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The Way We Were: Adventures in Film Sound

The year is 1938. You’re on Stage 20 at the Twentieth Century Fox lot. It’s 11:45 at night, and you’ve been shooting for 13½ hours.

“Turnover please!” yells the 1st AD.

 
You signal the machine room operator to roll, waiting for the red light on your mixer panel. Four seconds later, you call out, “speed!” “Mark it,” says the 1st assistant cameraman. The 2nd assistant claps the sticks. “Background” calls the 1st AD, and, from the director; “Action!”

A 2½-minute take ensues. One of the actors goes up his lines for the third time. “Cut!, Cut!, Cut!” yells the director. He walks up to the offending actor and whispers to him, “Wayne, did you really read these lines last night, or were you and Marion out carousing together?” Red-faced, Wayne turns away, and says, “I’ll get it in this take, I promise.”

You pick up the interphone and call Bert, the Machine Room Operator, “How much we have left?” “Three hundred feet,” he replies. You calculate the odds. If they run straight through again, you’ll be fine. On the other hand, if the director decides to pick up again mid-take, you’re screwed. It’s 11:45 at night and the crew is fifteen minutes away from a very expensive night premium. Do you want to go for it, or risk the wrath of the 1st AD for a two-minute reload? He looks at you. The daggers are already in his eyes. “Good to go!” you say, with no small amount of conviction.

And again, “Turnover!” “Speed!” you yell out. “Marker!” calls the second assistant cameraman. You curse him for taking an extra two seconds. What a prima donna… You didn’t even have a chance to ask the script supervisor how long the last take ran. “Background!” and “Action!” The scene ensues. You don’t have a stopwatch. You’re sweating bullets, as the important part of the scene happens in the last thirty seconds, a pivotal moment between the lead actor and actress, which signals a significant change in the storyline. It’s a one-take shot. If you don’t get this, you’re screwed.

“Marion,” calls out the director. “Pick it up at ‘the last time you said that to me, I said no.’” You can’t see her because she’s hidden behind a set flat, but you hear her voice draw up tightly with a hint of exasperation. “OK,” she says softly.

“And … action!” They nail it. Dead on. There’s a moment at the end of the scene which can’t be recreated, which is the moment you know the director was looking for. Despite the fact you couldn’t see them, you know from their voices it was a good performance. The 1st AD looks at you inquiringly. He doesn’t say a word, but you know what he’s thinking. You give him a “thumbs up,” despite the fact you haven’t heard from the machine room operator. You pick up the interphone immediately. A short pause while it rings, and you say to Bert, “Please tell me we got that, or we’re both out of a job.” “Your job is safe,” he replies, “we had thirty feet left.” “That’s a good thing, for both of us” you reply, with a hint of relief. “Better load another one thousand of ’66. I’m not going to chance the last thirteen minutes of the night to this jerk.”

You get on the com to the boom op. “Larry, I think we should swap out for the 10001.” He responds, “OK, but it will take a few minutes. I’ll need to re-balance the weight box.” You calculate the odds. Is it worth it to incur the wrath of the 1st for a somewhat better track, or live with what you have. Camera is reloading. “Do it,” you tell Larry, “and you better be fast,” praying he’s faster than the 1st assistant cameraman.

You look out the back door of your truck. It’s getting cold out. “Pete,” you call out, “if you smoke one more of those cigarettes, you’re going to blow us all up.” He gives you a look, rolling his eyes. “Really?” he says. “I’ve been doing this for eight years now.” “Whatever” you think. “Before that, you were a night-shift transmitter operator. Big friggen deal…” “Oh, and while you’re out there, coil up the rest of the Selsyn cable.”

What the hell are these guys talking about?

The term “load another one thousand of ’66” refers a 1000-foot load of Eastman Kodak 1366, a highly volatile 35mm nitrate negative stock. Hence, the admonishment to Pete regarding smoking. One spark and the truck blows up. “Truck?” you think. Yes, that’s what was used back then. Unless you were on a stage. Weight box? The counterweight used to balance the mic boom, which has to be changed based on the weight of the microphone. “Selsyn cable” was the cable used to interlock the sound recorder and camera together.

Over the past eighty-eight years, the technology and set practices for sound recording have changed significantly. Soundtracks were not recorded on digital files in 1938. They were not using high quality condenser mics. The term “10001” refers to the venerable RCA KU-3A (also known as the MI-10001, a highly sought-after ribbon mic). There were no iso tracks. If you didn’t have it in the mix, then there was no other resort. They didn’t have sophisticated multi-channel mixers. What they had was one channel of optical sound, a four-channel mixer, and hopes that they could figure out the scene in enough time to get it right, or be replaced the next day.

These are some of the themes that we will explore in the column “The Way We Were: Adventures in Film Sound.” Stay tuned…

–Scott D. Smith CAS

Remembering CHINHDA 1954-2018

by David Waelder

Chinhda Khommarath was the most imaginative, creative, technically-savvy, generous, exasperating, shy, opinionated and mercurial individual I’ve known. It was a love of fast motorcycles and rock-and-roll that brought him to our community. 

I met him twenty years ago when I sought someone to make custom alterations to my sound cart. There’s not a crowded field of skilled machinists willing to take on cockamamie projects so I was keenly interested when both Neil Stone and Mike Denecke recommended Chinhda right away. Mike gave the project a boost when he took me in hand and personally introduced me. Chinhda hated meeting with clients but he had an especially close relationship with Mike, who used to bring him along as his boom operator when he was, at that time, still doing commercials. Without Mike vouching for me, Chinhda might not even have met with me.   

Peter Weibel of KEM Editing Systems was Chinhda’s first employer in California. The KEM was a marvelous but sometimes temperamental beast and Peter needed a service technician. He asked a teacher at the Los Angeles Tradetech to send his best student. Chinhda showed up, was hired, set up a machine shop and serviced KEM editing tables throughout the west for many years. Peter said his work consistently exceeded expectations. After Peter moved on to other endeavors, Chinhda continued to service KEMs as an independent technician and set up a company with Joe D’Augustine to rent Avid systems. He also mixed One Night with You for Joe D’Augustine. Over time, Chinhda became a part of the small film community that settled into an industrial corner of North Hollywood not far from the current Local 695 offices. Mike Denecke, Manfred Klemme, Ray Cymoszinski and Neil Stone would get together often for lunch, an Algonquin Club for movie engineers.

Chinhda’s work for me also exceeded my expectations. He haunted the aero surplus shops, especially Joe Factor Sales, to find specialty latches and instrument shock mounts to provide protection for the equipment. When I picked up my cart, I mentioned that I thought there was a market for a cart purpose-built to production needs. He nodded and we parted.

Mike Denecke “Father Time,” also a Local 695 Production Sound Mixer, designed and manufactured the first practical timecode slate. He is profiled in the Fall 2009 issue of the 695 Quarterly. [Fall 2009 – Volume 1 – Issue 3 – PDF]
Manfred Klemme At various times, Manfred Klemme was a representative for Cinema Products, Nagra and Sonosax. He assisted Mike Denecke in the development of the timecode slate. Later, with Mike’s encouragement, he established K-Tek as a supplier of boom poles and other professional audio tools.
Ray Cymoszinski Ray Cymoszinski was a Local 695 Sound Mixer working primarily in television. His credits included Everybody Hates Chris, Columbo, Turks and Crime Story. He was also a skilled electrical engineer and designed a portable battery system that Chinhda supplied to local outlets like Location Sound and Coffey Sound.
Neil Stone An independent service technician, Neil developed a timecode conversion for the Nagra 4.2.

More than three years later, Chinhda called and said, “I’m ready.” We developed the design together but, as we worked, it became clear that he had already given the project considerable thought. He had previously built a cart for Mike Denecke and, later, a special cart for Peter Weibel to showcase the Nagra D. My role in the design was secondary. Every piece in that first cart was crafted by hand. Chinhda took great care to make every surface smooth and every corner rounded so that each touch would bring tactile pleasure.

He had a remarkable ability to see transformative shapes in ordinary objects. An I-beam could be milled to yield a mounting bracket for a recorder; tubing, both round and square, might be cut to produce folding handles and other elements that made the product both attractive and useful. Elegance always had a purpose: folding trays expanded the workstation; gear was securely affixed by custom brackets; crabbing wheels in follow carts permitted straddling the wheel hump in a crowded camera truck. And, his creative energies were not restricted to carts; he also made, from scratch, a portable telecine machine for projects that wanted to shoot film, screen dailies, but also cut on computer.

This perfection presented its own challenges. As features were added to the carts, the cost rose until we were charging $10,000 each but making very little money even though we sold every cart Chinhda could make. His fertile imagination prevented him from locking down designs so we were never able to have components outsourced to CNC fabrication. Everything he made was milled on a Bridgeport with Chinhda moving the work table against the cutting bit by hand. And everything was crafted exquisitely. Creating those parts was his special pleasure.

His engineering genius was largely self-taught but he did have some instruction in mechanics and electrics. He told me that, while just a teenager in Laos, he took classes in applied arts and worked part time to repair vehicles damaged by wartime service in Vietnam. But it was the draw of motorcycles that brought him to California. Schoolwork assignments did not bring in enough money to buy fast bikes, but smuggling in a war zone was profitable. Inevitably, this led to a reckoning and police arrived with questions. His mother knew immediately what had to be done—she sent the police on their way and locked Chinhda into his room until she could arrange passage to California where he might join his brother. He was on a plane just two days later.

He joined his brother in mechanical engineering classes that, through the instructor’s friendship, brought him to Peter Weibel and motion picture editing. His youthful passions stayed with him throughout his life. He collected guitars and played in a band. While, as an adult, he no longer rode bikes, many of his friends were sure that he would kill himself on that wicked fast Ducati that occupied the front of his shop for more than a year. Wisely, he never took it out.

Chinhda had strong family connections, as one might expect from someone shanghaied into safety by his mother. He never failed to ask about my son. He was close to his brothers and took special pride in his nephews, who formed the core of the technical workforce in early days at K-Tek. He complained bitterly about how Manfred poached them, but you could tell he was proud. He was proudest of the accomplishments of his daughter Kathy, who studied law, gave him a grandchild and now works as an immigration attorney.

He lost his wife K.K. to cancer a few years ago and he yearned to be reunited with her. We wish them both good karma.

Chinhda Clients

The list of lives he touched, either from the sale of products or other work, is extensive. Cart and accessory clients include Coleman Metts, Glenn Berkovitz, Mark Ulano, Mike Guarino, Michael Barosky, Duke Marsh, Geoff Maxwell, Jan McLaughlin, Eric Rueff, Tom Visser, Mark Weber, Steve Tibbo, Noah Timan, Simon Bishop, Mike Sexton, Tom Stasinis, Walt Hoylman, Cloud Wang, Matt Israel, Adam Jones, Ao Loo, Ludvik Bohadlo, Henry Embry, Christoph Schilling, Caleb Mose, Susan Moore-Chong, Peter Kurland, Chris Duesterdiek, Von Varga, Paul Ledford, Edward Tise and Jeff Jones.

(Apologies to anyone omitted.) Besides the USA, countries represented include China, Poland, England, Germany and Canada.

Names in boldface are members of Local 695; italicized names are believed to be IATSE members in their respective regions. Names in plain type are from outside IATSE membership jurisdiction but are often trade unionists in their respective countries.

Introducing ProRes RAW

by James Delhauer

In ProRes RAW, Apple seemingly hopes to introduce a new standard that blends the ease of use of the original ProRes family with the post-production flexibility of a RAW file format. In short, this will give ProRes users the capability of accessing information directly from a camera’s sensor during the intermediate and editorial processes.

Though technology in our industry is an ever-evolving force, there are some constants that we have come to rely upon. In 2007, Apple unveiled the ProRes family of video codecs—a series of lossy video compression intermediate formats intended for use with the company’s Final Cut Studio bundle of post-production applications. The core concept was to introduce an easy-to-use, processor-efficient file type that editors could work with quickly while maintaining a high standard of image quality. The result was a “visually lossless” intermediate codec that celluloid film scans and larger digital files alike could be converted to for the purpose of real-time playback editing in a nonlinear environment. With a wide variety of future-thinking features such as 8K video resolution support, 10-bit sampling depth and variable bitrate encoding, the original four ProRes codecs quickly outshined their predecessor—the simply named Apple Intermediate Codec—and rivaled the capabilities of Apple’s main competitor: Avid Technology’s DNxHD. In 2009, the addition of two new ProRes formats increased these capabilities to 12-bit sampling depth at higher bitrates, making the codec that much more versatile.   
 
Though initially intended for sole use with Apple’s suite of proprietary software, ProRes grew far beyond its original intended purpose. Recognizing the value and efficiency of a high-quality but low-size intermediate codec, other companies began licensing ProRes for use in their own platforms. Adobe Systems quickly integrated it into their Premiere Pro, Media Encoder and After Effects applications—direct competitors to Apple’s Final Cut Pro, Compressor and Motion platforms. Avid Technology, despite having its own intermediate format, added ProRes support into Media Composer—the application that has been the industry standard for nonlinear editing since its release in 1989.  
 
In the last decade, almost the whole industry has followed suit. ProRes has become an integral part of daily life for those of us who work in cinema and television. Platforms critical to Local 695 video engineers such as Pronology’s mRes, AJA’s KiPros, EVS’s XT3, In2Core’s Qtake, Atomos recorders, Adobe System’s Media Encoder and Blackmagic Design’s DaVinci Resolve, all offer ProRes encoding and decoding as a standard feature. More and more camera systems that we provide data management services for offer it as a native capture format. In my personal experience on more than two dozen broadcast series, ProRes has been the preferred format on the majority of them. My experience in this regard hardly deviates from the norm.
 
And that is why it was so exciting when a new version of ProRes was announced at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) trade show in Las Vegas in April. Released as part of a joint venture between Apple and Atomos, ProRes RAW hopes to bridge the gap between convenient, easy-to-edit lossy compression formats and their larger, more robust lossless counterparts. A RAW file format is one that contains unprocessed or minimally processed data directly from a digital image sensor. These formats typically result in video files that are untenably large and, in most cases, are too dense for real-time playback or processing without expensive top-of-the-line workstation computers. This sort of compression has been restricted to edit-unfriendly non-intermediary codecs, such as the proprietary formats developed by Red and Arri or the more widely available but processor- and storage-intensive CinemaDNG format. Apple, it would appear, has taken aim to change that.

In ProRes RAW, Apple seemingly hopes to introduce a new standard that blends the ease of use of the original ProRes family with the post-production flexibility of a RAW file format. In short, this will give ProRes users the capability of accessing information directly from a camera’s sensor during the intermediate and editorial processes. This information includes the sensor’s white balance, color tinting, ISO and dynamic range up to 12RGB bits and sixteen alpha bits. The result is more mainstream access to expensive high dynamic range technology—a process by which multiple exposures can be blended into a single image to maximize both highlight and shadow detail. Moreover, resolution support has been increased to beyond 8K, though the current cap has not been specified by either Apple or Atomos.

Somewhat astoundingly, this has all been done without a significant increase in file size over existing ProRes formats. At release, ProRes RAW comes in two distinct flavors. The first, simply called “ProRes RAW,” is comparable in file size to the original ProRes 422 HQ with a variable bitrate that averages approximately 220mbps at a resolution 1080p with a frame rate of thirty frames per second. The second, entitled “ProRes RAW HQ,” is similar in size to the existing ProRes 4444 XQ at an average bitrate of 500mbps at 1080p30. By patterning these new formats on the two most popular variants of the original ProRes family, it appears that Apple plans to integrate this new technology in a manner that is as un-invasive as possible so as not to disturb users during rollout. As companies adopt ProRes RAW into their platforms, the original line of ProRes products will likely be phased out as obsolete and unnecessary.

In practical terms, this could result in major cost saving and increased time efficiency across the industry. With regards to Local 695 specifically, the various responsibilities of a video engineer or technician include media playback, on-set chroma keying, off-camera recording, copying files from camera media to external storage devices, backup and redundancy creation, transcoding with or without previously created LUTs, quality control, and syncing and recording copies for the purpose of dailies creation. This often requires both high-end workstation computers with large amounts of both processing power and graphics memory, as well as large storage solutions with high-speed media. These tools are expensive, with an introductory iMac Pro (Apple’s current professional level workstation) costing $4,999. A fully upgraded machine can cost a user upward of $13,000. While this may seem excessive, that sort of computational power is often a necessity as feature films standardize 4K productions and push beyond to 6K and 8K workflows—especially for live chroma keying or compositing. Storage costs are not cheap either, with a single use 4tb shuttle drive costing productions around $170 on the low end. But if widely adopted, ProRes RAW could make the inevitable days of higher resolution productions more manageable for engineers at a fraction of the cost. By allowing productions to maintain levels of quality with smaller and less demanding files, ProRes RAW could reduce these costs all around.

It also has the power to simplify and streamline our workflows. A common complaint from producers and engineers alike over the last few years has been the non-standardization of ingest formats in cinema-grade cameras. At present, a video engineer is required to be familiar with just about every file format and codec out there. On feature productions, commercials and high-budget television series, it is not uncommon to juggle REDCODE RAW, ArriRAW and CinemaDNG files in a given day. Each of these require their own unique workflow in order to process clips for editorial so that they will be ready for use and offline to online editing at the end of post production and to create dailies for producers. We are required to be intimately familiar with each workflow and seamlessly move from one to the next during the course of a single day. The widespread adoption of ProRes RAW could be the standardization of RAW video that we have been waiting for, allowing engineers to work via a single workflow in any given day rather than bouncing back-and-forth between two or three separate ones.

Currently, ProRes RAW can only be captured through external recorders manufactured by Atomos. Officially, the Atomos Ninja V external HDMI monitor/recorder was the first system to allow ingest of ProRes RAW files in cameras manufactured by Canon, Sony and Panasonic but a firmware update was released the following day that granted these same capabilities to the Shogun Inferno and Sumo19 recorders as well. These recorders are capable of ingesting the new format at a resolution of DCI 4K (4096 x 2160) at sixty frames per second. DJI then announced that their Zenmuse x7 camera would receive a firmware update allowing it to capture ProRes RAW at a resolution of 6016 x 3200 at 23.976 frames per second. On the post-production end, the new codecs are currently only supported for use in Apple’s Final Cut Pro X platform, version 10.4.1 or higher.

That didn’t stop the whole of NAB from asking about the future of this new codec. Representatives from BlackMagic Design, Adobe Systems, AJA, EVS and Canon Inc. were all flooded with inquiries as to when users could expect ProRes RAW support in their systems. However, Adobe Systems’ Senior Product Manager Patrick Palmer quickly put out a simple statement on the company’s forum: “We’re looking into adding support for ProRes RAW as we speak.” Excitement spread like wildfire throughout the week as everyone from feature filmmakers to video enthusiasts and YouTubers clamored to find out more. There seemed to be an unspoken consensus in the air throughout the Las Vegas Convention Center. The next big thing might have just arrived.

24frame.com

by Richard Lightstone and Mark Ulano

Before there was green screen, there was blue screen, but well before computer graphics, there was rear projection. The Fox Film Corporation in 1930, on the film Liliom, directed by Frank Borzage, first used it.

The best example would be Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest (MGM 1959). The iconic scene of Cary Grant running for his life as a crop-duster attempts to mow him down.

The bulk of that scene was shot on location in Bakersfield with Cary running well ahead of the low-flying crop-duster. The most dramatic shot was him diving into a ditch to save himself from the swooping aircraft. That cut was shot on an MGM soundstage, with Cary diving into a set-built ditch and the crop-duster images being rear-projected. Robert Chartier and his company, 24frame.com, have advanced this technique into an even more efficient process. They were invited to enter and demo their process to the Academy Scientific & Technical Awards Committee for the 2018, 90th Oscars.

Mark Ulano CAS AMPS and I paid him a visit at their massive facility just off of Venice Boulevard in downtown Los Angeles.

We’ve all been involved on insert car work with a process trailer. A time-consuming procedure involving street closures, motorcycle police, safety officers, film permits, stunt drivers and logistics that hopefully, are well coordinated as many lives are at risk.

Robert’s company removes all those potential obstacles by rear-projecting multiple screens surrounding the picture vehicle with made-to-order in sync footage of the street scenes in the safety and comfort of an air-conditioned soundstage.

Robert Chartier first conceived this process in 1994, using Sony 1080i projectors at eighteen hundred lumens with a DLP engine from Texas Instruments. On a project with Director of Photography Gale Tattersall, Robert did video playback of some plates in the windows of the vehicle, but it could only be night shots with the streetlamps going by.

The technique advanced when Christie Digital came out with their 18K projectors. Robert describes his vision: “Basically, the cameras got better, everything’s gotten better, we’ve changed the equipment over and over and over to try to do it right. Then I opted to build our own capture van that had all this equipment in it. Currently, we are using Christie Digital projectors stacked up to fifty thousand lumens.”

Chartier continues, “We are deck operators and we always record everything on decks and that’s for protection but it’s also the fact that we are playback operators and we will play it back on stage, live, all in sync, using four to five projectors at once with five screens.”

They’ll often get a call from a producer or a DP with a script that has car scenes and they are looking for a better alternative then a process trailer or just green screen.

Robert explains, “They can manipulate the lighting, they have all the time in the world to do what they do as DPs. It’s a controlled environment. Safe, visually accurate, with no location permits, police, process trailers, insert cars. This is still cheaper than doing it any other way.”

24frame.com can go out and shoot custom plates for that project or the client can select from Chartier’s vast library with thousands of hours of footage and multiple angles. Choosing the exact footage and location they want for live playback on stage.

If the client needs specific plates, they’ll go out in one of their three proprietary capture vehicles and Aashish Gandhi, a dual card holder of Local 695 & Local 600, their staff cameraperson, will man the cameras.

They recently were in Seattle for the new Shonda Rhimes show Station 19 and captured images with seventeen cameras. The entire series is shot in Los Angeles.

“All our footage is in sync, when we show up on the set, we get all the reflections, we get everything going for you,” says Robert. “We become the DP’s best friend with everything we offer. Our Video Engineers do full-color corrections on the fly. We have designed everything to capture an image that will size correctly when we project it. The capture vehicles are built for specific functions that mimic the picture car we are capturing for, whether it is a fire truck, ambulance, bus or passenger car. We come to the stage and all the math and all the physics are correct.”

Recently, Mr. Chartier got a call from an executive post producer at Disney who was about to start a film with a cast of young children with lots of driving sequences.

She was concerned about using a large amount of green screen and then have to figure out later what angle the DP shot through the car to try to get that correct plate.
 
They brought a busload of Disney executives to 24frame.com and Robert showed them the demo and, right then and there they said, “This is how we’re doing it.”

When Steve Carell walked on the set, he said, “My God, now we’re making movies. This is what movies are all about. On Little Miss Sunshine, we were stuck in the desert for three days filming the Volkswagen van and, God, did we, need this.” The capture vehicles record to SSD drives but everything is backed up to multiple rotary drives.  All of the footage is owned by 24frame.com and becomes part of their vast location library.

Robert Chartier: “It’s on a 100TB server and they can view through the web and access the actual files. Some of our plates are twenty-two-minutes long. They can choose the segment and then our coordinator will make sure that they have the plates requested on the set. We always have the shot before and the shot after, so, if the director or DP doesn’t like the bus pass-by in the shot, we shift forward, they can queue up and re-queue and do anything they want, all live on the set. They can ask for a red Corvette, PCH, dusk, dawn, day or night and if we have it, it’s gonna come up all on a searchable database.” A commercial agency from Mexico brought the cast up to LA and shot it on their stage, instead of Mexico City.

Chartier explains, “We provide motion lighting with LED panels in sync with the projected video to reflect onto the vehicle. Because it’s live video, we can pump it into the car, onto the actor’s face, if they go under trees, you see it, if it’s under a bridge, etc.”

Aashish continues, “Because we start every scene from the top of the clip, when the camera turns around for coverage, you still have the same environment. The lighting is consistent from the left or the right, front or back. You have the same truck pass-bys, tree branches and shadows. It’s perfect for any angle you shoot.”

They essentially bring the location to Los Angeles. For the production of Wolves, they drove the capture van to Davenport, Iowa, for two days bringing the footage back and the production shot all the scene here, saving a lot of money and not having to bring an entire cast and crew to Davenport. A train set was built on their stage for The Newsroom, projecting their plates for two days. “It was a lot of work with three cameras, wide and tight angles, handheld, with the actors walking around the train,” explains Hayk Margaryan.

For Curb Your Enthusiasm, they brought a bus onto stage for some driving scenes. Brian Wright describes, “I remember at one point, the effect was so realistic that you could see grips, gaffers, everyone leaning into the turn, but the bus was not moving. It was so interesting to see that.”

Robert continues, “We’ve had complete productions shoot their show here, ten episodes in eight days; it’s all done indoors. They could not have done it in twenty days outside, apart from heat exhaustion and everything that comes with it.”

Hayk Margaryan concludes, “You know, it makes it easier for the crew and the cast to be in a  ontrolled environment, to be in an air-conditioned place, have a place to sit, wait until they relight and then just walk back into the vehicle. You don’t need to drive, it’s safe and a completely controllable situation.”

We want to thank Robert Chartier, Hayk Margaryan, Pacific Winter, Aashish Gandhi, Brian Wright and Jim McDonald for their time and hospitality on a busy day at their facility.

Robert Chartier and his team are pioneers in the video engineering discipline and proud members of Local 695.

Occupied Land

Production sound joins an ensemble effort to realize Director Taylor Sherdian’s cinematic story Yellowstone.

by Daron James

Thomas Curley CAS casually takes a sip of his iced tea while sitting outside a North Hollywood pizzeria. The sun settles behind a scattering of puffy grayish clouds as a breeze wisps by reminding him of the weather conditions sound endured while recording Yellowstone, a 10-episode scripted series from creator Taylor Sheridan, whose written material includes Sicario, Hell or High Water and Wind River, the latter which he also directed.

Curley’s relaxed, approachable demander disguises any of his previous accolades—a career that started out shadowing Sound Mixer David MacMillan, a now CAS Career Achievement Award recipient and Boom Operator Duke Marsh—which has flourished into an Academy Award, AMPS and BAFTA win for his work on the Damien Chazelle-directed Whiplash. The New York native is as humble as they come residing in Los Angeles and building up the appropriately named location sound recording company Curley Sound with his brother Brian Curley.

“This was the biggest show in terms of scale I’ve ever worked on,” says the production sound mixer, who was hired on through a Whiplash connection via First Assistant Director Nick Harvard. With its massive scope, Yellowstone was an “enormous undertaking” in terms of its production. The hour-long series was the first greenlit project from the newly formed Paramount Network, which meant “quality was the top priority.”
 

The allegory follows the Dutton family, led by John Dutton (Kevin Costner), who controls the largest ranch in the U.S. and the people that are trying to take it away from them by any means necessary. Accompanying Costner is Wes Bentley, Kelly Reilly, Luke Grimes and Cole Hauser, who plays his sons and daughters, as well as Gil Birmingham, a local Indian Chief named Thomas Rainwater and Danny Huston as a greedy land developer.

Production shot in parts of Utah and Montana from August to December of last year utilizing the Utah Film Studios in Park City for its studio work. For crew, Curley tapped veteran Boom Operator Knox White and local Utility Andrew Cier. “Production’s hands were tied in terms of spending extra money to bring out a third, but it turned out very well. Andrew came up working with some good people like Sound Mixer Jonathon Stein (The Sandlot). Plus, he knew the local people, the area and the terrain.” Working with White on the other hand was something that was always in the back of Curley’s mind. “I did a day or two with him a while ago, but for most of my career, he was three tiers above me doing James Cameron films. Our stars finally aligned and I brought him out into the woods. He’s a surgeon with the microphone and very endearing,” says Curley. “Better yet, he has stories for days which made the tough days a bit easier.”
 
Curley was flown out for a week before production and engaged with Cinematographer Ben Richardson (Beasts of the Southern Wild, The Chi) to find out “how tough he was going to make it” for them, he jokingly says. “In terms of DPs, Ben really knows technology which is near and dear to myself. He made a really good recommendation that turned out to be the best money I think I have ever spent.” The suggestion was the Ambient ACN Lockit system for timecode. Curley implemented Ambient Nano Lockit boxes to three ARRI Alexa cameras and one Alexa Mini with the Ambient Master Lockit. “Routing our timecode this way proved it was something I never had to worry about and it also made camera happy.”
 

A production meeting ironed out basic concerns, and for sound, they found out for most part they would be out in the middle of nowhere. Even indoors or inside a house, they would be out in the middle of nowhere. The only big metropolitan stops being locations in Salt Lake City and the small town of Darby, Montana.

Shooting style dictated its own set of challenges as Sheridan directed all the episodes and blocked organically moving through 7-8 pages a day using a three-camera setup. A fourth camera, the Alexa Mini, was stationed on a jib and massaged into the workflow as well. Outdoor sets, which included different areas of the Dutton Ranch, covered hundreds of yards in any direction. Sound had to be ready to cover anything from groups of actors riding on horses often coming from two different directions to following groups of actors traveling uphill, down through valleys and across rivers. Vehicles intermingled with horses, people intermingled with herds of cattle, bison and the occasional grizzly bear.
 
Authenticity was important to the director in order to ground the story and the characters in it. What this meant for crewmembers was turning the whole world around to prepare for the next shot. “Our sets were massive pieces of land so every time we needed to move, we’d often have to push things one hundred yards in another direction over a rocky, hole-filled terrain,” Curley says. Trucks, equipment, crew, video village—everything had to be transported and positioned out of frame. “No one ever felt rushed because everyone was in the same situation. The ADs did a wonderful job handling the logistics to keep the train moving.”
 

Sound and other departments used Gator utility vehicles for mobility and Curley constructed two sound carts for different types of shooting. His main cart consisted of a Sound Devices 688 and CL-12 linear fader controller with a Lectrosonics Venue 2 (wideband low) and the original Venue (wideband low) to handle larger scenes. Then a PSC Euro Cart dubbed the “Pony Cart” touted a Sound Devices 633 and a PSC RF Multi SR Six Pack with Lectrosonics SRb Dual Receivers. The smaller cart transitioned easily into bag work. A Comtek base station handled the video village feed and Lectrosonics IFB for boom and utility.

For most of the exterior locations, Costner’s character and the men who worked for him wore thick flannel-styled shirts paired with a large jacket similar to the Carhartt brand and jeans. Sound worked with costumes in pre-production to find a “happy spot” to hide the lav, then gum was placed on the zipper to keep it from slapping around while on horseback. Curley admits he likes to produce “high-quality sound recordings” with a “certain consistency” which meant using the same microphones for the entire run of the project. Sanken COS-11Ds were paired with Lectrosonics SMQV and SMQ transmitters and the occasional Countryman B6 was implemented when a lav needed to be placed outside the wardrobe or when water was in play. Schoeps CMIT-5U, CMC4/MK 41 and Sennheiser MKH 60 and MKH 50 microphones combined for the overhead work. Wireless booms were equipped with a Sound Devices MM1 preamp for easy access to gain control.

The pilot episode opens up with a car accident where John Dutton is left bloody trying to find his bearings as horses scatter. It’s a visual metaphor for the clash between the country life and the impending urban development that overshadows the ranch. Horses a very much part of the narrative and sound was mindful of safety precautions. “It was all about communication,” admits Curley. “Knox was really good about making sure everyone was comfortable on set with any boom movements and tried to buddy up with the animals as much as possible.” Animal Coordinator Paul ‘Sled’ Reynolds, who worked on Dances with Wolves with Costner, ensured everyone’s well-being. Sound would swap out the boom for a lav if issues arouse, and other times, Reynolds would change out a horse if they were acting up to no fault of sound. “We tried to be cognizant of potential problems. If you are, you can try to get out ahead of it,” adds Curley.
 
The vast landscape created swirling windy conditions that were muffled with either a Rycote or Cinela windscreen. At peak wind, lavs needed to be buried under wardrobe with fur. Curley felt the brunt of the conditions during the practical car work when he and a focus puller would hide in the bed of a pickup truck as it zipped through the countryside. The car setup included all the common rigging and lighting, and to record audio, Curley tapped the bag version of his Pony Cart and placed a Sanken CUB-01 boundary mic above the visor and wired the actors. Besides traditional drive-and-talks, cops would pull over vehicles or multiple cop cars would swarm in. In the latter case, additional wires were needed and the boom would join in to pick up sound. “There was a lot of adapting as we went along,” explains Curley. “They eventually changed the driving shots to green screen for more control because many of the roads were extremely bumpy and shook the frame.”

Luckily, it wasn’t all exterior location work as the sound team found itself inside the Helena, Montana, Capitol Building for a scene where Jamie Dutton (Wes Bentley), a lawyer, tries to defend the family position. The sequence had Jamie speaking at a lectern in front of the governor and other officials. To cover its sound, booms were played overhead and the podium microphones in front of them were turned on and recorded to a separate track as an option for post. Additionally, Curley turned off the PA system inside the chamber so it would not interfere with the lavs or boom mics.

One of the larger interior scenes of the pilot took place at a cattle auction. As John enters the building, the camera tracks him around the auction area where hundreds of extras sit and on up to a second floor VIP room. He grabs a seat and watches a little girl sing the National Anthem as others approach him with their own concerns. The scene was filmed at an actual cattle auction location in Utah and Curley brought in a live audio person to set up the PA speaker system and stage mics. More than six hundred feet of XLR cable was run for the setup. Curley hid behind a door underneath the VIP room and was able to mix in the National Anthem, crowd and cattle noises into his mono track, along with the natural reverb of the auction. Upstairs, multiple lavs and a boom recorded the dialog between the characters.

Mixing, Curley prefers to run a limiter “just in case,” as with digital, “the only thing that can’t seem to be fixed is overmodulation.” “Running the limiter makes me aware of my gain structure. If I find myself hitting the limiter more often than I should, I turn the gain down. It keeps me honest,” says Curley. He also tends to not play with parametric EQ basing, his philosophy on the idea that it’s better applied in a controlled environment where it can be easily removed if it doesn’t work. A low-frequency roll-off around 80 Hz or as much as 120 Hz is added to the mix if something noisy is nearby like in many of the scenes that feature a helicopter.
 
John Dutton uses a helicopter as a mode of transportation around the ranch. Dialog driven scenes took place either directly outside before boarding or through headsets during flight. To record usable audio, the team employed two methods: one with the helicopter turned off completely and the other with the engine turned off but the rotor still churning.
 
Wide and tights are the norm for most productions, but the sound team faced super-wide shots to show the striking landscape coupled with extremely close shots that followed the action. “We were getting the audio, not the way we’d like to, but something I learned over the years is that you address your concerns and ultimately you have to let them decide.” To curb larger audio issues, the wide camera would be turned off once they achieved what they wanted visually.
 
Curley pushed the gear to its limits, often running 10 ISO tracks with some scenes featuring eight different speaking parts. Double booming was the norm and actors were wired the majority of the time with the exception of some stunt and action sequences. The mixer arrange his wires in dialog order so he could visually see the progression of the scene on his faders. “It’s easier not to get confused this way instead of going back-and-forth across the board. If I haven’t brought up a fader, I know the dialog will still be coming.”

In a climactic scene of the pilot, sixteen men were on horseback, others rode four-wheelers, police cars lined the road, gun shots were fired and a helicopter flew overhead witnessing the chaos. The scene was shot over three nights and broken up between action and dialog. While it was one of the biggest track days in terms of wired actors for sound, the way it was scheduled allowed them to keep pace. “Logistically, there was a lot of moving parts, but it was just a matter of jumping in and keeping our high standards,” says Curley.

Realism was a theme throughout the production. Whether it was importing trees from Montana to build the log cabins inside the studios or the fight scenes where stunt men didn’t hold back or the extensive aerial coverage that enhanced the scale and scope of the story. Eight episodes were shot before weather curbed production. The final two will be finished this year. “Quality is important to Taylor as a filmmaker,” says Curley. “If you watch his other projects, he is very intent on making a real and believable world for his characters to be in. That decision to be authentic doesn’t make our jobs easier, but that’s not why we are there to do it. We’re here to support him and I really lucked out having Knox and Andrew with me. When you start seeing episodes on screen, you get a feeling that all the hard work you’ve done is worth it.”  

by Courtney M. Goodin

When I started looking at some of the new small PCs to host some of the video playback software tools I have written over the last two decades or so, I discovered a large number of choices from various manufacturers that were quite capable and surprisingly, small and inexpensive.

Many in the film and TV business have been stuck in the walled garden of Apple for so long, they haven’t ventured outside to see what is available to run some of the tools available or necessary to do our work. For on-screen video playback, most people are using the only small option available from Apple, the Mac Mini, which is overpriced and whose case is carved from a solid block of aluminum making it problematic to hide behind a display (no, gaffer tape won’t hold them). Besides video playback, many Production Sound Mixers are running a Mac Mini on their cart using BoomRecorder or Gallery Metacorder as a primary recording tool. They may have the need every now and then to run some utilities for Venue control or mixer configuration or sound file editing or conversion. A solution in the past has been to just install Windows on the Mac under Bootcamp or using Parallels, VR Fusion or some other virtual machine software. Well, that comes at a cost. A standalone license of Windows costs more than $100 and the virtual machine software another $79 or so and of course, if there is a hardware failure of the Mac, you lose both systems. Also, the Apple Bootcamp drivers and the virtual machine drivers are not very good and most don’t support hardware acceleration for video decoding. There is a solution that can be cheaper and more versatile, and that is a separate mini-Windows PC and a HDMI/USB KVM switch.

Intel started things off in the tiny PC market with their NUC (New Unit of Computing), which were small reference designs of single-board computers about the size of a two inch stack of CDs and about forty percent smaller than the Mac Mini. Then they introduced the first Stick PC that contained a full PC in a package about the size of a double pack of gum or a bloated USB thumb drive. Many of these are small enough to be stuck to the back of your monitor and are light enough (only 1.5 to 2.7 ounces) to support their own weight off the built-in HDMI connector. Some are completely fanless, so they make a good way to turn any HDTV or monitor into a full PC, which can be used on a soundstage or recording studio without having to worry about additional noise.

My use however, was for video playback on set, and I made some amazing discoveries in these small PCs. They are very capable of playing back HD (H.264 encoded) video. Specifically, I found that the units based on the Intel Bay Trail quad core Atom Z3735F chipset like the Azulle Quantum Access Stick PC and the original Intel Stick PC were even able to decode and play back up to nine HD video files simultaneously at full frame rate. This is very useful for simulating security video consoles or TV studio multiview displays. Although they are tiny, they are full Windows 8.1 or Windows 10 computers and will run any software that will run on your average Windows desktop. They support tenpoint touch screens and have built-in WiFi 802.11 a/b/n and Bluetooth 4. The most common configuration for these Atom SoC (System on Chip)-based machines is 2GB of RAM and 32GB or 64GB of eMMS storage for the operating system and programs and/or media files. Most have flush mount slots for a Micro SD card for additional storage that allows you to expand your storage an additional 32GB to 128GB pretty cheaply and is easily removable so you can pop it out and load it up with your video from another computer. Although these chips are actually 64-bit quad core CPUs, most use the 32-bit version of Windows since they only have 2GB of non-upgradeable onboard RAM, so don’t need the additional 64-bit OS overhead necessary for addressing more than two gigabytes of RAM.

The stick versions can plug directly into an HDMI port on any monitor or TV and some can even pull power from a nearby USB port on the back of the TV. (Most require about 2.5 amps of 5-volt power so beware; this may not work on your set.)

Newer versions of the small PCs use the next-generation Atom Cherry Trail line of chips like the X5-Z8300 that run a little faster base clock speed and include USB 3 support. But I believe that USB 3 support takes a toll on video playback performance and interferes with WiFi and Bluetooth throughput. On most of the Stick PC form factors, the antennas for WiFi and Bluetooth are just copper traces printed on the circuit board. And because of the tiny board, there is not enough on-board real estate to move them out of the range of the EMI from the CPU, GPU and especially, the USB 3 ports. This interference can reduce the range and increase packet loss in the WiFi and Bluetooth radios. This is especially problematic on a film set that is full of 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz RF pollution from wireless focus controls and HD video transmitters. Not to mention the hundred or so smartphones pinging the stage’s WiFi to pick up email, tweet or stream the latest YouTube meme while the idle on-camera artists await their moment of glory. Of the units I tested, only the Quantum Access Stick moved the antennas outside the case, which makes them much better at WiFi connectivity and fewer dropouts if using Bluetooth for streaming audio. The QA Stick also has the older Bay Trail chipset and it doesn’t support USB 3, which is a good thing for my use. The additional increased polling speed to support the USB 3 buss takes critical interrupt time away from the GPU and CPU for decoding and display. Of course, if your application doesn’t include playing back more than three or four video files simultaneously, you may not notice the hit on the video playback performance in the newer Cherry Trail Z8300, although the interference of USB 3 with WiFi and Bluetooth is still an issue.

The good news is that these fully functional PCs with a full licensed version of Windows 10 Home are priced around $100-$175. Some are even available for as low as $79 if you shop around. They are available from a large number of suppliers in a variety of configurations and cases with some supporting VGA ports and additional USB ports and LAN ports or analog audio outputs (All support digital audio embedded in the HDMI output). All use the Intel Graphics on-chip integrated GPU and the drivers support hardware (GPU) decoding of most compressed video and audio formats like H.264 and HEV or MP3. Because of the single-chip design and internal memory pipelining, this allows them to decode several streams of HD video simultaneously without putting too much strain on the CPU.

In my quest, I tested a variety of configurations and models from no-name units ordered directly from China with names like Tronsmart and VoYo to name brands like Asus, Lenovo, Intel or Azulle. Most had the same 2GB RAM and 32GB eMMC HD configuration, although some are available in 4GB RAM and 64GB or even 128GB eMMC hard drive.

In this class of machines, heat is your enemy and can cause a degradation of performance if the unit gets too hot. They all include Intel’s thermal power management in the EFI BIOS, which will throttle down the clock speed of some of the cores and even halve the GPU clock speed if the chip’s temperature exceeds a point that would cause damage to the chips or board. This speed throttling is dynamic and transparent to the user unless you are pushing the unit to the max (like playing back nine videos at the same time). Because of this, the Stick PCs from Intel and those based on their reference board design include a tiny fan (about ¾” in diameter) to help dissipate some of the heat when running full tilt. There is a slightly audible whine heard from these fans if you put your ear right down within a few inches of them, but it will probably be inaudible in most environments. The Azulle Quantum Access Stick has no fan and a sealed case without vent holes but surprisingly, in my testing, it seemed to be able to handle heat dissipation better than the units with fans and vents. Perhaps this is because of the case design that seems to be made of a metal or carbon particle impregnated plastic with a ridged surface on both sides to act like a heat sink to dissipate the heat over a larger surface area using simple convection. And as mentioned above, it is the only one that moves the antennas off the circuit board so they can spread the components out some to help dissipate heat.

Some of the larger units like the VoYo or the Kangaroo have internal lithium polymer batteries which can run the units for a short period of time from twenty minutes for the VoYo to several hours for the Kangaroo if you lose external power. This can come in handy on the set where things get unplugged by accident all the time without warning or you have to move from one location to another without having to shut down.

All the units mentioned here now come with Windows 10 installed and some are even Dual Boot with Windows and Android 4.4 installed. Although, those units with dual OS have a lot less free space available on the 32GB eMMC internal drive. Most with Windows only, have about 13GB-18GB free and the dual boot with Android drops that free space down to about 8GB to 12GB. However, all units reviewed here have Micro SD card slots so the storage can be expanded cheaply with 32GB to 128GB Micro SD cards. They will all run Microsoft Office full version and will do an admirable job running PowerPoint, Excel or Word. They can play Adobe Director files for interactive display. I have even run older versions of Photoshop (ver. 7) or Photoshop LE and other useful utilities like Video-to-Video encoding software or open source recorders/players like VLC and Audacity. They all have at least one full-size USB port (type A) and some add a second full-size or micro-size OTG USB port. The larger units also throw in a LAN port and USB 3 ports for interfacing external storage or adding additional displays. That’s right; with a small outboard Pluggable DisplayLink USB dongle, you can add an additional two displays. So, one of the small sticks can actually feed three different displays at the same time. If you want them to display 30-frame video at full speed, you may have to drop the resolution of the additional displays down to 720p. (A limitation of the USB 2 port.)

Although there is not room in this article to review them, if you need an integrated touchscreen display, there are many Windows tablet PCs available using the same chipsets as the stick and all about one-fourth the cost of the cheapest iPad. Also, small laptops like the Lenovo 100S or 2-in-1 (tablet/laptop combos) like the Vulcan VTA1005XBM 32, are under $200. I’ve even found eight-inch tablets like the CHUI H8 with 1920×1080 ips touchscreens and USB ports and external HDMI connector for around $150.

CONCLUSIONS AND CAVEATS

For my use (video playback sources), I found the Quantum Access Atom Z3735F units to be the best. Their lack of USB 3 (which I don’t need) improves their performance and the external antenna makes the WiFi and Bluetooth performance much better. If I can find them, I prefer the Windows 8.1 OS for playback. I can install a thirdparty UI like “Classic Shell” to deal with the lame 8.1 tile-based user interface and get back to an interface more like Windows 7. Windows 10 improved the user interface somewhat, but the problem with Windows 10 is that Microsoft removed the ability to turn off automatic updates in the latest versions and one thing you don’t want is to suddenly have your on-set monitor tell you to stand by while it downloads five gigabytes of “important” updates. You can turn off automatic updates in Windows 8.1 and as long as I don’t use these devices for surfing the net to questionable websites, I don’t have to worry about viruses or security holes. If I’m not using WiFi to remotely control the unit, I can just put the OS in Airplane Mode. None of these units come with keyboards or mice, so you will have to add a Bluetooth or USB keyboard and or mouse or touchpad. I am partial to the iPazzport mini- Bluetooth keyboard (model KP-810-19BT). It is about the size of a small TV remote and has a built-in touchpad for mouse control and thumb-operated keyboard with all the keys of a full-sized keyboard, including F1-F12 and cursor arrow keys. This unit is small enough to slip in my shirt pocket or stick behind the monitor with a little Velcro. Besides the Bluetooth version, they also make an RF 2.4 GHz model that has a mini-USB dongle. These can be had for under $20 if you shop around on Amazon or eBay.

Tip: If you are stuck with Windows 10 and need to be on the internet for some reason, you can change an advanced setting in the network configuration panel to treat your WiFi access point as a “Metered” connection. This will prevent Windows from automatically checking for and downloading updates over any wireless connection designated as “Metered.” However, if you plug in an Ethernet cable that has an internet connection, it will suddenly go to town downloading tons of updates without asking permission. This, while it happens in the background, can adversely affect video playback smoothness or worse case, ask you to restart the computer after it finishes downloading.

The small Stick PCs are small enough to slide two or three of them into the pouch on my laptop case with their small power supplies and a small iPazzport wireless keyboard/touchpad and be ready for any video playback “emergency.” You know the one, where the Director or Producer comes up and says, “I know we didn’t talk about it but can you put up this animated logo on these three sixty-inch displays that the Art Director built into the set last night?” You can save the day and maybe even get a little more box rental for the extra video source feeds.v

by Richard Lightstone CAS AMPS

At the beginning of every shooting, day paper ‘sides’ are available for the crew and for a short time, they are reviewing them as opposed to staring down at their phones or digital devices, unless of course, they have converted their emailed PDF script into a digital sides app.

There are a lot of apps that will allow you to import PDFs into fi les that you can mark up, color and make notes. Three years ago, Jan McLaughlin CAS, fieldtested and reviewed several on JWSound. I’ll provide that link at the end of the article.

I’m going to review two of the most popular, Notability and Top Notes, and a new entry, Scriptation.

On the iPad, the Mail App allows you to ‘Copy’ the PDF file into the respective application by pressing down on the fi le until a new window opens and you make your selection.

NOTABILITY

You can also import the script via Dropbox and Google Drive. The app has thirty-two colors to choose from to mark up your script and the ability to preview all the pages on the right side of your screen. The bottom screen menu is very easy to navigate and here you can choose the Text Box Tool, Pencil, Highlighter, Eraser, Cut Tool and more. This app is a full-function design program where you can add text and graphics, notations and more. For our purposes, you double-tap the Highlighter icon and you can choose the color and thickness of the tool. Then it’s a matter of swiping your fi nger across the specific character and/or their dialog throughout the scene or scenes and then selecting the next color and so on. Notability was the fi rst app I tried. The time it took to highlight each character in the day’s scenes was about the same as paper sides, but much more functional and you can use the ‘scrollback’ icon to delete any mistakes or accidental swipes. (This feature is available in all PDF import apps.)

TOP NOTES

Similar to Notability, Top Notes is a multifunctional app for managing notes and drawing. Its menu structure is quite simple and easy to access when highlighting actors for individual scenes. But is limited to only eight colors. I had to become creative in my highlighting methodology when there were more than eight in a scene.

The multi-page view is very handy in accessing the scenes for the day.

I found this app to be easier to navigate than Notability. If I decide to change the order of my color scheme, I do a long press over the dialog and a convenient edit box appears.

SCRIPTATION

Scriptation is a script reader app and annotator specifically designed for fi lm and television production. Unlike standard PDF annotation apps, Scriptation allows users to transfer their annotations into new script revisions using a proprietary algorithm known as “transcription.” This unique feature promises to “End Script Change Hell.”

Scriptation was created by Steven Vitolo, a Script Coordinator on Black-ish, who aims to solve inefficiencies in the script distribution process, and believes Scriptation can be the paperless solution for the industry.

But let’s look at Scriptation with our needs in mind. Choosing the “ACTOR” menu opens up a list of all the characters in a hierarchy of who has the most lines of dialog. To the left of each actor’s name is an arrow symbol, and touching that opens a strip of sixteen colors to choose from. Each time you select a color or toggle a switch, all of the actors’ lines are automatically highlighted. If you change scripts, close out of the script or close the app altogether, your color selections are still available when you reopen the document. In my opinion, this app is the most efficient in the color choosing process.

Users that make additional notes on their scripts can enjoy using the “transcription” feature. When new script pages are published, users can open those script pages in Scriptation, and with the tap of a button, all their notes are automatically imported into the new draft. The app will even tell you if items you’ve annotated have been changed or deleted. Maybe those dialog changes that were discussed between the director, writers and script supervisor would be flagged and quickly available by all the users of the app, before we roll on that scene!

Top Notes sells for $4.99, Notability and Scriptation for $9.99 each. I’m sold on digital sides. No more arranging of paper and dragging out the highlight pens and then re-doing it if I made a mistake. I save time and love the convenience.

I will come back to this topic once I’ve had an opportunity to beta-test the promised improvements to Scriptation. Here is that link I promised:

http://jwsoundgroup.net/index.php?/topic/20996-digital-sides-via-ipad-andor/#comment-246908

In the meantime, happy shooting.