Zander Kroon

PRICE DROP: $800 OBO

In new condition with pouch. No physical or cosmetic damage. Asking $900 OBO. Available for local sale in the LA area otherwise I can ship.

I come to this website to have mature, educational discussions about this industry and everything related. I'm not here to be talked down to or disrespected. I'll just take my questions elsewhere.

I need to clarify here: I'm a fairly experienced dolly grip, I've been working for almost 6 years now. Young, but going strong. This thread was meant to be a discussion about tips, tricks, and unique tools that people have learned over the years but others may not have heard of. For example I had to do a complicated dolly move for a 3d tv pilot this winter. The move had to be 1 minute and 35 seconds, 20 feet straight, 90 degree curve then another 16 feet to finish the move. Every second of the move had to match as closely as possible to the last take for VFX work. To do this I taped marks in time increments along the track and mounted a laser pointer on the dolly so I had an exact reference point. Then used a stop watch as I pushed through the move.

I was just hired for a 15 day show as a dolly grip. Not sure when one yet although I'm assuming Fisher 10. This has motivated me to update/replace the tools I've lost and broken over the summer. Since I'm going shopping soon, I thought it would be a good idea to find out what clever gadgets, toys, tools, etc that some of the other dolly grips on the forum use. What are your must haves?

Bumping this thread back to life. Does anyone know if there is a place in or near Chicago where I can rent The Tube of Death or a similar device?

I could not disagree more with going to DePaul. As a favor to a friend I gaffed a DePaul shoot a few weeks back, easily one of the worst sets I've ever been on. First, the school barely has enough gear to supply to shoots in one weekend. We had to fly 8x rags on rolling junior stands the whole weekend. That's just one example of many. More importantly though, all the students on that shoot had the least experience and set knowledge of any film students I have worked with. They were very nice and respectful but when I had conversations about sets they've worked on, classes, etc. I came to the opinion that the classes and set experiences they have are very watered down. I don't want to turn this into a DePaul vs. Columbia thread, but if cinematography is something that you're serious about Columbia is the place to go. I've worked with both schools dozens of times and I can't tell you how impressed I've been by Columbia students/alum.

Yeah, this just proved it.

Really?

I just finished school in Chicago, I attended Columbia to study cinematography. Over the past few years I moved up the ladder quickly, earning my union card with the Local 476 (as electrician/grip) at the end of junior year. Now that I have graduated I plan on moving to LA in the fall, after the shooting season here ends. Although I love Chicago and have made a good name for myself here I know I need to head out to LA if I want a better chance of making it as a DP. Moving there is going to be a big step since I'll have to restart my networking and begin working up the ladder again. Although shooting is my end goal, I want to keep working on the big shows when I'm not shooting so I can keep food on the table and a roof over my head. So my question is, how easy or difficult would it be to get unionized out in LA? Would my current membership and union experience help? Also, in LA do you have to pick a side? Electric or grip? thanks folks

Wrong area.

On silent mode the high pitched singing an HMI produces should be very low but it may still be present. However, the frequency the noise produces is much higher than most human voices produce and our ears can detect. I suggest setting up early and letting the heads burn for a while. The engineer should be able to pick up which frequencies they heads are playing on and mute them out of the mix.

The cost of building your own metal dolly track and doorway dolly system will cost more than just renting for the days needed. This is assuming that you take the time and acquire the materials to do it properly. PVC and some skate wheels won't cost much but your dolly movements will be bumpy and sloppy. Save yourself a lot of money and labor, just rent.

Good production design is what will trick the audience and sell the shot, not lenses. Best way to approach this: Have your designer set up a faux yard on the demo floor where you will be shooting. Some astro turf, a fake bush, and wall treatment that looks like siding. Start with an empty medium, have the actor enter the shot, follow him down to the mower as he turns it on, then slowly pull back. Have the faux yard big enough that you can pull back a few feet to keep the illusion of being on a real yard, then quickly introduce product signs and reveal the full showroom. The faux yard will then look like a demo area for that specific model and the audience should buy it. Also, I agree with Marcus. Get some cinestyle lenses!

In the next few weeks I will be gaffing a spec commercial. One of the locations is a mainstream looking club where the male character will be prowling for girls. The DP and I would like to have DMX controlled theatrical style heads however it is out of the budget. Initially my thoughts on creating moving sources and changing colors, maybe even some sharp patterns, would be to yank the lens out of fresnels and shoot them into mirrors. We could gel the mirrors and tape patterns on the glass, then rig the mirrors to rotate. On paper this could work but would take a lot of time building before hand. Thoughts? If you folks have any other tips or tricks for a set up like this I would love to hear.

Part of my soul just died.

Diligent note taking and drawing overheads are also very helpful.

I have a good idea for how to pull this off but I want to talk it out and get some feedback. Maybe you folks have some tips or better methods for accomplishing this shot. One of the scenes I'm shooting for a period piece is going to involve a stylized sunset (8pm to twilight) in realtime. It is a scene about two lovers having one last night together. The male character is leaving on a naval expedition and may never return. The director and I want to show that the two characters are so entranced in this intimate moment that the time is passing by without them noticing/caring. My idea to create this visually would be to start the shot at 8pm, just at sunset, and have a fast paced stylized sunset for the first 20 seconds, assuming that the whole shot takes about 40 seconds of screen time. Then slow down the lighting progression and hold on twilight through the rest of the shot. The characters would enter the room, the sunset would happen as they start their embrace, and the sunset would quickly transition into twilight. To help sell the effect, I want to overcrank and shoot at 30-32fps to create that slow, larger than life feeling. Here are a few examples: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqUmoxQ31JQ (start at 0:26) (start at 0:15) In those examples the quality and color stays pretty constant. For our scene we want to push the color range a ton. Start with white light, transition to a vibrant orange, then push it further into that deep sunset red. Maybe throw in a few hints of pink or purple. Set Overhead: https://docs.google.com/drawings/d/10_7k6iijeKCYp3_l8C1CzQs6WL3uBcLH_lx6S805YLc/edit?hl=en Photo Reference https://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&ik=e3b86c54e3&view=att&th=12fc11a037cbe1f3&attid=0.1&disp=inline&realattid=f_gnbxrb8t0&zw The idea I have to create the sunset would be to use three 10k fresnel sources, on dolly track and crank stands, with an individual lamp operator for each. Light A would be the first source on, the other two dimmed off, and as we dolly the whole rig across light A would dim down as light B dims up at an equal pace. Then once A is completely out, light C would start dimming up just before light B is dimmed out. These dimming transitions would be paced at about 20 second and light C would reach full output by the time it hits its final mark. The track would be placed approximately 20 feet from the window. I want soft controlled light at first, then really hard sharp light by the end. A and B lights would start 12 feet up to create patterns of light on the floor and a few feet up the wall. Then once the movement starts the lights would be lowered to have the light crawl up the walls. On paper I am somewhat happy with this idea but I do have a few concerns. One is double shadows. Two, output. And the other is simplicity. Since this operation has so many moving parts I fear that it may get too complicated and mistakes will be made during the operation. I'm looking into other lighting sources such as SFX stage lights that are DMX controlled. If I can get a head with enough output and is able to dial in a wide spectrum of colors, that would be much easier and better. Thoughts? Ideas?

I'm gaffing an independent short next weekend. Its about a school teacher who doubles as an amateur MMA fighter. Naturally there will be a big boxing match in the movie. The scene will be a bit stylized, overhead lighting providing strong, soft ambience and then a hard key and edge light. The background, outside of the cage that is, both the DP and director want completely black. So only the actors and the cage they are fighting can be lit/shown. Now originally the DP wanted to light it by hanging a 12' silk over the 20x20 fighting cage. Then use 4 mighty's and 5 micky's in a 9 light pattern to blast into the silk, creating a very broad, even source. On paper this is all well and fine, however, we are running into problems installing this set up. We cannot move the cage, hang the lights, and put the cage back in. We can't put a scissor lift in the cage, it will break the structure. A condor can't be used either, the doors into the building are too narrow to get the body of the unit inside. So, the options I see now are few. #1 Rent scaffolding and build a 20' high platform that goes into the cage for my crew to work on. #2 Create a goal post set up with multiple sections of long speed rail to hang both lights and the silk from. My concern is the weight of the rig (safety and speed rail bowing if it is over 20' wide) and how easy it would be to hoist up all the weight once set up. Plus we would have to black out the stands so they aren't seen. #3 Hang a 12' ultra bounce over the cage and then use source 4's on the ground (outside of the ring) to blast up and into the bounce. #4 Light it completely differently than how they want. Now that I've spewed out all my thoughts, ideas, and concerns, do any of you folks have some advice? We have the budget to rent some additional tools if necessary but I am trying to keep this as low cost as possible.

When you say part of the film was exposed do you mean a few feet that was loose from the roll? Like a tail? Or a section of the wound up film was exposed? If it was the latter, then it is very likely that the side of the frame will be exposed and unusable. Did you tell your First AC or DP the film may have been compromised?

While on set today I was talking with the first AC. Somehow we got to the topic of listening to music on set and he mentioned that he had a few friends in LA who have radio earpieces (surveillance style) that feature a headphone jack. Based on his description the device would feed the music to your ear whenever the radio was quiet and when someone clicked in to talk, the music channel would cut out, allowing you to hear the radio clearly. I tried searching the web but I was unable to find anything that matched. Has anyone hear heard of such a thing?

Everything has been sold.

Fresnels have been sold. Flo fixture is still up for sale. NEW PRICE: $500 OBO

Thanks for the reply David. I should be more specific: I'm renting several 4bank Kino and Single Tube units, with ballast and cables. I want to mount 8 bulbs all around the walls of a small laboratory. The bulbs will be positioned horizontally and spaced apart so I will need more slack in the breakouts than the head cable has to offer. On a shoot I worked the gaffer did something like this by running electric cable out of the feeder cables and then used some sort of fluorescent bulb "quick on" or "add a tap" to power the bulbs. I don't know the names of them and I can't find anything on filmtools or other cine websites when I dig around the electrical sections.

For an upcoming shoot I want to mount several Kino's (bare bulbs) on a wall and use them as practicals. What wiring and sockets would I need for this?