Category Archives: On Location with Brian Gilbert

Here are a few photos from a shoot that I worked on a few months ago. Grills Gone Wilder is airing now on The Travel Channel. This shoot was fun because of the subject matter… barbecue… and the fringe benefits. Since everyone else on the crew was flying, they couldn’t accept the “on-camera-Q” that was offered, so I ended up with about five pounds of whole-hog pork from Martin’s Barebecue Joint in Nolansville, TN.

Shooting around the Martin’s massive smoker, which can handle multiple whole hogs.

I’m a bit of a barbecue junkie… I love to try out different Q stands when I travel, so I’ve sampled quite a lot. My top two places are Stanley’s in Tyler, Texas (we hit that one pretty hard when we were shooting on The United Bates of America) and Martin’s.

This shoot wass one of the first I did with my new Sound Devices 664 mixer/recorder, and I can say without reservation that I LOVE this unit. It’s a little intimidating at first, as it has ten times the functions and options of my old 442. But the folks at Sound Devices seem to appreciate the pressures of bag work, and they’ve made all the menus and functions very quick to get to & change. There’s an option to connect a USB keyboard, but I’ve entered the metadata using the rotary encoder & it works fine.

I’m running the risk of getting pig fat on my nice new mixer here, but it was so tasty I had to risk it.

That’s not to say that there aren’t a few small details that I’d like to see changed. It really should ship with an external power supply, since the battery tube just doesn’t really work. I understand that a tube of AAs lasts about a half hour. I’ve never tried it, since that much time isn’t really worth the weight of the batteries, so the tube stays empty. Instead I use a Remote Audio BDS with an NP1 battery cup to power the whole bag. I get around two hours use out of a NP1, depending on the age of the battery.

I’m also using a PortaBrace 664 bag on this photo, which is currently for sale at Trew Audio. I love the company, but they have got to innovate if they are going to stay around. This is the same basic bag design as the FP32, just with bigger dimensions. Thats fine for small mixers, but this one is large and heavy, and the bag flops around and distorts in use, giving me the feeling that things aren’t secure. I’ve since gotten a Petrol bag which is quite a bit better  (though I wish it were more like the Petrol 442 case.)

The Grills Gone Wilder crew, April, Ilsa, and Joe.

Another change I’d like to see in the 664 Mark 2 is the way that data is transferred. Right now, you need to eject the cards and insert them into a reader in oder to transfer your data at the end of the day. The CF card is very difficult to remove, as I can’t get my fingers around the edges. And fragile… I’ve already experienced a bent pin on my card reader. The SD card is easier, so I write data to both cards but use the SD for transfers. The better solution is to have the data available at the USB port so the cards could stay in place.

I was recently in Nashville and met with studio owner Chris Mara at his all-analog studio. As I drove up to the  facility, I noticed “NTC” on the side of the building. Coincidentally, his studio is located in the old National Tape Corporation building, which was the company we used at OnLine Audio back in the ’90’s for most of our record duplication.

MCI JH428 all-analog mixer

Chris works with MCI expert Randy Blevins, so as you could expect, his studio is rotten with vintage gear. The main board is a 400-series MCI, 28-channel frame, routed to a Sony/MCI JH24 2″ 24-track. He’s got just about every configuration of tape machine you can think of, including 1″ 8-track, 1/2″ 4-track, and several 1/4″ mastering machines. It’s an all-analog signal path, but he has a Mackie HDR 24-track and Pro Tools for transfer of session files. Chris was recording “The New Belgravians” when I was there, and they rocked. In QUAD, no less!

Chris' collection of analog tape machines... more are around the corner!

While I’m primarily a location sound mixer/recordist, I’ve got an extensive background as a producer and engineer in music production as well, and have been considering taking on a FEW music projects. If you have been thinking about doing some recording, consider doing it “old school.” I have contacts at several studios, both local and in Nashville. And even though I own and regularly use several DAW systems, I greatly prefer working in analog whenever I can, especially for music projects. There’s an advantage to using the real thing instead of simulated plug-ins… there’s no such thing as “latency,” for one. Latency refers to the delay in all digital equipment where the computer tries to catch up to the music being fed into it. More plug-ins usually means more delay, as your computer struggles to do the math that each piece of simulated equipment requires.  This doesn’t happen with analog… everything is processed real-time. And analog has an infinite sampling rate.

The tradeoff is self-noise, as each piece of analog gear in the recording chain adds a tiny bit of noise that can add up really fast if you’re not careful. Software simulations of  reverbs, compressors, delays, and gates have no self-noise.

But the biggest disadvantage is talent… in other words, you need it. Recording and mixing in a traditional studio, in analog, is a much more musical workflow than mixing on a computer, but it requires more musical skill and ability than the typical home-studio, cut-and-paste GarageBand demo record. (Errors and mistakes are easily eliminated with mouse clicks these days. We used punch-ins and punch-outs on a multitrack for similar corrections, but rarely did the sort of microsurgery edits that are common in contemporary music.) Software simulations of classic gear are cheaper than using the actual gear, but cheaper isn’t necessarily better.

One of several tracking rooms. Not shown is Chris' hammond B3 with Leslie cabinets, or his rather extensive collection of vintage mics.

If you have an ear for classic rock ‘n’ roll, you’ll like the results that a dedicated studio space can provide… it’s a big difference over the typical bedroom recording. Contact me for rates and more information

I’ll be teaching a production seminar this weekend called “Field Audio for the Underfunded Filmaker” at the Flying Monkey Arts Center in Huntsville, Alabama, Sunday (Feb 7th) from 2-4:30.

Professional grade audio hardware can get very expensive, and few self-funded filmakers can solve their audio problems by throwing money at them. But with some planning, difficulties inherent in low-cost equipment can be managed. The thrust of our discussion will be audio basics and how to capture decent sound with whatever gear you have… we’ll talk about microphones, simple wireless setups, common audio problems, post-production workflows, and planning your shoot for audio. Participants are encouraged to bring their audio gear, and if time allows, we’ll do some hypothetical setups and tests.

The class is free and open to the public, and will meet in Don’s Studio. The Flying Monkey Arts Center is located at Lowe Mill, 2211 Seminole Drive in Huntsville, AL. For more info, call Don at 457-5371. Their website is at www.flyingmonkeyarts.org/

Here’s a link to Loki Films website, where I did the field audio for the segment on JordanThomas here in Chattanooga. (My clip is the second one on the page)

http://www.lokifilms.com/CNN2009_videoclips.html

Camera work was by Julia Dengel, and the producer was Rachel Grady. Both were extremely professional and a joy to work with, and they produced a great story. It aired on Anderson Cooper’s 2009 Hometown Heroes Thanksgiving special on CNN.

I was recently asked to work a special movie opening by Paul Gussack at DVCommunications. These are usually live sound events with large, heavy load-ins and load-outs, lots of gear, and very late hours. But this event was a little different. Paul’s production involved a three-camera shoot for the Regal Cinemas corporation of a benefit movie opening in Knoxville, and he needed me to be a boom operator. Turns out I was on the Red Carpet for the premiere of New Moon, the second movie in the Twilight saga and top infatuation for just about every pre-pubescent female in the western hemisphere. There were a few post-pubescent women there as well. And every one of them was screaming.

On the red carpet in Knoxville, TN. Image by Justin Fee, http://www.photographfee.com

So it was kinda fun to be on the red carpet. Besides myself, a photographer… Justin Fee of www.photographfee.com… were the only ones allowed there. Everybody else had to stay behind a barrier. We had a lot of downtime, so Justin snapped a picture of me and sent it to me. Now I can prove I was there. Now all my nieces are absolutely green with envy… thanks Justin!

I recently completed a quick PSA for the March Of Dimes and The Johnson Group.

Me chasing the dolly with Atomic Films.

We shot for a half day at Erlanger North Hospital here in Chattanooga. The shoot was in a busy hallway during the day… there were people constantly needing to go through. Several times there were newborns in carts, which is always a big distraction for me… “Brian loves him some babies,” as my wife likes to say. The PSA was for the Make A Wish Foundation, and star of the PSA actually had cancer as a child, and is completing her degree as a Nurse practitioner. Nine years ago, as a Make A Wish recipient, she wished for an ice cream party and a shopping spree at Toys R Us… but they were both for the other kids on the cancer floor… nothing for herself.

Bobby Stone was the photographer. We shot with their Red One camera mounted on a Super PeeWee dolly. Most of the sound was from Lectrosonics wireless… I used a shotgun for some shots, but the noise from a working hospital meant that most of the useable tracks would come from hidden lav mics. The majority of the spot was voice over, only a few lines were sync sound.

I recently completed two days of shooting for CNN’s Hometown Heroes with Anderson Cooper. It will air over Thanksgiving weekend.

The shoot was coordinated by Loki Films in NYC. Rachel Grady was director/producer, and Julia Dengel was director of photography. Both were extremely accomplished and professional. Loki Films normally works on documentaries– some have appeared on programs like PBS’ Independent Lens. Their current projects include the Saudi Arabia Youth Project for MTV, and “Freakonomics:The Movie.” Their production “Jesus Camp” won the special jury award at the Tribeca Film Festival and was nominated for an Academy Award.

The subject was Jordan Thomas, who is an amazing young man. Jordan lost both legs below the knee in a boating accident. He was very fortunate to have survived, thanks to the fact that his mother and father are both doctors. While recovering in the hospital, he learned that most insurance policies limit coverage for prosthetics to $5000. His cost $24,000, and he’s on his third set, since young people grow out of them… not unlike a pair of shoes.

Within two weeks he had started the Jordan Thomas Foundation to help underinsured and uninsured families buy prosthetics for children. Once a candidate

Rachel Grady interviews Jordan Thomas for CNN

is selected, the foundation commits to them until they are eighteen, meaning they will purchase several sets of limbs. We followed Noah–  a six-year-old beneficiary- through the Creative Discovery Museum here in Chattanooga. He went from basically a peg-leg to a real leg with an articulated knee. Where before he couldn’t run with other kids or ride a bike, he’s now EXTREMELY mobile and active… we all had a hard time keeping up.

I’ve just learned that Jordan has been selected as one of the top ten CNN Heroes, which means he’ll be traveling to Hollywood over Thanksgiving weekend for a celebration event hosted by Anderson Cooper. It couldn’t have happened to a nicer person.

Consider a donation to the Jordan Thomas Foundation, or help out by voting for CNN’s Hero of the Year here