Really sorry it's taken so long to get back to the blog. I've been very busy with the new show, Entourage. It is a very difficult show from a sound view because of the amount of dialog and poor locations. The locations are all Hollywood, Beverly Hills and LA practical locations, with very little stage work. Some of the locations have no sound control what so ever. The show is wall to wall dialog with the 4 principals in almost every scene. My work has been cut out for me!

This past week we spent in Park City, Utah at the Sundance film festival. We shot exteriors on Main St. in Park City for 2 days, then went on top of The Canyons ski resort for a scene with the guys snowboarding. It was quite a trek up the mountain. The gear had to go up in a snow cat, while we took a gondola and a chair lift.

We returned late Friday night and have a 5 am call tomorrow. That's all for now.

Happy New Year to everyone...still not sure if anyone ever reads this. It's New Years Day here in Southern California, and it's not sunny...at all. In fact it looked like rain all day. We're in for another cycle of rain storms over the next week.

Starting to prep for Entourage tomorrow. They have moved the start date to Friday of next week, so I've got to get things going.

This Mac powerbook is really great. I find that I am on it much more than the PC, much more. When I do get on the PC, it just looks bad...I mean ugly. The Mac interface is so much more pleasant, easier on the eyes.

I've gotten into the chat thing so here are my screen names.
For iChat: pwpmixer@mac.com
For Messenger: phil@palmeraudio.net

Let me know when you're online...

Christmas eve here in Southern CA...sunny and 70 degrees today.

Been doing some brainstorming as to how I can get as mobile as possible for the coming show. There are a lot of "doc" type situations, parties, bars, clubs, Sundance, etc. I'll be wearing the soundcart for these situations. Of course they want everything, so I cant go simple.

We finished up Bewitched this past Monday with Nellie the elephant. Thanks to David Macmillan for bringing me on.

Merry Christmas.

Well, I did it. I've got a new 12" powerbook. Not sure what took me so long, this thing is great.

Merry Christmas to me...

Just when I thought I was off for the holidays... Back on to Bewitched for some 2nd unit. They are trying to complete photography by the Christmas break, with a lots to do.

K's out of town, just me and Ollie here. Christmas shopping to do.

Fighting off the urge to buy a 12" powerbook. :)

Done with Medium. It was a great show to work on and I'll miss the crew very much. We wrapped for the holidays last Friday, or should I say...very early Saturday morning.

I've already started preparing for Entourage. It is going to be quite a hustle, as I understand it. I'll be in documentary mode for quite a bit...I hope not too much. The problem these days, is that they want all the extras while in doc mode...ears, wires, etc. That means a lot of stuff in the bag.

Looking forward to the holidays. Kathy will be heading to Dallas next week for a farewell/Christmas party for TXCN, her former employer. I'll be hanging around the house...resting. Hopefully catching up on some reading. Oliver will be close by...as usual.

We took a bit of Thanksgiving break from Medium. Though I spent a few days of it working on Bewitched for David Macmillan. David was out ill...best wishes to him.

We are finishing up one more episode before the Christmas holiday break. The original schedule was to have us finish the season at the end of December, but we've gone over by a few weeks. I'll be moving on to do another project in January.

January will be the beginning of Season 2 of Entourage for HBO. Both Jeff Norton and Jeff Zimmerman will be helping me out on this one. We have a 14 show order, so we should be shooting till the end of March or so.

The new DEVA Vis working nicely, but with a few bugs. I would really like for it to at least do everything the DEVA 2 did...but that's not so yet. Whatever...

Been looking through a lot of blogs lately. I'm quite fond of a few...you should sifting through them. Mush more interesting than plain old websites...

I took delivery this past week of my new DEVA V hard disk recorder. There was a bit of frustration in the beginning having to do with the post facility not able to read the disks. This issue has now been cleared up and I'm hot to go. I've been using both the DEVA II and V all week, stacked together on the cart. Friday was the first day of DEVA V only. At this point I am very pleased with the improvements over the II and even now it would be hard to go back. As long as what I deliver to post production works, I've got a machine that I like. I'll still be running a DAT backup for some time to come however.

I'll add pictures to the website later in the week...

I've been on Medium now for the past 2 weeks and all is going very well. Not too bad on the hours, though we had a couple of long days this past week. We begin episode 10 this week with 13 total to shoot.

A big thanks to Kim Ornitz for passing the job over to me. He has gone on to do a show in India for the next couple of months.

I loaded my gear on the Camera Truck this past Friday. The show is Medium, and Jeff Norton and Damon Cleary will be helping me out as boom operators. Damon has been doing the show all season, so his help with the changeover is essential. I'm very lucky to have a great crew.

No new additions to the equipment package for this project, but the new DEVA is on the way.

Just an update... I'll be finishing up the season of "Medium" beginning October 25. Kim Ornitz has mixed the first 8 episodes and will be leaving for another project. They have been picked up for 13 episodes, so it will take me to Christmas. I'll get more information this coming week...

Still quite busy with day calls. Some interviews lined up, nothing definate yet...except for The Entourage in January. I think I was on a different project every day this past week. The Tonight Show has got to be TV heaven. The entire crew was great. I would love to work that show again. The Bush impersonator/interviews were hilarious, I couldn't even look at the guy...

Considering changing the cart around again, no shock there. It's always a work in progress for me.

Okay, it's been a couple of weeks...and pretty busy. Lots of day calls, both TV and reality television. I spent the weekend down in Del Mar with a Bravo show about Dog Show People. After many days of wearing my ENG rig, I've come to the conclusion that I need to think about a lighter rig. My back is killing me! These reality shows never stop shooting...for hours I have to wear the rig. I am considering going to the smaller, and lighter SD302 for when it's only a boom and 2 wires, which is most of the time.

My PSC M4mkII is starting to freak out...yet again. I really think this was a poor mixer from them. So many other companies have come out with better machines, and for the same price range. It's just too unpredictable. The headroom just isn't right.

I'm hoping to hear about some work before the Entourage starts in January. I'd really like to do something in between then and now.

Considerign going back to the verticle cart...from the Magliner. Any thoughts???

Been quite busy with day calls this past 2 weeks. I thought it would be slow, but I was wrong. Just did some openers for Monday Night Football today. Next week is shaping up as well.

I think all is set for Entourage season 2. Thanks to Mark Greenberg for bringing me on board. We start in January.

I got to visit my friend Craig Woods on the set of Bernie Mac today. He's been mixing that show for all 4 years now. We shot some promos for Mr. 3000 with Bernie and Angela Bassett. Pretty much 5 hours of waiting for 20 minutes of shooting.

Filming dog stuff this weekend, music videos next week and car racing next weekend...

Good news. I've been asked to mix season 2 of Entourage for HBO. Sadly we don't start till January, so I still have to find some work. The pressure is releaved a bit however. :)

It looks like a funny show. I've wanted to do a comedy for some time.

It's Labor Day here in the USA, a holiday. I've got a few things planned for the next week, interviews and re-packing the gear for days calls. This past week was spent mostly decompressing from the last show. It takes a few days to get the sleep patterns back in order, whatever that is.

On Friday I put my name on the list for a new DEVA 5. I've been waiting for the bugs to get worked out, and the waiting list seems long enough that I will get mine after many are figured out. It will probably be around 2 months before I see my new machine. All that being said, I can't wait now that I've commited. The Yamaha digital mixer is probably on hold for me now...the DEVA will do all the digital patching that I need. If all goes well with the DEVA V, I might go for the control surface when it comes out.

Still wondering if anyone actually reads this blog. If so, please post a comment...

Thanks!

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...