Brad Grimmett

Kirk, Good spot, except for the last shot. It's too wanky. There is some camera bobble that is very distracting, which is a shame because the shot of the shoes just before that is great. Other than that I like it a lot.

I don't know about being a prima donna....I'm just not sure how they managed to be in all those places at once. Wardrboe and makeup (with multiple actors), props, art, scripty, lighting reference shots for the DP....that's a lot of photos. Oh, and you have to do your REAL job too.

Just for clarification, my personal rig would cost around $100k to replace, as would most professional rigs. I require at least a $100k insurance policy on every job I do. Most productions have $1,000,000.00 in coverage, so it's never been an issue. I don't know any steadicam operators who will work without an insurance cert in their hand before the job starts.

I think your friend has been misinformed. Renting a Steadicam or lens adapter is basically the same process. You pay X amount and you use it. A lens adapter will be much cheaper to rent than a Steadicam (referring to a professional rig). But Adrian is correct about insurance, which may be where your friend is confused.

I can't really find a question besides what camera you should use....On a short film budget I don't see any reason for you to use the 416 instead of the SR3. The 416 will be more expensive and doesn't really do much that the SR3 doesn't. It's just newer. If you have some specific questions about something else, you should ask them, otherwise you may not get much help.

I'd love to see it too if the producer is a scumbag and tried to screw the DP and/or crew.

They play their own instruments (unplugged) along with a track. And yes, the drums are loud, but not as loud as the playback. Whether or not you shoot the whole thing through from beginning to end depends on the shots you need. But unless you want a one'r, there isn't much reason to do this more than a couple times for wide shots and possibly the singers single.

As long as the producer/client lives up to their end of the deal (i.e., pays the DP) , then this is true. But from what I understand, the DP technically owns the footage until he is paid for his services. In the case of steadicam, the rights are retained with the steadicam operator until he/she is paid. I'm no lawyer, this is just what I've gathered over the years.

Well, you can run with it....I'm not sure how much quicker you want to go. The Merlin is a great little stabilizer, although you should make sure your camera won't be too heavy for it before you buy one.

OK, I'll assume that this is true. But even if it is I have problems with it. First, his boss was waiting for a lens. When your boss is waiting it's not the time to be trying to drum up future work or socializing. Second, even if he wasn't busy at the moment, this is not the place to be showing someone a reel for those purposes. Arrange a meeting, send him a reel later, or give him one at the end of the job to watch on his own time. Of course, if he really was trying to poach this client, then it's even more unacceptable. There are plenty of people who only think of the short term and think their mis-guided actions in these situations will help them. Sometimes they get a job because of it, but in the long run word spreads and there name is mud. This is a small business and most people know, or know of, almost everyone else that is in their same job category. It's important that those other people respect you and your actions. People should be more aware of that when they do these types of things.

I guess you haven't priced these lenses! A complete set costs (according to the most recent quote I got) $379,000.00. It's very doubtful that an individual buying a set of lenses has $400 grand laying around in cash. These purchases are pretty much always done on credit.

Hmm, it's hard to imagine the unit stills photographer doing all the continuity shots and having time to do all the important marketing shots as well. Polaroid, and instamatic polaroids were around long before Bound For Glory was shot (by about 30 years), FYI.

It's deadsville right now except for commercials. There are a whole lot of commercials shooting right now!

I think I remember seeing a backpack that had built in solar panels on it. That backpack would be perfect for that kind of project. I guess at that point you'd just have to hope you had plenty of sun!

Actually, that's not entirely true. Posts CAN be edited by the moderators in that particular forum. The difference is that we don't edit posts except in extreme circumstances (of which I think there have been none). I just wanted to make it clear that people can't just post anything they want here and not have it deleted if it needs to be.

I had another PM today, so I just hit view new messages first and then went to my assistant to read the message and then went back to view the new messages. That worked to avoid the issue.

Really? I remember about ten years ago when scripty, makeup, wardrobe, props, art, etc...all had Polaroids and were constantly snapping shots for continuity. Were unit stills folks doing this at some point?

Really? How would you quantify that? I'd love to see the numbers that back up that statement. Please post them. Yes, a camera is a useful tool regardless of who it's made by. The two names you dropped above have also found film cameras to be useful once or twice in the past. Some may not have complaints, but some do. I've spoken to some actors who don't like HD/digital at all because they think it's less forgiving on their looks than film. Wow! Really!? How many millions of Red's have been sold? It's comments like this that illicit backlash. I would say the most offensive comments come from people who have never shot a foot of film or ever seen a Red, proclaiming Red to be the best thing since water.

FYI Tim: It just happened again.

I considered doing exactly what you're talking about earlier this year. Unfortunately, the exchange rate was, and probably still is, so bad that it didn't make financial sense. I had a rental house more than willing (that didn't own any Master Primes) to take them on consignment. Are you thinking about buying a full, or close to full, set, or are you just going to buy 5 or 6? I've never heard of them being fragile, but I have heard it's a bit tougher to service them than a set of Ultra Primes or S4's.

Well, sometimes a certain tool is really needed for only one or two shots. That doesn't mean it isn't needed. Although I understand how that can sometimes look to a producer, and of course sometimes a compromise is in order.

I'm using Vista with Firefox 3.0.4. I haven't tried it on my other computer which runs XP and Firefox. I'll try it next time I can.

Yes, I've had that problem a couple of times recently.

Yeah, good point. It's certainly interesting to think about in that way.

They do this on sitcom's. Of course most, if not all, sitcoms are shot on tape now, but they did it even when they shot 35mm. I worked on a movie that was only 24 shooting days and we shot 250,000 ft. We weren't wasting by any means, but we moved fast and two cameras ran for about 90% of the shots.