Warning: Rant About Lav Wires

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SigLife

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Ok. I'm ranting. If you're using a lav mic hide the darn wire. Don't do the over the shoulder thing if you can still see the thing sitting there. Run it under, or place it low enough where you won't see it.

It only takes a second.

Rant over and it wasn't a big one.
 
You beat me to the punch. I've been meaning to start a therad like this too.

So many times, I've seent the mic wire thrown over the shoulder or just poorly attached to someone's shirt. Damn people dress the fcukin' mic cables! It only takes a couple of seconds, do it while your reporter is primping themselves. Trust me, you got the time.

Warren
 
Hear, hear! HIDE the TV magic!

When I see photogs who are sloppy with lav mic cords, it makes me wonder how their homes must look. If they are that sloppy with something that is so simple, I imagine that they live in a world of filth.
 
I try to do that, but usually the reporter I work with regularly refuses and just runs it over his shoulder. Makes me look bad, but he doesn't care.
 
You need to whip his/her ass. It's as much your story as it is theirs.

Shoot them a look like you're serious about it and see if they can allot a whole extra 6 seconds for the story.
 
on a sidenote - stay away from Azden! We have a bunch of their products, and they keep falling apart! Same with their wirelesses - wireless's - wireless'es. Can't make it one month with one of them breaking!
 
We recently go an exclusive interview with Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs. We were told that the Apple minions spent two days lighting this interview. Long story short he has his own microphone that he prefers to wear. He walks into the interview, says hello, clips the microphone to his shirt and off we go. Fortunately it was a black shirt, but the wire still showed. It bothered me a lot more than it bothers him. And I had to provide the cable for the microphone – thank goodness I had one.
 
just judged a 3rd qtr clip contest from another market....one of the pieces had a woman wired with the wire just running down the front of the shirt.....

sorry....i tried not to.....at first......but.....
inevitably and not so long thereafter......


EJECTION..... 0 points.....cya....
i mean it's bad enough doing it...
a little worse airing it....
but entering it?????
 
Thank you for starting this post. I too have been meaning to start one on this topic. I always ask whomever I am interviewing to run the cable up his or her shirt. You get a look at first but I have never had someone say no. This is also a good icebreaker if they are nervous about the interview.
 
Originally posted by Sportsguy:
I try to do that, but usually the reporter I work with regularly refuses and just runs it over his shoulder. Makes me look bad, but he doesn't care.
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Next time you do a shot with him, stick him. If he asks/demands the lav then tell him only if he puts it on right. If he/she is on-air "talent", then they should know how a lav goes on.


:cool:
 
Originally posted by F4 Fan:
We recently go an exclusive interview with Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs. [snip] Long story short he has his own microphone that he prefers to wear.
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Whoa. I know vocalists who bring their own microphones along to every gig, understandably each mic has its own characteristics and some people sound better with particular mics (others are sponsored...) but a specific mic for SPEECH!? I know he has a big ego, but whoa - this is a whole new level.

Dammit, I fed his kids with my Mac gear, although he fed me for a while too. And clothed me. For a few years (the coloured iMac days) I had so many Apple shirts I could go two weeks .... and freebie pens and thingamabobs.
 
When I do stuff for the local mega-church it get's worse...

Family Minitries pastor only wears A-T with interchangeable heads, but he has the omni,supercardiod, and fig8 heads.... it sounds ok but is damn hard to hide....

Head pastor only wears Countryman e6 (micro headset) or sennheiser MKE102 with the copper cable. No 104, no steel cable...

Youth pastor insists on wearing this "Masutsumio" offbrand ECM77, he says it's "good luck" but the damn thing has a worn connector that pops (xlr) and he wont let anyone do anything to the thing...

The preschool minister refuses to lav whatsoever, she owns her own Azden shotgun that we boom... but Azden seems to be legendary, for their crap equipment.

I dont mind this ususally, I've been working with them for a couple years and I've gotten used to this. and yet you complain about Jobs? I've got more TA5 to Lemo to funny Sennheiser connector to XLR to japanese car spark plug to Lemo (Running senn. skm 3000eng) adaptors then I care to count... dont be picky with Jobs....at least his worked. Right?
 
I miced up Jacqueline Bisset once.. clipped the mic, looped the cord and dropped it from the low v-neck collar down the inside of her blouse and helped her feed it out around her waist and out the back to the cable..... she didn't have a bra on and my, my ... pros should always dress the cable.. um hm.
 
The Steve Jobs shoot was almost like getting to sit down and interview the President, I’m not trying to exaggerate anything here, but it’s the closet comparison I can make. Lot’s of security, tight schedule. While we were waiting for him we’d get updates on the whereabouts of “E-1.” Now we had a good idea who E-1 was, but not what it stood for. Turns out its code for Executive – One, in other words Mr. Jobs himself. And yes the mic did work, and Mr. Jobs seems like a decent enough, though harried executive.
 
Originally posted by circle7:
I miced up Jacqueline Bisset once.. clipped the mic, looped the cord and dropped it from the low v-neck collar down the inside of her blouse and helped her feed it out around her waist and out the back to the cable..... she didn't have a bra on and my, my ... pros should always dress the cable.. um hm.
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My sound guys ALWAYS tel the talent to put the mic down their shirt and bring it out the bottom He tells them which end to leave up top and which end to bring out the bottom.

If I caught him trying to cop a look or worse - a feel by dropping the cable down her blouse himself, he'd NEVER work for me again. That is totally unprofessional and it makes the talnet feel like they've been handled by a slimey sound guy.

Just my two cents.

Warren
 
I did a piece for the CBS Early Show recently. A PIO I needed to interview was pretty full of himself and scoffed at the necessity of running the wire under his shirt... he was a very important, very busy man, you know.

I wanted pretty badly to pop him in the snotlocker; but, instead, I took the sugar-draws-more-flies route: "I'd really appreciate it if you did. This piece is going to have my name on it, and I'd like it to show CBS that I pay attention to details."

Ima Hotshot pondered for a moment: "Okay. Gimme the wire."

His interview got replaced with a NAT of ducks quacking and running shoes hitting the ground.

Life is good.
 
And to all the reporters...my lav is not a damn wip! Nor is the cable a jumprope. Don't treat it like one!

I sometimes have to do in interview with my VHF junk wireless and the only way that it works well is if it is in line of sight. So sometimes my transmitter is visible, but never the cable.
 
Originally posted by Baltimore Shooter:
If I caught him trying to cop a look or worse - a feel by dropping the cable down her blouse himself, he'd NEVER work for me again. That is totally unprofessional and it makes the talnet feel like they've been handled by a slimey sound guy.
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Take ya hand off it Warren...

I have had on more than one occation talent wearing what can best be described as "figure hugging" attire & taking a few minutes with them to explain what I want has never caused any problems.
Best one was a girl who just totally stripped off for me and all she was wearing under her dress was a g-string and a smile.
(One of the best figures I have seen on a woman in years)
I stuck the microphone to the side of one boob with some surgical tape, then underneath the said item and one small tab on her side to keep the cable in place.
To hold up the transmitter an elasticated belt with velcro fasteners which is wafer thick to clip the transmitter on.
As the piece was a walk talk & lots of moving the sound was clean crisp and she was happy to help out.
Result: clean sound, no visable cable under the clothing which annoys me as much as a visable cable plus a happy producer / telent etc.

Every person and every set up is different, most women appreciate I'm just doing my job and yes some days you cop an eye full but that sure as hell don't make me or any other sound guy a slime ball. I am making sure I get the job done properly the first time.
Getting and using the Pin Microphone has certainly made my job a whole lot easier & the girls like the change in where I can now hide a microphone. (it's no fun trying to hide a microhone in the street) Those who work full time in the industry know why us sound guys love clevage as it's the best place in the world to hide a microphone. Until you get a woman whose bra is too small and it creaks. (some sound like an old wooden ship in a storm)
For the average chick from the street taking a moment to tell them why I am doing what I am about to do gets the idea across. That includes pinning say a ECM77 to a blazer and hiding a cable inside the jacket,just taking a moment out to tell them saves a whole heap of problems.
That also applies to blokes as well as most guys find it a bit invasive having another bloke shoving stuff down their shirt and it's a far less homophobic society here than your neck of the woods but taking the time while showing the courtesy goes a long way to making the on air talent fell like they are working with professionals. Act in such a manner and people will reciprocate,it's not that hard.

As a sound guy if anything goes wrong from a storm suddenly wrecking the shoot to the lights blowing or a RF hit on the wireless it's always the sound guys fault so I am going to give you lot no ammunition to play with.
You get what you pay for at the end of the day.
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