Hi guys,
I have recently been working a film where production moved very fast and I was working as a one-man team mixing and booming. During i was thinking about sound reports and how people working in this capacity actually do them?
Theres no time inbetween takes to make a report and i'm already juggling enough gear as it is without worrying about a clipboard on top of that. Any of you found reliable ways to report the important stuff?
And what general information do you include?
Cheers!
For sound reports I use a small clipboard that sits inside the front pocket of the portabrace bag I mix out of. I made personalized sound reports containing all my contact info and production essentials that allow me to put simple information about scene/take/track assignments, etc... plus a few other things.
The clipboard fits a sound report that is 1/2 the size of a standard 8 & 1/2 x 11" sheet. It carries enough extra sound reports for a couple days, plus all my copies in a separate section just to be able to deal with calls from post on the fly (I make 4 part reports @ Kinkos; 2 copies for post, 1 for production office, 1 for me). I also place the same clipboard on my mix cart when mixing off the cart so the sound reports are the same for any scripted project.
For slating I have a couple Denecke TS-C Slates that I jam off my recorders timecode and hand off to camera. They'll take care of labeling each take on screen and clapping sticks for an A & B camera. I make sure to keep a friendly relationship with the camera crew in order to keep our slate info in sync and to keep things fun on set. If the camera crew is not used to using slates I get them used to it, and they're usually very thankful for the opportunity to step up their game and become more professional.
Have fun making sound for movies,
E. Santiago
Record the reports verbally on to the audio recorder using the slate mic and transcribe later.
Get an iPhone 4S, strap it on and clip the mic somewhere near enough to your mouth that it works properly. Use Siri to dictate hands free in between shots.
Another option might be to get an assistant or an intern to handle the clipboard data. They can take care of the general data on their own (scene, take, date, media, etc.), and get any of the more technically oriented notes from you between takes.
Insist they clap it using a slate and and announce scene and take. It'll slow them down a little (good for you), but post needs that info.
On shoots like that, I usually end up catching up with the reports during breaks and after the shoot. As much as I can, I'll always do a 'master' entry for Take 1 of each new shot, and use shorthand or verbal reports for the subsequent takes. You can actually do a fair bit of the report even before the take has been shot, i.e. noise floor is an approximation, scene description, etc.
The movie slate app that the cam assist have been using has an additional plugin for the sound dept for logging reports.
