Brad Grimmett

Adding a couple to Chris's list: Panavision LW (lightweight) Panavision Platinum Panvision Panastar Moviecam Compact Moviecam SL Arri 3

Wow, this is a rare one. I wonder how serious they actually are... 30 minutes of finished footage is quite a lot for a wedding video. I have a friend who did steadicam on a celebrity wedding in Hawaii a few years ago. I think he told me that they had 4 35mm cameras running for the wedding. He walked them up and down the aisle.

Thanks Kieran. Adding a second camera was a last minute decision. I'm not really sure why it was a Red instead of a Phantom.

This is a promo I did a couple months ago. We shot on Phantom and Red. It turned out pretty decent I think. All the shots of the kid were done with two steadicams simultaneously, both in low mode for everything. The other operator did all the frontal shots with the phantom and I did all the other profile and three quarter frontal shots with a Red. It was my first time working with another steadicam operator at the same time, and it was a lot of fun. We were a small herd running up and down the beach all day.

I completely understand where you're coming from regarding raising the money. It makes sense to me as well. But if you sign a deal with a union and then try to do things outside of the contract you signed, then it's your own fault if you have problems with the union. Why sign a contract if you don't like the terms? It just doesn't make much sense to me. It's unfortunate that unions are necessary, but they are. There are some producers that always take good care of their crew, no matter what. But there are many more that would screw everyone that works for them as often as possible, every chance they got, which is why we have to stick together.

Fair enough. I worked with Jonas Ackerlund in the 90's with 35mm and kind of assumed that was his format of choice. There is certainly a good chance I'm wrong.

Obviously, no one should be slapping cameras out of peoples hands. What did you say to the guy when you saw him do it? Since when am I "Mr. Pro Union"? Just because I disagree with some of the things you say and correct you when you write things that are inaccurate doesn't make me for or against unions. So you don't need to work as a crew member to appreciate unions, but I have to work as a producer in order to understand unions? So you know everything, and I don't? Got it. I'd be willing to bet that I've seen a lot more union contracts than you have Richard, and I understand the issues from both sides. I'm not anti-producer, I'm pro producer. But I am anti-lying-cheating-stealing producer, and I've seen more than my share of those. I'll tell you what, I'll try raising money and signing checks sometime, and you can try flying 75lbs of gear around for 15 hours and then not getting paid for months.

It's most likely 35mm, and if so probably a 435. Most videos in the mid nineties were 35mm and 435.

Oh really? Seems to me it's clearly a case of the producers signing a deal and then trying to get around the terms of the deal. If they didn't want to hire union people, why did they sign a contract with the union saying that they would hire union people? No they don't. They show up on set as an employee of the company producing the film. They may rent their gear to production, but that is completely separate from their employment with the company. Well in most cases people are smart enough to know that if a producer or actor doesn't want them taking un-authorized pictures on set (which they very rarely do) then they shouldn't do it unless they don't want to keep their job. I was day playing on a movie the other day and the paparazzi was all around and the grip dept. had to hang a bunch of 12x12 solids to block access. How do you think it would have gone over if I had taken my still camera out and started snapping pictures on set? Do you ever actually see any of these things happen? You seem to hear a lot of stories...

Yeah, $44,500 for 5 Super Speeds is ridiculous. Good thing you already figured that out.

I'm from Orlando and have 7 friends out here who all came from Orlando. Strangely, 4 of them are operators and one is a 1st. Another is a reformed operator and directing now (he's the smart one). Seems like us FL boys tend to like it out here. With the exception of Disneyland and Hollywood Blvd. you won't see near as many tourists as you would in Orlando. I doubt this would be my first choice for places to move for the business anymore.

You crack me up David. Funny, I saw the post with his name on it and thought, "Wow, he's back." I guess you did the same.

No. Everyone is freelance. There really aren't any full time jobs as an assistant, at least none that I've ever heard of.

That's what I think every time a movie like Avatar or Tranformers 2 comes out. Instead of making one film for a few hundred million, why not make 30 films for $10 million each. I thought diversity in investment was good...but what the hell do I know? I seem to remember hearing about one failed movie taking down a studio on more than one occasion. And Wall Street clearly has cornered the market on putting all their eggs in one basket. On the subject of "no budget" filmmaking...well, it's clearly not a business model that can work, at least not in the long term. If there weren't projects with budgets, super low budget projects couldn't exist. And if you try to build a business around not paying people, well, you'll run out of people pretty fast and you'll have very few good people to begin with. I've always believed that if you paid teachers better, you'd have a lot of better teachers. I think the same holds true in most businesses.

Since when? Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't remember that.

That could work but moving the green screen opposite the camera probably won't be as easy as it sounds. Your other option is to just get enough green screen so that it covers the whole area you need it to and you don't have to move it. You can still fade the two shots together.

Michael, You should buy an ad on this site if you want to try to sell your slider here.

I don't think it's harsh, it's just realistic. But it's good to know we agree on something Phil!

You and a million other people want the exact same thing. That's a lot of "10 minutes".

Classic in what sense? Also, is it common in the UK to call for a "3" stop on the lens? I've yet to hear that one in the US and I think it would confuse many 1st's here.

Blockbuster has gone bankrupt a bunch of times. This is far from it's first time. They'll survive. It may be good for distributors to have Blockbuster around, but they've never been good for films and filmmakers. They've been editing movies for a long time...at least they used to...I'm not sure anymore since I haven't been in a Blockbuster in almost 10 years.

I know a lot of actors and I've never heard of this. It's ridiculous if you ask me and I doubt it would last more than 5 minutes in Los Angeles.

I have it dvr'd, but haven't watched it yet. I think they switched to the F35 for the season.

Yes, of course. But there are many different companies that do nothing but cut trailers.

Why ask for references if you're just going to ignore them? People spend hundreds of hours researching before shooting a film. If you can't spend a few hours watching a film you might be spending your time on the wrong things.