robert duke

define a zoom boom? If it is just a construction crane you could use a trapeze. or you could use a speed rail mount to the arm.

I have been very impressed over the last few years with the new Cinemills HMI's. They are built like tanks. If I had a rental set of HMI's I'd have CineMills. I have to disagree about the Mole HMI's. The old ones were not reliable, but the new ones look eerily like the Cinemills. All ballasts take a dump sometime. Power gems seems to have the best ballasts I have seen. I have an old LTM magnetic ballast and par head that hotstrikes with certainty. I love that thing. It kicks a**, but weights a small ton. Pars have a better output than fresnels, I dont have a Photometrics book in front of me but... Pars ar much brighter than fresnels.

the ATV idea is a solid one for greyhounds, however some might be scared by the noise. you might check out http://www.doggicam.com/modules.php?name=C...page&pid=10 doggicam systems. Superslide would get you some of the shots. you might also check out the electric offroad atv made by a grip in LA. It is electric and goes 45mph. It has been used out in nature with elephants so it probably wouldnt spook the dog. you might also think of attaching a lipstick camera to the "rabbit" at the dog track. I will look for the name of the electric atv guy. I know the lovely people at Modern Studio equipment know him.

What do grips do in England?

Well best of luck. I wish you the best. Not all of us Key's are like your last. Owning gear is great if you can afford it. Otherwise it is a big pain in the a**. I own gear and have fits of sell it all and buy more. I just sold my hmi package and have a buyer for my cable package. I perdonally decided to downsize gear into a less electric more grip mode. If you have the space to store it and the cash to upkeep it go for it.

8-12 Cardelini's 10 baby plates 5 junior plates 10 junior pipe clamps 10 baby pipe clamps 24 #2 grip clips 12 #1 grip clips 12 #3 grip clips 4 norms pins 8 grip heads 8 40" arms 8 20" arms 6 mafers 2 menace arm kits 2 putty knifes 10 chain vice with pin 4 platypus/duckbill clamps assortment of speed rail fittings/speed rail 6-5/8 pin with 3/8 thread I think this is a good start for your package. It is really about what you use and how you use it. But this is a good start. Contact Modern Studio Equipment. They are great people and offer a discount off list. Private message me for a great guy who sews recovers, rags, bags, and more at super great rates. What is your location? Good luck! owning equipment is a blessing and a curse. get and keep everything in writing. get liability insurance. every job get a certificate of insurance. Also give the Line producer a full list of your gear. Make sure they understand Lost and Damage charges.

the Inverse square law pops up here. in order to get that flag in there you are backing the light out. the light loss with an egg crate is relative to the distance back to accomodate a flag. I havent metered it but I hedge to guess that the light loss from an eggcrate is roughly the same as backing the light back a couple feet. I always try to have a eggcrate on soft boxes. They make it easier to control the spill from a soft source. They dont cover what a flag can but do a great job. If you have to travel light. bump up your lamp to a 1k and carry the eggcrate.

The cameleon is no longer manufactured. It is a small step above doorway dollies.

Yes these are the same thing. Overheads and butterflies are frames 6x6, 8x8, 12x12, 20x20,etc. typically you can use these to modify the light in any way. Block it, diffuse it, bounce it, and ND it. there are tons of diffusion fabrics and bounce materials. the most popular bounces are ultrabounce, claycoat, and grifflon. the most popular diffusions are silk, gridcloth, softfrost, muslin. A solid is a solid. you can order them as a set, for example 6x set comes with a single, a double, solid, and a silk. you can mount them using a combo stand with a 4.5 inch grip head ( lollipop), mombo combo stands ( very tall combo stands with a 4.5 head attached ) or hi-roller stands ( tall combo on wheels with a 4.5 head attached.) you can suspend them from ceilings, cranes, etc. there are safe and unsafe ways for all of these things. THIS IS GONNA GET REAL BASIC HERE B/C I FEEL IT COMING. The frames are made with either round pipe or square tube and have 4 corners and two flanges called ears. the ears have a slot cut in them, so that they slide between the plates in a 4.5 grip head. Frequently 6x have a single 5/8 pin on them so you use a mafer clamp on the other side. the Rags as they are called are tied on to the frame using a simple bow. To keep up with the bag the rag came in, tie it to the frame. For 6x and 8x combo stands and a lollipop are fine, use three bags per stand. unless it is extremely windy, them use a set of four ropes to tie it down for safety. For 8x and up Mombo combos or hi rollers are prefered. again use three bags per stand but definitely use four ropes even if it is only the slightest breeze. tie the ropes to either tent stakes ( and not the little ones that came with your pup tent from boy scouts), a tree, fence, or some other large immovable object like your cousin jimmy the fat kid. The Best advice I have is hire a professional, ask them questions, learn by doing. I am some guy a hundred miles away. hire a guy from the rental house to gaffer or key for you on your project, chalk the money up to a learning experience. good luck

I missed Blueberry Nights, as I was keying a show in NW Arkansas currently titled "War Eagle", but I am working in Memphis now with a lot of the guys from BBnights. I was called repeatedly for it, as all of us on War Eagle. Blueberry pushed several times creating the conflict. I missed the money, but enjoyed the one I was on. I got to work with a great DP, Masanobu Takayanagi and an old friend gaffed Mike Kelly. I am working as B camera dolly for "Nothing but the truth". the gaffer is someone you might know Mr. Kevin Janacelli. I heard all about the meal penalties you guys had on BBN.

Try taking a silk and lighting it using a green gelled soft light.

A 20x and a 12x are overheads, or butterflys. 20ft by 20ft. 12ft by 12ft. and so on. Overhead silks, negative Phil, and the like. What do you call them in Vienna?

He is the ONLY DP I work with that loves the Panther. He has his own trucks and his own studio. He is the only person to use the new one. He rents the old one out. He is quirky. He has tried the other dollies and does not like them. He says that the fisher and chapman arms wiggle too much for him. He is successful as a commercial DP.

You might find a shorter route up the exterior. I have done 12 story runs up the exterior of a building through windows and fire escapes.

I dont have a web site yet. YET. I do have other photo's. No the camera was not counter balanced. The ratchet straps deal with halding down the weight. They serve all the need for counter balance. The photo is from a feature called "lovely by surprise". I wasnt allowed to touch the car. The car was immaculate. The camera is 2.5ft from the car looking up across a little girl to her father. We towed the car on a trailer. I essentially built the hood mount under the car and supported it off the trailer frame. This shot looked great. one of my favorites. That is me setting a negative fill off the mount.

It is as stable a tripod but fits into smaller spaces. Some DPs love them some hate them. It is a piece of Grip gear that allows for different scenarios that a tripod makes difficult. It has its down side. It can be slow to build. you sort of have to be able to add or subtract heights very quickly in your head. There is a single adjustable riser for it, to fine tune it. It uses the Boss/Euro mount system which can be easy to put together. It is just another tool.

The Panther was privately owned but had just come back from servicing in Germany. We had uncrated it the day before. We ended up renting a fisher locally and shipped it back. It has occured on the same dolly twice since that time. The owner has since purchased a new Panther. although he still rents out the older one. I think my point is that a fisher or Chapman when the boom fails you go down, slowly most of the time. With the panther it goes up, and quick.

They DP wasnt clear on his vertical position and wanted to possibly turn around and shoot at the wheel turning, so I used 4ft rail to allow for as much adjustment on the fly as I could. here is the finished video, the DP was David Claussen (forgive me I may have misspelled his last name). www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvfPDu-WiIU

GO to a glass supply house. You can purchase plexi that is already ND. No need to stick anything to it. It might have to be a order product but most glass shops can have these sent 2day. you can also get it in cto, cto+nd, ctb and many other options. dont call it ND when you talk to them they will look at you funny. call it tinted. If you cant get it in time the GAM stuff works but I think it might have been discontinued. Scotch makes a Clear double stick tape. tape the edges and corners and stretch it. I dont know the product name for the clear double stick but try google.

Most DP's I work with HATE the Panther and the Movietech. They call it the dolly of death. I have watched DP's rip seats off of the panther while booming up. the offsets are awkward. the low mode is just odd. I am not opposed to the panther but I wouldnt purchase one. The ARCO dolly is nothing more than a Chapman Peewee. Movietech was started by some techs from Panther that left and started their own company. the one big problem I have with panther and movie tech is that the column is raised by a heavy duty spring, it is lowered by a motor. I have had the motor circuitry essentially let go and send the column flying up at a extremely fast rate. If an operator had been on it he would have been thrown off. The camera would have been damaged as well.

I believe the piece of gear you are describing is a bazooka. http://www.visualproducts.com/storeProduct...mp;Cat=9#bigPic I am not sure, it could also have been a weaver-steadman, a predecessor to the lambda head. basically it is a camera stand made from tubing connected with euro/boss style fittings. they are great, with the right operator. The bazooka has a adjustable riser that slides up and down to dial in the exact height. There are several manufacturers, my favorite is Modern. panther makes a nice ones too. more detail and we could tell you more.

Careful control of light by flagging and boxing the lights in. Skirting overheads so that they are cut off the walls.

there are more eggcrate boxes and they are deeper on the narrower 20degree eggcrate. They essentially control the spill by immediatly flagging off the spill. the deeper they are the more they control the spill as well as the more there are the more they control the spill.

Meter each light as you set it up from the same distance lets say 10'. you then know what each fixture does at 10'. then you can use the inverse square law to get closer. I just worked with a DP who lit a night scene during the day by subtracting the ambient sky from his meter readings as he set up and focused each light during the day. he only spent 3-4 minutes tweaking once the sun went down. GOD it was great. his kungfu was strong.

I believe the photo you saw came from "the deer hunter", they acctually mounted a sideboard for an operator for it. VERY DANGEROUS. The panther multimount looks cool but the couple times I have used it were not fond memories. it utilizes suction cups for support, I know these have ratings but I still cant bring myself to trust a camera to one without backing it up with ratchet straps. the Modern hoodmount and hostess trays, the matthews hood mount and hostess trays are fantastic. I prefer modern, but matthews is good too. Read the rondexter.com site about car mounts. Also read the UVA grip handook. Speed rail is the norm for its versatility and strength. I prefer to always tow a car when a camera is mounted for safety, also a police escort is mandatory. Check out this photo from a rap video Project Pat's "raised in the projects" it is a mix of hood and hostess. I had to mount the camera looking across the hood at the rapper driving. (arri 535 with 1000' mag.) we towed it using a tow bar. this is why speed rail is the bomb. the edge of the hood was acutally in frame. 1.25" speed rail, 5/8" camera stabilizers, Matthews hood mount. Always protect the paint of a car. the car shown was a $70000 plus custom job. I like to use yoga mats for paint protection, they are compact and grippy, and cheap. The purple thing is a yoga mat. With a good grip and speed rail you can mount a camera esp. a 16mm anywhere. Also think in triangles so that it crossbraces.