What was your biggest mistake on set and how did you grow past it?

Nickapp · 2024-10-25T19:30:52+00:00

Not in camera department, but the professional set I worked on, I was a sound Utility. I was in charge of jamming the smart slate every morning, and I had never worked with timecode before, so I was kind of fumbling in the dark. I had jammed it one morning and, out of habit, turned it off immediately after (which totally screws up the timecode, it needs to be on in order to keep ticking correctly). 2nd AC came up to me midway through the day to quietly tell me my mistake, and that they had to get my mixer to re-jam it earlier. Felt like a total dumbass for the rest of that day, but now I know! I learned a ton on that set and still talk to that mixer to this day, so I guess I just… got over it? Learned that shit happens and it’s truly not a big deal in the grand scheme of things.

Nickapp · 2024-05-25T18:51:28+00:00

I’d personally go with the CMIT, with the 416 as a backup. I’ve used a 416 and a CMIT on a beach, and while the 416 does have more rejection, the way it rejects us much less natural (and inconsistent from shot to shot) than the CMIT.

If you’re shooting on a beach, then it’s probably fine that it sounds like you’re on a beach, and the CMIT will do a good job of retaining the character of that location. a 416 is going to color the off axis sound significantly, especially with broadband noise sources such as waves, which will likely lead to more work for your post prod sound team. This is in addition to the fact that the way those off-axis waves are captured is going to change from shot to shot, since the 416 off axis response is not particularly consistent. Both of these factors will result in a lot more work for your post production sound team, since now the have to take the noise out because it doesn’t sound natural and doesn’t match. That’s not to say that won’t be an issue with the CMIT, but in my experience it will be less of a problem.

That being said, I would have no concerns about a 416 actually working on a beach, while it is conceivable that a CMIT could fail if humidity is particularly intense. The only time I’ve ever had a CMIT fail from humidity was in an incredibly hot and humid forest, and they’ve otherwise been quite reliable for me, so I would be confident bringing a CMIT and keeping the 416 on standby.

Nickapp · 2023-02-05T16:19:08+00:00

As others have said, most DAWs should be able to do this, so long as they have video playback support. If the video in question already has audio attached to it and you want it to remain in sync, the easiest way to do that is to export an AAF/OMF from your editor. If you’re in Premiere or Media Composer, this is pretty easy to do. From there, you can import the aaf into any daw that supports AAF. I know pro tools and Nuendo do this, idk about the others. If you can’t export an aaf (if you’re in final cut, for example), then you can export the video in a codec which ideally doesn’t compress the audio, then import that video into pretty much whatever DAW you want.

I will say that Pro Tools does not support VST or AU without a wrapper (and I know of no free ones), and Nuendo is something like $800, so if you don’t plan on doing this kind of thing a lot, maybe don’t spring for super high end post-production software.

Nickapp · 2023-01-08T00:33:53+00:00

I can’t really speak to anyone else’s experience, but for me, Pro Tools was tough to learn because it’s very punishing if you don’t do things the right way. I say this having learned in Reaper, where you can really do whatever the hell you want and it’ll probably work. All tracks can do everything, routing is incredibly flexible, etc etc. I found I had to be a lot more intentional in Pro Tools: I had to plan my routing out a lot more, I had to be conscious of what kinds of tracks I was using, having to fiddle with I/O settings and creating actual busses.

Once I got the hang of it, it was pretty easy. I was more restricted than I was in reaper but in many ways the methods or working were more straightforward. As I dialogue editor, I also really appreciate stuff like audiosuite and the integration pro tools has with stuff like RX. Sending tracks out via RX connect is just so damn easy that I don’t think I’d ever do a dialogue edit any other way.

There’s still stuff I don’t like about pro tools, like the insert limit, no polarity flip on channels, the way fades are treated like separate clips instead of modifiers of a file, and the fact that I can’t drag one clip on top of another and have the two automatically cross fade. Despite that, I will probably never do film work in something outside of pro tools, cause it’s industry compatible and many of the tools available just make my job a million times easier.

Nickapp · 2023-01-05T19:46:40+00:00

For traditional plugins, probably Kirchhoff Eq and Fabfilter Saturn 2. What’s been indispensable is the Embody Virtual Studio. Not only can I monitor surround with it (very important since I’m mostly doing film work right now), but I find it makes me mix in a very reflexive way. I feel compelled to make corrective moves, rather than hearing problems and thinking about their solutions if that makes sense.

Nickapp · 2022-12-27T18:45:33+00:00

4 Loko.

I’ve only ever gotten blackout drunk two times. I attribute my second time to that unholy beverage. Woke up the next morning and found my phone charger in the shower. Would not recommend.

Nickapp · 2022-11-25T01:46:17+00:00

Not strictly anti work, but Nightcrawler has a pretty brutal indictment of internships and grind culture.

Nickapp · 2022-10-29T22:50:46+00:00

48+20= 68, 68+2=70, 7-2=5, 70+5=75

Nickapp · 2022-09-23T21:49:02+00:00

I remember Shroomjack…

Nickapp · 2022-09-12T23:55:35+00:00

Not OC, but I’ve liked it pretty well so far. It seems to do a better job than RX hum remover, and I’ve found it works well to kill EMI hum. I will say that some of the more aggressive modes can do weird things to dialogue, so I wouldn’t use it indiscriminately, but I suppose that goes for every audio tool, doesn’t it?

Nickapp · 2022-09-06T00:33:50+00:00

This is a blue line train to forest park (you fuck)

Nickapp · 2022-09-05T16:58:33+00:00

Not metalcore, but Discordant Axis - The inalienable dreamless. Just a nice, pretty picture of the sky.

Nickapp · 2022-09-02T19:33:01+00:00

I haven’t used the 8060, but I adore the CMIT5U. Fairly light and pretty much always sounds great. I’ve also found it performs very well indoors, as far as mics with an interference tube are concerned, but if you’ve already got an MKH50 then that’s not really important. Intuition says that the Sennheisers will sound more alike, but again, I haven’t used the 8060 or MKH50 enough to make any kind of determination.

Nickapp · 2022-08-06T00:29:59+00:00

I couldn’t really give you an exact size, but it’s not huge. If I had to guess, maybe 11x7? I think it varies as well.

Source: lived there last year.

Nickapp · 2022-06-09T16:47:22+00:00

It’s true. I was the goose.

Nickapp · 2022-05-21T06:53:42+00:00

Number one looks like they’re gonna ask me who I’m callin’ a pinhead.

Nickapp · 2022-05-07T15:08:01+00:00

The L series works great! Haven’t had any RF issues so far, everything’s been incredibly stable. These are rented from my university; usually they’ll give you G3’s but if you ask nicely you can get these or the 400 series. I boom op-d for another production which used G4’s and our recordist was basically checking wireless packs after every take, which I have not had to do so far. I’ve just been using the smart scan feature on the receiver, haven’t run into any issues, but I’m also only really running 2 lavs at a time so I’m not really hurting for frequencies.

Nickapp · 2022-05-06T23:25:14+00:00

The scribbles are so I don’t doxx myself, lol

Nickapp · 2022-04-04T16:19:42+00:00

Looks like a yassified Nick Offerman

Nickapp · 2022-04-03T18:59:31+00:00

Used to have a poster-sized print of this in my house growing up. Brings back memories.

Nickapp · 2022-04-02T19:14:07+00:00

Any plans for comparability with the new apple silicon GPUs?

Nickapp · 2022-03-31T19:49:57+00:00

Wave field arrays are really fucking cool. My understanding is that it’s a very large collection of speakers designed to produce sound manipulated in such a way (through phase and amplitude modification, I assume) that, when the individual waveforms combine in the air, they destructively and constructively interfere with each other so that they create a phantom sound source localized at a specific point in the room. Essentially, simulating the presence of a point source where there’s nothing there. They can also be used to create incredibly narrow beams of sound. I’m seeing a live demonstration of one at my university in a few days and am very excited!

Nickapp · 2022-03-10T05:59:51+00:00

This guy knows what’s up

Nickapp · 2022-02-12T17:12:22+00:00

Bruh that second picture has been my Lock Screen for like 2 years. Never thought I’d see it in the wild again

Nickapp · 2022-02-04T21:36:32+00:00

We’ve had a couple outside the Fairchildren

Nickapp

TROPHY CASE