Welcome to Headphone Check, my randomly occurring series of posts about what VFX guys and gals are listening to while they work. Since this is our first time out, we should cover the ground rules. We all need to pump up the volume sometimes to get through those long tedious shifts. You also need to live with the person sitting in the Jerker next to you day after day. Here are some simple tips to help you navigate this sticky wicket.
Rule #1
For a VFX artist , Supe or Producer, the headphone rule is always in effect. Nobody wants to hear your Brazilian house beats coming out of your tinny mac book speakers. Put on your ear goggles and crank it up. My headset of choice Grado Labs SR60s, the sound is great and you won’t have to ake out a second mortgage on your condo to score a pair.
Rule #2
Over the air audio needs a 2/3rds majority. Here’s the deal, everyone thinks that they have great taste in music and a fantastic sense of humor. Well, they don’t. If you feel you have something to share with your cubical buddies, make sure they are into it first
Rule #3
Don’t put anything on your iTunes playlist that you don’t want to defend at a later date. It’s easy as pie to peek over onto someone else’s monitor, so don’t think that guilty pleasures like Tina Turner’s Private Dancer (just a random example of course) will go unnoticed.
Now that we have that out of the way…
You may know Patton Oswald as the voice of Remy from Ratatouille. If you haven’t heard his stand-up, you are in for a treat my friends. His new comedy album, Werewolves and Lollipops, is definitely NSFW and covers all kinds of VFX nerd friendly topics like the intricacies of the Starship Enterprise chain of command and a fantasy that involves traveling back in time to kill George Lucas before he can make the prequels. Don’t worry though, it’s not a total dorkfest. Oswald turns his misanthropic eye to everything from KFC to the Bush administration. This is one of the best stand-up albums to come out in a good long while. Besides I can truly relate to statements like “My Geekyness is getting in the way of my Nerdyness”.
LINK to Werewolves and Lollipops on iTunes
