The Big Think

Evernote looks pretty cool.

The main sanding on the entertainment center body is FINISHED! I spent 3 hours in the shop today for a total time of an even 100 hours on the entertainment center. I put the whole thing together today and laid the top pieces on the carcasse, then put all three pieces next to each other. I then stood back and took a good look. Magnificent! When I look at a big project sometimes I’m surprised that Something can come from Nothing. It’s a really great feeling.

Next up: the doors! That’ll be a long and painstaking process. Then I have to figure out an easy and effective way to lay in 36 one quarter inch square ebony pins on the carcasse and another 32 or so 3/8th inch ebony pins on the doors. I figure it’ll take me several eye-busting weeks doing that. Then the finish- which I have no idea about yet.

Hey, one thing at a time. But I’m past the 100 hour mark! That makes it my biggest project to date (except for the studio build, which was a ton of little projects)

About a week ago someone on the film list of which I’m a member posted that they needed a soundamn for a two day shoot. I made the call, met some people, and got the gig. I’m really excited about it and have been prepping the past few days by going to the location, reading the script, studying storyboards, and generally doing the conscientious soundman things. One of the cool things about the gig is that the 16 page script (about 15 minutes) takes place entirely at night. As a result, our shoot starts on Friday night at sunset and goes until sunrise, then repeats the following night. I’m gradually adjusting my sleep time by one hour later each night (not hard to do for me anyway). By Friday I figure I’ll be staying up until 4 or 5 AM and sleeping until noon or 1. When the shoot arrives I’ll be fairly fresh in the middle of the night. I’m looking forward to the challenge. I’m unreasonably excited about this and haven’t the foggiest idea why, except that maybe once we’re all bleary eyed and sleep deprived it’ll feel like a feature film set around day 85. Think of me this weekend.

The other thing that happened this morning is I finally decided that the time was right to invest some more in my audio kit. I’ve been renting a mic and boom pole for several years and decided that I had a good idea what I wanted to own long term, so this morning I took the plunge and purchased a 20 foot breakaway cable, a professional 13 foot carbon fiber boom pole, a shotgun mic, a mount, and the harness system for my audio gear bag. The harness system means I can hang the bag in front of me comfortably instead of draping it off-center over one shoulder. It’ll be MUCH more comfortable long term than the old way.

The gear took some courage to hit the BUY button on, but I’m glad I did it. I’m now the proud owner of a truly professional mic, brand new, who’s history, condition, and provenance I don’t have to question. When you’re the only member of the audio dept, and some director has put the entirety of the audio for their baby on your shoulders, it’s nice to know that you can trust the gear. As good a job as the rental house did of maintaining their gear, I never had that 100% faith. A reputation means never being caught short with a bad mic, or having to apologize and stop production while you go search out another mic, so it’s nice to have this covered. I’m still renting the two wireless systems, though. Those range from $500 to $4000 EACH so it’ll be awhile until I’m ready to commit to buying them.

So now I’ve got a killer little mixer, a stellar mic, a very useful breakaway cable, a light and sturdy boom pole, and a harness system/bag to hold it all, not to mention all the fun little accessories that make life easy on the set. Bring on the work!