THE WALKIE PROBLEM

OVERVIEW

Walkie Talkies are some of the most ubiquitous assets in every area of professional work - not just film and television.

For all the benefits these vital tools provide, they do not come with their own headaches. My plan, rooted in methods from the past, is aimed at creating a more effective work environment at every level of production.

The Good Old Days

The 80s and 90s saw some of the best filmmaking in the history of cinema. Everyone had pride in their craft and the work was good across all departments. A vital role that fell under the responsibility of the Sound Department was walkie talkies. Every day the Sound Utility would hand out walkies and every night they would collect them. The Sound Department was responsible for charging, repairs and everything that involved keeping track of the walkies. As wireless lavalier microphones got better, it made even more sense for the Sound Department to keep track of walkies because of “frequency coordination.” However, in the 2000’s something started to change and it has been that way ever since.

THE CURRENT STATE

Walkies now fall under the responsibility of… a PA. Although PA’s play a pivotal role in every production, it can be difficult to staff someone that possesses true experience in asset management in addition to everything else a PA could be responsible for - supporting the AD team, BG wrangling, lockups, going on runs, helping locations, assisting other crew. On modern film sets on location, walkies are often not charged properly if at all, routinely get broken (or mistaken to be broken) or worse… lost!

Return to the Past!

In an effort to reclaim some of the nostalgic history in filmmaking’s past, we propose a return of the walkie responsibility to the Sound Department. We believe this plan will benefit both the flow of production during photography and importantly, the bottom line for producers.

The Details

We believe the filmmakers before us got it right the first time. Just as then, the walkies would be the responsibility of the Sound Department. Sound members would be responsible for keeping inventory, tracking the exchange of assets, fixing assets, frequency coordination, charging and more. Even though we believe this return to “the old ways” is correct, it doesn’t mean there can’t be room for improvement.

E.g. It is silly to collect walkies every night and hand them out in the morning.

We will simply distribute them on day one and collect them at wrap.

The Sound Department's Role

Allocate walkie numbers based on working crew lists provided in prep
Label and inventory each walkie to the assigned crew member
With the assistance of PA’s, distribute walkies to crew on day one
A walkie cart / box will be on set every day
- Fully charged batteries (hot bricks) will be stocked in a green bin
- Dead batteries (cold bricks) get tossed in a red bin during the day
- Crew members are encourage to swap their hot bricks
- PA’s are encouraged to continue taking hot bricks from the green bin to facilitate fast swaps on set to those who can’t
- Throughout the day, a member of the sound team will check the cart and circulate hot and cold bricks on charge
Broken headsets, clips, antennas, knobs etc are fixed by the Sound Department
At the end of the day, it's the Sound Department’s responsibility to make sure bricks are charged overnight to prevent the traffic jam of “cold bricks” handed out in the morning

BENEFITS TO PRODUCERS

Reduce or virtually eliminate traditional L&D
- Nominal upfront costs as part of the sound expendables budget
100% accuracy of asset management from checkout to return
Peace of mind in onset communication and workflow