Congratulations to ME!

At 7:22 PM last night, an American Idol fan from Wichita, Kansas became the 10,000th visitor to my blog. His visit may have lasted less than a second, but it still counts!

I started this blog a year and a half ago as a way to communicate with students. It didn't work; instead I get baseball fans. Oh, well, it still works out to about 20 visits a day, and even excluding immediate family, that means I'm popular. Not enough to sell ads, but popular enough that I continue to write baseball updates.

Happy Thanksgiving!

A year ago, I wrote one of my most popular postings about all the things I have to be thankful for.

This year I have all the same things to appreciate, and one thing more... our dog Riley. My wife Rachel found Riley for us last January, and he has been a hugely positive influence in our lives. Dogs are wonderful. He is a pisher at times, but more often than not, he is a bundle of undying love. I always feel better when I get home and see him jumping for joy (literally). I think everyone should have a dog.

This year we celebrated with a fantastic dinner, and then watching USC beat Arizona State, which brings USC one step closer to the Rose Bowl. They still have to beat UCLA next week as their final regular game of the season.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hearing Loss Update

The correct numbers for what I quoted off my head in class:


Noise Exposure
Level - Time
90 dB - 8 hours
95 dB - 4 hours
100 dB - 2 hour
105 dB - 1 hour
110 dB - 30 min
120 dB- 7.5 min
130 dB - potentially instantaneous

Hearnet.com
HEI.org

MPSE Sound Show!

I highly recommend the MPSE Sound Show for people interesting in learning more about the sound editing process. Click on the image below for more info:

Office Hours

In addition to my normal Thursday office hours (3:30 PM - 4:30 PM) I will be adding office hours on Friday afternoons as well. For at least the next three weeks these hours will be 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM. (After 10/19 they may change.)

In addition, I will also be around briefly tomorrow (Tuesday). Please be sure to contact me for an appointment if you need to see me.

Cinema Audio Society Quarterly

The new issue of the Cinema Audio Society Quarterly Magazine (with four articles by yours truly) is now available for download here.

Headphones

A student asks:
I'm off to buy a new set of headphones. Any suggestions on make or model?

Sony MDR-V600 (better and cheaper) or Sony MDR-7506. They are so much the industry standard that people using other headphones are sometimes looked at as unprofessional (although there are a few other models that are pretty good too). They can be used for any purpose from production mixing through dialogue editing and provide excellent insulation from exerior noise.

PLEASE do not use ear buds or other cheap headphones designed for use with MP3 players. They are deliberately cheap and do not insulate well.

Why We're Better than NYU

Well, Nobody's Perfect

Teacher: Who remembers Some Like It Hot?

Student: Isn't that the one where in the end they're all on a boat and it blows up?

--Cinema Studies class, NYU

via Overheard in New York, Mar 4, 2007

What it takes to be great

What it takes to be great

CAS Quarterly

I am happy to announce the new issue of the Cinema Audio Society's Quarterly magazine is now available for download here

This includes my article on "What's New in Pro Tools 7.2?" (released just in time for the 7.3 upgrade!).

Revised Quiz Scores

Revised grades with corrected Quiz 14 scores are posted.

242 Quiz Error

There was a massive computer error on the final quiz and about 14 grades registered as zero instead of a grade. I'll post the corrected versions tomorrow afternoon.

242 Final Grades

Final grades have been posted on my office door. They include all extra credit assignments and scaling.

PLEASE STOP BY AND CHECK YOUR GRADE. If you think there is an error, contact the SA Jonathan IMMEDIATELY. Grade sheets will be turned in next week. Any errors that are not corrected by then will not be fixable until next semester.

The class average on the final quiz was dismal. Almost half the class skipped the quiz entirely and got a zero. For most people, this score was dropped as the lowest.

With scaling and the extra credit assignments, the class average ended at a B+. This group had the widest grade range I've ever had, from A to D+. Several people had near-perfect scores throughout the semester, and a few people missed numerous quizzes. Only one person had a grade low enough to have to repeat the class (D+). Three people are in the C range, which means they need to do well enough in their other cinema classes to keep their average at a B- or better to avoid repeating. Everyone else (48 out of 52 students) had a grade of B- or higher.

Good work, and good luck next semester!

Scenes I Use

Several students have asked for recommendations for movies that use sound and/or music well. Here is the tip of the iceberg.

2001
32 SHORT FILMS ABOUT GLENN GOULD
THE ABYSS
ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD (1939)
ALIEN
ALIENS
ALTERED STATES
AMELIE
AMERICAN GRAFFITI
AND GOD SPOKE
APOCALYPSE NOW
BACK TO THE FUTURE
THE BEAR
BEAUTY & THE BEAST (animated)
THE BLACK STALLION
BLOW OUT
BROADCAST NEWS
DAS BOOT
DIVA
CAST AWAY
CITIZEN KANE
THE CONVERSATION
DELICATESSEN
THE EXORCIST
FISTFUL OF DOLLARS, FEW DOLLARS MORE, and THE GOOD, BAD & UGLY
FRANKENSTEIN (1931) & BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN
GODFATHER I & II
THE GRADUATE
INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS (1972)
IRON GIANT
JURASSIC PARK
KING KONG (1933)
LIVING IN OBLIVION
LORD OF THE RINGS TRILOGY
M. HULOT'S HOLIDAY, MON ONCLE, PLAYTIME et JOUR de FETE (Tati) *** MUST SEES
MALCOLM X
THE MATRIX
MONSTER'S INC.
THE NAKED GUN
NEVER CRY WOLF
NORTH BY NORTHWEST
ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA
ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST
THE PARTY
POSTCARDS FROM THE EDGE
PRIMARY COLORS
PSYCHO
RAGING BULL
RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK
RETURN OF THE PINK PANTHER
SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER
SAVING PRIVATE RYAN
SEVEN SAMURAI
SINGIN' IN THE RAIN
SNEAKERS
STAR TREK II: WRATH OF KHAN & IV: VOYAGE HOME
STAR WARS & EMPIRE STRIKES BACK
TAXI DRIVER
T2
THE TESTAMENT OF DR. MABUSE
(original German version, NOT the dubbed version which is edited & remixed)
TOUCH OF EVIL
TOY STORY I & II
TROIS COULEURS: BLEU, ROUGE et BLANC (Kieslowski), THE DEKALOG and DOUBLE LIFE OF VERONIQUE
UNFORGIVEN
USUAL SUSPECTS
VERTIGO
VIVRE SA VIE
WALLACE AND GROMIT: THE WRONG TROUSERS
WHAT'S UP TIGER LILY?
WHEN HARRY MET SALLY
WIZARD OF OZ

Office Hours

Due to the usual end-of-semester madness, I will not have normal office hours next week.
Here are my office hours for the rest of the semester:

Wed 11/29 5:00 PM - 7:00 PM (normal)

Tue 12/05 1:00 PM - 3:00 PM (changed)

Wed 12/06 2:00 PM - 4:00 PM (changed)

242 Students: Final grades will be posted as soon as I get today's quiz results back, which should be no later than Friday.

Join the MPSE!

Click here to JOIN THE MOTION PICTURE SOUND EDITORS and see lots of movies for a low annual student membership fee of $35. Click on "Download Student Membership Form" (not "Affiliate" Membership Form) and get me or any faculty member (it does not have to be sound faculty or an MPSE member) to sign it for you during office hours. You must also send a copy of your ID and a check along with your application to the address on the form. It may take more than a month for membership card to be sent to you.

242 Reminders

Our last class is tomorrow morning.

There WILL be a quiz. All quizzes are cumulative, but this quiz will focus mostly on the TIME CODE lecture material from last week. I'm sorry, but my cheap-ass MP3 recorder failed again last week, so there's no lecture notes on the web site.

This is also the last chance to turn in any late material.

Lots to be Thankful For!

On the Eve of Thanksgiving, I have a lot to be thankful for.

Just under two years ago, I was in a coma for two weeks while doctors tried to figure out what was wrong with me. I had two major surgeries and was in the hospital for a total of a month, and I am extraordinarily lucky to be alive. I am thankful for the excellent doctors at St. Joseph's in Burbank.

My recovery was extremely slow. I was on a walker for two weeks and disability for three months. I was on a cane for five months, and in physical therapy for nine months, and I didn't consider myself fully recovered until more than a year had passed. This thought occurred to me when I was marching back and forth in front of 242 class the other day (to demonstrate the concepts of sync) and I was winded at the end, and again today as we went hiking and I got short of breath. Although my lungs do not expand the way they used to before the two surgeries (for pneumonia, pleurisy, empyema, and pericarditis), they are a lot better than they were at their worst. It used to take me about ten minutes to walk down the stairs from the bedroom to the living room. Walking up was even worse, it took all my energy, both mental and physical. I remember the first time I was home alone and had to walk up the five steps from the living room to the bathroom by myself. I was very close to not making it. The change between then and now is astronomical, but for quite a while, I thought I would never recover. So I'm thankful that I'm alive and well.

I'm especially thankful for my wife. She saved my life as much as the doctors did. When I went into the hospital, I had no idea how sick I was. I thought I would be out in a few days. I was in a coma before I knew how bad things were, so all the important decisions had to be made by my wife. I can't imagine how difficult this must have been for her. She had gone home to the east coast because her father has been very ill and she needed to be a caretaker for him. It was right before Christmas when I got sick, and she had to fly back out here to be with her unconscious husband. At the time, they had no idea what was wrong with me, and even now they still don't know what caused the initial infection. On Christmas Eve, the doctors told her that I would not survive another week unless something was done. She was confronted with different options from different doctors, and wisely rejected one doctor who had completely misdiagnosed me, and she instead decided on emergency surgery. Thanks to her decision, and the care I got from the other doctors, I survived long enough to eventually beat the infection. I'm also forever indebted to her for being by my side throughout my recovery. Even when I was unconscious she visited me twice a day and read the sports page to me. She left being her father's caretaker to take care of me for months at home, then went back to her father. She had to cook, clean and take care of me like a full-time job. I can can never make up to her for what she has done for me.

I'm forever changed by what happened. I'm a lot more appreciative of the simplest things in life, whether it's enjoying a baseball game at Dodger stadium, a concert at the Hollywood Bowl, a hike in the mountains, or a movie or TV show that moves me.

So for that, I'm thankful.

242 Extra Credit

Confirmation e-mails will be sent out after the holiday weekend.

Happy Thanksgiving!

242 Notes

Quiz scores were weak again. Expect a quiz this week. It will NOT cover the music material that is not finished (and may never be finished at this point). All quizzes are cumulative but focus on recent material.

ALSO remember that the extra credit assignment is due Tuesday morning at 9:00 AM via e-mail only!

GO TROJANS!