Patrick Lavalley

Good point.

I bought a Marmot PreCip jacket on sale at REI a few months back for around 65 bucks. It's waterproof/breathable, and weighs next to nothing. Works really well. The downside is that it's not extremely tough, and wearing short sleeves underneath gives you a clammy feeling because of the waterproof coating. Other than that, I highly recommend it as a backup/emergency jacket. I'm not sure I would like to spend all day in it though. Good advice on the rain hats too.

Lots of good information from everyone! Thanks a lot. I was also on a shoot recently (no budget) where one of the crew guys (who wasn't even a grip) kept putting these Matthews "boa bags" on the ends of c-stand arms when I would hang something out. I didn't protest because I didn't really care and it seemed to make him feel important, but it seemed like those stupid things were WAY too light to do any sort of good for anything. Maybe he had the smallest size? They seemed useless to me for everything except supporting the camera when we had it on a sandbag, for a little extra lift on the front. Am I the only one who finds it annoying when people bring their own gear to a shoot and try to invent uses for it? This probably only happens on the stuff that I do because I don't get much paying stuff, and the shoots are always no budget shorts....

Where do they retail at? I can never find any info on them!

I second the mountain hardware gear- A lot of it is geared toward heavy duty alpine and ice climbing use. Good stuff.

We get a lot of rain here in Portland, and for the jacket I tend to use a gore-tex shell. They are spendy, but the breathability make a lot of difference. They aren't totally breathable, and you will work up a sweat eventually, but it's much better than a rubber jacket in my opinion. For pants, I either do a pair of military issue gore-tex pants, or a set of rubber bibs. I like the bibs because you don't get plumbers butt when bending over. Also, depending on the situation, I might wear a set of rubber boots instead of my regular working shoes. For a good quality rubber suit, check these guys out- http://www.grundens.com/

Good reasons all around.

Yeah, I'm sure they would charge a premium for a custom made bag. Those best boy bags look really nice, but it also looks as though they're made of Nylon? Just out of curiosity, why are you going with canvas?

Hey Alain, I think you might have me mistaken on the Series 9's. I think the Domke might be your best bet- the only thing I have been able to find online are the standard canvas tool bags that you would find at any hardware store, which are obviously a much different bag than the Domke. Good luck in your search! For reference, there is a place on 23rd and Clinton if I recall called "Beckels Canvas" who might be able to custom make one, or modify your bag. I can't say for sure that they would do this, but I do know that they make canvas bags and tents and things like that. Might be worth checking out: Beckel Canvas Products (503) 232-3362 2232 SE Clinton St Portland, OR

Have you taken a look at any of the offerings from Modular 51? They don't have the same top closure as the Domke, but they definitely make some pretty large bags marketed towards camera assistants: http://www.modular51.com/

I also like to keep one or two of those foam kneeling pads in my kit, helps when you have to be on your knees to pull focus or things like that.

I usually try to shoot without a UV as well. The times that I do shoot with are in the situations that David mentioned, as well as those times when I want a little extra protection, better to replace an inexpensive UV filter than a spendy lens.

The public library usually has a copy of the American Cinematographers manual, if you want to do it on the cheap, just photocopy what you need.

That sounds like a good idea. Up until now I have been using furniture pads for hardwood floors and carpets that I want to leave in good condition, but they don't stay put very well. I'll have to invest in a few of those carpet runners. Good advice! Also, while I'm on the topic of furniture pads- I always see them rolled up and tucked into themselves very neatly on the grip truck, but I can't seem to recreate this, does anyone know how to do it?

Thanks everyone for the clarification and advice. I am pretty sure that I run into a lot of these problems because I work with inexperienced crews who haven't necessarily been told the right way of doing things, nor have they been punished when they haven't done it. I guess it's all part of the process of learning. Some people get annoyed when I point out things that aren't done correctly, but it's important to know that all of this stuff is done for a reason, whether it be safety, efficiency, or both....

On the topic of carts- what's everyone's favorite brand/setup? I assume most people use a magliner with two shelves? Does anyone have one of those fold up carts that filmtools sells? http://www.filmtools.com/yaandsosrcac.html For those of you that travel to shoots, how do you handle all of your gear while in transit if you have to fly to the shoot?

Hey everyone, I've recently been gripping on a lot of short films around town, sometimes with a professional key-grip or gaffer on the crew, and I've been learning a ton about proper grip etiquette, but there's a lot I still have to learn. I've never gripped on a feature, but hopefully someday soon I'll get the chance. I've got a few questions for those people with much more experience than me about how proper etiquette goes as far as handling and setting up c-stands and other stands around a set. I know most of the basics, like always pointing the "long leg" of a c-stand toward the load, and always loading the c-stand arm so that the weight tends to turn it to the right. Here's a few of the things I would like to know about so that I can be more efficient and more safe the next time I'm on-set. 1) When setting up a light on a stand, I have heard of some people throwing the lamp cord under one of the legs, so that it becomes less of a tripping hazard. this seems to be logical, however, it also seems frustrating when you're trying to raise a light and the cord keeps getting pulled taught under the leg. what's the correct way to handle this? I usually just try to leave enough slack on the stinger so that the cord isn't being pulled away from the stand, and then I bag the stand as much as needed depending on the height or weight of the lamp. Another instance happened to me last night when someone kept turning all of the set-screws on the light collars to the fully locked position when the lights were removed from the stands, and when I would try to put the light on the stand, the set-screw would be screwed all the way in, so I would have to come down from the ladder and unscrew it before putting the light on. I suppose I should have checked, but I just wasn't used to this, and it was kind of annoying. When I asked him about it, he said it was so that the set-screws wouldn't get lost, which makes sense. So I am just curious if I've been doing everything wrong all along?

I don't mean to hijack this thread, but in the film "Brick" there is a series of shots in the opening sequence of the film where it cuts back and forth between the main character "Brenden" and a girl who is laying on the ground, it looks to me like they used zooms in the shots that they cut between, but everyone I talk to swears that they are dollies. Has anyone seen this film? It's a good example of when a dolly shot can get mistaken for a zoom, or vice-versa.

I bought a couple ultra cheap party foggers at a party supply store right after Halloween. I think I paid a total of 30 bucks for two machines and a gallon of fog juice. They've been working great, and I have used them to fill some surprisingly large spaces.

I also like to keep a tin of altoids in my belt pouch. Freshens the breath and makes it easier on the folks around you. I also like to keep a small piece of blackwrap folded up in my pouch for quick fixing lens flares. Get some nice camel hair brushes for the lens too, the little lip-stick style ones are nice for the pouch, since they have the hard plastic covering to protect them from getting dirty and/or frayed. www.filmtools.com is a great resource for all the little gadgets that you can't find at the hardware store. One other thing, I also usually take along my own stinger/cube tap for plugging in laptops and battery chargers. Hope this helps!