People have asked where certain older blogs are kept. Do a Search in Search box for whatever I may have published.

Me, Me, Me, Me, Me...

/

By demand, some people wanted to see a picture displaying some of the field recording gear I often use.

Death Star Me (Stereo Videmic X mic) is above my left hand, Micro-Me (Stereo VideoMic Pro mic) is above my right hand, Mini-Me (NT5 mic) is at my left knee, Me (NTG3 mic) is on my right side, and Mega Me (NTG8 mic) at my left side. 

Below the Mega Blimp is a PortaBrace bag housing a Sound Devices 744T field recorder, a Sound Devices MixPre-D field mixer, and a Sony MDR-V55 headphones. The recorder hanging below the Death Star is a Tascam DR-40 handheld recorder.

Ups & Downs of field recordings

/

A piece of my Pile of Gear! These "things" are what I use to field record vehicle sounds.

Just wanted to share about yesterday's field recording session of a modified sports car.

Because of the NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement), I can't say what this project was for, nor can I post pictures/videos of the session. However, I would like to share my thoughts about what went well and what DID NOT go well. First of all, Don't ever buy these pieces of crap Cobra CXT545 Walkie Talkies. They SUCK! I couldn't communicate with the driver even when he was only half a mile away from me. We were in the line of sight without any obstructions. I'm going to buy new rechargeable batteries for my Motorola MR350R radios and machine gun the Cobra brand next I do a gun recording session!!

Because I get so engrossed with my work, I forgot to put on sunscreen, my hat, and didn't eat anything till well after 3pm. I guess the Labor of Love can affect me. ;-)

What went well were that we had plenty of water and Gatorade drinks, extra batteries for my Sound Devices 442 field mixers and Sound Devices 788T-SSD and 744T field recorders. What also went very well was that I hired two great aggressive drivers that did everything right. They were a blessing to have! We managed to film some of the action stunt shots with a new iPhone 6 (240 frames) for awesome slow motions. I'll post pictures and videos later on when I'm allowed to. :-)

Please share what radios or etc gear that works well for you.

 

Always Over Record!

-Watson

71', a film I worked on is in UK theatres today

/

71' is a historical thriller/drama film that I worked on. It was directed by Yann Demange with Jack O'Connell as the leading actor. Paul Davies, the Supervising Sound Designer has done a fantastic job making sure that all of the effects sounded great. Check out his work on "The American" starting George Clooney.

Today is the UK Premiere of 71'. I hope it'll make here to America for us to see (and hear).

Watson Wu field recording firearms with multiple microphone perspectives. He uses Sound Devices field mixers and field recorders to capture the super loud gun shot sounds. The recording session was at a top secret location in Florida, USA.

Watson Wu was holding the 7.62x51 sniper rifle. Armorer RJ Flowers was holding a large Dan Wesson revolver. RJ's hand were aching that evening from doing so much shooting. ;-)

Watson Wu field recording firearms. So much gear!

SiegeCon.net conference - my thoughts

/

Wanted to share my experience at SiegeCon.net video game conference from this past weekend. Andrew Greenberg and his fantastic crew organized the fun and exciting annual Atlanta event. He is a true leader. Overall, it's a great event to see and hear about design, code, art, and of course, great game audio. Greenberg and composer/sound designer Chris Rickwood invited me to be a guest and to talk about how I record vehicle sounds. Weeks before the conference, Rickwood asked if I could instead do a live car recording demonstration followed by a listening demo next day. With his good idea, I repacked my travel bags with my small kit (Sound Devices 744T field recorder, Sound Devices MixPre-D field mixer, a few microphones, and accessories). John Gibson, the President of Tripwire Interactive games volunteered his limited edition SRT8 Dodge Challenger car as well as his great driving skills. His wife Jessica took some pictures and videos for us. Enjoy John's edited video!

4TB Seagate external HD still going strong!

/

Watson Wu's Seagate 4TB external hard drive, 11" Macbook Air, and Sunglasses as a size reference.

Wanted to share how well my Seagate 4TB external hard drive is performing. Backup Plus Fast Portable Drive is the official name. I use it about every single day. For an upcoming job, I have to free up some disk space in my 11" Macbook Air. I copied and pasted over 300gb of data to the Seagate and it took less than 25 minutes with it's awesome USB 3.0 interface! It's Fantastic to have such a large capacity small foot print external drive that doesn't require a separate power cable to run. Good job Seagate!!

Original blog about this drive from May 2014. www.watsonwu.com/blog/2014/5/20/new-seagate-4tb-the-palm-size-external-drive

Seagate interviewed me (from original blog back in May 2014) www.watsonwu.com/blog/2014/5/20/seagate-interviews-watson