r Today I worked on a virtual set production which utilized a camera mounted to a robot arm on a track.  This presents some interesting challenges from a sound perspective.  The power and control systems for the wall and other panels have cooling fans that make a lot of noise.  Fortunately, most of these things can be stored in a separate room and away from the stage.  The robot arm however was seems to have a cooling fan inside it's pyramid shaped base and the control systems positioned next to it also have cooling fans that generate noise.  These were unfortunately, but understandably, positioned close to our talent and performance area.  On locked off shots we were able to shut the robot down which reduced noise substantially.  On shots that required movement, I had to be careful to minimize how much of that noise I was picking up.  Even the movement of the robots motors can make whirring or creaking noises.  After this experience, my personal take is that these robot arms should be used only for specialty shots, action shots, or shots with no dialog.  You can attempt to use it for shots with dialog, but you need to be confident that your editor has good noise reduction software, and even then you should be prepared and budgeted to do ADR if you need to.  Otherwise I recommend just sticking to a Fisher dolly, gimbal, EZ rig, or handheld.

Today I attended the TXMPA Road Show at Camp Lucky studios where we learned about a bill the Texas senate is considering that is intended to promote film production in Texas (SB22).

I had the great honor of working on another Codie Sanchez video!  This time we were at Desert Creek Honey.  Around the honey you have to wear a hairnet and gloves.  Around the bees... things get more serious.

No April foolin' here.  This documentary on the current state of debate is going to sound great!

The Greater Dallas Youth Orchestra performed classic movie scores at an FC Dallas soccer game next to pyrotechnics and a dramatic drone show overhead!  I was hired to provide a mixer, mics, and stands to capture the magic and send it out to the audience on the stadiums massive speakers.  I used different mic techniques than what is typically done in a traditional orchestral concert hall.  Because of the position of the orchestra and the way some of the speakers were pointed at their position necessitated the use of a larger number of microphones with tighter pickup patterns that were positioned much closer than what they would be in a concert hall.  The wind  during the show and the thunderstorm that showed up while loading out did not make this job easier, but we got it done!  

BIG thanks to Stephanie Stark for assisting me on this job.

Today's shoot was for an accident injury law firm and included some shots at a junkyard where we got to shoot a car getting crushed!

Business guru and YouTube sensation Codie Sanchez made a video on the streets of Austin Texas today, and I had the honor of being hired to record sound for it!  I've been doing this for a long time, and I meet celebrities occasionally and I don't usually get star struck, but I'm actually a fan of Codie's and it was really cool getting to work with her.  She gave me an autographed copy of her new book "Main Street Millionaire"!