Mostly it's not a problem, I've done it a few times before. But about an hour before we started, one of the reps of the network was like "oh, by the way, do you actually speak Spanish?" They were worried it might be difficult for me to make script revisions quickly.

Wouldn't this have been something to find out before you hired me?

I'm sorry, we're talking audio here.

On another prompter gig, for a Christian childrens' programming video, we shot in a pricey greenscreen sound stage, using a red, and again, some top end crew people, but they "set and forgot" the two booms that were capturing the audio. By my estimation they were 6-8 feet (at least) from the talents' mouths. Not surprisingly, at the end of the day, the director/producer was listening to some playback and said "yeah, it's real echoey. . .we're gonna have to send it to our guy to fix."

But the neat thing about prompter is that though you are "in it", you are not really a part of it, and can watch and laugh and learn.

And thank god it was MOS today! We were shooting exteriors on the hospital grounds, and yep, there's the grounds keeping crew. Every shot we set up, a dude rolls up with a lawn mower, leaf blower or edge trimmer. Would have been a nightmare for sound!

Great stories.

I did an excercise video about a year ago outdoors in a wooded park. The producer wanted the location, and we decided to shoot at magic hour for the look. I scout the location and split the shoot into three days, with the first day to rehearse.

Rehearsal goes great. No one around, fabulous location. Lighting at magic hour looks amazing.

The first real shoot the local flight school starts up their late afternoon training and planes start circling directly overhead. At first you think it's bad luck, then there's a sinking feeling as you realize it's the same three planes going around and around and around.

I was tearing my hair out trying to get usable takes in the thirty seconds of silence between each pass.

The next day, same thing. Sigh...

Fortunately it worked out okay in the end.

I was one-man-banding a sit down interview with the president of Humboldt State University. There happened to be workmen building a new structure 200 yards away (they weren't there when I set up during their lunch hour), and they were killing me so bad I told the President to shut down the construction or we ain't got an interview. He actually did it! I was kind of joking but he got it. If the noise is coming from people I really try to control the area by talking to whomever is in charge. If you approach them nicely people usually accommodate.

since I believe everything in Star Trek will come to pass, I'm sure one day there will be mic technology that only picks up what you tell it to pick up (i.e. record sample of subject's voice and mic will tune out everything but that voice) and nothing else.

And then all these things will be a non-issue. We can even program lavs to shock talent when they screw up.

Then the Klingons will read this thread when the site is archived and wonder what the hell we're all talking about.

This isn't audio, but I'm still waiting for the Blade Runner-style "enhance" function that allows you to zoom in endlessly on pictures and even see around corners...seems to have become a cliche device in sci-fi movies.

Oh "enhance" is a reality. Here's total unassailable proof: YouTube - Let's Enhance

YOu guys are thinkin' too small. Holodeck. . .it solves all your problems. Need a location? BAM there it is. Need it quiet? BAM, done!

What, your camera and edit suite doesn't do that???? Time to UPGRADE! <tongue planted FIRMLY in cheek)

I've tried the Holodeck, but the life-support system (HVAC) was much too loud. 24th century technology... same design stupidity.

Ah, that line alone made me laugh. It's uncanny, isn't it? On one shoot, I swear we were being followed by them. We kept moving to different spots, and they would make their way over to us by the time we started shooting again. Then when they finally stopped, a helicopter started circling overhead. I haven't yet figured out if there's just more noise when you are shooting, or if your brain just filters it out more when you're not shooting.

Noise was one of the reasons I decided to shoot our host doing her "outdoor standups" against green screen. It avoids potential scheduling problems with noise, weather, and gawking passers-by. And when done well, it looks darn good. No one has to get up super early in the morning to get that nice sunrise light. And don't have to worry about getting too much sun exposure.

We shoot in a quiet warehouse on Saturday mornings when the area is generally shut down. And it's up in a valley, well away from the routine air traffic corridors, too.

Then there are "those" jobs: One day someone asked me to help shoot some interviews in his office. Well, his office was one floor above a very busy intersection. Everything from buzzing mopeds to trucks and emergency vehicles went by all day long.

Apparently he didn't realize that his office was that noisy. As Brennan said, you don't notice it unless you're trying to shoot something.