Questions: hiring a sound mixer/boom op

Dreadylocks

Dreadylocks

I'm meeting with 3 sound mixer/boom ops tomorrow. They have their own equipment, are available for the shoot days, have some experience in various audio jobs related to film, and are willing to accept my day rate ($75.)

So. I'm not exactly sure what I need to be asking them during the meeting. Obviously I'm going to be getting a feel for who will be easy to work with and a hard worker. But what are some actual questions that you would ask when hiring a sound person?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I don't want to walk in there blind :)
 
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They have their own equipment
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You should find out if they have wireless mics/receivers, as well as boom.

Maybe you need the soundguy to be transmitting to a pack on you, so you can monitor the sound as well. (I've seen some dir do this. I'd find it distracting, but whatever. Last shoot I was on, both the dir & a swing were monitoring the sound on their own receivers, as well as the soundguy!)

Figure out how you want to receive the daily audio. Dump to your computer(s) at end of day? Delivered on a DVD? How do you want to archive the audio. Multiple backups recommended, btw.

Totally unrelated to the above:

You're shooting in someone else's house, right? You'll prolly need to turn off the fridge at some point, 'cos that thing makes a hell of a noise when the compressor kicks in. You do not want to forget to turn the fridge back on, when you are done for the day. Solution? Put your carkeys in the fridge. ;)
 
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See what kind of gear they have if any. If one guy has a carbon fiber boom pole and the other guy a wooden mop handle, that's a good line of demarcation. See what questions they ask you. See if they want a copy of the script -- that'd mean they might actually bother to learn some of the dialog instead of winging it and guessing where the next line is coming from.
 
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See their past work is my criteria.

I don't care if he/she uses a broom pole and records on a ZOOM H-2.
The finish work speaks for itself.
We use aluminum painter's pole. Nothing wrong with that.

It's NOT what you have but HOW you use it.
I've seen better movies done with consumer cam than RED or any other 30K cams!
Same goes with sound equipment.
You're not going to get a sound guy for $75 a day with 100K equipment. You're lucky if you find a competent sound guy who knows how to press record on the recorder.

My advice is look at their work and don't worry about the equipment.
It always worked for me. It's results I need and not fancy gear.
 
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Thanks for the tips, guys :)

@p38, I'm finding it difficult to judge based on previous works since you can never tell how much of the final audio was captured on set or was it all post-production. Know what I mean?

It makes hiring a sound person extra stressful. Ideally I'd like to find someone good and reliable that can be my go-to person. Avoiding this headache in the future would be so nice.

If anyone else has some more ideas or advice, keep it coming :)
 
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While I understand your point, the problem is that the work a production sound mixer/boom op does passes thru many hands before it's heard by anyone but I agree that references are important.

Ask for references and check them. My best jobs are calls I get after having be referred by either a director or (more importantly) an editor who experiences and hears my work before it gets touched.

p38 said:
See their past work is my criteria.

I don't care if he/she uses a broom pole and records on a ZOOM H-2.
The finish work speaks for itself.
We use aluminum painter's pole. Nothing wrong with that.

It's NOT what you have but HOW you use it.
I've seen better movies done with consumer cam than RED or any other 30K cams!
Same goes with sound equipment.
You're not going to get a sound guy for $75 a day with 100K equipment. You're lucky if you find a competent sound guy who knows how to press record on the recorder.

My advice is look at their work and don't worry about the equipment.
It always worked for me. It's results I need and not fancy gear.
Click to expand...
 
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I wouldn't hire a carpenter with a hammer made from a salvaged waffle iron, and like wise, gear often indicates some baseline of skill and commitment to the craft. I've never seen a serious soundie that used a mop handle for a boom. Further, sound gear doesn't cost nearly as much as camera gear and also doesn't obsolete as fast. So there isn't much excuse for someone calling themselves a soundie and running around with junk gear. It's poor judgment for a producer to bet their project on a $28 mic duct taped to a old pool cue.
 
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References? I've never actually hired outside of who I know personally or high recommendations from someone I trust and again, know personally. If you know what projects they have done, shoot the person/company a message on YouTube or Vimeo or Website or whatever they have and ask.

edit: I agree with Brian about the gear too. If you're a working pro, or aspiring to be, and have working experience, it makes sense to invest a fair chunk of your income back into your gear. Hollywood and networks may rent or otherwise provide everything gear wise for you, but outside of it owner-operator is pretty much the norm.
 
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everyone has their own mode of selecting people to do a job.
So, am not surprised you're getting more confused by all these comments.

Ya know, the best thing to do is you decide on your own 'feeling' and not rely on any advice. You may follow an advice and it turns out badly. The advice giver is not responsible. It all ends up in your lap and you have to decide on your own undesrtanding what this job requires.
Again, don't expect anyone to stand there for $75 a day and do a job that requires $700 a day or more. The sound guy am using won't even answer an e-mail for less than $500 plus five days minimum. He's not even in Hollywood but knows what the hell he's doing. Using cheap Rodie mics. However he can put the sound on the track and you swear it's done by super expensive mics. It'all about sound engineering. I know this first hand.

Most of the advice is elementary. Yeah, like check backgrounds, work, equipment, etc.
I don't even go there, to split hair, it should be obvious how anyone goes about a selection process.
You will get lemons once in awhile it's the nature of this business. So, move on and now you know what to look for next time.
Ya know?
 
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