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.