Michael K Bergstrom

http://members.dslextreme.com/users/rogermw/darksucker.html The Dark Sucker Theory For years, it has been believed that electric bulbs emit light, but recent information has proved otherwise. Electric bulbs don't emit light; they suck dark. Thus, we call these bulbs Dark Suckers. The Dark Sucker Theory and the existence of dark suckers prove that dark has mass and is heavier than light. First, the basis of the Dark Sucker Theory is that electric bulbs suck dark. For example, take the Dark Sucker in the room you are in. There is much less dark right next to it than there is elsewhere. The larger the Dark Sucker, the greater its capacity to suck dark. Dark Suckers in the parking lot have a much greater capacity to suck dark than the ones in this room. So with all things, Dark Suckers don't last forever. Once they are full of dark, they can no longer suck. This is proven by the dark spot on a full Dark Sucker. A candle is a primitive Dark Sucker. A new candle has a white wick. You can see that after the first use, the wick turns black, representing all the dark that has been sucked into it. If you put a pencil next to the wick of an operating candle, it will turn black. This is because it got in the way of the dark flowing into the candle. One of the disadvantages of these primitive Dark Suckers is their limited range. There are also portable Dark Suckers. In these, the bulbs can't handle all the dark by themselves and must be aided by a Dark Storage Unit. When the Dark Storage Unit is full, it must be either emptied or replaced before the portable Dark Sucker can operate again. Dark has mass. When dark goes into a Dark Sucker, friction from the mass generates heat. Thus, it is not wise to touch an operating Dark Sucker. Candles present a special problem as the mass must travel into a solid wick instead of through clear glass. This generates a great amount of heat and therefore it's not wise to touch an operating candle. Also, dark is heavier than light. If you were to swim just below the surface of the lake, you would see a lot of light. If you were to slowly swim deeper and deeper, you would notice it getting darker and darker. When you get really deep, you would be in total darkness. This is because the heavier dark sinks to the bottom of the lake and the lighter light floats at the top. The is why it is called light. Finally, we must prove that dark is faster than light. If you were to stand in a lit room in front of a closed, dark closet, and slowly opened the closet door, you would see the light slowly enter the closet. But since dark is so fast, you would not be able to see the dark leave the closet. Next time you see an electric bulb, remember that it is a Dark Sucker.

Don't know if it's much help, but all the convention places in town here run Cat-5 for video with pretty good results. Some links that might help... http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?threadid=23850 http://www.svideo.com/videobalun1.html

I too watched Jurassic Park and agree it was a terrible terrible movie, and yes the CGI in it looked incredibly fake...oh wait, or was that number three?

Hello, I have some splatters (fake blood and mud) on some silks in the truck, any ideas on cleaning them? Thanks.

I've seen ice screws (for ice climbing) used for securing the track down to the ice. Spiked mats sound like an interesting option though. But I know that when I run into an ice shot up here I want to build a rig to do it. I saw a camera rig that they built for "Blades of Glory" in the making of video that looked really cool, it looked like speedrail and some kind of discs, the "dolly" grip was on skates.

I have a two-door Ford Escort ZX2 that gets great gas mileage, with the seats folded down I've carried everything from 4 foot kinos, lights, grip iron, speedrail etc, to a three person crew with an HD camera full lighting and audio package. Tons of cargo room in a tiny package! I get a little stuck on fitting a 12x in there though...

No one actually knows who shoots these in town, no one will come forward to claim them as their own. Pretty bad.

I believe it was an F-150. (maybe a 250?) it was a big work truck. The attachment point was on the factory tow hooks (which are part of the frame) The orange ratchets are connected directly to the frame. Thanks. As mentioned in my post, I had a very limited supply, this isn't anywhere near what it should be, but it's literally what I had in my suitcase. Production had mentioned they wanted a hood mount, but not that they wanted it a foot off the ground. The arm is about 8 inches off the ground, and I had driven the route prior to this rig to check the road. Wish I had longer pipes and a shorty arm but I had a 50 lb limit of equipment.

Here it is, this is just a few hours old, taken with my camera phone. The camera is covered (due to rain in Ketchikan, Alaska) but it's has a clamp with a c-stand arm stablilizing it. Since I flew commerical with six bags, with a limited budget and no idea what I was dealing with, I had a limited supply. This is what I rigged when I arrived on location. The speedrail is supported by the gobo heads and clamps (which should have been reversed in hindsight), which in turn supports the cheeseplate and leveling head. the rachets make it tight (the downward pressure of the weight of the camera tighening and leveling the head.). No problems through the night with any loosening or shifting. Oh, and it was raining steadily. Since it's the rainforest.

I back up EVERY camera mount with ratchet straps, I just built a "hoodmount" that was a foot above ground level level with a piece of speedrail, a couple cartellinis, and a couple gobo heads, and a cheeseplate, I was able to stand on it with now problem (5x what the camera weight, no vibration) . If you want to be a rigger, never say "impossible"

What would I do without you, Mr. Keth?

So, built this unit and was wondering if it can power a 200W Jokerbug. I have a 12v deep cycle gel battery that has 77 minutes at a 25amp draw. I wired a 375 watt DC/AC inverter to the battery, (with a 30amp fuse). I powered a 250 watt lowell prolight off it last night for 1 hour. Just wondering if this would drive a 200W joker on an electronic ballast for at least 20 minutes? Any thoughts?

Whenever I do a sidemount for a camera (when it's shooting the interior of the car), I usually have the window down. I haven't had an issue with actresses hair blowing in the wind from driving but I think it actually had to do with how they were wearing their hair. You might want to look into building a shield to divert the wind, just secure it to the mount and maybe the car itself. It's more rigging involved so I would only do it if the wind was an issue.

For 4k's and such, know what lens you'll be using and have the lens in place while the head heats up, other wise you'll crack the lense if you pop it in a hot light. And a 4k lens is not cheap at all. Another issue not addressed yet is the fact that the header cable can also get very cold, and if laid on snow or ice, you need to check the cable for breaks or wear just like if you were dealing with rain or water. When you go for wrap, be very careful with the header cables, because when you wrap the cable you can snap the cables inside if it's cold enough.

Ummm, yeah, first thing I did. No answer back. The springs rigged mount, that's probably what it is, thanks a bunch.

First language is French

Hello, Just had a request to do a car mount with a 750 HD camera, no big deal. But in their broken english email, they said "car mount with suspension rig", I know that we only have "hard mounts" for cameras in the state, anyone know what they mean by this? I can't see that it's a steadycam arm because they want a simple mount, not a full speedrail cage or anything. Thoughts?

I use the Arri softbank as my default running around shooting interviews and small commercials kit. It's a good interview kit (throw some dimmers, gels, diffusion in, and buy a 650 chimera ring too). For small cheap commercials I throw in some small units (150-250) to give me some more options. Overall, it's a nice little kit though.

They are here, and they are beautiful. Anchorage, Alaska is replacing 16,000 streetlights with LED street lights, and boy do they look cool. I'll try posting some pics soon of the spread and color.

Found this about a local Regal theatre. http://www.adn.com/arts/story/592848.html Hopefully Regal continues this trend, because I hate paying nearly $10 a ticket to go see a movie. Think about it, growing up I got to see maybe 2 movies a year in the theatre because I was part of a family of five, that's almost $45 in tickets alone, much less snacks. This is great for families, and the theatre isn't out any due to concession sales.

You could also just make a kit using a couple lollipops for the tower, and some cardellinis . Have had to do this when I didn't have enough kits on hand, and works just as well.

Just just on the off chance that this was fake I checked it out, and horrors! http://store.zacuto.com/new-products/ Why? That's all I can think of.

Go to strip clubs... It's a true but funny story, but I know someone that met a potential investor in the strip club... But weird stories aside, get legit (LLC etc,) get an attorney, and find the rich...

No thank you, more metal the better. Up in Alaska in the winter, the cold causes plastic to snap very easily. In fact, even weak heat welds on metal will snap when it's really cold.

Lit for a reality show where we went and bought a bunch of $10 ceiling fixtures from Walmart, and with some zipline rigged the lights to the ceiling. Lit the rooms very bright and naturally, and if they DID show up in the shot the looked like a normal ceiling light. Granted we needed premission to drill holes in the ceiling for the mounting screws, but we patched them up afterwards. This also allowed the camera operators to roam about and get the best shot without the fear of hitting or knocking over a stand.