Features

by James Delhauer

Though the evolution of technology is already a staple of the 21st century, there are some breakthroughs that are widely acknowledged as being revolutionary. Within the world of film and television, one such moment occurred in 2006 when Apple unveiled the first Mac Pro. Featuring high-end Intel processors and sporting a versatile modular design that allowed for routine upgrades, the first-generation Mac Pro changed the landscape of the production world and gave creatives the kind of computing power they needed to enter the digital era. Though this particular line of computers has evolved in the years since its introduction, it remains a cornerstone of digital workflows across the globe. That is why it was so exciting when Apple announced a newly redesigned Mac Pro with some truly impressive specifications.
 

To understand the significance of the announcement, one must recognize the somewhat turbulent history of the Mac Pro. While the first-generation units, which were produced from 2006 to 2012, were revolutionary machines, they had begun to show their age by the end of their life cycle. Even with substantial improvements to the CPU, GPU, RAM, and hard disk drives every few years, the Mac Pro was fundamentally designed around the now obsolete Firewire, USB 2.0, PCIe 2.0, and SATA II connection interfaces. While these were industry standard and even ahead of the curb in 2006, they had been superseded by next-generation technology by 2012, making even the newest Mac Pro a problematic investment. Even the most enthusiastic of DIY users were having trouble upgrading their machines to compete with computers that took advantage of newer USB 3.0, SATA III, and PCI 3.0 technology. The widespread availability of these superior technologies in non-Apple computers started to make Windows-based workflows very appealing to loyal OS X customers. If Apple wanted to remain relevant in the high-end desktop market, they needed to overhaul the core hardware of their design.
    
In 2013, they did exactly that when they unveiled the second-generation Mac Pro. This unit utilized a significantly smaller and more compact design. The short, black, cylindrical shape gave this unit the unofficial nickname of “trashcan,” while the older, first-generation models were retroactively branded “cheese graters” due to their silver color and grate of ventilation holes on the front and back. These trashcan computers, like their predecessors, were a monumental leap forward for their day. While many expected the newly designed Mac Pro to rely on SATA III and USB 3.0 interfaces for hard drive and peripheral connection, the company chose to leap beyond these standards. SATA III was bypassed altogether in favor of PCIe solid-state technology, which had a theoretical maximum speed five times greater than that of SATA III. USB 3.0 integration was included but this was done alongside Apple’s semi-proprietary Thunderbolt 2 interface—a more versatile connection with up to four times the speed of USB 3.0 and the ability to connect a much larger range of peripherals. Combined with impressive processor speeds, processor core counts, and AMD GPU options, the second-generation Mac Pros were arguably the first widely available computers ready to tackle the then upcoming rigors of 4K production.
    
Unfortunately, this generation of computers was not without some rather monumental flaws. This was also the first professional-grade machine produced by Apple not to feature any sort of optical disk drive. Many users had hoped to see the Super DVD drives from the previous generation replaced by Blu-ray capable equivalents and found themselves disappointed. In order to accommodate its small form factor, it required that all of the components be soldered directly into the Logic Board, making both maintenance and upgrades difficult for some components and impossible for others. This meant that users could no longer install third-party components into their machines in order to extend the product life cycle or customize them to suit their specific needs. After several years, this caused the trashcans to run into the same problem as the cheese graters. Technology that was revolutionary in 2013 was becoming out-of-date just a few years later.

This versatility restores the ability for users to incorporate devices manufactured after the Mac Pro’s launch into their system—a feature that has been lacking since the 2013 revamp.

By 2017, users were desperately searching for ways to coax more computing power out of their systems in order to accommodate the newly emerging 6K, 8K, RAW, and HDR workflows that Hollywood productions were beginning to demand. Ironically, some turned back to the first-generation cheese graters. By developing and using a variety of adapters and peripherals, they were able to install more modern components into their aged machines. The process was not always (or even usually) perfect but it did allow some to surpass the capabilities of their 2013 computers by using their 2006-2012 ones. Others turned to more drastic solutions. By carefully selecting a variety of PC components that were technically supported by the OS X/MacOS code, many DIY users found success in illegally bypassing Apple’s software security and installing the Mac operating system on computers built using Windows-oriented components. These “Hackintosh” computers were (and still are) often unstable but they provided customers with a means of running their preferred operating system on workstations that were not out-of-date. Nonetheless, none of these solutions were ideal.

Apple provided a stopgap in 2017 when they introduced the iMac Pro—an all-in-one workstation unit that boasted bleeding-edge performance and 5K retina display that was up to the challenges of high resolution and processor intensive tasks that production environments demand. While these units could replace the trashcan Mac Pros, many were quick to point out that the iMac Pro suffered from many of the same problems. The components were still soldered directly into the Logic Board, making maintenance and upgrades problematic. Within a few years, these computers would also begin to show their age and customers would have no means of upgrading them to meet the challenges of tomorrow.
    

Enter the third-generation Mac Pro.

 
At the World Wide Developer’s Conference in April, Apple unveiled a completely redesigned machine that was a large departure from either of its predecessors. The large aluminum chassis resembles the older bodies of the original cheese graters (leading many to dub the new machines Cheese Grater 2.0) but what’s under the hood bears little similarity. The new Mac Pro features an exclusive line of Intel Xeon W processors that can be configured in a range from 8-core 3.5ghz chipsets to 28-core 2.5ghz chipsets, making it well suited for an impressively wide variety of users. Moreover, while most motherboards for Windows computers only support up to 64gb or 128gb of RAM, the new Mac Pro can make use of an astonishing 1.5tb of 2933ghz memory. For applications that frequently use memory caching (such as Adobe’s video production suite, Avid’s Media Composer & Pro Tools, and Apple’s Final Cut Pro), substantially more video and audio previews can be temporarily cached before a full render is required for real-time playback. Apple also offers a variety of graphics card options, including AMD’s Radeon Pro Vega II Duo card—a GPU capable of performing up to 56.8 teraflops of calculations. For comparison, the 2013 Mac Pro running two AMD FirePro D700 GPUs (the best configuration Apple offered) could only manage seven teraflops.

In addition to the impressive components inside the box, it is worth noting that the new Mac Pro features a versatile range of connectivity options. With two USB 3.0 ports for traditional peripherals, two Thunderbolt 3 ports for high-speed devices or expansion (Thunderbolt 3 is capable of being adapted to most other connection types such as USB, HDMI, and DisplayPort), and two 10gb Ethernet ports for high bandwidth online work, this new computer should be more than capable of integrating with just about any workflow currently on the market.
    
What’s most exciting to enthusiasts of the first-generation cheese graters is the potential for these devices to develop over time. Regardless of configuration, the device comes with two full MPX modules and three full-length PCIe 3.0 slots, allowing for hardware such as additional GPUs, PCIe-based hard drives, Apple’s Afterburner ProRes and ProRes RAW accelerator cards, Avid’s Pro Tools HDX cards, Red’s Red Rocket Pro cards, and many others to be seamlessly installed and integrated without the need for sprawling cables and expansion chassis around the primary computer. This versatility restores the ability for users to incorporate devices manufactured after the Mac Pro’s launch into their system—a feature that has been lacking since the 2013 revamp.
Despite all of the positives this new line of computers has to offer, it is not without its criticisms. Apple’s lack of support for Nvidia products means that users will likely be restricted to AMD’s line of GPUs for the foreseeable future. It is also worth noting that certain components are still locked into the Logic Board, meaning that performing maintenance on those components will likely be no easier than it was with the trashcan units. There is also no support for SATA connectivity, meaning that storage expansion may be limited. Most hard disk drives and solid-state drives still utilize SATA III interfaces, meaning that the only way to install these devices into the new Mac Pro would be via a PCIe adapter. In cases where internal storage is a priority, this can be a definite drawback. It is also much heavier than the trashcan generation. Having reverted back to the old cheese grater design, the new units weigh in at just under forty lbs. This will be a bit of an adjustment for those who have grown accustomed to taking their eleven-lb trashcan Mac Pro on the go.  
    
The biggest problem for many prospective users, however, is the price point. While Apple has not yet released the exact cost of each component option in a comprehensive breakdown, the base configuration machine—which comes with a 256gb SSD, 32gb of RAM, an 8-core 3.5ghz processor, and an AMD Radeon Pro 580X GPU—will set you back $5,999 plus applicable tax. This is unfortunate because a similarly configured Windows machine costs substantially less. In their review of the new Mac Pro, the Linus Media Group assembled an itemized list of components needed to build a Windows-based equivalent to Apple’s introductory machine. Their shopping cart ran up a much more manageable total of $3,160. Assuming comparable components are indeed fairly matched up in their assessment, that is almost a one hundred percent markup per unit. This has left many excited customers concerned that the highest end configuration Cheese Grater 2.0 may cost anywhere between $35,000 and $45,000. For individual users, that is a substantial investment and will need to be considered carefully before making any purchasing decisions.
    
All of that being said, the new Mac Pro will not release until fall of this year. Until then, it is impossible to know for certain what the exact price point will be and whether or not this computing powerhouse will perform as expected. When the new Mac Pro is released, Production Sound & Video will provide a comprehensive review featuring benchmarks, technical comparisons with older Mac Pros and contemporary Windows machines, and more. In the mean time, prospective buyers ought to start saving their pennies or apply for an extended line of credit if they are hoping to bring home one of these monster machines.

by Richard Lightstone CAS AMPS

Sound carts have evolved over the last four decades in form and function.

Today, there are numerous variations of sound carts to meet just about every mixer’s needs. When I began mixing in Montreal back in the ’70s, there were no film sound equipment suppliers or professional sound carts sold in Canada. On a Walt Disney show in Alberta in 1974, its sound cart was a modified golf bag trolley with shelves holding a Perfectone mixer and a Nagra IV, with hooks for microphone cables.

During the Montreal Olympics in 1976, I worked for ABC Television’s Wide World of Sports and they used a modified hand truck with welded cages for the Sony video deck, Sony camera, microphones, and cables. It inspired me to build my first cart in 1980 on the same principle. It was a large ‘Anvil-style’ shipping case; with shelves and drawers bolted to a hand truck and it served me well for more than twenty years.

RL Disney cart 1974

Perfectone mixer

Jeff Wexler started building his own sound carts in 1970, first using a Sears TV stand and then moving on to more customization by modifying a produce cart. Jeff explains, “When I saw the cart that Michael Evje had built, an upright vertical cart with an aluminum frame and sliding shelves, I settled in to building that new style of sound cart. At first, I had to rely on fabricators with metal-arc equipment and the skills to make the frames. Later, I discovered the professional erector set of aluminum profiles from the company 80/20. I could assemble and bolt them together myself, not having to rely on outside fabricators. The last two carts I built before retiring used 80/20 materials.”

“The only commercially available cart was made by a company called Wheelit,” says Ron Meyer of Professional Sound Corporation (PSC). “These carts were designed to be used for AV equipment such as film projectors and other classroom and corporate equipment. The Wheelit carts had two folding shelves made out of white melamine-laminated particle board and were very heavy at about sixty-five pounds. Audio Services Corp. (ASC) had some custom shelves made from aircraft aluminum to lighten the cart by twenty pounds or more.”

In 1984, ASC decided to produce its sound cart, the SC-4. Ron believes that the design was based on a similar smaller cart made by Wilcox Sound.

That style of cart served our needs as we were using Nagra recorders, Sela or Nagra mixers, cabled microphones and very few wireless. As equipment requirements grew, the next progression was to the Magliner with custom shelves and attachments, introduced by Backstage Equipment, Inc.

There are many mixers still using the PSC upright and Magliner sound carts more than four decades later.

Several sound mixers began designing their own customized carts and offering them for sale, Brett Grant Grierson, Matthew Bacon, Gene Martin, Rob Stalder, Devendra Cleary, Eric Ballew, and of course, the late Chinhda Khommarath.

Expert Audio Recording Services, Inc.

For almost two decades, Brett Grant Grierson began by modifying Magliners with custom welded parts to hold SKB upright rack cases. Brett continues to evolve new designs, whether it is a custom 80/20 cart, special brackets, or cheese plates on a rolling stand. I must disclose that I have had four carts built by Brett over the last eight years.

Rastorder, PTY

Sound Mixer Rob Stalder of Australia took a break and worked in sales. Inspired by the Backstage modified Magliner, Rob made a completely new design he called the 2g and his company Rastorder, PTY was born. Rob learned to weld steel in his early years. He remembers building a canopy for his Landcruiser and a tri-bike trailer for his dirt bikes. Rob’s design of choice was the upright cart, the SU was the first built with welded aluminum. “The SU was big. It has split modules because not everyone doing drama had a van, but nearly everyone had a larger analog mixer,” says Rob. “It’s interesting to note that the SU has morphed along with everyone else, finding a following with those large digital mixers.” Rob continues, “The Foldup came next, perhaps my best seller, one hundred and forty to date. Yes, it’s similar to the PSC folding cart. But I wanted a different configuration, a different size, and some different assembly techniques.”

Rob joined the move in building smaller carts and has a new prototype, which will go into production later this year. It offers more flexibility and inter-changeability. Rob concludes, “My challenge has always been freight cost, I am now located further inland in Australia. This is offset by the low Australian dollar, currently one Australian dollar is worth 77 cents US.

DC Audio & Music

Devendra Cleary’s interest in cart building began simply in building a cart for himself in 2013. Eventually, he took the leap in what he admits is a crowded market to have a side business and thus, DC Audio was born. Devendra posits, “The concept was to design an affordable sound cart made of ‘off-the-shelf” items. I wanted to take industrial and consumer pieces and find a way to snap them together without the need for fabrication.” The DC Intro cart included an all-weather cover designed and manufactured by Susan Ottalini of MTO.

Devendra built two more versions until he arrived at the DC-TRM. Enlisting the collaboration of Sig Guzman at Backstage Equipment

“I gave Sig my pencil drawings of the cart with the idea that the base supported the rear axles with Trionic wheels and six-inch front casters, designed around a new extended size ‘Nagra Shelf.’ Simple 1×1 steel posts served as the spines and have baby pins on top. This design includes many Backstage accessories like handles and a crossbar with a baby pin in the center.”

Devendra field-tested the prototype loaded to the max on eighty days of production of the Mayans M.C., a very heavy location episodic. Devendra concludes, “I’m someone who is a sound cart user and enthusiast and contributing my design to the market. In the end, the customer base wins with DC carts and many other choices.”

Backstage Equipment

Sig Guzman has assisted many sound mixers in finding accessory parts, as well as the fabrication of sound carts. Backstage is a family-owned business run by Cary Griffith. In the ’70s, Mr. Griffith designed a grip truck, as well as grip, electric, and 4×4 carts. Backstage now manufactures more than one hundred and fifty specialized carts for virtually every craft, including lighting, grip, camera, video, sound, photography, Steadicam, DIT, basecamp, and props. Sig explains, “We continuously work on new products that we hope will become useful, and this is the best part of the job. You think of an idea, you draw it on a napkin, design it on a computer CAD system. Then you build a prototype, and have technicians test it and give you feedback. When you finish the product and see it being used around the world, that’s job satisfaction. We build everything in house with a few exceptions such as laser cutting, water jet, CNC, and finishing (paint, chrome, nickel plating), the most common materials we use for manufacturing are steel, as well as aluminum, depending on the product we are dealing with. All products are assembled, packed, and shipped from our location in North Hollywood.”  
 

Professional Sound Corporation

Professional Sound Corporation and Ron Meyer have been building sound carts for more than three decades. When the owners of ASC formed Professional Sound Corp. in 1986, it took over production of the SC-4 sound cart. Since that time, there have been several new features added, these include rack mount rails and various other options such as sun umbrellas, boom pole mounts, and rack mount drawers. Ron says, “Since I became the owner of PSC in 1996, Professional Sound Corporation has worked hard to make sure any new option we offered over the years is backward-compatible with all existing SC-4 sound carts. I never want to leave an existing customer behind.”

As equipment manufacturers began further miniaturization of the sound equipment, in 2014, PSC designed its EuroCart for this new, smaller world. The PSC EuroCart was not only a smaller, more convenient-sized sound cart, but also fit into smaller vehicles now commonly used by sound mixers worldwide. The PSC EuroCart can be assembled without the use of tools as it uses only “thumb” screws for all of its assembly. The EuroCart can also be split in half from top to bottom. This allows for easy storage and travel in the trunk of a car. The top half can also be used by itself for a small insert car sound package.

Audio Department, LLC

At the Audio Department, Gene and Drew Martin started designing and building carts from the ground up in 2016. Before that, they mostly did customization and modifications on Magliners. Gene says, “Drew and I collaborate on every project. We wanted a vertical design for our main cart that was modular, allowing for different options based on the equipment being used. The majority of our carts have a 16-rack-space bottom unit that allows for a variety of different size (or custom) top sections to be bolted on. This gives the customer the opportunity to change the use of the cart if ever needed.”

They strive for the carts to be as light as possible, but still have strength so the majority of their projects are made from one-eighth-inch aluminum, small steel tubing, or 80/20 aluminum if it’s better for the job. Gene and Drew do all of the design, assembly, and small machining. They credit more than thirty carts built so far for a wide range of sound mixers.

SOUNDCART.audio

Matthew Bacon founded SOUNDCART.audio in the UK. The selection of sound carts was extremely limited in the UK twenty years ago; they were rarely seen on anything that wasn’t a scripted drama or a feature film. Just like Jeff Wexler, Matthew’s first cart was a homemade adaption of an existing industrial trolley, a BEKVÄM Kitchen trolley from IKEA. As his career progressed, his need for a solid sound cart became imperative so he set about designing one using the popular 80/20 material.

“Other mixers began expressing interest in either buying my cart or having me build one for them.” Matthew continues, “One thing led to another and after some R&D time, he launched SOUNDCART.audio in March of 2016. Following the success of the production sound cart, demand for other models soon followed. In particular, there was interest in a smaller, more compact design, thus the MiniCart was born!” The approach to designing the MiniCart was similar to that taken with the production sound cart, to design a cart that was functional, flexible, and easily configurable to allow mixers to work in the way they wanted. Matthew explains, “No two mixers work the same even with the same equipment. For example, some prefer to sit or stand, position their monitors high or low, fix their boom poles to the side or rear of the cart, use adjustable feet or small or large caster wheels, etc.”

Matthew offers design services to customize his sound carts to the needs of his fellow mixers. His newest entry is the Explorer sound cart, which is a self-assembly design.
 

Cannibal Industries

Eric Ballew and his Cannibal Industries is the newest entrant in the sound cart-building business. While doing early mixing projects in 2010 in Los Angeles, he supported his career by working with stunt crews in designing rigging and emergency braking systems. It wasn’t until 2017 that Eric decided to collaborate with a machinist and partner with Sound Mixer Daniel S. McCoy.  

Eric says, “Daniel asked me if modifying a Zuca cart for sound work was possible. In comparison to the complexities and mechanics of the cart I built for Michael Hoffman CAS, adapting a generic Zuca cart for sound was a simple and straightforward venture. I took the Zuca to my machinist who has been my mentor. I completely disassembled it and began drawing pictures of brackets and support pieces. We milled the parts out on the CNC machine and Bridgeport mills. Each piece was made to very tight tolerances; the result was an incredibly ridged and lightweight rig. To add some flair, I machined some very specific quick-release hooks for a Sonosax/Orca bag Daniel owns.”

After posting the build photos to social media and on several sound mixing forums, voila, it gained enough orders to mass-produce an initial twenty-five of their Super Zucas. Eric continues, “The Super Zuca is the smallest and most lightweight professional sound cart ever designed for our industry. We use CNC-machined solid aluminum supports, stainless steel fasteners, and industrial-grade coatings, including both Cardinal Powder Coat and LineX. Because the footprint of our cart is so small, we did not compromise structural integrity with collapsibility. This results in a remarkably stout mobile platform.”

Eric is now retrofitting some Chinhda carts and also does custom fabrication and builds.

Coda

Ron Meyer, who has been building sound carts the longest, has a cautionary question to the many independent vendors. “Most of them build small batches of carts. Then they completely change their designs and build another small number of units. Are they stocking any extra replacement parts and standing by their earlier iterations?”

MY GODLIKE  REPUTATION PART 2

(A tutorial for those without half a century in the business, and a few with)

by Jim Tanenbaum CAS

I consider my ultimate loyalty to be to the project, to make it the best movie possible, so my always getting the best sound possible is subordinated to working as quickly as I can with the minimum impingement on the other departments, so long as I get sound that is at least “good enough.” Of course, my idea of “good enough” is pretty damn good, but not perfect.

What is “good enough”? For starters, remember that production dialog will be put through a dialog EQ: rolling off the bottom end and cutting off the top at 8 KHz (or for some upscale mixes, at 10 KHz or even 12 KHz). And unfortunately, the dialog will often be buried under the music and effects. (I defy most production mixers to distinguish between a Sennheiser and a Neumann on the release track under these conditions.)

The director, editor, and producer have heard the actors’ lines hundreds or thousands of times in post production, and it has become permanently imbedded in their brains. They can still hear it even when the dialog track is completely muted. The re-recording mixers will try to push the dialog levels, but they are often overridden by the higher-ups, especially for dialog following the punchline of a joke. (I think it would help to have a laugh track to play on the dubbing stage at the appropriate times.)

I try to get my “good enough” production sound through to the release print in spite of this.

To avoid holding up production, I bought a second Nagra IV for a spare as soon as I could afford it, and also a Nagra QFC cross-feed coupler, which mated the two recorders so they could record identical tracks, and use all four mike inputs and the two line inputs.

Since the 7”-reel lid adapters weren’t available way back then, this helped me tremendously in dealing with the 15-minute runtime at 7½ IPS of the 5” tape reels. When I got near the end of the first reel, I just started the second machine to give some overlap, and then reloaded the first Nagra at my leisure. Unfortunately, calling for a tail slate caused too much confusion, so I had to note the overlap on sound reports and depend on the transfer house to handle the splicing. More unfortunately, the quarter-frame resolution of the magstripe sometimes caused a glitch at the splice, so I used the 2-recorder overlap only when absolutely necessary.

Now that “running out of tape” is no more, I still avoid production delays by having my bag rig ready to go for car shots between stage setups. And the disaster of losing a recorded ¼”-tape is also a thing of the past, but I always put the day’s flash-memory card in a DVD case, along with the sound report, and make sure not to reuse my primary CF cards until well after shooting is finished.

One of the “10 Holy Truths” I teach my UCLA students is: The most important thing experience teaches you is what you can get away with, and what you can’t. And you usually have to make this decision instantly.

Many years ago, I was on a commercial with the late Leonard Nimoy as spokesperson, and he was justifiably annoyed with the production company for their many screw-ups, such as the car with no air conditioning that that picked him up for the 3-hour ride to the location. My boom operator had to work very hard to get a quiet mounting for the radio mike, since his wardrobe was 100% polyester, including the necktie. The rehearsals were fine, so Leonard went back to his motor home to await the “magic hour” for shooting.

Magic hour arrived, but Leonard didn’t. As the light was fading, he finally showed up, not in the best of moods, as the A/C in his motor home wasn’t working very well either. He was hustled into position on the set and the director yelled “Roll!” As the dialog started, so did the clothes rustle, on every fourth or fifth word—definitely unusable. My experience told me that he had messed with his tie while away from the set, and it will take a complete rip-out and re-rig to fix—at least two to three minutes of the at-most ten minutes of usable light remaining.

The director was one of my regulars, very talented, but stern and disdainful of incompetence. Fortunately, he trusted me. Unfortunately, he trusted me to the point that he wasn’t wearing headphones because he needed to listen to one of the clients during the shot. I immediately got up, during the take, and told him the sound was N.G. and I needed two minutes to fix it. He wasn’t pleased with the news, but called “Cut!”

I headed directly for Leonard, because I had already taken the necessary items with me before I left my cart. I re-rigged the lav in a minute-and-a-half, and put the Nagra into “Record” even before I sat back down in my chair. Because of the crucial nature of the situation, I knew it would not look good if I merely sent in my boom op, even though they could handle the problem as well as I (or perhaps even better). Seeing me dealing with the lav, my boom op had automatically brought a Comtek to the director, but he waved him away.

After the sun set, the director went to video village to review the takes, and I stood quietly behind him. The clients were happy, and thus so was he. A few minutes later, I approached him to offer an explanation. He smiled and said, “Nimoy f’d up your mike in his motor home, didn’t he.” It wasn’t a question.

Here is the flowchart I use to deal with problems on the set:

The other side of the ¼-inch tape is that sometimes (okay, rarely), the re-recoding mixers will mess up my tracks. To help guard against this, I have found that if I ride the gain properly, they will tend to leave my tracks alone and pay more attention to the music and effects tracks instead.

The two areas to which I pay special attention are: 1, matching background ambience from take to take and between different angles of a scene, and 2, limiting the total dynamic range of the dialog.

Having the ambience not jump on picture cuts follows another one of my 10 Holy Truths: Sound that calls attention to itself has failed. Raising low-level dialog and reducing high-level dialog (manually—I don’t like the sound of limiters or compressors) means that the re-recording mixers won’t have to do it themselves. However, these two factors are interrelated—simply raising or lowering the recording-channel gain to adjust dialog levels will affect the ambience the same way.

Describing all the various methods to control dialog levels without changing the ambience is beyond the scope of this article, but a very common one is to simply move the mike closer or farther from the actor without changing its orientation. On a soundstage or non-reverberant exterior, the mike’s distance can usually be altered about 3:1 without noticeably affecting the perspective of the dialog while giving almost a 20-dB dialog gain change. Since the distance to the source(s) of the background noise will not be changed significantly, the ambience will not change either, as long as the mike’s orientation with respect to the source of the ambience is not changed while it is being moved closer or farther from the actor.

While I just said my ultimate loyalty is to the picture—in typical Hollywood fashion that’s a lie. My first loyalty is to myself, my life, and limb. During car stunts, I always mix standing up, with my chair out of the way, and have located all the escape routes in advance. However, on one show, this wasn’t enough.

Working on the TBS back lot, there was a scene where a tractor-trailer careens around a corner and takes out a curb mailbox. With my physics background, I set up the cart in a safe place should the truck skid off the street. Then the 1st AD told me that it was the worst place to be, and insisted I move to a location he selected. I knew better than to try teaching him Physics 101 about centrifugal “force,” and did as he said. On the first take, the truck lost control and headed directly for me, or rather where I had just been standing. Unfortunately, the escape path I had chosen was also picked by a lot of the crew, and we were all jammed together and stuck there. Fortunately, the driver got the vehicle stopped in time. Unfortunately, it also came up just short of the sound cart. (It was WB Studio equipment.)

On a night shoot, we had completely blocked off a street with barricades, flashing red lights, and had police traffic control. A speeding drunk driver plowed though all the barriers, and only that he then T-boned a police car parked crosswise in the street kept many of us from being killed or maimed.

You are never absolutely safe anywhere, but especially on a movie set. Fire can spread amazingly fast. Safety chains on effects shots can snap. Remember that when you are tempted to “get a good view” of something being blown up.

Even on an “ordinary” shoot, you need to maintain cautious work habits, but more importantly, be aware of your surroundings. Coming back from lunch, I was in a line of people entering the stage, but was I the only one to get a faint whiff of natural gas?  Apparently so. I immediately notified the 1st AD, who was not overjoyed at the news, but (properly) followed me outside to verify it, evacuated the building, and called the gas company. When they arrived, they found a cracked meter, and replaced it. But because I don’t trust anyone (including myself), the next morning I went straight to the meter and … still smelled gas, even more strongly. The AD didn’t even bother to check, just got everyone out and called the company back. The main gas line had split from the stress after it was re-attached and checked for leaks.

Even when the director or AD wants you or your crew to “hurry”—don’t run. Not only are you more likely to trip or have an accident, but they will eventually expect you to move that fast all the time. Save the running for a real need, like losing the light on a magic-hour shot.

Whatever you may have heard about grips’ “Sex, Drugs, and Rock & Roll” mentality, I have found most of them to be very knowledgeable about safety, and trust their judgement. (The pix shows me only part-way rigged: a pad for my left knee and more safety straps were added before leaving with the police escort.)

Finally, there is a very real possibility that you may have to choose between your job and your life. I was working a nonunion feature in a small town in another state. Yesterday had been 18 hours, and I had already worked 10 today when the producer showed up and said that at wrap, some 2 or 3 hours hence, the company will have 3 hours to pack up and check out of the hotel, and then drive our own cars another 2 hours, at night on unlit mountain roads, to the next town on the schedule. When we get there, some more shooting will be done before dawn. (God bless the I.A.T.S.E. and other unions for protecting workers’ lives.)

I went to the 1st AD, and politely explained that I and my boom operator are too tired and sleepy to drive safely, and must have a proper night’s rest before leaving. The AD replied that the company must be out of the hotel by a certain time, and that there is nothing he can do.

“There is something you can do,” I told him, “hire a new sound crew, because after this scene, Jean and I are going back to the hotel to sleep, and we’re driving back to LA tomorrow.”

The producer left the set, but returned half an hour later to announce that we would be staying in the hotel there that night after all, and not leaving until the next day.

The UPM who had hired me was one of my regulars, and very happy he could make me the bad guy (and keep anyone from getting killed on his watch), and continued to hire me for other shows (read on).

While not quite as important as safety, comfort is a serious concern. If I’m sitting out in the hot sun, or shivering in the cold, I know I’m not doing the best work I could. Learning how to deal with temperature extremes is just as important as learning about audio. I have never regretted the many hundreds of dollars I’ve spent on specialized cold-weather gear. There’s no such thing as a really warm glove—the secret is down hunting mittens worn over thin glove liners. The mitten has a slit on the underside for extending fingers to (fire the rifle) work the mixer pots, then pull them back inside.

Hot weather requires light-colored 100% cotton clothing with long sleeves and pant legs to absorb perspiration and cool you as it evaporates. Sweat that drips on the ground cools only it. Note that I have clipped a space blanket to the top of my umbrella to completely block the sunlight.

There’s another kind of comfort that’s important, too—emotional comfort. Early in my career, I put up with a lot of sh*t because I needed lines on my resume, but as soon as I got “enough” of them, I decided that what I didn’t need was a heart attack or a perforated ulcer.

On a nonunion shoot, the first day of shooting was a disaster, and we didn’t finish the scheduled work. At the end of the day, the a** hole director called each crew member “on the carpet,” in front of everyone else. (God bless the I.A.T.S.E. and other unions for protecting workers from this sort of abuse.)

When my turn came, I got: “Tanenbaum, you’re completely unprofessional. We had to wait half an hour for you to put a radio mike on the actor.”

I calmly replied, “Kenny was standing outside the actor’s motor home, but the doctor wouldn’t let him in until he finished sewing up the actor’s hand. I’m sorry that’s not professional enough for you, Sir. Would you like me to leave now, or stay on until you can bring in a replacement professional mixer?”

The UPM I just mentioned, was standing on the sideline and frantically motioning me to shut up, as he didn’t want to lose me, or a day’s production while they were getting a replacement sound crew and equipment.

The director backed down, moved on to the next victim, and left me alone for the rest of the shoot, even when I didn’t notice that I had run out of tape halfway through the only take of a shot until we had moved to the next location. (I had to work that day with the flu and a 103° fever.)

Text and pictures ©2019 by James Tanenbaum, all rights reserved.
Editors’ note:  Part 3 of 3 continues in the fall edition.

by James Delhauer

The evolution of communication technology since the turn of the century has revolutionized the way that filmmakers approach their craft. A short twenty years ago, productions made nightly phone calls and distributed paper call sheets each day to ensure that cast and crew were aware of the correct location and call time for each day’s work. Widespread access to personal email accounts rendered this manual process obsolete and saw it replaced with mass mailing lists and digital attachment files. This is just one example that scratches the surface of how sending files over the internet can make production workflows simpler and more efficient. As we move toward a more globalized world of film production, the ability to communicate via the web has become an integral part of day-to-day life. More and more assets can be shared instantaneously, saving countless hours or the cost of constantly transporting assets back-and-forth. The most recent developments in file transfer protocol technology are allowing for entire productions to be uploaded to the internet and sent to multiple destinations across the globe in real time.

A file transfer protocol, or FTP, is simply a network protocol used to transfer files between a computer client and a server. On a small scale, every email attachment makes use of an FTP in order to move the attached file from a device, onto an email provider’s server, and then send it to the recipient’s device. They have become a common, albeit nearly invisible part of the daily routine in production. More and more offices are adopting browser-based FTP services like Google Drive, Dropbox, and Amazon Cloud Storage in order to make sharing and communication channels uniform across the team. In cases such as these, the user need only enter the address of the FTP server into their web browser in order to access data that has been stored there by another member of the team. Username, password, and sharing credentials are often added as a measure of security.

Unfortunately, commonly known platforms such as these have their drawbacks. Most web browsers, such as Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Edge, and Apple Safari are not optimized for large or automated transfer tasks. Similarly, most consumer computers are not outfitted for transfer speeds beyond one gigabit per second. Additionally, these sorts of services can also become quite costly as both the expense of cloud-based storage and slow upload speeds make the time commitment impractical. Moreover, FTP clients that utilize third-party servers present a security risk. If a production were to place all of its assets on a non-private server, those files would be vulnerable to theft should anyone obtain the correct login credentials. There is also the remote but still present threat that the server’s provider (Amazon, Google, etc.) may undergo some sort of catastrophe and data loss could occur.

Recent developments are removing these limiting factors and large-scale digital delivery is becoming more commonplace. Ten-gigabit internet connection pipelines have become more prevalent and cost-effective with time, which have in turn made ten-gig connectivity on consumer machines such as Apple’s Mac Mini and recently announced Mac Pro, far more common. This allows for larger amounts of data to be uploaded to the cloud and then sent to network servers. There are also more FTP workflows that involve using a specific client software, eliminating the inherent flaws of browser-based FTPs. Private servers and network-attached storage devices are more prevalent, meaning that production companies can build or purchase their own server solutions, which eliminates the vulnerabilities of third-party storage options.

Fortunately, these improvements are occurring at an ideal time within our industry.

As productions have left the traditional filmmaking hubs of Los Angeles and New York in favor of exotic locations around the globe, production activities have become decentralized. Rich tax incentives offer unique opportunities that incentivize productions to shoot in new hubs that may not be where the footage is ultimately processed and undergoes post production. A project may shoot in Atlanta, undergo general editing in New York, and source out visual effects, color grading, and post-production sound to companies based anywhere else in the world. In complicated workflows such as these, every entity involved with the project needs access to the digital assets. Transporting physical drives can be costly and time-consuming. But simply uploading the entirety of the project’s assets to a server where any relevant parties can download the information is an ideal solution. This allows post-production teams to begin processing footage almost immediately, regardless of whether the shoot is occurring a few blocks away or on another continent. The expediency of this process also allows for near real-time feedback from the editors and dailies, which can eliminate the need for costly reshoots later in the production.

“For Local 695 video engineers…
this emerging technology presents an opportunity.”

For Local 695 video engineers, whose responsibilities include media playback, off-camera recording, copying files from camera media to external storage devices, backup and redundancy creation, transcoding, quality control, syncing and recording copies for the purpose of dailies creation, this emerging technology presents an opportunity. Those who become well versed in its finer points will be ideally suited to jobs looking to take advantage of improved online distribution. While the need for traditional media managers who offload cards to hard drives is not going to disappear in the foreseeable future, a new breed of FTP media managers will become necessary going forward. Media managers who possess a basic understanding of network-attached storage (such as Avid’s Nexis or Pronology’s rNAS m.3) and common FTP client programs (such as Signiant’s Media Shuttle or Aspera’s Client) are ideally suited to take on these new roles as they become more prevalent.

In an ideal setting, a media manager is able to ingest/offload multiple streams of 4K media, perform transcodes if necessary, and then drop completed footage into what is called a “watch folder.” From there, the FTP client can parse the folder for any file containing a specific string of characters, such as the “.r3d” file extension of a Red camera or the identifying label of a particular camera. When it finds files that meet its criteria, the FTP client picks up the file and begins duplicating a copy of it to its web-based server. When the file has finished being copied to the cloud, the client software moves the original copy to a “transferred” folder in order to avoid sending the file multiple times. Signiant’s Media Shuttle is even capable of replicating folder structures, meaning that all of the organization and offline to online directories created on set by the media manager are retained when they are sent to post production.

This sort of workflow has already been successfully carried out on shows such as MTV’s Wild ’N Out, MTV’s Video Music Awards, TED Conferences, and NBC red carpet shows. Wild ’N Out, in particular, is noteworthy for sending multiple episodes’ worth of content from Atlanta to New York on a daily basis during the production of its recent fourteenth season. In total, the show’s video engineers successfully transmitted fourteen cameras’ worth of video, amounting to more than twenty-five terabytes of data.

Nonetheless, this technology is not without its limits. In April of 2019, a team of astronomers successfully captured the first photograph of a black hole—a revolutionary feat that required more than five petabytes (or five thousand terabytes) of data to accomplish. Unfortunately, limitations in bandwidth and storage costs still meant that it was faster and more cost-effective to mail the physical drives back-and-forth across the globe than it would have been to upload the data to any online server. So for the time being, if a production has a few million gigabytes of data that they need to send out, it may be more efficient to physically transport the data back-and-forth.

Even limitations such as these are a temporary matter at best. As the nightly phone call was replaced by a single mass email, internet limitations will also disappear. Ten years ago, uploading even a terabyte of data to the cloud was a monumental task. As our industry continues to evolve and demand more efficient workflows for bulkier and higher resolution files, FTP clients will rise to the occasion. Ten years from now, it is likely that the threshold for transmitting a petabyte’s worth of data will be crossed. When that time comes, 695 video engineers should be prepared to jump at the opportunity for the new work created by this ever-evolving technology.

Using an Exoskeleton in Real-World Settings

by Ken Strain and Bryan Cahill

As Bryan Cahill wrote in the 2019 spring edition of Production Sound & Video, Brandon Frees, Ekso Bionics VP of Sales, provided him with a loaner EksoVest, thus allowing working Microphone Boom Operators to give it a test drive in real-world conditions for a week or two at a time. As part of that trial, Ken Strain and Corey Woods were able to use the vest on the Apple TV+ series Mythic Quest. Bryan then brought the vest to Mike Anderson on Goliath.

In this article, Ken, Corey and Mike share their thoughts about using the vest on actual shoots.

Ken Strain: I’m six feet, five inches tall so, I tend to hold my arms over my head less than shorter boom ops, as I favor keeping the boom at shoulder level and resting my elbow on my hips for long takes. On this new comedy however, there are many resets and pickups of alt lines, and we get into very long takes. I often find myself having to hold the boom overhead for 15 to 30 minutes, in order to get around practical lights and reflections. So I jumped at the chance to give this vest a try to see if it would help.

This vest was not made for our industry. It is designed for the automotive industry where the line workers raise and lower their arms with tools thousands of times per day, and wear the vest all day long. It’s built for that type of intense daily usage, with very strong joints and bearings. The autoworkers work in their own stations, with clear space all around them, so the elbows (link assemblies) that stick out in the back are not an issue like they are for us on cramped film sets.

The vest can be set up for various body types, and I’m sharing it with my Second Boom, Corey Woods, who is around five feet, eight inches tall. He tends to hold his arms overhead more often than I do, and he has shoulder issues, which makes it more difficult for him to boom. I do my best to keep him off the stick, but we are an ensemble comedy, so he has to work on many slots.

The vest has four spring options, and we are using the strongest spring, labeled “4,” which gives about fifteen pounds of upward assistance once your elbow reaches a horizontal height. When at rest with arms by your side, the system is not engaged. The buckles and straps that attach around the bicep part of the body are comfortable and easy to use. The angle of assistance can be tweaked as well, to provide the max assistance at a higher engagement point if you happen to reach higher normally.

Ours is set up neutral, so its “shelf” of support is right at shoulder level. I only engage the spring in the leading arm, and keep the trailing arm turned off, so that my arm and the vest itself acts as the counterweight, and it works great this way. It is very easy to lean against the back of the vest, with your arms overhead holding and guiding the boom pole. It looks like work, but instead of the forces going into the shoulders, they are routed down to the hip belt. So all you do is guide the pole, and the nasty heaviness of it is painlessly transferred to your hips. It’s a great feeling when the situation is right.

I tried it on several different types of shots, the first was a crane shot that was just wildly shooting around the room. That was just to get the feel of it, as it wasn’t a major dialog scene. This is where I figured out the max length of boom pole extension before it overwhelms the spring. For my particular setup, that was an 18 foot K-Tek boom pole with internal coiled cable and a CMIT mic on a PSC mount, extended one half section short of full extension. My setup is already well balanced, if you are using a plug-on transmitter on the mic end, you’ll have less extension for sure. If you were to use this outside with a zeppelin, then you will only have assistance, not complete support unless you’re on a relatively short pole.

“Walking backward while booming is a very dynamic situation, and having the assistance change while I was sort of bouncing around behind camera made for an awkward feel.” –Ken Strain

The next shot was a fairly straightforward Steadicam walk and talk through our bullpen, and that did not work so well for me. Walking backward while boomi​ng is a very dynamic situation, and having the assistance change while I was sort of bouncing around behind camera made for an awkward feel; the spring engaging on and off unnaturally. Also, the way the vest fits snug around the hips makes it feel as if it is not designed for backpedaling. I didn’t feel free or comfortable. When I mentioned this to Bryan Cahill, he suggested I might try less assistance or lighter springs which I’ll try if I get another opportunity.In general, Steadicam walk and talks don’t tend to be ridiculously long with endless resets, as everyone seems to be aware of the Steadicam Op’s fatigue. And, I think you run a higher risk of hitting something with this vest on a walk and talk which would be a total party foul.

My next opportunity was exactly what I envisioned the vest to be for: a three-page dialog scene among six actors in a conference room. I had to keep the boom working over a long LED practical that hangs over the table. There was no other way to pull this off without having my arms overhead. I also had to stay mobile because the three cameras were doing moves on the dance floor around me and my actor had a back-and- forth move that went deep. Since I couldn’t use a ladder, this was the perfect scenario for the vest.  

 I had ample space behind me to allow for the link assemblies that stick out from the vest. It worked like a charm. I had total mobility like normal, yet my arm was completely supported at the elbow. I did notice over the duration of the take, that support would start to sag a little,   meaning I was right at the limit of full support for this spring. I could have used less pole and experienced less sag over time. Basically, the spring needs to be stronger. For autoworkers, they don’t need a super strong spring to provide a continuous solid shelf of support, so this is one limitation that needs to be overcome. EksoVest is prototyping a stronger, number “5” spring which could solve the problem.

 The other limitation is the most obvious one, and that is the space it takes up behind the back. You need to place yourself carefully on the set to avoid hitting anything or anyone. It alters the decision making of where you place your self or even walking around the set, you need to be conscious of your space. It definitely makes you feel like Robocop, and that’s exactly what people on set were calling the vest (it does draw an enormous amount of attention and curious questions). The articulating link assemblies limit you to working only in areas which have at least an extra eight inches free behind you. This is a deal killer if someone needed to use the vest all of the time.

One advantage of this design over the Shoulder X vest, which has a much trimmer back profile, is that this system of articulating link assemblies behind the back does not interfere with your arms and shoulders when you find yourself raising your arms straight up. There is nothing above your shoulders, like the Shoulder X, which has a frame that hinges a few inches above the shoulder. This is how they get around the problem of maintaining a tight profile. When I tried that vest on at our union meeting, it felt great until I raised my arms straight up, and basically contacted the metal frame, and it felt like now I was fighting it. Other than THAT, it seems really well designed. As Boom Operators, we have some pretty specific and unique requirements, and exoskeleton manufacturers are going to have their hands full designing something that works with our range of motion and in the tight quarters that we find ourselves. I’m sure it will be possible.

The EksoVest feels good and very high quality. The new stronger spring will be a welcome addition. The stronger the better, but not so strong that we can’t bring our arm back down!

Corey Woods: I concur with everything that Ken wrote. I would only add that the level of adjustment is quick and the ease of putting the suit on when needed can be as quick as thirty seconds. We don’t always need the vest, but when we do, it might be at the last minute. A consideration for Boom Operators who find it hard to leave the set for fear of missing a rehearsal, lighting change, etc.

Mike Anderson: Recently, I had the opportunity to try one of the exoskeletons being tested for use by microphone Boom Operators. The EksoVest exoskeleton system was loaned to me by for a ten-day stretch during production of the third season of Goliath, the Amazon series. Once Bryan Cahill gave me a quick run-through of how the vest works and we got it fitted, I put it to the test.

I found it had a surprisingly comfortable fit coupled with a very good range of motion. The vest has interchangeable springs that add and/or reduce the vest’s lifting power. I started with the heaviest load lift thinking, “Hey, why not?” Once I really started to get used to it, I found myself almost fighting it.

When I switched the springs to a lower lift tension, I found the lower tension made all the difference and the system was extremely helpful. I suggest everyone booming give it a try. It can’t hurt, literally! I want to thank Bryan for all of the work he has done trying to find ways for us Fishpole Boom Operators to minimize the abuse we do to our bodies on a daily basis. If you think I’m wrong, you are kidding yourself. Maybe we can make these devices a standard on set. After all, when was the last set you were on where the camera operators didn’t have an Easy Rig on standby?

71st EMMY Award Nominations for Sound Production

Nominations for the 71st Primetime Emmy Awards were announced Tuesday, July 16, 2019. The awards show will be held on Sunday, September 22, at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles.

Local 695 congratulates all the nominees!

Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Comedy or Drama Series (Half-Hour) and Animation

Barry  
“ronny/lily”
Nominees:
Elmo Ponsdomenech CAS, Jason “Frenchie” Gaya, Aaron Hasson,
Benjamin Patrick CAS
Production Sound Team:
Jacques Pienaar, Corey Woods, Kraig Kishi, Scott Harber, Christopher Walmer, Erik Altstadt, Srdjan Popovic, Dan Lipe

Modern Family
“A Year of Birthdays”     
Nominees:
Dean Okrand CAS, Brian R. Harman CAS, Stephen Alan Tibbo CAS
Production Sound Team:
Srdjan Popovic, William Munroe, Daniel Lipe

Russian Doll
“The Way Out”   
Nominees:
Lewis Goldstein, Phil Rosati
Production Sound Team:
Chris Fondulas, Bret Scheinfeld,
Patricia Brolsma​

The Kominsky Method
“An Actor Avoids”
Nominees: Yuri Reese, Bill Smith,
Michael Hoffman CAS
Production Sound Team:
Rob Cunningham, Tim Song Jones, Jennifer Winslow, Sara Glaser

Veep
“Veep”  
Nominees: John W. Cook II, William Freesh, William MacPherson CAS
Production Sound Team:
Doug Shamburger, Michael Nicastro, Rob Cunningham, Glenn Berkovitz, Matt Taylor

Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Comedy or Drama Series (One Hour)

Better Call Saul
“Talk”
Nominees:
Larry Benjamin, Kevin Valentine, Phillip W. Palmer
Production Sound Team:
Mitchell Gebhard, Steven Willer

Game of Thrones
“The Long Night”
Nominees: Onnalee Blank CAS, Mathew Waters CAS, Simon Kerr, Danny Crowley, Ronan Hill
Production Sound Team: Guillaume Beauron, Andrew McNeill, Jonathan Riddell, Sean O’Toole, Andrew McArthur, Joe Furness

Ozark  
“The Badger”  
Nominees:
Larry Benjamin, Kevin Valentine, Felipe “Flip” Borrero, Dave Torres
Production Sound Team:
Jared Watt, Akira Fukasawa​

The Handmaid’s Tale  
“Holly”
Nominees: Lou Solakofski, Joe Morrow, Sylvain Arseneault
Production Sound Team:
Michael Kearns, Erik Southey,
Joseph Siracusa

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel  
“Vote for Kennedy,Vote for Kennedy”
Nominees: Ron Bochar CAS, Mathew Price CAS, David Bolton, George A. Lara  
Production Sound Team:
Carmine Picarello, Spyros Poulos, Egor Pachenko, Tammy Douglas

Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Limited Series or Movie

Chernobyl
“1:23:45”
Nominees:
Stuart Hilliker, Vincent Piponnier
Production Sound Team:
Nicolas Fejoz, Margaux Peyre​

Deadwood
Nominees:
John W. Cook II, William Freesh, Geoffrey Patterson CAS
Production Sound Team:
Jeffrey A. Humphreys, Chris Cooper

Fosse/Verdon
“All I Care About Is Love”  
Nominees: Joseph White Jr. CAS, Tony Volante, Robert Johanson, Derik Lee
Production Sound Team:
Jason Benjamin, Timothy R. Boyce Jr., Derek Pacuk​

True Detective
“The Great War and Modern Memory”
Nominees:
Tateum Kohut, Greg Orloff, Geoffrey Patterson CAS, Biff Dawes
Production Sound Team:
Jeffrey A. Humphreys, Chris Cooper

When They See Us
“Part Four”
Nominees: Joe DeAngelis,
Chris Carpenter, Jan McLaughlin
Production Sound Team:
Brendan J. O’Brien, Joe Origlieri,
Matthew Manson

Outstanding Sound Mixing for Nonfiction Programming
(Single- or Multi-Camera)

Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown  
“Kenya”
Nominee:
Brian Bracken

Free Solo
Nominees:
Tom Fleischman CAS, Ric Schnupp, Tyson Lozensky, Jim Hurst

FYRE: The Greatest Party That Never Happened  
Nominee:
Tom Paul

Leaving Neverland
Nominees:
Matt Skilton, Marguerite Gaudin

Our Planet
“One Planet”
Nominee:
Graham Wild

Outstanding Sound Mixing for A Variety Series or Special

Aretha: A Grammy Celebration for the Queen of Soul
Nominees: Paul Wittman, Josh Morton, Paul Sandweiss, Kristian Pedregon, Christian Schrader, Michael Parker, Patrick Baltzell
Production Sound Team: Juan Pablo Velasco,Ric Teller, Tom Banghart, Michael Faustino, Ray Lindsey

Carpool Karaoke
“When Corden Met McCartney
Live From Liverpool”
Nominee: Conner Moore
Production Sound Team:
Renato Ferrari, Adam Fletcher, Mick Haydock​

Last Week Tonight With John Oliver
“Authoritarianism”
Nominees: Steve Watson, Charlie Jones,
Max Perez, Steve Lettie​

The 61st Grammy Awards
Nominees: Thomas Holmes, Mikael Stuart, John Harris, Erik Schilling, Ron Reaves, Thomas Pesa, Michael Parker, Eric Johnston, Pablo Mungia,
Juan Pablo Velasco, Josh Morton, Paul Sandweiss, Kristian Pedregon, Bob LaMasney
Production Sound Team: Michael Abbott, Rick Bramlette, Jeff Peterson, Andrew Fletcher, Barry Warwick, Andres Arango, Jason Sears, Billy McKarge, Peter Gary, Doug Mountain, Robert Wartenbee, Brian Vibberts, Brian T. Flanzbaum, Jimmy Goldsmith, Steven Anderson, Craig Rovello, Bill Kappelman, Kirk Donovan, Peter San Filipo, Ric Teller, Michael Faustino, Mike Cruz, Phil Valdivia, Damon Andres, Eddie McKarge, Paul Chapman, Alex Hoyo, Bruce Arledge, Hugh Healy, Steve Vaughn, Corey Dodd, Michael Hahn, Roderick Sigmon, Christopher Nakamura, John Arenas, Niles Buckner, Trevor Arenas, Bob Milligan

The Oscars
Nominees: Paul Sandweiss, Tommy Vicari, Pablo Mungia, Kristian Pedregon, Patrick Baltzell, Michael Parker,  Christian Schrader, Jonn Perez, Tom Pesa, Mark Repp, Biff Dawes

BAFTA Television 2019

Winners of the British Academy Television Craft Awards, May 12, 2019

Sound: Fiction

Winner: Killing Eve
Sound Mixer: Steve Phillips
First Assistant Sound: John Lewis Aschenbrenner
Second Assistant Sound: Jack Woods

A Very English Scandal
Sound Mixer: Alistair Crocker
Boom Operator: Jo Vale
Second Assistant Sound: Dave Thacker
Second Assistant Sound: Emma Chilton

The Little Drummer Girl
Sound Mixer: Martin Beresford
First Assistant Sound: Lee James
Second Assistant Sound: Julian Bale
Sound Trainee: Rob Scown

Bodyguard
Sound Mixer: Simon Farmer
Boom Operator: Andrew Jones
Assistant Sound: Craig Conybeare
Sound Trainee: Ross McGowan

Sound: Factual

Winner: Later … Live with Jools Holland
Sound Supervisor/Mixer: Mike Felton
Assistant Sound Supervisor/Dubbing Editor: Tudor Davies
Floor Crew: Ian Turner
Floor Crew: Chris Healey
Floor Crew: Carol Clay
FOH Mixer: Gafyn Owen
Michael Palin in North Korea
Sound Mixer: Doug Dreger
Dubbing Mixer: Rowan Jennings

Classic Albums: Amy Winehouse Back to Black
Sound Recordist: Steve Onopa
Dubbing Mixer: Kate Davis

Dynasties: Chimpanzee
V.O. Recordist: James O’Brien
Sound Editors: Tim Owens, Kate Hopkins
Dubbing Mixer: Graham Wild

Names in bold are Local 695 members