Alex Worster

Panavision LWZs?

Thanks for info Vincent and David. @ Vincent, just wanted to clarify that I'm looking to rent the lenses... does Duclos rent them or are they just a dealer? What about Abel or any other camera houses in the greater LA area? Thanks all!

Easy question... I hope. Where can I find a full set of Zeiss Compact Primes CP.2s in LA or in California in general? Thanks!

Need to sync an SR3 Advanced to a regular old CRT TV. Arri makes an ESU-1, will that work? If so how do I use it? I found a manual online but it doesn't explain its operation well. Any other ideas aside from the ECU-1? Thanks!

I'm just finished the first week of a feature I'm the B cam 2nd/digital loader on and I'm encountering some hard drive problems. Production bought 4 3TB OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro drives and after the first week only 2 remain standing which has me very concerned. One seems to have a bad FW800 port out of the box and one seems to have developed a bad FW800 port after 5 days of use. Long story short I'd like to know what types of hard drives you all recommend I have production buy? Which ones do I stay away from? The ones production initially bought had no eSATA port so I've been FW800 daisy chaining the whole deal. That said, I would love to have the next round of drives we get have an eSATA port as I have a Firmtek expresscard34 dual eSATA card that would probably make the transfer time a little faster. Thanks!

Awesome, thanks a lot for the info Deepak. Anybody else work on any recent Indian/Bollywood films and know if this is the way things still work?

Simple question, what is the hierarchy within an Indian camera crew? In the States it DP>OP>1st (focus puller)>2nd>Loader and across the pond they have the clapper loader but what about it India? Searched google, no luck so thanks to anybody out there that has the answer.

Meh, things are going pretty well for camera, we've got almost everything we need to our job well except for a lift gate on our truck... my back is sore.

Damn, I work on the 19th but if I were there I'd kick that ball so hard, I'd probably kick a homerun.

Thanks. Sorry for the poor english in my post. Ugh, tired posting.

I'm working a feature coming up and I've will be confronted with several scenes were the DP wants to shoot at some television sets. We'll be shooting most of the project at 23.98 fps w/ a 180 deg shutter. I've never done this with an f900 and I was wondering if anybody knows if I will have roll bar issues? If so, what is the best way to phase to phase this bar out? Can I do it in camera or HAVE to sync the TV to the correct fps (which will most likely be impossible due to budget reason)? Thanks!

So, I've been asked last minute to come help out tomorrow with some camera tests for a feature I might be 1sting. The original idea was to shoot with a Sony f900/Digizoom combination but now I guess the producers are putting some pressure on to test the Sony EX3 so that's what we're going to be doing tomorrow. I've worked plenty with the f900/Digizoom combo and am happy with it from an assistant's POV but I am fairly new to the EX3 so in short I'm looking for some advice on things to test for and discuss with the DP and production. Likes, dislikes, things to look out for, things that the EX3 might do better (if any), any help would be awesome!

Will it be an evil BBQ?

I was working with the Arri 35-3 today and will be for the next couple days and I've got a small easy question... is there any way to clear the shutter to check the gate without opening up the door to spin the movement? If there is I would be stoked to know, if not it would be great just to get a definitive "No, you have to open up the door which sucks but it is what it is". Thanks!

Thanks for the offer, I may have to take you up on that. I'll give you a call when we lock the dates.

I'm shooting a short film coming up where I'm lighting a concert scene and I'm looking for a little help. The first part has the main character pushing his way through the crowd up to the stage. I was thinking it might be cool to build a low ambience and then have some par cans or other narrow spread lights flashing on and off at the crowd from above as the character made his way through but I've never really set up anything like that. Does anybody have any ideas of what I'd need to achieve that? The director and I have decided it would be better to keep the coverage tight because we're working on a budget as usual. There will also be some shots of the main character on the stage with the artist, a pop singer. I've got a couple ideas of how to light this but any advice from people that have lit concert scenes before would be great. Also, if anybody has any good recommendations of movies with good performance/concert scenes I'd love to give those a watch. We will be shooting the character's against green screen because the director wants to add a "futuristic" concert background and we don't have time or the funds to build a practical one, as such I really only have to light the characters. Thanks in advance!

Yep, that's just the way it is. Set the back focus on the HVX's fixed lens then tape it down so doesn't wiggle around. Try not to touch that part of the camera too much and check it from time to time. If it was precise and stable that would just take all the fun out of it now wouldn't it.

Unwinding after my first day of Tyler mount tech training. It was pretty sweet.

Way? That would be something, not necessarily a good thing at all but definitely something none the less. All good points Jeron, thanks. Another thing I forgot... there are HD wireless video systems like the Wevi Cam which would allow you to have a spotter sitting next to a monitor checking focus for you or, god forbid, you could park yourself in front of the monitor, blasphemy I know but yet another option.

If the camera is coming from a rental house then you could put a Cinetape on the camera list, Those make steadicam easier, especially in simple walk and talk situations. I've done some RED steadicam jobs and what's nice is that most people go with the 320 ASA rating making it easier for them to get a stop you can work with. Regardless of the make of the camera I always appreciate when DPs understand that steadicam can be tough and as such make sure to give me a fighting chance with a decent stop. Also, if the camera is not tilting up and down a lot you can use a laser pointer like you would a on a dolly. It won't be as accurate as on a dolly of course but it will keep you in the ball park. Beyond that I usually try and burn into my head what 3', 5' and 7' (or wherever you've got good witness marks on you're wireless unit or the lens if you're looking at that) looks like and guess based on that. Other than that I would also be interested to hear some tips on steadicam work if anyone else has some.

Allyn, unfortunately Arri's WRC-1 is the tool specifically designed to do this type of adjustment. Cool idea by the way. With the WRC it's a fairly straight forward procedure provided you're familiar with the unit, I guess that's what days off are for. You can find the manual on Arri's website and it'll tell you how to do it. So, the smoothest and most repeatable way to get this done is find a WRC. If you can't get your hands on one a dirty way to do it is with an RCU and a Preston FIZ or Focus/Iris unit. It helps to have two pairs of hands to do it this way. You set the the RCU to shutter adjust then define your end stops. Set the Preston to iris adjust and define your end stops or label you're T-stops on the wheel/slider. Next, do the math to make sure you're shutter/iris ramps will properly compensate its self. Now here comes the fun part, both people will try to manually ramp their respective units at around the same time and with the same duration to destination. With some practice the slight variations in exposure shouldn't be too bad because the ramp will probably be fairly quick and the end will look fine if you did your math right. Like I said, it's not ideal but it should work if you can't get your hands on a WRC. The WRC would make things a whole lot easier. Hope that helps.

It's in a bag coming out of the can. The core has never fallen out on me or anyone I've ever talked with however depending on the temperature it can get a little loose. In my experience the warmer it is the looser it'll get. But just for safety I always try to hold the rolls with some fingers underneath for support, especially with 16.

The image plane, 99% of the time.

Thanks for the link Walter. Yeah, I've looked at the Otto's and am wondering if they're really worth the extra cost. Andrew, where did you get yours and how muchish did you have to drop? You can always PM me if you don't want to publish that info.

Okay, I wanted to put this in the "AC" but it just as much belongs in "Grip" so here it is in general. So, what's your favorite walkie talkie earpiece? I'm over getting them from production as most of the time they don't supply alcohol toilettes things (ewww) so then I have to go clean it off my self which is a major hassle. And sometimes all they have are those super annoying headset ones, those things drive me crazy. I've been doing some searching and there are some in the 30 dollar range and others in the 100 dollar range. Which one do guys like and why?