24-Bit Dailies in a 16-Bit World

When I was working production, many times the location on the call sheet would be kind of vague, particularly if we were shooting somewhere remote where there were no obvious house and street numbers, or deep within a park, forest, or open desert. But since I have retired, one of my pastimes has been off-roading in my Jeep. In fact, I am the president of Desert Wranglers Jeep Club (www.desertwranglers.club) based out of the Las Vegas area.

One of the first things that I learned was to always use GPS coordinates to identify a given location or meetup spot. That took the guesswork out of searching for (non-existent) street addresses when there is nothing around but dirt roads and lots of nature! Your smartphone and car navi system will show you GPS coordinates (hit the COMPASS app on your phone), and if you punch those coordinates into your navi or map search -- it will guide you within several feet, even if there is no official path or road.

One of the things that I learned in film school was that you should always keep a "director's notebook" with you, and jot down interesting ideas, unusual stories, shot concepts, and good contacts of resources. The bit about resources is so often overlooked. You never know when, some time in the future, you might need to pick the brain or solicit assistance from a unique personality or organization. Such as.... a Jeep club.

Many years ago, I had the fortunate opportunity to work with the late Orson Welles. We got along very well, and he invited only me and the assistant cameraman to join him at his private table during lunches. During one of those intervals, he shared some career tips with me. I did not take notes; that would have been rude, since this was a friendly conversation and not an interview on the record – I will paraphrase the gist of it.

We often get asked about setting up to do audio podcasts on a tight budget from a home office or simple studio.

My personal recommendations are: Zencastr software for acquisition, and Audacity for the editing (post-production). Both offer free software.