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Heartsick

CamVader

CamVader

I had a shoot today that went really well. The actor's performances were outstanding. Then I returned home and the day went to hell.

The shots look great, but my audio has come up missing from my DR-100. It filed takes sequentially like this:

DR-100_011/type - WAV audio/size 0 KB
DR-100_012/type - WAV audio/size 0 KB
DR-100_013/type - WAV audio/size 0 KB, etc.

The total number equaling the number of shots on the shot list. Oddly enough, my test WAV files from this morning on the same unit/card are fine.

The actors are going to want to kill me, but I had no error codes and everything performed as normal - until I returned home. This same card has performed well with about two hours of audio total from different projects - until now. Batteries were strong.

I think I'm going to be sick. I don't even have an error code to explain to them, just empty WAV files. How to proceed with notifying those with a stake? What do you tell them?

I think I'm going to be sick, again. :(
 
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Ouch :( I know the feeling - had a card with a day's work on it go kaput a couple of months ago.

Have you got any data recovery software you could use to try and retrieve the files?
 
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That is a huge bummer. No question about it. Been there before. Sucks. Sorry to hear that kinda news. Technical difficulties can be overcome. Time for a reshoot or if you love what you're seeing, maybe do some dubbing? Good luck dude. You can tackle this.
 
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wheatgrinder said:
ah man it happens.

Shoot it again, it will be even better this time.
Click to expand...

It was already a re-shoot changing the ending. I guess honesty is the best policy and offer a re-shoot. I'll need to reimburse people for fuel at the very least X2. One actor had a 3 hour round trip that probably cost him $40.00. He was fine with the "no-budget" premise the first time around.

Thanks, chili. I'll look into the data recovery option/possibility. This is new and I had 4 back-up cards if needed, if I just knew. I can't trust that unit for letting me know if/when there is a problem and the card was on the vendors "approved" list.

Anybody want to buy a Tascam DR-100 so I can throw something toward a Marantz? ;)
 
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Flicker Pictures said:
That is a huge bummer. No question about it. Been there before. Sucks. Sorry to hear that kinda news. Technical difficulties can be overcome. Time for a reshoot or if you love what you're seeing, maybe do some dubbing? Good luck dude. You can tackle this.
Click to expand...

That's the spirit! I need spirit.

Maybe I should edit the bastage and head to where the talent is and do ADR at their locale? I think having a reasonable fix, a solution, is the best way to break the news.
 
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I feel for ya, man...

screaming.gif


screaming.jpg
 
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That's a rough break, dude. :no:

I had audio shut off on a shoot, once. It was an actual user-error, where the camera operator manually turned off the audio switches for some unknown reason. Boom operator was still doing his thing, and all cables connected... it just didn't get physically recorded. Ended up trying to make that particular scene "arty" by going crazy on the music and cutting it weird. Ya gotta salvage what ya got, sometimes.

Btw, this is a strong reason to be dumping all your files to drives during the shoot, if you're recording to cards. I've had two occasions (on the one day!) shooting video when the cards have not recordered properly. The guy assigned to data-dumps was able to notify us pretty quickly, so it wasn't that hard to backtrack a bit.

Good luck with fixing this up, dude. I feel for ya.
 
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Thanks for the commiseration, folks. I feel marginally better after taking a long nap and resigning myself to the solution. I'm going to give ADR a whirl on a Macbook Pro as soon as the talent will allow. I'll go back and get room tone at the original location and see if I can't mix this thing to a reasonable facsimile.

Time to stop sulking and get things done. :cool: This will be a circus trick, for sure. :yes:
 
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wheatgrinder said:
lock the edit of that scene first maybe? With judicious J cuts and lots of "reaction" shots maybe you can reduce the amount of accurate lip sync you need to do. ..
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That's the plan. Between that, manipulating time (while correcting pitch), and cutting up the dialog and placing it on different tracks (so it can be nudged around on the timeline) in Audition. Another track of nats (room tone) will be needed to to blend things.

The other great thing about Audition is the actor can see video of themselves in the scene while doing ADR (on another monitor).

:lol: The other option is to go immediately for a "Godzilla vs. Mothra" feel with different actors doing voice in fake Japanese accents. After all, it's a comedy. I'll try the original actors first, though. :lol:
 
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Morris said:
In that's it's a comedy, throw in the sound of a jack hammer and just have subtitles for what the actors are saying.
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Well, if I ever want to work with these actors again I have to make every attempt to fix things.

I've learned a valuable lesson and I'll learn some ADR technique. It's not all bad.
 
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I figured I might as well keep everyone up to date on the soap opera.

1 actor votes to re-shoot vs. ADR - Much easier for me

1 actor (who lives the furthest away) hasn't answered, but it is the holiday weekend in the US.

If anyone wants to shoot a reality comedy short, shoot me shooting a comedy short. ;)
 
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