Film industry term: "Mule"

[JD Hartman]

Is there an alternate definition for a piece of equipment known as a mule? The only one I'm familiar with is a motor powered capstan hoist, used to haul cable up to greenbeds or perms. I had a Director use the term to describe a motorized equipment cart found in a Grip truck. Anyone have a photo of such an animal?

[JD Hartman]

Is there an alternate definition for a piece of equipment known as a mule? The only one I'm familiar with is a motor powered capstan hoist, used to haul cable up to greenbeds or perms. I had a Director use the term to describe a motorized equipment cart found in a Grip truck. Anyone have a photo of such an animal?

 

Perhaps, is Mule is interchangeable with "Donkey" when referring to the hoist?

[Tom Jensen]

Is there an alternate definition for a piece of equipment known as a mule? The only one I'm familiar with is a motor powered capstan hoist, used to haul cable up to greenbeds or perms. I had a Director use the term to describe a motorized equipment cart found in a Grip truck. Anyone have a photo of such an animal?

http://www.google.com/images?q=john+deere+mule&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=univ&ei=xpjtTIi3JtD8ngfj0-iaAg&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=5&ved=0CFkQsAQwBA&biw=1400&bih=828

[K Borowski]

Haha, an image search link, nice.

 

I went for a ride on one of those in my last shoot, in a hurry to get some '19 to a set that had wrapped and switched to '07 by the time I'd arrived B)

[James Steven Beverly]

We used those on a commercial shoot in Monahas Tx. It's an state park area with vast sand dunes that doubled for Saudi Arabia complete with half a dozen camels. It was a very cool place to film but ironically, cold as HELL the day of the shoot. The mules were invaluable in moving equipment over the dunes. I actually wanted to pick one up down the road but for what they cost, I have a dune buggy, I may try to modify to carry equipment. B)

Edited November 25, 2010 by James Steven Beverly

[Brian Drysdale]

We used one on a dog food commercial to track running dogs across a field using a hard mounted Steadicam. We even got some CUs, lots of fun for the focus puller.