Gaffe Tape

Camping with gaffe tape...

It has been a long belief that everything can be fixed with duct tape, and in no place more is this true, than while camping. Duct tape fixes leaks in tents, makes handy straps, implement some sticks and you can just about make anything while in the woods. People have written books "100 uses for Duct Tape" and others have even made TV shows. Just watch an episode of Myth Busters and count the number of times you see duct tape in hand.

I use gaffe tape. I find it to be more practical and a staple of the industry that I have come to plant myself in. Gaffe tape is always on me, it's covers the back of my phone, my iPad and all my tools that I need write my name on in silver sharpie, there is gaffe tape.

On a recent multi night winter backpack trip, I had managed to put a good gash in my leg as well as my hiking pants. I had a roll of gaffe tape in my bag and now bleeding and exposed in the winter to a 1'+ of fresh snow, I did hesitate for a moment to not only put a gaffe tape patch on my tear in my pants, but it also worked just great for covering my injury as well.

I have since healed, but have not gone any further to ment my pants as the tape has held up just fine. I did a nice job of making sure the tape went on smoothly and taped both the inside and outside of the pants, as if you ever noted, that if gaffe tape sticks to itself (sticky side to sticky side) there is no means of taking it apart.


I went hiking this weekend, using those very pants again. While at the top of Mt. Liberty, I encountered a small group of people that I had a quick chat with while at the summet. Only after a few quick words in on of the members of the other group, surprised and entertained asked "Is that Gaffe tape on your pants" I relied "Why yes, yes it is!" as I was instantly impressed that he called it out as gaffe tape, and thus a bond, as strong as the tape it self had just formed over the joy and bond over the culture that is gaff tape.
He a high school drama instructor, out hiking with some of his student techies. We had a good chat over all things gaffe, audio, teater, and lighting. His students were both sophomores in high school and quite avid and skilled persons into theater lighting and sound, which if you no me in the slightest, is where I got myself started.


This was too good of a moment to note share, and thus, I write.


Chris

Tip:


Here is a good one to go with!

Using an external Microphone Pre-amp? Instead of plugging it into the "line in" on your mixer, and running the signal through a pre-amp yet again and adding noise to your signal, enter in through your insert return.

This skips the pre-amp of the mixer and any attenuation and noise that the mixers lesser quality pre-amps will add to your signal.

Chris

http://www.jmu.edu/wmra-eng/archive/repeatcoil.pdf 

This is a photo from a recent film shoot I had done this past weekend. I thought it would be something worth showing. This is surely not one of my finest and proudest moments, but it was a feat of engineering at its best!

The night prior to having to leave for the cape at 5am on a Sunday morning, I had worked a charity event and did not get back to my place till 3am. With a two hour nap, I was not my sharpest when I had to repack from one event to the next. Luckily and unfortunately at the same time, the only item of mine I forgot to pack were the two microphone blimps I had set aside from myself for the day.

Thankfully there were only a few shots outside, the wind was very light, and the microphone I had picked to use for the outside shoots had three degrees of High Pass Filter, which does a rather good job at cutting wind rumble. A knitted glove of mine that I had on me did just the job of giving the microphone that added layer I needed, and sounded just perfect for the amount of wind that I had to deal with on that day, asidee from being a good source of a laugh.

Sound Speed

Recently I lended a hand upon a film set for a short, with some colleges of mine. It was the the 20th or so time that I have "Boom Opped" in the wide world of audio, and I must say I find myself digging it quite a bit. I never really have found much an attraction to holding a stick with a wad of cotton balls up in the air for prolong periods of time rather appealing, until lately.

There is some joy in that all of your equipment is strapped on to you and that everything is right there in reach, not having to run around to trouble shoot something is a huge plus for me. Having control over every (or almost every) aspect in the audio product while being the sound guy in this particular instance is quite unique, that is holding the microphone and listening to it in a manner more attentively than I might have for a TV or studio application. The ability to react as a actor moves about, not having to reply on their microphone technique just makes doing this work so much more enjoyable. as they turn to move their head, walk and talk on a windy, (and in my case, a snowy day) jump in and out of a car, all treats, an engineer never gets to play with while in a studio.


My favorite part, recording room tone. Room tone, being what the space that you are shooting in sounds like when no one is speaking. Sound captured to be used as filler durring the editing process. When you make everyone stop everything that they are doing, breathe in a slow and steady manner, and listen. Listen ever so intensely. Doing so makes me smirk a little. To be able to hear that silence among a large group of people, even more so, being as young as me living in the city, silence, actual real silence, in the middle of everything, is a blessing.

~Chris

Truck Vs. Bicycle

In some manners I lost. However, in many, I will always win this one.


This was durring a music festival I did over the summer as a bunch of the crew was traveling in the back of a pickup... I took the means less fossil.

I bet you look good in a sweatervest

She said I make her feel glowy,... that is something surely worth perusing