by Bryant Falk
So there I was off to Vegas as a hired gun to help fix and create audio/video for a multitude of purposes. I thought I had everything! My laptop complete with all the software I could ever need. A cornucopia of software and a couple of fire wire hard drives.
So there I was happily spending all night cutting video projects and recording voice-overs, when bam – hit me. The old PC versus Mac conflict. Let me explain.
After downloading the finished videos I then ran down to the presentation area where they were all running PC laptops for their Powerpoint presentations. Turns out none of the machines had firewire connections for me to patch into. One thing I had forgotten was a USB drive to interface with systems missing the 1394 connector.
After finding a work around, (using the presenter’s USB drive and transferring from my laptop), I thought, hey, time to make an itemized production list, and share it with you.
(1) Laptop (for me, it’s a Macbook Pro, so I’ll work from there).
(2) Software (expanded below).
(3) External firewire drives (800 gigabytes to start).
(4) USB drive if you have the room.
(5) Firewire 400 and 800 cables.
(6) USB cables, (all connectors and configurations).
(7) USB flash drive (4 gigabytes is good to start).
(8) DV camera for monitoring and digitizing.
(9) Microphone for voice-overs.
(10) RCA cables for monitoring on hotel flat screen.
(11) 1/8th inch to RCA connectors for monitoring laptop audio.
(12) Headphones.
(13) Light for video camera for additional shoots.
(14) Tape stock for camera.
(15) Monopod for steadier shots. Tripod would be good, too.
The software starts with Final Cut Studio 2 and is supported with Sorenson Squeeze, Flip for Mac, Adobe Photoshop and a few others. These allow me to handle almost any type of movie and still file that is thrown my way. As a hired gun I feel it’s my responsibility to have all the angles covered. Not always easy to do, but it’s a fun challenge.
Bryant Falk has been a producer and engineer for over 12 years working with such clients as The Ricki Lake Show, Coca-Cola, Sports Illustrated, Valley National Bank, and MTV’s The Shop. His company Abacus Audio (www.abacus.nyc) handles many aspects of the audio production field from creative and production to mixing and final output.
