Steve Woronko

Once you get your kit, find a workflow that works for you, do it the same way every time, it lessens the chance of making a mistake. Don't let people rush you, that's when mistakes happen. Always have extra cables for everything. I was an early Hedge adopter, but know that Hedge is writing the checksum as it's copying the footage. If you are going the DIT route and don't want to spend the money on Silverstack, you can get Offloader which is also from Pomfort, costs about the same as all the others, and can transition to Silverstack easier since it's in the same family. 

Rented cameras generally come with readers. Pre large format, Loaders would have their own readers, which were affordable, like CFast, SXS, SD, which you should have just in case. 

Drive wise, that's a personal call on how much you want to spend. If you have a connection to get deals on drives, then maybe buy some to sell to clients. Because if production brings the drives, you're still going to have to download to their drives.

I've veered away from Loading, so not sure what other current software others are using, like Disk Drill. If the camera has software to view their raw files is good to have. Resolve is good for checking video. Parashoot is good to have on hand. 

Hope some of this helps.

Depending on the monitor and how they set it up with focus assist and peaking that those can be deceiving. Even with things like Light Rangers and Cinetapes, they're tools but not always 100% accurate. If the lens is calibrated and you know distance, you can pull on digital or film and not need a monitor. 

You have to know what you're doing and know people, plain and simple. And yes, there are way too many people for all camera positions then there are jobs.

I'm late to this, hope if you've had the shoot, it went well. I will say this, as someone who still does at least 1 film job a year. You should always do your best to get your Loader or 2nd if they're doing both, to prep, If you have both, the Loader is the more important 1 to have with you. Especially if you're trying to learn more about the camera. I'm saying this from experience having been a 1st and as an experienced film loader. I've gotten burned because as a Loader I wasn't given a prep day. I told the 1sts and production that if I didn't get a prep, I'm not responsible if there's any issues like scratched mags since I wasn't there and had to hope the 1st did a scratch test. On the 1 job, I was told they would do the scratch test and they didn't. We had 3 scratched mags, didn't know which camera or mag it came from. As a tip, even if I'm not scheduled for the prep, if I can swing by the prep, I will, especially if I don't know the 1sts. On multiple occasions, I have ended up getting at least half day, that's film or digital. But has happened more on film because if the AC doesn't know how, or been while since they loaded film, and the DP asks for some mags to be loaded, that conversation can be made and you get some more money. Just been my experience and thought I'd pass it along.

I actually worked on a feature where it was metric. It was the director's camera package, the lenses were metric and he made metric rings for his Nucleus. But, on his monitor, the LDS so up in feet/inches, which made it confusing if I used his monitor to pull focus on.

It's P-Touch, depending on the size of the slate it's 18mm or 24mm tape. The Brother P-Touch PTD600(https://www.brother-usa.com/products/ptd6000) is the new model that everyone uses these days. It's expensive but you can find it cheaper sometimes on a deal.

Even if you could, you wouldn't want to. You want to make sure you have a verified backup before doing anything else. If something goes wrong during the download, you risk corrupting the footage. More often than not, production isn't going to give you fast drives and if you're using a laptop, it's going to bog everything down. So it's best to do one task at a time. 

A lot of 2nds have switched from bags to Pelicans, either the 1510 or 1560. I'm still not sold on them and have a Burk bag. I've heard the quality of Cinebags has gone done but they're lower profile, but it needs to be able to take a lot of abuse and if you're spending a lot of a bag you want one that will last. The only problem I have is Burk bags is that they're modular so having to buy all the different pouches add up. But they're quality. http://www.burkbags.net/

The have a YWC in NYC, but you have to be in the guild to find out about events.

Gerald, are you in 600? At least in Atlanta, the Young Workers Committee is active. Not sure how much stuff they do in other regions.

Another thing is as soon as you can, find out which contract you're on, then contact the 600 office to get a copy of the contract, even though it might be on the 600 site, you want to find out if there's any side letters.

Even on low budget, the Loader still does the paperwork, union or not. Commercials & music videos not so much. Everyone should know how to do paperwork, if you don't because you weren't a Loader, then you skipped a step. Because not only do you learn paperwork, you also learn contracts. Knowing equipment is only part of the job, especially if you're the key.

I'm not saying you're not a competent 2nd, but here's been way too many ppl who have bumped to 2nd that don't know paperwork or set politics. Union world and non-union are close but are different beasts, and Loaders are the ones who, sadly know more about set politics than the keys these days. And when people decide they want to 2nd and not load and end up being a key, the Loader, who is the 2nd lowest in camera, can't tell a UPM/PC/PM what the contract is or fight for rates. It's sad when people are more worried about getting and keeping a job than making sure their crew is safe and paid and paid right.

Sorry for the rant, but been doing this for too long and too many people failing upward.

David, you'd be surprised how many 2nds, 1sts, & Ops have no idea how to fill out paperwork or do timecards, whether they're the ones filling them out or not. The just seem to know when they're timecards are wrong, which they're usually not. So you jumped into the union as a 2nd?

How much experience in camera do you have? There's way too many people, at least in Atlanta that are skipping being Utilities and Loaders but are missing valuable experience that you'll need when one day you key a show. On most shows, the Loader does the paperwork, if there's a DIT, the utility does it. On rare occasions the key 2nd does paperwork.

I'd find the Young Workers Group. We do skills sharing that includes how to do paperwork. There will be one soon.

Sorry late to the game on this. Being a loader, folder structure is important. And it goes for every camera, not just RED. If you haven't gotten a structure from post, and you have to create it, then try to make it so anyone can figure it out. If the name is too long, use abbreviations and always the date. If you're only using 1 camera then you can just put everything in that folder. If multiple cameras then create an A Cam, B Cam,etc & audio folders.

If you don't have Shotput or other checksum and are using a Mac, a simple verification is use Disk Utility and just pick the drive and click verify. If you don't want to do that, just make sure the size of the card matches the folder on all your drives you copy to. And I always scrub thru the footage, I've had bad card readers where the Shotput verified the card yet there was green bands in the footage.

When the card is done, with REDs at least, I delete the 2 RED files in the top folder so when they put the card in the camera they have to format.

Hope this helps.

Last post was in here was 2 years ago. Does anyone even check this? If so, I try to have semi regular lunches, reply if you'd like to find out about them.

Also, this Saturday September 24th, Full Frame is having a training on how to rig cameras for different setups. Full Frame is located at 500 Bishop Street, Atlanta.

Recently, the best show I've seen is Stranger Things. Mr. Robot Season 2 just started, so far it's not wowing me like the 1st season.

I just got the small tool pouch and 2 aks pouches. They look and feel really well constructed and are a good size to fit in run bags to fit small aks.

Thanks for all the replies. I should've described the situation a little better, instead of broad terms. A wireless system would've been ideal if it were in the budget. We were shooting in a small basement, on a dolly. The only illumination was from the computer monitor and small desk light. The glow in the dark ring or pencil would've work, which at the time didn't cross my mind, until after. And I actually prefer being next to the camera and not off under a piece of duvie looking at a monitor, seems kind of seems detached to me.

This is the 1st time I've been in this situation,since normally I'm a 2nd or Data Manager. We only had 1 monitor and no real room on the dolly. Was a no budget short,no prep or a lot of equipment to choose from. Like I said I'm still learning the ins & outs of pulling focus, so any tips or tricks would be greatly appreciated.

I'm still getting experience with pulling focus and the 1st time I've had to do it with that little light. If I had 2 marks I'd have tried that, but it was a dolly shot. It's hard to describe,but we were in a small basement, the lit action was across the basement, maybe 20ft away. We were coming from total darkness where the 1st 2 marks were as we picked up the actor walking in silhouette, if that helps any.

Was just wondering if you are unable to have a light source near cam or any sort of glow in the dark tape, if anyone had any tips on how to pull focus in near darkness?

Anybody ever use the pc version of Shotput Pro? I shudder to think I may have to use a pc again. But, I'm not cool enough for a MacBook since I spent all my money on desktops. Or is there another checksum program for pcs that is cheaper. I really hate to spend $100 on the pc program if I'm only going to use it sparingly.

I survived the shoot. The DP wanted to use his computer and they had 2 8TB GRaids and 1 4TB GDrive. I would say it went smooth but it didn't. We quickly found out the room I was doing the data managing in was on the same circuit as the kitchen and pantry and no matter

how many times we said to not plug anything in or tape over outlets, the director would plug in stuff and pop the circuit. I had 2 of the drives get to the point where I was unable to write to them. After reading on some message boards I found out these drives have that issue.

But I persevered. Didn't lose any footage and now it's off to post.

By the end of the shoot due to it lasting longer than scheduled I ended up being 2nd AC so all is good.

Onward to the next job.

thanks for the replies.

I've been editing solidly for the past 3 1/2yrs and am trying to get back into working on set. I have some experience as an AC but with DIT/Data Managing on the

rise a few AC's I know are getting more work with that and said it's an avenue I should look into,which I have. In fact I am doing that on a feature. Here's the issue

that I have now come across. Being that I am just getting back into the production side, I have no built up my equipment yet. And on this shoot,when they're on location and

having a low budget/time restraint that those days I am not needed to cut back on cost/hassle,which means the next day I'm already behind because I have to dump the cards they shot. Other than a generator, is there alternative power source setups other than

investing in a vehicle, to do the job on location where there are power issues?

thanks in advance,

Stussey

I've just redone my website that has all my contact info/reel/resume here:

Website

https://vimeo.com/33351252

Any comments/criticisms are greatly appreciated.