Rob van Gelder

Dominic, i am still here, you have my email and number i think

Try this for a start, there are more topics about the genesis in this forum, search and read. http://www.steadicamforum.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=669

Hi Bob, as a long time Pinnacle user but mainly on the Studio 9 platform, I can say that Liquid is probably a good program but relies very heavy on the hardware. Your computer is not the fastest, but might work with it. Personally I have still good results with Studio 9, version 9.3.15 only! It does max. DV-quality. For Home/amateur use, Pinnacle came out with Studio 10, which has the Liquid engine, but a bit simplified interface. However, this program seems to have many problems still.

Phil, as you know I work now in Thailand and let me tell you how we work here: First of all, there is NO ground in Thailand, unless I or my colleagues make it. Here we do earth the Generators, but often it is not enough. The reason is that many cords and terminal boxes have simply no ground wire in them, or that wire is not connected to any of the 220volts (normal house hold plug) sockets, only to the official, 2 KW or 5KM outlets for the big lamps. (the blue watertight connectors) Don´t ask me why many household outlets are not earthed, I asked and they don´t have a reason, other than that it is cheaper to use 2 wires...... So for every video-set we have here, the video-man has one earthing cable, a copper stick to put in any damp soil and a wire with some crocodile clamps (big size) to eart on any metal securely screwed in the buildings etc. (fences, door posts you name it) This is needed as no DP wants his eyepiece on tension. We connect this wire to a video output fo a monitor, personally i use a cable roll, the enclosed small type for 5-8 meters 2-wire, which I rebuild and have a crocodile clamp on one side and a BNC connector on the housing, so I can extend with BNC cables. The cable in this cable roll is a single red one, making it easy to spot from others. Also , keep in mind that even if you are working on a properly earthed line, with all equipment properly earthed, there are still times that you have a half-cycle (110 volts) on the ground from your BNC. This is because many equipment nowadays comes with double insulated power supplies that electronically, without a real transformer, brings the 220 volts down to low voltage. These equipment can still give you shocks, even when everything is connected to proper outlets. So a extra groundwire is always good. Better safe that shocked! Oh and those genny guys are really dumb, but they don´t stand on the other side, getting the shocks. They would make an earth immediately if they were forced to put their eye against the eyepiece of a metal camera or handling lamps.

Just one more thought about your camera, I think it might have been an explosion-research camera, and therefore the small shutter exposure, to limit the over exposure and to get exposure times up to approx. 1/3000th second! (based on max 130 fps) That said, your shutter might not be the only modification....

I think you are looking at "normal" prices , though high, but it is because the extremely tight tolerances these parts are made of. Last year I did a maintenance course on the Arricam camera´s at Munich and one of the guys was assembling an SR2 mirror on it´s axis. You have no idea how much time is involved, they have special rigs and special micrometers that measure any uneven or not absolutely square mounting on the spindel and the mirror. The guy was placing miniscule pieces of silver foil under certain places to get the mirror straight , this only can be checked when fully assembled, if it is not correct, and we are talking 0,001mm deviation here, disassemble and reposition the foil pieces (less then 1mm square). This is to be sure there is no wobble and vibration when shooting between 2 and 130/150 fps. The internal forces and stress on these components is enorm and when not properly balanced it can become a grenate! Then the whole assembly has to be mounted and adjusted in the right place in the body, with the same precise measurements, to make sure that your image is projected right and the distance to the groundglass is correct. tools, tools and more special tools. Oh, and about spare parts, they have still some, but when i was there, in november 2005, they just completed the very LAST 2 ARRI 3´s for an Indian customer. There are no more in stock, not half-build or else, just a spare part supply for a few years i guess. I don´t think you can just remove a part of the 15 degrees shutter, as it will throw the whole assembly off-balance.

Give something the Spanish Archer - the elbow - the El Bow : get rid of something It took me some time to understand what the English operator was saying to me.... but then again... I am Dutch :)

They are not only on ebay unfortunally. Also Mandy and Kitmondo have their share. If you finf an advertisement about top of the line and nearly new equipment (Arricam, Cooke S4 and such) you must be really careful There is someone based in Italy that "sells" them but if you contact the companies like Cooke or Arriflex, most likely they will reply that they never sold that equipment to that country or place. Be careful

I am not a CP owner but I must congratulate you on that paint-job! Very well done. I have seen repainted Moviecams in worse shape, and that was from a rental house!

Exactly, that's why I think it is a silly question, I mean, in less time it takes to make this post on the forum, this person, a " producer" could have typed "Kodak, Munchen" in Google.......

I think this is a bit hilarious, Munich / Munchen, the place where all the Arriflex camera's come from and a question like this........ :D :blink:

But I did find this for you, and there is a lot more on this website that you want to read! http://www.rondexter.com/professional/sun/..._clinometer.htm

I stand corrected :)

In the DIY market you can find leveler sets that have a similar, but more crude device in them, a weighed disk with a needle that can rotate and has 1 squeare corner and 2x 45 degrees. simple but does give you a estimate of the angle on a camera or head or set. the official name is INclinometer.

For the money this is probably the best option, the motor is very strong and fast, many times you don't need the other channels and the service of Bartech is very good. You can also check the archives on the Steadicam forum, please don't ask there but search as this has been discussed many times already.

Can you link some of those online schools here? I am interested in what they have to offer.

empty, empty, empty! Not much believable stuff in there. While people are dying everywhere or already dead, some peopple manage to get out and survive many things that normally would kill. Sure a few die on the way but still. Only for some technical effects it was "nice", like the opening scene (motion control, greenscreen, miniature, scaling etc). The engine that came crashing down on the new york stupid was very fake, very digital. the following explosion too, and unbelievable in effect ( fire doesn't go only up) The water they swim through is all clear as it can be..... Too much money for a fery thin script

Get the American Cinematographers Manual, any year will do and most of the basics are in there!

On the last CineSpeedcam I witnessed I saw a message that clearly said that when using HMI lamps (on flicker-free of course) , they should be 6K or more otherwise a problem with flicker can occur. It has probably more to do with the size of the bulb and the arc inside it than the fps you are shooting.

Thanks Dave, I will forward this. Please PM me with the email address.

Check out the local rental companies for lighting as they might have some smudged chromakey material and perhaps you can buy this and take the good parts out of it.

I am looking for a company that makes and sells Ladderpods, need to be good quality. Anyone knows such a company or are they all made locally by grips? Rob van Gelder

a security camera on a electric pan-tilt head , with motion detecting software, following the action of the actor. The actor could have a remote control to be able to zoom in or out to certain preset sizes. or: this combined with a circle track around the set, again like a security camera, from above. But now on a dolly so the camera slowly moves around the room, combined with the motion tracking it can give a continue changing shot. anyway, it needs to be highly electronical. So I am not sure if it can be done in low-budget.....

I just did a complete scene like this on a seance from a fortune teller with 5 other girls around a table, completely on Steadicam (Moviecam Compact ) and with Super speeds. Shooting around f2 if i am not mistaken, normal candles and wicks, worked beautifully! It is pretty orange all the way, those candles are low in spectrum, but it makes a good atmosphere. a hell of a job for the focus puller though, on 50 and 85mm lenses

Well, you can download the demo (250MB) and play with it and see for yourself. i tried the demo and it is a well thought program I think, but I didn't really use it as it was intended. It has the ability to select a precise area for the action to happen, so if your screen is not big enough, you just matte out the surroundings very easily. is also allows you to zoom, reposition, perspective, rotation ,correct colors, choose key-ranges and output is to any other format. It also can use a live image (from a digital camera like DV) and key directly on that, and that is a feature that no other program has. i used it mainly for this feature. This live keying cannot be outputted to a file but it gives you direct control on set about the quality of the key. BUT!!!!!! Though it might be more easy to get a key with a less perfect lighting of the screen, it really helps if you still take good care of it! Ultra seems to do a nice job on edges, color fringing etc, but a good and even exposed screen always gives a better key! Rob van Gelder