up all the odds and ends that we need to complete any previous episodes.  Before beginning episode 9, we will take a 9 day hiatus.  This will give the writers and the music folks a chance to get a little ahead of our production schedule.  

Congratulations to all at Glee for a job well done on the pilot.  Great reviews all around. Looking forward to the fall, and the additional episodes to follow.

pwp

Glee in Sierra Madre

Sound cart in line for a lube job.

Deconstructing Glee with Ryan Murphy

3 cameras and waiting

Cams getting ready for the slushy fight!

Baby Ball Gag

Funny name, but a great windcreen. Shown here on a MKH50. This all but
eliminates wind puffs on big quick moves as well as makes it available
for some light exteriors.

ep 107 day 6

We are just about done with episode 7 of our first season of Glee.  It's been a great ride so far, much more to do.  We premiere the pilot on May 19 at 9pm on FOX.  Hope you can watch.

Here's a view from my world this evening.

I pretty amazed at the amount of playback and music that we do on a regular basis for an episodic TV show. It's become routine for us, but in any other situation it might seem overwhelming. For each episode we have anywhere from 4 to 8 full music production numbers per episode. We bring in extra personnel as needed for each day of playback. It gets busy. Very happy so far and our production workflow has been solid.  Touch wood...

pwp

12 earwigs...OMG

Live vocal record to prerecorded music with 12 cast members. Very high
pucker factor.

Cabrillo Beach

aka. McKinley High football field.

Stage 15

This is a view of our McKinley High set. We're filming in the Choir
Room when this was taken. It's pretty well lit up in the middle
area. Kinda cool...

Glee - extended trailer

The new trailer for Glee.

Enjoy!

pwp

Thursday on Glee

I'm so happy to be back on stage after an incredibly windy day in Long
Beach yesterday. We had some dialog on the football field, but mostly
we just got beat up by the wind. Then we moved into the auditorium
for a big musical number.

Today I'm hunkered down in my little corner of the McKinley High
School set on stage 15 at Paramount. Nice and cozy. Lots of playback
today...makes it fun to watch. Much more dialog recording later, so
I'm enjoying the break.

Lots of folks have been asking about the new Sennheiser A5000CP
antenna that I have started using. I'm very happy with it so far.
Been putting it through the paces and there seems to be quite a bit of
improvement over the shark fins. I hope Lectrosonics will enter the
game with their own version. The Sennheiser is quite expensive.

_________________________________
Phillip W. Palmer, CAS

Musical at Cabrillo

That's Patrick Martens and Harsha First way up in the back setting the
stereo mic.

Boom pole uses

Sometimes you need to place a mark high on the bounce.

Cheerios!

1st iPhone update

Finally getting to know my blogger settings a bit better.

The new 'the daily carpet' blog has been getting some regular updates. Lots of opportunity on our show Glee.

http://dailycarpet.blogspot.com

I'll try and get more Glee updates rolling. We are just now completing
episode 5, with 7 more to shoot.

Phillip W. Palmer, CAS

-- Sent from my iPhone

the daily carpet

You'll get the idea...

the daily carpet

Beginning week 8 - Glee

We're a couple of days into episode 105.  The cast has been doing quite a bit of promotion, stealing some of their weekends.  Fox is heavy on the previews during American Idol.

Hope you enjoy!  

We're looking forward to it too....

pwp

End week 5

We are done with week 5 and almost completed with episode 103 for Glee season 1.  We currently have a 13 episode order, but who knows...that could always change.  

Starting to settle into a groove with all the playback and sound recording duties.  We have added quite a bit of gear from what we started with on the pilot.  A playback cart has been built for permanent use.  We are installing powered speakers, JBL EON10's, in the choir room set.  So much playback is in that set and the speaker stands and cables on the floor have become problematic.  An install will save a lot of work and make things go so much smoother.  Speakers arrived on Friday, install happening this week.  

My loaned/borrowed stereo mic and spare Comtek base station is about to go out on another show, so I have to make some acquisitions fairly soon of those items.  I love using the stereo mic for crowds, football games, etc.  It just adds so much to the wild tracks.  Post seems to enjoy them, so we'll keep trying to deliver.

I am very happy about this show.  Can't wait for it to air.  And it sounds good too.  :)

A5000CP

Just ordered a Sennheiser A5000CP circularly polarized antenna.  Full nerd on there.

I'm looking forward to introducing it to my wireless receiver path.  Should have updates soon.

pwp

Fraturday

Eww boy.  Yep...long night.  We started out the evening with a 5:30 call.  This was fine except we work in Los Angeles, which means nothing moves very fast on the highways from about 3pm till 7pm.  It took me just over 2 and a half hours to get to work.  I needed my brain washed out as soon as I got here.

Well, we're working hard to get this 3 days of work done in 2...and we are almost done.  We have the sun coming up in about an hour and a half, which will bring this all to a halt.  Then the joyful ride home into the sun.  

pwp

Thriday

I'm currently sitting in my tent and it's 2:25am.  Filming tonight in Long Beach on a football field at Cabrillo High School.  Pretty tired now...drinking coffee.  The TV shooting schedule is a tough one.

We are winding up week 4 of shooting for season of Glee for Fox.  Having a great time, really.  I think I can speak for my crew here and say we are very happy to be a part of this one.

Here's a pic of me earlier...I was more awake then.

pwp

just joined twitter

https://twitter.com/pwpmixer

playback cart pic

Here's a quick iPhone picture of the playback cart in action today.

Using a Macbook with ProTools LE and an MBox mini.

pwp

Glee in production

We are into production of the first season of Glee for Fox Television.  Actual live blogging from the set right here...  I'm set up in one of our classrooms on our stages at Paramount.  Loving the sets that have been constructed.  We started work this past week and have already done several music numbers.  All great stuff so far...

Very happy with the playback setup that we have put together for the show.  For Glee, since we have so much playback and music, we have a playback rig permanently set up on the sound trailer.  The cart has a ProTools rig, mixer, speakers, and interconnectivity to my rig.  We can roll it out whenever we have music and it connects directly to me, or can operate independently.

I'll post some pictures soon...

p

Hello February

Now that the month of January has passed us by, it's time I wrote on my blog.

My crew and I are about to start production on the new Fox series Glee.  We will be filming mostly at Paramount, with some locations near the studios for our "out" days.  The new series is supposed to air with the final few episodes of American Idol.  So...hopefully, we will see some audience carry over from the Fox juggernaut.  

Lots of sound challenges on the new show including lots of playback and music recording.  Looking forward to the experience.

On the gear front, I've had all my radios that were in the blocks that the FCC has sold off changed and refrequencied to legal blocks.  This ended up costing me quite a bit, so I hope the results will be worth it.  I just didn't feel like dealing with it in the middle of a show, so now felt like a good time to switch over. 

The new utility cart ROCKS!  Thank you Brett.  He's built another one for Peter Devlin and he just started using it on his current film.  Peter is quite happy too.  Can't recommend the cart enough.

Need to purchase and stereo mic in the near future as well as an additional Comtek Base Station, for ear wigs.

First thing I'm buying is the new Sennheiser C5000 circularly polarized antenna.  Good reports all around, and the reality shows have been using them in their installations for a couple of years now.  I'm ready for one.

There's the update.

pwp

Happy Holidays to everyone

It's the day after Christmas here in Southern CA.  Christmas day was a rainy and cold one for those who stayed here in town.  Today...it's about freezing outside, Kathy had to scrape the ice off her car this morning.  Personally...I love it...  Weather is good.

I'm happy to report that Glee is green lit to go into full series production.  We did the pilot in November, and plan to join the series as well.  Very much looking forward to the show.  It's a both a challenge and quite fun to work on a musical.

Sent off a bunch of wireless to Lectro to get checked out and updated.  Moving some blocks around due to the new FCC laws.  I was going to wait and see...but the break in work allowed me to do the change without effect.  Adding a Venue system to the main cart.  Also considering the new Sennheiser Circularly Polarized Helical antennae for the main cart.  Always looking to better my wireless performance.

Let's hope SAG hears the voices of reason and does not go on strike.

pwp

Slow December

Yes, it's a slow December on the work front.  November wasn't too much better, just a few days here and there.  This time of year is always a bit slow if you're not already on a project.  Makes for a conservative Christmas...which seems proper this year anyway.

It is leaving me a bit of time to tune up the gear package a bit.  Some repairs, finishing out the truck, and cleaning the gear are keeping me busy this week.

The last show, Glee, had so much playback that we were able to dial in a nicely packed playback rig using Pro-Tools LE, JBL Eons, speaker/power snakes, and a horizontal Magliner.  It was such a good set-up, quick and easy, that we are dialing it in for future gigs.  We are hopeful that Glee will be picked up for series this spring.  Putting the rig to work on a regular job.  

Also, I will be putting some microphones up for sale very soon.  2 full Schoeps systems, including 2 CMC6, 2 CUT 1, 2 MK41, 1 MK4, Collet cable, and mounting hardware.  And 2 MKH70's with Rycote Systems.  Details soon.

~pwp

new utility cart

As promised.  Here are some pictures of the new utility cart built by Brett Grant-Grierson.  He used square tube steel on this version.  Very sturdy and lighter than aluminum.

Already had it out on a few days of work and it's a great addition to the kit.  Not missing the old cart, fondly known as "the bus".

~pwp

November update

So much for my promise to keep things rolling on this blog...

Since Angels and Demons, my crew and I have completed a pilot for Fox television and Ryan Murphy Productions.  Ryan is the creator of Nip/Tuck and directed the pilot.  The pilot is called Glee, and hopefully will be making it's way to television this spring.  It is a musical comedy about the competitive world of high school Glee Clubs.  As far as the sound goes on the pilot, it was a challenge.  Thoroughly enjoyable experience, and totally different from any of the TV that I have done to date.  Thanks to John Kousakis for bringing my on board for this one.

I took delivery of my new follow cart mid-way through production of Glee. I didn't load it up for use until we finished, but have done so and have already worked a couple of days with it. It's awesome and perfect...  Finally.

I will post pictures as soon as I can get things together enough to do so.  I'm painting the shelving in my truck today, so I'm all out of sorts.  Perhaps I can get some pics up tomorrow.

Work is starting to wind down for the end of year.  It will be day calls and commercials till we get into the new year.  Sort of looking forward to the day call routine.  It's always interesting coming into something for a day here and there.

~pwp

Finishing Angels and Demons

We finish up Angels and Demons this week.  Actually 1st unit finished this past Friday, but we have 2 more days to shoot on 2nd unit.  It's been a great experience and we will miss the crew and production.  The movie should be great, so look for it next May.

No rest for the weary, as we start a pilot for Ryan Murphy beginning this coming Saturday.  We will quickly clean off the gear this week and begin filming this weekend.  It's a pilot that has a lot of local High School locations so we are filming a Wednesday through Saturday schedule for most of the show.  It's a pilot, so we will be done at the end of the month with only 3 and a half weeks of photography.

Brett is building my new follow/utility cart.  We should start seeing that in the coming weeks. It's about done with the main cart welding, pictures should be coming soon.

~pwp

Truck's done

Brett finished the interior of my sound truck a couple of weeks ago. Pictures are now up on this page.

E350 Spartan Truck

The last three pictures give you the finished interior views. Lots of shelving for cases and what not. Tie downs all over the place for carts. Work bench for solder, repair or whatever. And best of all...a lift gate.

We are finishing up Angels and Demons over at Sony this next week. Down to the last week and a half of filming. It's been a great experience. Look for it in theaters next May.

~pwp

Truck link

above link takes you to my .mac page.

~pwp

Top of Sept

We've got about a month to go on Angels and Demons. Lots more to do...

Things have come to a slow halt in feature production in Los Angeles. Thanks to the fears of another strike, the production of movies has been effected this time around. Last year we saw TV production come to a crashing halt with the writers strike, then months of no production. Movies were not as impacted by that strike, as the scripts for most movies had been locked and put away. It was much more of a TV strike. This go around has been much different. SAG has not come to any agreement with the AMPTP, but no strike vote or lock out has occurred. It's basically a stalemate at this point. I think things are starting to pick back up, as the possibility of a strike has diminished.

The new truck is being fitted with shelving and metalwork. I should get it back from Brett next week. Really looking forward to that.




Next up will be a new utility cart... More on that later.

updates...

Sorry for the long delay in posting... I get that way.

We finished up Swingtown right before the 4th of July. No news yet on a pick up or even a cancellation, so no news is good news at this point. The summer had one of the lowest amount of viewers in history I believe, so none of the shows got great ratings. We've yet to find out the decisions of CBS regarding the show's future.

Currently my crew and I, Patrick Martens on boom and Devendra Cleary as utility, are working on the 2nd unit of Angels and Demons for Columbia/Sony. We are just about mid way through filming and will complete in October. Very big show, wonderful actors and crew, lots of action...what can I say. It's been a great experience so far. Many thanks to my good friend Peter Devlin for bringing me on board.

The new truck should land next week (I hope). As soon as it arrives I'll start the interior prep and build, posting pictures along the way.

That's about it...

~pwp

Equipment truck version 2.0

As I've mentioned more than once, when you change one thing...you usually have to change a lot more just to make the new thing work. I think that made sense.

This past January we built my new sound cart which is much larger than the previous version. The resulting issue is that now neither the main cart and the accessory cart will fit in my current van anymore. I've had the GMC Safari for 10 years, and it's served me well. But now it's time to move to a much larger vehicle.

A new box van is in the planning stages and will be in production soon. More details to follow, but I can tell you that it will be nice to be able to stand up inside the truck and also have a lift gate. Can't wait for both of those things.

~pwp

saving Jericho....again

This past week Brad Beyer, who plays Stanley Richmond on Jericho, and I recorded some Voice Over for a new campaign to keep the show alive. The fans of Jericho are tireless in their endeavor to keep the show on TV. Brad and I had a great time recording the VO and are very happy to help out in the efforts.

Personally, I'd like to thank all the fans that have written in to the SaveJerichoAgain website with kind words and praise. I'm happy to help. Really.

Just a bit of trivia, Brad and I recorded the dialog on the stages that were used for Jericho. In fact Brad was about 20 feet from Gracie's Market (turned Trading Post) and almost exactly on the spot where Hawkins had his basement and "safe room". We thought it was fitting...

~pwp

Last weeks of Swingtown

We've been back in production on Swingtown since the end of March and we are nearing the end. There are just over 2 episodes left for production. Our premiere was this past week with a good showing and good ratings. The spirits are high here at Swingtown central. We are hopeful to find out something positive regarding the future of our show before we wrap, but that rarely happens. We'll probably find out our fate after we have shut down.

Keep watching Swingtown on Thursday nights at 10pm(eastern/pacific)-9pm(central) on CBS.

finally got an iPhone

Many that work with me on a regular basis have been baffled as to why I hadn't jumped on the iPhone wagon. In fact, there might have even been a bet as to whether I would have one on day 1. Much to everyone's disbelief...I waited until about 2 weeks ago. My Treo finally bit the big one and re-booted one too many times on an important phone call. It hit the ground, no I didn't throw it, after a miss cue out of my pants pocket and exploded into many pieces. It was all I needed to go to the Apple Store and snatch up one of the 16G hunkies from the shelf.

Oh yea... Can't believe I waited as long as I did. Very cool interface. Haven't gone down the Jailbreak path, and not sure if I will. Not unhappy with the ATT service as I thought I would...I couldn't even talk in my own home with Verizon. I was happy to find that ATT has FULL bars in my casa!

Very happy so far.... Sa-weet.

~pwp

updates

We've started Swingtown, back from the WGA strike. Production for the show began back on March 25 and we are already into our second episode since we kick back into production. Everything is going quite smoothly and we are all happy to be back to the grind. Swingtown will begin airing May 29 at 10pm. It's the slot right after CSI, so we are hopeful for a good carry over audience. The show is good, so all we need is viewers...

The new cart is working fantastic. Not much I'd like to change at this point as I'm still getting used to the design and footprint. We were out at Disney Ranch for a couple of days last week, so it had the rough ground test. It was really stable and performed just fine. Actually much better than my previous cart, which was a surprise. Very happy so far.

~pwp

Finished sound cart

The cart is done. Finished loading the gear this weekend. Just in time to load in for work this Monday. Here is the link to the whole process:

sound cart page




~pwp

Cart phase 1.5

I got the base back from powder coating this past Friday. I've reassembled the base structure..looks pretty good.

I'm in the middle of ordering and purchasing all the needed items for the gear assembly.

~pwp

Cart phase 1

I took delivery of the new cart this past weekend. Brett Grant-Grierson has done a great job building the base and platform for the SKB Shock Rack. I've put a page of photos together.

Sound Cart photos

Here is the assembly before the powder coat. The bottom supports for the base are steel, and are off getting coated black at this time.



Once I get the base back and coated, I'll assemble the gear and put up some new shots.

~pwp

New Cart in production

I've decided to move on from my PSC modified sound cart, which has been my main recording cart (off and on) for 9 years. It has become somewhat unstable due to the amount of weight that it must support. I sit a little too high for my liking, causing me to hunch over when I get tired..which is everyday and my back hurts regularly.

The new design will be a Shock Rack based cart with a platform designed around a vertical Magliner. Brett Grant-Grierson is designing and building the platform. Hopefully we can have it completed before he heads back to work on Medium...which is a couple of weeks off.

I'm sourcing all the parts today and hopefully will have them to him by this evening. The cutting and welding will begin immediately. Pictures to follow...

~pwp

New vertical follow cart completed

Sorry it took me a while to finish out this project, but it was the holidays after all.

The cart is completed with three rack drawers containing microphones, wireless transmitters and related gear, Comteks and IFB's, mic mounts, etc. The bottom bin is for extra gear and spare batteries, etc. The top deck has small bins for primary batteries, and 2 IPower 9volt chargers. The back has hooks for 2 Rycotes that have Sanken CS3e's.

This was my first sound cart, and had been sitting in my garage for about 8 years. It was a recycle job. This new/old cart will fit nicely behind my main cart inside my GMC Safari van. Bye Bye to the Rubbermaid!









~pwp

new follow cart for day calls

My dilemma: The follow and accessory cart that I have been using for the last couple of years is a rather huge, six drawered behemoth that has the nickname of "the bus". When doing day calls and commercials I have to use my GMC Safari van, which completely rules out it's use. I can't even get this cart through the back doors of the GMC, and even if I could...it could kill me at any moment. In years past I have used a Rubbermaid cart fashioned with three drawers, hooks for the Rycotes, pole mounts, etc.

My mission is to make a vertical cart into a usable accessory and follow cart. Haven't seen anything that I like in this realm, so it's a good project. I've got lots of time thanks to the WGA strike, and several carts to steal parts from in the garage. It will be a recycle project as well... More to come.

~pwp

strike movement??

A couple of things have happened in the last days that show some positive movement in the continuing WGA strike. First, welcome to the Directors. It seems the DGA is not thrilled with the continued effect the strike is having on it's members, and has chosen to begin its negotiations in January regardless of the status of the WGA situation. This has the effect of saying, "the directors have arrived". If a deal is sealed by the DGA for it's upcoming contract negotiations, the pressure will surely increase dramatically for the WGA to follow suit. The next thing that has so many talking is the Late Night hosts have decided to return to the small screen in January regardless of the WGA strike efforts. This shows the support for the strike has eroded in some circles, specifically all those NOT part of Worldwide Pants (The Letterman owned production company). WWP has lined up an interim deal with the WGA to allow his writers to return to work. The other shows, Leno/O'Brian/Kimmel, all will be without WGA support at this time. The ratings have sloped to all time lows, and their long term future is apparently in jeapordy. I guess this would be the only reason to return while the strike is still on.

The best source for strike information, Deadline Hollywood Daily. I don't always agree with Nikki, but she gets all the info and lays it out there. She's totally on top of it, and she's the new industry trade as far as I'm concerned.

http://www.deadlinehollywooddaily.com/

Please negotiate

The arrogance of the negotiating teams for the WGA and AMPTP is astounding. As I sit, almost all of my friends in the business of Television and Film Production have lost their jobs. A select few have found jobs on features that will carry them through the holidays, and perhaps the toughest part of the strike. The ripple effect is being felt throughout the community. My next door neighbor has seen a decline in business at his work place. There have been lay offs at restaurants around the studio sites due to no lunch and dinner crowds. Crew folk like myself are not shopping for the holidays. Charitable donations have all but ceased, food banks and toy drives are empty.

All this is from the greed of a very select few people who already stand to make a very good living from their job of choice, even with the previous contract. The new one, even if it's the one the the AMPTP would like to see, will certainly show some sort of increase in the average income of the ABOVE average salaries.

It's very true that many, if not most of the writers in the WGA do not make a substantial living from their efforts. The large part of the income is garnered by a select few individuals who have had the fortune of writing successful projects. But I must stress an earlier point...it is a job of choice. No one is holding anyone down and forcing them to be a writer. For most, it is a vocation of passion, and art. And with any luck, you can make a buck.

But now...the entire industry is being held hostage by the negotiating team of the WGA. Pull yourselves together and go back to the table. Clean slate...no demands. Negotiating is not about demands, it's about give and take. Start over from the beginning and save our jobs.

Just my opinion....

~pwp

Jericho air date - 2/12

We have an air date! Season 2 of Jericho will begin on February 12 at 10pm. Our lead in show will be a new season of Big Brother.

The WGA strike has effectively shut down the fall season of TV shows. Nearly all shows have shut down, or are in the process of doing so at this point. It looks like a bleak holiday season if you are in our business. Since the talks have broken down, support for the striking writers is becoming more fragile. I expect that support to erode substantially as we head through the holidays. My hopes are high for a good WGA contract, but the price for that contract seems to be the jobs of so many.

It's up to the Jericho Rangers now. Get the word out. Let's get the viewers in front of the TV's. The ratings are more important now than ever. It's a whole new ball game to get a season 3.

~PWP

Swingtown...down for the strike

This past Tuesday was our last day of photography due to the current dispute between the AMPTP and the WGA. We had high hopes of continuing production, but we were cut short due to lack of prepared scripts. At lunch on Tuesday, lay off letters were issued to each crew member. We knew it was coming, but I've never actually received an official lay off letter. That's a first.

This coming Monday, November 26, the two sides have reported that they will begin negotiations again. Many things could happen, so I will reserve my predictions. My hopes however, are the swift end to this strike, a compromise and agreement to return back to work. Thousands will suffer the consequences of this strike this holiday season, which is tough already due to the economy.

I hope everyone had a safe and happy Thanksgiving holiday. Cross your fingers and lets send good wishes to the negotiators, in hopes that an agreement will be made.

~PWP

A short ending

We are now mid way through shooting episode 103 of Swingtown, and due to the current WGA writers strike we will be shutting down production next week. We got off to a pretty good start, but alas...the disagreement between the studios and the writers will put a quick end to our production schedule. This will put some 140 or more of us out of work.

Let's all hope cooler heads will prevail, and the negotiating will begin again. It seems there is no talking at this point...which many of us do not understand. It seems, at least to me, that if you want a contract that you like...you must negotiate to get it. There is so much more at play than I or any of those I work with understand, but now we are out of work because of it. We are now the casualties. Many of us in the industry cannot afford a long lay off, as we do not make the salaries of the executives or the select few writers who make most of the money. We are the working class, the labor, the engine that keeps the shows on the air, in the theaters and I guess now on the web.

Please, lets get back together and hammer out a deal!

~PWP

Pre-Production of Swingtown

We have several phases of production in the film and TV world. Pre-production, everything before the camera starts rolling. Production, everything while the camera is rolling. And Post-production, which is everything after the camera stops rolling. There is actually more, but that's the gist of it all. There is more...but not something I will go into any detail.

Right now, we are less than a week away from beginning production and principal photography of Swingtown. This is a freshman series that will be a mid-season replacement on CBS for the 2007-2008 season. We're looking at a January(ish) start for Swingtown. We don't know the dates or time because we are waiting to see what new shows don't fulfill the networks dream of success.

Pre-production for a me as a sound mixer is a lot of things. Equipment cleaning, updating my gear if possible, meetings, and getting in as much rest as possible since our days will be long. The gear is in pretty dusty and dirty shape after Jericho, so I spent the better part of yesterday cleaning the main recording cart. Today will be the follow and accessory cart. Lots of new wireless to program and label, as I've updated all my transmitters.

Swingtown looks as though I will get a bit of a reprieve from the dusty farms of Jericho. Our new show takes place in Chicago, so it looks like urban locations for the next 5 or more months. I welcome that aspect. The farm was incredibly dusty and difficult on the crew and myself.

I look forward to giving some updates as we start production next week.

Lectro transmitter upgrades

I've wanted to do this for some time now, and with the new SMa mods now available for the smaller SM transmitters it seems now is the time. I'm upgrading all my UM transmitters to the SMa model. It's an expensive transition, but the size, weight and performance benefit makes it a worthwhile expense. The boom rigs will stay as UM's but I am upgrading to the UM450, 1/4 watt version.

I'll report later on the transition.

We start Swingtown at the end of the month, so it's clean up and upgrade time.

~PWP

Wrap on Jericho season 2

That's it! We're done with principal photography on Jericho season 2, all 7 episodes. It was a crazy, long, and emotional last week of filming.

Thank you to everyone at Jericho and CBS for helping us out. And to all the fans for their support and dedication, which is why we came back for more.

It's rest time for me and my crew. We have about a month off before we embark on another project....more on that in another post.

Time to clean all the Jericho dust off of everything....

Tomorrow is the release of the Season 1 box set of Jericho. There is a lot there, behind the scenes, all the episodes, interviews, etc. Go pick it up... Thanks for listening.

~PWP

Mini rig in action

For those sound mixers out there who daily do the bag rig deal, this probably seems like a strange post. However, those of us who primarily spend our days sitting behind our sound carts...this is a pretty big deal. I put together this bag rig as a totally separate recording system for when I have to jump in a car, on an insert vehicle, top of a building, down on the beach...you get the idea. Anywhere the cart is a difficult operation.

These past 2 episodes of Jericho have been really rough and tumble. Lots of difficult locations and situations. I've been able to do these things by having this rig ready to go at any time. I just burn a different sound DVD for these situations. It's working great! Redundant receivers for the mini rig, allow for the seemless transition to my cart when we jump back to normal operations, as we did here. As soon as the dialog was complete in the vehicle...we continued the scene outside.



~PWP

Ep 6 almost in the can...

We are on the last day of photography for episode 6 of Jericho season 2. Scott Peters has been our director for this episode, and done a fine job with so little time to tell a story.

Scott is most known for his work as Writer/Director/Producer of the popular series 4400. Also quite a bit of work on the series The Outer Limits. Don't worry Jericho fans....we haven't jumped the shark and gone to the Aliens did it. But that's a good leap...

We have one episode left before we put the show to bed once again. It will be up to the fans once again.

Buy the DVD box set please. I believe there will be quite a few extras such as commentary, behind the scenes, etc. in the DVD package.

~PWP

Going green - using rechargeable batteries

This season of Jericho I decided to try and cut down on my waste of one use alkaline and lithum batteries. We would go through a bucket of batteries every couple of weeks under normal operation. The wireless transmitters, IFB receivers, sync boxes, TC slates and many other items all use 9 volt and AA batteries. So I have given it a try and I am very pleased with the results.

For 9 volt batteries, I have been using the IPower Lithium Polymer battery system. The batteries seem to last longer than your average alkaline and on par with the lithium single use battery. The accompanying chargers are called smart chargers, due to their conditioning ability of the battery. The battery is drained and charged properly to ensure a longer and more reliable life. There have been a couple of batteries that had strange behavior. Specifically, showing full charge but having absolutely no voltage when metered. When put back on the charger, they still show full charge. Then taken off the charger, they might show max voltage...or not. Apparently the internal circuitry is at fault here, and the battery is no good. I've sent back a couple. These are easy to single out, and I've replaced them. I also had one charger that was quite flakey. It would sometimes light up when a battery was placed on charge, and sometimes not. That one got swapped out too.



The AA batteries are Duracell NiMH 2650mAh batteries, and again have better performance than the comparable AA alkaline battery. The chargers are the Maha MH-C801D eight cell charger. These work very quickly and produce a lot of heat. If you try and grab a battery off the charger right as it's done...you'll get burned. They are really hot!!



We keep 16 9 volts and 32 AA batteries in circulation. I hope to add some more Ipower 9 volts soon, to start using them in all the comteks as well. I've cut down on my disposable battery usage by at least 50% since starting this season. The results have been much better than anticipated.

~PWP

Jericho ep. 5

We are a few days into episode 5 of season 2. Guy Bee is our director for this ep. Guy was our director for "Rogue River" and "Coalition of the Willing" last year. A seasoned veterin of the Jericho family. Very happy to have him for another great, action packed episode.

It's time I did another equipment related post, so tomorrow I'm going to try and put something together about my new rechargeable battery systems. Boring as it may seem, it's part of my world.

~PWP

Jericho season 2.....halfway

This past Friday marked our halfway point in production of season 2. Sadly we have only 7 episodes to film this season, but all of us hope that these will lead to a longer and full season 3 next year.

Friday we were out at the Farm once again. The dust and seemed more than usual...not too sure why. Maybe the water trucks weren't running full steam or something.

Our director for this episode has been Steve Gomer. Steve directed one of our best episodes from last season, "Heart of Winter". At least this episode doesn't have the wind, snow and cold weather we endured for his last season.

Cheers to Jon Turtletaub, Karim Zreik and Dan Shotz for signing their deal with CBS/Paramount for more TV projects in the future.

~PWP

Sunset at Richmond Farm

Here is a photo taken from our set out at Big Sky... aka. Richmond Farm. I think that's our Fire Safety Officer enjoying the sunset.




~PWP

Jericho 2 .... mid week 4

Not too much to report at this time, just wanted to touch base. We've been putting in some long hours...which is pretty normal for TV production these days.

We've spent the better part of the last 2 weeks on stage, which has been welcome since the heat here in So. CA has been pretty intense.

I'll try and have a more detailed update soon.

PWP

interview on Jericho Monster

Here's a link to an interview with me on the blog Jericho Monster:

Thanks...

PWP

Jericho 2 .... End of week 2

It's Friday here on the set of Jericho. We've spent the last couple of days out at the ranch getting dusty. Glad to be back in the air conditioning.

Thank you to all the Rangers and fans who have posted comments and sent shouts through BlogCatalog. It's great to hear from all of you.

The weather is supposed to cool down a little this weekend, and on into next week. That should make our exteriors much easier to handle. It's still better than last season, when the temp got up to 115 out at the mine while we were filming episode 2. That was miserable.

Someone sent me a note asking to give a bit of a Job Description of what I do. I'll start putting that together.

For the sound folks out there... I put the mini-rig together and it's working great. No more dragging the cart into impossible locations or ripping everything apart for insert cars. The mini-rig consists of a Sound Devices 442 and 744T, 3 Lectro 411 receivers, 1 Comtek M216, and an Ambiet Lockit. All powered by a Remote Audio BDS and NP1. Here's a pic:



Hope everyone has a great weekend.

PWP

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

IA 695 meeting and discussions

Went to the quarterly union meeting today and was saddened by the turnout.  We didn't make quorum, so it ending up being an informal gathering.  No business could be conducted.  Though we had lively discussion on a few subjects for over 2 hours.  One interesting thing was a brief mention on the looming contract negotiations between the Producers and the Writers Guild. The possibility of strike being the most feared outcome of those negotiations.  Several members feel that it is all talk and they will come to an agreement, while others are shouting "save your money, we're going down".  I'm trying not to buy into the fear of strike movement at this point, as I see that many productions are going on business as usual.  The fear was that production companies would start to stockpile shows in order to have a backlog of material when and if the strike happens.  In years past, this has created a 'de-facto" strike, as the strike never happened...the backlog of shows caused a long pause in production.  The end result was the same thing, many folks didn't work because of the backlog.  It seems to me that this is not happening this time, which could be good if the parties reach an agreement.  If they go on strike, the whole town will feel the heat.  I for one hope everyone holds their head up and comes to an agreement.

Bag Rigs

I don't really do the run and gun video shoots very often, and the reality gigs are not for me. But occasional documentaries, interviews and the odd day call are interesting for me. I've always had a bag ready for these sort of things, but lately I've wanted to upgrade it to a more useful rig. With the guidance of a few mixers who do this sort of thing on a regular basis, I went for the Petrol PEGZ1 bag rather than the old stand by Porta Brace. The end result was a nice and comfortable bag rig, that can be modified to do whatever I need to do.

In video mode, this rig contains:
Sound Devices 442
2 Lectro 411 receivers
2 Lectro 200 transmitters for camera hop
1 Comtek M216 transmitter
Remote Audio BDS power distribution with NP1
Transmitters, Lav mics and accessories.



My plans are to use this same bag as my mini rig for recording when needed. I will replace the contents of the upper pocket, the receivers and transmitters, with a Sound Devices 744T. This will be my rig for insert cars, tops of buildings, the occasional bus and train type of shots. Anywhere that the cart can't make the trip.

~PWP

Day calls and rechargeables

Starting to get quite a few day calls for coming up. I actually quite like doing commercials and day calls, as it allows me to meet so many more people. Last week it was toy commercials, this week it is dog trainers and 2nd unit on a big feature. We don't start back on Jericho till mid/late July, so it's good to keep the income going.

I'm going to try some rechargeable batteries this coming season. The new iPower Lithium rechargeable systems have been getting good reports. I'm going to try them on my wireless boom and IFB rigs, as well as my standard UM400 belt packs. Not sure what I'm going to do with my SM packs yet. The SM's and my slates use AA's, so I'm doing some more investigation. I'm trying to limit the big footprint of a bunch of plastic battery chargers and wall wart power supplies. I hate that... More reports to come on this.

~PWP

Jericho Lives!

It was amazing. Close to 25 tons of peanuts, endless phone calls and emails to the network. The largest fan and viewer revolt in TV history worked. Jericho will return to CBS sometime this fall season with at least 7 new episodes. The network will watch this VERY closely, so hopefully the fans will turn out. If there is success, perhaps a season 3. A long shot at best, but that's what the show is all about, survival. Cheers to all the fans who stuck with and supported us.

Thank you to www.nutsonline.com

On the work front, some more days of National Treasure 2, Book of Secrets as they are nearing the end of their schedule. 2nd unit is picking up the leftover bits and pieces. I rather enjoy that sort of thing. Lots of stunt work though, waiting around, etc. All good...

~PWP

updates

Been a bit of a slow summer, but things are picking up a bit. Did some 2nd unit work over on National Treasure 2, Book of Secrets, a couple of commercials and the NFL Rookie Premiere for the NFL Network.

The campaign to save Jericho is now called the biggest viewer revolt in television history. Check out www.nutsonline.com to see the up to date pound count of nuts sent to CBS. It's absolutely awesome to see the fan support of our show. We only wish that CBS would acknowlege the fans, but that seems a long shot. Keep this up! They have to listen eventually!

Really feeling the need to get a bigger vehicle to haul all my gear around. Doing the day call routine has required using my GMC Safrari van. I bought the thing way back in '99, when I had a few cases and a small sound cart...my things have changed. If I don't end up on a series for the coming season, I am considering a Sprinter van. I will have more than enough room in the Sprinter, and not have to fold my cart down for load. Not to mention the ability to stand up when I load and unload the equipment. My good friend Frank Menges has tricked out a Sprinter quite well for a sound package...very interesting.

Updated the website yesterday. www.palmeraudio.net It was looking a little old and Windows Front Page like, as that's how it was created. I've since moved over to the Mac camp, and used Freeway Express to quickly create a simple and effective site. Freeway is a really easy program...after the 3 tutorials you can get right down to business.

~PWP

I've been entertaining the idea of putting together a smaller, "mini rig", as a stand alone for insert cars, boats, busses, rooftops, or wherever the main cart can't make it. This would not be a bag rig type of set up, that's something else...and another topic.

This would have to be a mixer, recorder, 2 to 4 wireless receivers, Comtek and Lectro IFB's. Something nice and tight, that could stay built and be ready for use when the main cart is still set up.

Thoughts please...

Thanks to all those who helped me out this season. We had a lot of help both on and off the set. Thanks to Location Sound Corporation and Coffey Sound for their usual support. We had a lot of crew come and go throughout the 9 months, and I really appreciate all of you. We don't know if we are up for a season 2, so cross your fingers.

I'm taking some much needed time off, then getting back in the game. I should be ready for day work and whatever else beginning April 23. My van will be ready for day calls...so there you go.

~PWP

Looks like Zaxcom has figured out the problem with my DEVA, and potentially the problem of many early generation units. The first of the DEVA IV and V units that were shipped with the internal DVD-RAM drive had a 2X drive. The newer media that is available for use is 3X and 5X, with higher speeds on the way. The older drives had problems with the mounting and stability of the newer media speeds. With the install of a new UJ-85J drive, the unmounting and non-responsive drive issues have gone away. I've had the drive back for 3 days now, and things seem to be very stable. I'm running version 3.39.

Let me know if you're having strange DEVA behavior, I might have some insight.

~PWP

Pure sad blogging activity. I'm really bad about this. I promise to try and do better this year...

We've got about a month to go here on Jericho. Winding up the season with a lot of action...

Been having a lot of difficulty with my DEVA lately. The DVD-RAM drive has been very unpredictable and unreliable. Considering this is the method of delivery for the entire system...I consider this to be of great concern. The main problem is that the drive tends to un-mount the DVD-RAM periodically, rendering the drive unresponsive and useless until I power cycle the machine. This has been happening intermittently since I purchased the DEVA, but lately more frequent. Then all of sudden, the drive would not recognize any disk, by any manufacturer, or any speed. The common response from both the vendor and the maker of the machine has been, "it must be the media". I would think that, if the same media didn't work in other machines by other manufacturers, such as the Sound Devices 702T. This is not the case. The media works fine in other systems. I have also spoken with several other mixers who are experiencing the same symptoms and problems. Mine is finally going back to Zaxcom for service...let's hope it doesn't sit on the bench too long.

More to come on this matter...

Got a new console at the end of 2006. I'm now mixing on a Cooper 208D. A beautiful sounding mixing panel. I can't believe I waited so long to change over. I'm running all 10 channels on the DEVA, using the digital outputs for the master tracks and all eight iso tracks are running in analog. So far....so good.

Starting to look for work! Oh my...haven't done that in a while.

~PWP

Ooops, sorry it's been a while. We've been hard at work with the drama/series Jericho. Patrick Martens has taken a break until February, so we have Mike Piortrowski on boom for a while.

I've added some equipment to the cart, mostly enhancing the wireless set up. Just this week I installed an antenna multicoupler that allows my spare wireless units and my Lectro Sixpack to run on one set of antennae. Seems to be working well...I like having my spare units ready for when big scenes require more than 6 wires. This happens daily...

The Sound Devices 702T has new software that allows for simultaneous recording to compact flash and DVD-RAM. I've only had a couple of hiccups in this system, a re-boot has solved the problem. Hopefully new versions of the software will stabilize the process.

I tried the demo version of the MIX12 from Zaxcom and was not impressed with some of the key features. I'm sure this will be a very nice product for some, but not for me. The gain, navigation and lack of inputs and outputs on the main control surface are big issues. If the DEVA has problems or locks up in any way...you can't swap out to anything other than another DEVA. Also, there are no dedicated headphone or IFB feeds, like on every other location mixer. You lose one of the analog outputs for each of these feeds. I found that you needed to run the input trim almost all the way up to get a normal amount of gain that we are used to on the analog panels commonly in use.

After a demo of the Cooper 208D and the Zaxcom Mix12, and careful thought about the Sonosax SX-ST...I have decided on the Cooper 208D. The sound and function of the mixer is unparalleled by anything out there. Purely a subjective comment on my part...I just like the way it sounds.

Here's a pic of the current sound crew on Jericho... Keep watching...please!

Here are three pictures of the sound cart as it lives on the set of Jericho. It's usually quite smokey on the set, so it looks like I'm in a fog...which I am.





Oops, I almost forgot the follow cart. Also known as "the bus"

Yep...late night filming tonight.

We're into episode 6 right now. It's the week of Labor Day, and our season premiere is just 2 weeks away.

Not much to report, except we've been hard at work now for over 9 weeks. We've settled into a pretty good groove, but the days are still long. Pretty much as expected.

Jericho, Wednesday nights starting September 20, 8pm Eastern/Pacific...please watch, thks.

We are a couple of weeks into the season of Jericho. The HD camera systems have gone through a bit of a change, we started with Fiber Optic links....and ditched them after 3 days. The Telecast system that we tried was definitely not ready for film style production. Too many variables and too delicate of a system to operate in the rough and tumble world of episodic television.

I have basically stayed the course, with recording master tracks on my DEVA...sending a mix track only to telecine. Backing that mix track up on a Sound Devices 702T, and burning a DVD-R at the end of every folder change on the DEVA. All DVD-RAM and DVD-R numbers remain consistent. All mix and iso tracks from the DEVA are dumped to an external hard drive, then sent to sound editorial at the end of every episode. Hope that made sense.

We are about halfway done with the second episode and all seems to be working smoothly. ;)

Very busy show, lots of moving around and hectic situations. Very different from my last project, Medium.

Patrick Martens and Jeff Zimmerman are my crew, and working quite well and hard. Doing a great job!

PWP

And the summer hiatus is ..... gone.

I will be starting a new series for CBS this fall, not returning to Medium as earlier reported. My crew and I will be joining the production of Jericho, airing on Wednesday nights. Patrick Martens will be joining me as boom operator and Jeff Zimmerman will be returning as sound utility. We start production on July 19.

Changing a couple of things on the cart, most noteably using a new Sound Devices 702T as my backup machine. The Fostex FR2 will be used for run rigs/special effects/ADR and wild lines. It will be nice to have a totally separate rig for these things, not having to strip anything from the main cart.

I need to post a new picture of the sound cart. I'll try and get that together before we start production. Prep will start right after the July 4th holiday.

I've taken a few weeks off after we wrapped Medium. I'm just now thinking of getting back to it. There are a few new developments to the sound package, but I'll leave those to a later and more lengthy post.

As things stand right now, I'll be heading back to do Season 3 of Medium for NBC. We've been pushed to a mid season show, so our start date is August 2...which is just fine by me. I thought we'd be back at it sooner, but the extra time will allow for some much needed rest.

Patrick Martens will be joining the crew this season as boom operator. Jeff Zimmerman will still be putting up with me as my utility sound tech.

More later...
PWP

Done...and done...

We finished up season 2 of Medium last Thursday night, with a rain scene on stage. Yes, that's saving the best (worst) for last. We made it through, knowing that summer vacation waited at the end of the shot.

I'd like to thank Jeff Norton and Jeff Zimmerman for their tireless work and constant support. They've stuck with it through my constant pressure to deliver the best sound we know how. Everone gets their money's worth...and then some! Also, there were some other players through the season that helped out: George Flores, Mike Piotrowski, Rocky Quiroz, Patrick Martens and Devendra Cleary jumped in when called on. And a big thank you to all those I might have missed...

Who knows what awaits for the next project. Medium has been picked up for another season...we'll just have to see if I'm invited.

Going to make some minor equipment changes, probably just a back-up recorder change. The Sound Devices 7 series HD recorders will have Firewire hosting completed soon. This will allow me to mirror record to DVD-RAM while on the cart, and not have to wait till the end of the day. A big help when the driver is standing there waiting for the sound to go to the lab.