The Gotham Gazette Marches On

Friday, March 18, 2011 - 12:00am
Disaster Relief
Our thoughts go out to everyone affected by the devastation in Japan. Here are some good places to help:

Tax Preparation for Film Crews
Spring is coming and you know what that means! Time for us to publish Anne K. Johnson's helpful article on filing your taxes as a freelance production person, now updated for 2011! What, you were maybe expecting birds and flowers?

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The Panasonic AG-AF100 - First Look

The AF-100 is a nifty new camera from Panasonic, but be sure you install the new firmware patch, which adds an warning message to tell you when there's no audio recording during variable framerate filming. It's available for download here.

They're available for rent from Gotham Digital's nifty new website (fully patched, natch.)

And if you'd just plumb like to know more about 'em, read on for Cory Allen's review.

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Arriflex releases Alexa 3.0 firmware

Arriflex released firmware version 3.0 for their Alexa camera adding audio recording capabilites via the 5 pin XLRF connector. Contact our sales department to order custom XLR5M to dual XLR3F adaptor cables.

From their release notes:

The XLR 5-pin connector on the camera’s right side can now accept a 2 channel, line level balanced audio  input. A/D conversion occurs at 24 bit/48 kHz. Audio can be recorded at 23.976, 24, 25, 29.97 and 30 fps. The camera records this audio into the QuickTime/ProRes file and embeds it into all HD-SDI outputs and the ARRIRAW data stream. Playback of audio is planned for a future software update.

Smooth (Boom) Operator
Check out this piece from Markee Magazine, detailing how Jeff Pullman and crew are able to pull off the difficult and strenuous boom work of In Treatment (aided and abetted by Gotham and Kit Cool)
The Good Solder
Alex Rastopchin from the Gotham service department has prepared a video demonstrating soldering XLR connectors, all set to the thrilling strains of his music. Click on the link below to watch the video:

 

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Invisity Cleaning Procedure: Simple and Easy
There's little worse than a waxy earpiece. Learn how to clean a Phonak Invisity safely and effectively.

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Oscar Nods
Gary A. Rizzo, Lora Hirschberg, and Ed Novick

Congratulations to Ed Novick and his crew on his Academy Award win for his sound mixing on Inception!

And while we're making Oscar notes, check out these questionnaires leaked from sources deep within the Academy to someone we can't definitively say doesn't not have the initials J.A. and filled out by the sound category nominees for Salt, Social Network, and True Grit.

Congratulations are also due to Frank Stettner and his crew, for winning the CAS Outstanding Achievement in Sound Mixing for a Television Series for Boardwalk Empire!
And, last but certainly not least, congratulations to Ken Ishii on his CAS and BAFTA nominations for the production mixing of the tremendous Black Swan!

 
Don't Put It Away Wet
Those April showers are coming, sooner than you think, so why not get a brand new Pop 'N' Work tent to keep your gear (and you) dry? Gotham Sound is pleased to announce we're carrying these now. Available in a variety of sizes!
Cirque du micFrequency

Spectrum Bridge has released micFrequency, an application for iPhones and iPads that displays which TV band frequencies are available for wireless microphones in your area. It's a nifty idea, but the implementation leaves a lot to be desired.  It's neat that it connects via WiFi to the FCC database and cross-references your GPS location (or any location you care to enter) with the open TV channels, but it produces charts that are unhelpful at best, with no ability to drilldown into the availability of specific frequency ranges, and flat-out misleading at worst. The list for New York displayed as not available many of the blocks that are commonly used and legally usable in this area.

It's not without its good points. It lays out the information in a much easier to read fashion than a lot of the information available online and it does have a convenient conversion chart between block frequencies and TV channels, but $5 seems a lot to lay out for better formatting, so we'd give micFrequency a pass, at least in this iteration.

Fire Sale!

We're cleaning out our basement and passing the savings on to you! Come take a look at our giant pile of gently used and new equipment and make us an offer! Hurry because one of these days we'll get sick of it and consume the whole works in flame! What? No? But then why's it called a fire sale? Ah, very well, you should come and look anyway.
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Submitted 13 years 8 months ago by wbsmithson5.