A Day in the Life

Sound Recordist

Time	Activity
06:00	Rise and shine. Shower. Coffee... wake-up. Pack the equipment.
07:00	Morning! Pick-up Ella the Director from her house and off we go. Discuss the revised schedule for the days shoot on the way to Oxford.
09:10	Arrive at Oxford University base, meet the camera operator, Mike and his camera assistant Kate. Head for café around the corner. Over a good mug of java we discuss the first interview of the day with Professor Hopkins.
09:30	Ella introduces us to the Professor and they discuss the planned interview. Mike and I move our kit into the College gardens. Mike likes the bench with cloisters in the background but it's a bit close to a busy corridor - I can hear the doors closing from here. Such is the life of a sound recordist.
09:45	Mike and I are ready to roll. The light's nice with sun streaming into the garden already. Unfortunately, so are the birds! All I can hear are starlings...and a light plane.
09:50	Convince Mike and Ella that we can shoot in the smaller but pretty courtyard with much cleaner sound...phew.
10:00	The interview commences, but the professor has a habit of tapping his chest as he makes a point - right on top of the clip mic. Gently suggest he should try not to...!
10:20	All's going well and I'm learning a great deal about genetics
10:25	Spoke too soon. Thanks to the RAF we'll have to have the professor's last answer again
11:00	Interview one successfully completed - now on to our second location
11:25	Now at Oxford Brookes University, down the road. Ella goes over some questions with Dr Andrews while Mike and set up in the library. Dying for a coffee - but will have to wait.
11:40	Have managed to overcome the library's 'boomy' acoustic by siting the interview in an ante room with some soft furnishings. Ella's happy with the bookish backdrop and Mike's lit it really nicely - BUT, where is that 'hum' coming from?
11:50	Managed to get the air conditioning switched off after pleading with the library manager and buildings and grounds personnel. Now we can start!
13:00	Interview number two smoothly done and with no interruptions for a change. Pack the gear back in the vehicles
13:15	Short drive back to the café that the PM found
13:30	Lunch!
14:15	Off again. Negotiating traffic to leave Oxford behind. Next stop, University of Bath
16:00	Bath's one way systems are as bad as Oxford's! We've got to be quick. Ella wants to grab some GV's of the lovely cityscape before the last interview at five.
16:30	Mike's knocking off some lovely shots of the city, while I gather atmos and wild track - Ella wants some particular sounds while we're here; people chatting in different languages on the street, shoes on pavement, hustle and bustle, cars and traffic noise. We've got that in spades here!
16:50	Ella and I re-negotiate traffic to arrive just in time at the Uni car park... accept the chap with peaked cap says he doesn't know anything about us coming! More negotiating of a different kind now.
17:00	Ella's gone off to meet Professor Randal while Mike and I unpack our gear. I hate being late, hate it, hate it. It looks unprofessional and it is. Anyway, up three flights of stairs with all the gear - where are the lifts!? Mike and I set-up in double time, I give Mike a hand with the lights as Kate loads the camera. Professor Randal is very understanding, fortunately
17:20	Ready to roll... I do not believe this. My DAT recorder has jammed. First time for everything. It's at times like this that shooting on DigiBeta instead of film looks best! Do I try and fix it or go to my back-up Mini Disc recorder? MD it is - we haven't time for anything else.
17:25	Getting late - but here we go
18:20	It's a wrap at last. Pack-up double time. We decide to grab a sandwich here before we set off. A successful day and Ella's got plenty of material - just a tad late.
21:00	Hi honey I'm home! And it's only nine o'clock. Some days go that way, just part of the job. Now about my DAT recorder...

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