Watching movies through audio geek eyes. What's your observations?

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kristianjohnsen

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Mar 13, 2011
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Here are two I recently made:

In the latest Mission Impossible movie there is a Behringer DJ mixer installed in one of the workstations at the satellite relay station.

In the last movie before that, when Laurence Fishburne is standing over Tom Cruise in restraints in an interrogation room, the view through the one-way mirror from the control room has a Yamaha DM 1000 in the bottom of the frame.

So, do you have any observations to share?
 
Re: Watching movies through audio geek eyes. What's your observations?

I'm wondering what the mixer is that shows up nightly behind Paul Schaeffer on the David Letterman show. APB?
 
Re: Watching movies through audio geek eyes. What's your observations?

I was actually just thinking this today after watching Accepted. It bothers me a little but you have to remember to let go of reality when watching tv and movies then also realize that 90% of the population has no idea.

Accepted:
-Unknown brand mixer with nothing plugged into it
-DJ on stage with two EV S200's for a 3-400 person dance party

Blade 2?:
-Huge underground night club with a couple JBL EONs on tripods in the crowd
 
Re: Watching movies through audio geek eyes. What's your observations?

I've lost count of all the sci-fi movies with spaceship control panels full of cast-off DJ mixers and various other leftovers. Can't complain, though. I loaned a local production of Rent a prop rack full of old AudioArts gear. The big colorful knobs read well from the house.

My #1 observation: TOO MANY MOVIE CHARACTERS SING INTO THE TOP OF SIDE-ENTRY MICROPHONES!!!1!1!

Sorry, couldn't help it. I guess it's a symptom of the professional dynamics of a movie set that these things happen.
 
Re: Watching movies through audio geek eyes. What's your observations?

If a Grass Valley production video switcher can be used to blow up planets, then most tech gear becomes pretty open for as props.

I liked the remote production truck in the 2005 movie version of War of the Worlds where all electronics are knocked out due to an EMP type event yet the production truck still works. The shots of the interior show SurgeX units in the racks, apparently the production company got the truck from a local station and it happened to have SurgeX in it and SurgeX had no problem agreeing to the name appearing under those circumstances.
 
Re: Watching movies through audio geek eyes. What's your observations?

Back when TV was first finding its way into American homes there was a show called "Captain Video". It was pretty much shot in an office annex or warehouse. The "steering wheel" or "hatch release" was an old wall-mounted fire-hose reel and the Morse code key was an office stapler. They were pretty much using the same things we used at home to play "spaceman" short of taping together old cardboard appliance boxes to make our "spaceship". It was a great day in the neighborhood when someone got a new hot water heater, bathtub, kitchen range or the like. Those big old boxes were like gold for us kids.

And for summer time sliding fun we used the old waxed cardboard to sled down any hill with that slick, long prairie grass.......

I pity todays kids peering into electronic games.
 
Re: Watching movies through audio geek eyes. What's your observations?

Iron Man 2 sports JBL Eon's on tripods with an unknown turntable, I think numark. Also Shure Wireless is featured.
 
Re: Watching movies through audio geek eyes. What's your observations?

Silas Pradetto said:
All I know is that the local movie theater has at least a couple blown speakers in every room. When bullets zoom to that surround speaker it crackles or bottoms out, or in one, I think Front Left is missing altogether.
Click to expand...

This astounds me. In a system where levels are calibrated and you know the maximum voltage any component will ever see, how hard is it to design a system that does at least 3dB more than that?
 
Re: Watching movies through audio geek eyes. What's your observations?

Bennett Prescott said:
This astounds me. In a system where levels are calibrated and you know the maximum voltage any component will ever see, how hard is it to design a system that does at least 3dB more than that?
Click to expand...

It's not exactly a top-quality theater; but yes, you'd think, but apparently, they didn't...
 
Re: Watching movies through audio geek eyes. What's your observations?

Bennett Prescott said:
This astounds me. In a system where levels are calibrated and you know the maximum voltage any component will ever see, how hard is it to design a system that does at least 3dB more than that?
Click to expand...


We know it's not hard... it's just the knuckleheads that install and set-up the system.... was the system ever designed, wired and optimized properly? ..then.... There's the Movie Theatre A/v guy with limited experience, getting paid barely above minimum wage, that starts playing with the cool knobs and blinky lights.

Hammer

I think the last possible reason is probably the most accurate one.
 
Re: Watching movies through audio geek eyes. What's your observations?

It looks like someone went to guitar center and bought the cheapest behringer stuff they could find. Then there's a dj cd player and what looks like a professional beta recorder.

on the desk in the background, there's some Fat's calabash chicken. Which is, IMO, tasty stuff.
 
Re: Watching movies through audio geek eyes. What's your observations?

Charlie Zureki said:
We know it's not hard... it's just the knuckleheads that install and set-up the system.... was the system ever designed, wired and optimized properly? ..then.... There's the Movie Theatre A/v guy with limited experience, getting paid barely above minimum wage, that starts playing with the cool knobs and blinky lights.

Hammer

I think the last possible reason is probably the most accurate one.
Click to expand...



There was (notice I said was) a local movie theater operator with two different locations. I had gone to a movie in both locations within a couple months of each other and at both locations there was a consistent very noticeable buzz in the audio. So I thought I would present my services to the theater operator, made a few phone calls, all that got me was "no one else has said anything about any buzz.....we'll have our technician look into it". what ever their technician was doing at least it was consistent from location to location!


I think the movie Contact had some Klark and Manley equipment in the background as rack filler.
 
Re: Watching movies through audio geek eyes. What's your observations?

Milt Hathaway said:
My #1 observation: TOO MANY MOVIE CHARACTERS SING INTO THE TOP OF SIDE-ENTRY MICROPHONES!!!1!1!

Sorry, couldn't help it. I guess it's a symptom of the professional dynamics of a movie set that these things happen.
Click to expand...

I think the public in general learn their "mic technique" from watching movies, music videos and news reporters who hold the mic down at their waist.
 
Re: Watching movies through audio geek eyes. What's your observations?

What network is Letterman on now? RCA owned NBC.

What I find interesting: the desk mics are essentially props or set dressing. The boss is double-mic'd lavs...
 
Re: Watching movies through audio geek eyes. What's your observations?

Tim McCulloch said:
What I find interesting: the desk mics are essentially props or set dressing. The boss is double-mic'd lavs...
Click to expand...

I was watching Late Night with Jimmy Fallon last week, and he was playing audio clips from his iPhone by holding it up to his desk mic. I always figured they were just props, but I suppose it's easy enough to wire one up for real, just in case.
 
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