One of my favorite things about being a technical artist is being on comm. This little microcosm of an event is sometimes way more entertaining then the actual event. One of the reasons I enjoy it so much is because of the culture I have cultivated in the comm chatter of my team, which is to have fun. We have a saying in my church “we take what we do very seriously, but we don't take ourselves very seriously.” I think on the comm we might take that one step further (which may be too far but oh well) and sometimes we don't even take what we do seriously. Now I enjoy having fun and I enjoy the chatter, but I also enjoy the precise almost militant barking of orders. I have a little bit of an ego, so sue me. However, before you can have fun, I think that it's important to know how to properly talk on comm.
ABC of Chatter
Good comm chatter is a constant running encouragement.
Talking on comm is all about the ABC's, your communication needs to Accurate, Bold, and Concise. Accuracy is important because, lets face it, your team can't read your mind. Therefore, what you tell them really needs to be what you expect to happen. Boldness is really about how you communicate, it's very important to be a firm communicator and it's just as important to foster a culture where your firm command is a comfort, not something to fear. Lastly, Concise. If you have someone directing IMAG and you need to be on that channel, you need to talk quickly so you can get back out of the director's way. If you are the director you need to speak quickly because, in a live environment, you typically don't have a lot of time for long drawn out explanations. One of the easiest ways you can use the ABC's is to develop a standard lingo, to quickly communicate what you need. This will give you the opportunity to communicate as much detail as you can using as few words as possible. I suggest starting with Anthony Coppedge's command guide, which can be found at This is a great place to start developing what you will say on comm.
I think the next thing that is important to good comm chatter is a constant running encouragement. I will often work short phrases like “nice” “yes”, and “hot shot” into my comm chatter to let my volunteers know they are doing a good job. Don't miss this, it's very important that you encourage your people, especially your volunteers. There is a good chance you will be the only person who will. When I started in the industry I worked with a director who could actually paralyze some of the camera ops with they way he spoke them on the comm. Those of us that knew him, knew it was really encouragement to do better, but many camera ops couldn't take it that way. I decided when I started directing that the inverse should be true, and I discovered it is. The more you encourage your camera ops and tell them they are doing a good job, the better they will preform for you.
On top of all this, the culture I have celebrated on our comm is one of having fun. If you have something funny to add, say it. This has lead to random conversations during the countdown. It's not uncommon for us to have everyone reciting lines from Airplane, The Princess Bride, or just cutting up in general. I have a camera op that worked in radio for a while who can do a news/weather report at the drop of a hat and is just amazing to listen to. Once he had our TD convinced we had a technical issue that was introducing a radio signal to the comm, which was hilariously funny.
So think about the culture you are creating on the comm. What are you celebrating? What are you trying to correct? Are you encouraging the people on comm? Is your team having fun on the comm throughout the weekend?
