Michael E Brown

Def stick with Arri on a kit like this. The Softbank I kit has everything (except C-stands, etc) that Brian mentioned wrapped up in one kit. 1K open face, Small Chimera, (2) 650 fresnels, (1) 300 fresnel. I'm not going to say anything about the other softbox brands, but let me just recommend to stick with Chimera. Mainly for the same reason I would stick with Arri. It's standard gear that is built well and will last. Chimeras on the 650s will cut your light significantly. If you need to cut a bit of light and even out the green a little, some diffusion across the doors of the fixture should do the trick. You may have to flag a bit more for spill, but no worse than with a Chimera. 650s will not fill a standard Video Chimera either, and no sense in jumping to Quartz or Daylight banks that cost more than the fixtures. Now, let me throw another idea at you. I would seriously consider a Kino Flo option. You may spend a bit more, but I think the ease and reduced power & heat would be worth it. A setup as simple as a Diva 400 for key, two Barfly 400s or 200s for screen, and a Barfly 100 for backlight would be awesome. You can get green (or blue) tubes for the Barflys which make it considerably more effective for lighting the screen, plus you can put them much, much closer to the screen. You can plug all of this into a single circuit, probably with all your video gear.

Any good harness should be adjustable to fit his body shape, you just need to make sure it can expand large enough - in his case height - so get whatever fits his height and he should be able to tighten down the areas needed. Number one on my list would be the way the harness goes on. Skip anything where the harness requires webbing to be undone to get out of. These are stupid and slow. Also skip anything where the middle strap does not release at all, requiring you to pull the harness over your head. Also stupid and slow. I've seen both of these goofy harness types in the last month. A good harness will have a quick release buckle in the middle and many like mine have them on the legs also (some have buckles on legs, but you have to remember what hole you were in). I can get in/out of my harness without any sillyness in about 10 seconds. Number two is to make sure the harness has TWO lanyards. For whatever reason all the stores like to sell harnesses with one lanyard which is fine for using in a lift, but you can't do anything else with it where you would be required to change from one safety point to another.

I have one of the Honeywell generators, the 2000w version. I picked it up on clearance at Home Depot for $299. I have several of the Honda generators, so I can tell you a bit about the differences. I can't speak about the smaller Honeywell, but I'd bet they are similar. First, as Mr. Hartman noted - the Honda's are NOT rated for continuous power equal to their model number. The Honda model numbers correlate to the PEAK power (useless rating as far as we are concerned). The baby Honda is 900w continuous, the next model is only 1600w continuous. The Honeywells on the other hand are rated for continuous use at a power level equal to their model number. The significance of the power level comes in to play with the volume level. Most people complain the Honeywell is louder than the Honda. This is true, but you must take into account the Honeywells are larger in power. The Honeywells are also larger in size, quite a bit larger. Both Hondas come in at 59db at full load. The Honeywells are around 70db at full load. This doesn't seem like much at first, but it's actually pretty significant. Add the fact that the cheapo engine in the Honeywell has a particularly annoying rattling sound and the case rattled like a b^tch when it was new (one of my guys took some rubber tape and outlined all the places where plastic panels met and fixed that). The Honeywell needs to be quite far away (100ft minimum) and masked (sound blanket suspended in front between it and mic and/or hidden behind a vehicle) to be useful. The Honeywell oil change tube stripped on the first try because the case prevents it from screwing in at the correct angle. Definitely not built to the standards of the Honda. Useful life will probably be much shorter and as mentioned before - forget about parts and support. I paid for the Honeywell with the first rental, so I decided to keep it despite the cheapo construction. I like the fact that it has a higher output, but you've got to work a bit more to keep it quiet (We send it out with a 100' 10/3 stinger). Using the eco mode to idle the engine down results in the motor hunting under very small loads where the Honda is much smoother. The Honeywell works fine as far as power output goes. Voltage is good, as is performance under load. I have run both HMIs and Kinos off mine as well as some video gear. Overall, I recommend a Honda. Change the oil on shorter intervals than recommended. You will more then likely never have an issue with it. As Mr. Holt pointed out, you need at least the Honda EU2000iA to power your HMI and a 4bank.

First, I think you are getting too far into semantics for this general conversation. No need to jump all over these guys for using a colloquial term. Nowadays, when someone says "billet", it's generally understood to be a machined piece of metal (or look like it was). Second, while your definition of billet is technically correct, billet also refers to an end product sold to customers. In machine shops, billet refers to plain ole' bar stock in smaller chunks, usually chunks sized to be chucked directly into a standard lathe or milling machine. As a marketing term, it's used to describe a machined part instead of cast/forged/etc. So Gary from Doggicam was simply using it to explain that the clamp is machined from aluminum. If you want to be specific with semantics, the super-correct explanation would be that it is machined from aluminum billet. To a machinist, billet is a "proper" term nowadays. Thanks for posting picture everyone. I'll have to pick up a couple of these and check them out.

Anyone have a photo of a "big byte baby" or as I've heard "baby big bite" from Modern? I really like Modern's stuff and I have heard about this clamp twice in one week now. Of course, nothing on Modern's site and I can't find it anywhere else on the net.

I think he's afraid of the low ceiling, so a wall spreader plus a fixture hanging might end up too low. I like the idea of bouncing off a white card - that can be taped to the ceiling with not much damage. If you are going to screw something in the ceiling, why not just screw some Kino fixtures up there? Thin, and your choice of daylight or tungsten lamps. Don't forget that CTO+ND exists like Lee 207/208. You can correct the windows and knock them down an additional stop or two at the same time.