This was the question posed by the gaffer when I reported to the equipment truck this morning to grab my sound gear for the day. Just to clarify, MOS is film jargon used to describe a shot that doesn't require sound to be recorded and synced. It is an acronym for the German phrase "mit out sound" which directly translates to without sound. Now when the gaffer posed this question (his name is Shandi, by the way and here he is on set tonight holding a light in an evergreen. That's my boom mic pole in the upper left corner), I responded "Well we can always just get sound." Little did I know that on this day the gaffer would be dead right.
So I sat and sat and sat today waiting to be called upon to get involved and record sound. It was like reliving my high school basketball days, sitting at the end of the bench with full knowledge that I wasn't getting into the game unless we were up or down by 30 points with 20 seconds to go. I didn't get the call until around 9:30 tonight. Now you're wondering what time I was called onto set this morning. 8:30 am is your answer. I didn't record a slated take until 9:30 pm. What did I do for 13 hours? I'll tell you what. I drove. Yes, I manned the steering wheel of the minivan and took to the Manhattan streets to grab what might be some of the most beautiful shots to appear in an NYU film this year. I won't describe the shots. You have to see the film ;)
So I traded in my sound guy card for my driver card and feel lucky that I didn't hit anything. No major existential crises just exhaustion after a long day. The moral of the story: the next time you're recording sound on a shoot and you notice that the script pages that you're doing that day have no dialogue, tell the entire crew that your driver's license has expired.
Ryan the Driver
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