Dino Giammattei

The first thought that came to my crazy old man's mind was to kluge together a xenon projector lamp house, for creating a flat field, with the condenser head off a 4"x5" black and white enlarger. Use a high quality orthochromatic film for the pattern then find an appropriate combination of lens, focal length converter, extension tube or whatever to create a practical working distance..... I'll go sit down and be quiet now.

Two situations come to mind. One I handled well the other not so much. (The Good) Shooting in a mall in front of a restaurant. We had full permission from the mall management. The owner of the restaurant angrily confronted us to say we were going to ruin his business. I pointed out that our being there was attracting a crowd of people and that we would recommend that folks check out his establishment. By the time the day was half over, his business was so good he fed the crew for free. (The Bad) In my younger days as a newsie, while covering a County Council meeting where a group of protesters were present. One of the protesters became physically abusive to my camera operator. I bull rushed the guy and explained that if he touched anyone of my crew again I was going to remove his intestines through his left nostril. He screamed in terror and called the cops (At six foot, 214lbs and ugly, my friends say I'm quite scary when angry). What I "should" have done was to calmly explain that we were there to cover the event and then ask if he wanted to express his his point of view on camera. It would have surely diffused the situation and possibly gotten me a couple of good sound bites for the evening broadcast. You live and learn...

Two situations come to mind. One I handled well the other not so much. (The Good) Shooting in a mall in front of a restaurant. We had full permission from the mall management. The owner of the restaurant angrily confronted us to say we were going to ruin his business. I pointed out that our being there was attracting a crowd of people and that we would recommend that folks check out his establishment. By the time the day was half over, his business was so good he fed the crew for free. (The Bad) In my younger days as a newsie, while covering a County Council meeting where a group of protesters were present. One of the protesters became physically abusive to my camera operator. I bull rushed the guy and explained that if he touched anyone of my crew again I was going to remove his intestines through his left nostril. He screamed in terror and called the cops (At six foot, 214lbs and ugly, my friends say I'm quite scary when angry). What I "should" have done was to calmly explain that we were there to cover the event and then ask if he wanted to express his his point of view on camera. It would have surely diffused the situation and possibly gotten me a couple of good sound bites for the evening broadcast. You live and learn...

From the "Make it or Fake it" department, a possible solution. Get ahold of some patterned plastic sheeting. The material mentioned here is only a 12 inch square, but you should be able to find larger pieces if you look. (ebay.com/itm/Vertigo-Film-Translucent-Patterned-Sheets-12-X12-1-Pkg-Prism/111791974760? Cut a circle out of a sheet of black foamcore. Attach plastic to foamcore. Shoot a light at the plastic from way back so as to allow the pattern to spread to fill the circle. You should be able to make a light as big as the largest piece of plastic you can find. You may need to stick some frosted gel in there to spread the light enough to sell the illusion. I apologize to the professionals here for such a low tech, kindergarten craft day idea. At my level of the industry, if I want something special I have to do stuff like this. Upon further thought... Get a few of those springy reflector thingies. Angle them right, hit them with something from behind camera. (an ellipsoidal with an iris if you can find one) It could work.

I have a love/hate relation with these. Love the quality of the light emitted, but hate the relative fragility of the units. Ours get used constantly by everyone in the shop. We have had several get buggered with rough handling. The most common damage is the wire lamp shield getting broken off. I found that using the skinny cloth bags to store them is a pain. Now I just put them in the long black cases without the bags. The white diffusion can get brittle and crack. We replaced the diffusion covers on ours but in the future I'm just going to clip some 216 or something over them instead of replacing the material. Using the fluorescent lamps with the adapters has been interesting. It seems like at least one of the bulbs fails every time I use them. One thing I want to try is loading the adapters with other incandescent bulbs for effect. Something like those retro antique bulbs you can get from Home Depot, or even colored "party bulbs". I would even like to try some "flicker" bulbs for a fire effect. All in all a great product. Just be extra gentle with them and they will serve you well.

Although they aren't cheap, I have been purchasing wool blend socks from a local outdoor store. Fortunately they seem to last forever as opposed to the cotton tube socks I usually wear. I often double up and wear the cotton socks inside and the wool ones over. The new wool blends are quite comfortable worn against the skin though. They also have the added advantage of remaining warm when moisture builds up. I have like six pair that I have had for many years and they still look like new. Growing up in New England, wool clothing was readily available, but now that I reside in Virginia I have found it almost impossible to find wool shirts in the local department stores. It's a shame because wool is still one of the warmest materials to use for winter clothing. It also outlasts cotton by a long shot. I have 20 year old wool flannels that are still in use. As for manmade materials, I used to do a lot of video work for cold weather divers and they swore by the Patagonia brand thermals. Again, these are not cheap but last forever and keep you warm without the bulk that cotton long johns have. As others have said, good shoes/boots are probably the most important. If your feet get cold you will be miserable.

According to the company s literature (http://www.k5600.com/products/jb1600/jb1600.pdf) it can run on a 15amp circuit. That being said, I couldn't find info on the actual current draw for the ps. I wouldn't try to add a significant amount of extension cord to it though.

If I use open faced Lowell fixtures at all, I prefer Totas over Omni's. This is mostly due to the fact that I can go from 200-250 watts to 500, to 1000 watts in the same fixture. I can also fit a bunch of them in a small case. You may also find that using open faced fixtures with gels to be problematic as the lack of glass tends to let the heat destroy whatever shmootz you put in front of them in short order.

If you use a Hi-Hat for this purpose I would suggest not mounting it perpendicular to the floor. I mount a Hi-Hat at around 45 degrees and tilt the fluid head to get the camera vertical. This is meant to reduce the stress on the mounting plate, thereby lessening the chance that the whole mess will come crashing down. I also safety cable the dickens out of it. The first project I had to do this with had the camera mounted to a studio grid, but I later came up with a way to do the same thing using an Avenger A4050CS boom stand for when a grid (or our jib) isn't available. olduncledino

The biggest issue your'e going to run into is the lack of gain with a dynamic microphone like the SM7. It was designed to be an in your face microphone used by radio announcers. Even if your preamplifier has 70db of gain you may still find it lacking for distant mic'ing. Comparing the dynamic SM7 to a condenser like a 416 is like comparing a sports car to a pickup truck. Both were designed to do what they do extremely well. They're just not what you could consider interchangeable. As far as a "toob" preamp, unless you spent more than a thousand dollars on it, you probably have what is referred to as a starved plate design. With this type of preamp the heavy lifting is done by a solid state operational amplifier and the "toob"is pretty much a distortion maker. The plate voltage in the "toob" is made intentionally low to cause the waveform to flatten out, theoretically adding pleasant harmonic distortion to the clean signal. This may actually work for VO if your'e careful with your levels, but generally you would be better served to have a quality preamp to begin with. Expensive... yes... But you're probably not shooting with Tamuron primes either. Lastly.... Before you spend another penny on audio equipment, please contact me. I have thousands and thousands of dollars of recording equipment sitting around here and I don't want to admit to you how much of it was a waste of money. Respectfully submitted, olduncledino

It looks to me to be the same socket used in a Mole Richardson Mini Mole. In which case I would get these three lamps. FEV 200 watt quartz CEB 100 watt old style incandescent CAX 50 watt old style incandescent I keep all three in stock and interchange as needed in my MM's The incandescents will give you a warmer than 3200k look which I find rather flattering. All of these are still available at B&H

As I thought about what I had suggested I realized that a single "kickstand" wouldn't keep the round rig from rolling side to side. An inverted "T" shaped appendage with rubber feet would though. If you can get me some pix of the rig it would help me visualize what is needed. I love doing stuff like this. dino

How about a Maffer clamp with an appropriate length of camera rail or equivalent diameter pipe. Perhaps a small rubber cane tip to keep it from slipping on a smooth surface. If I had it in my shop, I'm sure I could fabricate something in about ten minutes. Dino "the mad gaffer" Giammattei

We weren't using our Arri L7 for much other than background lighting so I can't comment on its flesh tone use. It was getting a good deal of use until it died right in the middle of a shoot. We just packed it up for its return to Arri. I'll let you all know what happens once they take a look at it. We loved it while we had it though. Checking the internet, we couldn't find another case of one failing so hopefully this is an anomaly.

You have a story to tell that you feel passionately about. You wouldn't be feeling the anxiety if you didn't. You have something to record it with. This is a documentary and your capturing it. You are a film maker. No lighting equipment? Table lamps, Home Depot quartz utility lights. Bed sheets, and aluminum foil for reflectors. Car headlights pointed at a window. Anything that works...Anything. Focus on the story you're trying to tell and enjoy the process. Solve problems as they arise, and be happy with yourself when you do. Try smiling. Without any reason, even if it's the last thing you feel like doing. Just do it. You and I may never get to breathe the rarified air that most of the folks on this site do. That doesn't make us any less of a film maker than they are. For myself, the more obstacles, the fewer resources I have just means I get to prove to people once again what a clever little bugger I am. The feeling of satisfaction I get when I can save a shoot that has gone terribly wrong is my drug of choice. Take a deep breath and jump into the fire. Always remind yourself that this is the most fun you could possibly be having. If you ever need a pep talk, send me a PM. Never give up.....olduncledino

You might also take some sort of fine grit sand paper and smooth out the rough spots. This worked well on some forty year old Mini-Moles that had become difficult to adjust. I found that over time as the mechanism stuck at certain spots it created little nicks in the threaded rod. Be careful with grease because some stuff may not actually catch fire, but it can create some stinky smoke that will scare the hell out of everyone on the set. Yup, I found this out the hard way. What ever lubricant you use, make sure you remove any excess. I rarely use grease because it just encourages dirt build up in the mechanism.

Sadly, I haven’t had the pleasure of working with film since the early eighties as the industrial film community went to video. At my current job we use HPX2700 Panasonics as our main cameras and augment those with a Canon 5DII with Zeiss manual hard lenses. Our focus pulling is done wirelessly. Auto focus isn’t available for either obviously, and wouldn’t be of much help anyway as our focus points are rarely the closest thing to the camera. We just recently added a sonotape(??) device that does speed things up when working with the Steadicam operators, but for the most part it’s just a matter of guesstimation and constant practice. We predominantly shoot WFO for paper thin DOF, and 90% of what we do is on location in environments where we can’t stop the work being done. It’s been a very humbling experience, but extremely satisfying. As I previously stated, I’ll probably never have big league, feature film abilities but I try to get better every chance I get.

Even though this is an old thread I wanted to offer one of my crazy modinofications as an alternative to the complicated method of using casters or wheels which I had no luck in making work smoothly.. A few years back I built a small 12" prototype of the following idea that worked amazingly well. I never built the full sized version. I was trying to come up with a cheap, non mechanical, and very low profile turntable. I took plexiglas, some plywood and some very dense indoor outdoor carpet. I sandwiched the materials so that the plywood was top and bottom and the plexiglas and carpet were in the middle. I used screws through the plywood to immobilize the plywood/carpet & plywood plexi contact leaving the carpet and plexi to slide against each other. I impregnated the carpet with silicone spray so that it would slide over the plexiglas. Using a brick as the subject, the prototype worked but there was a slight issue when starting the rotation as the materials would stick ever so slightly until the thing got moving. Once moving though it would spin for quite a while, and it was quite easy to maintain a steady speed. I was going to experiment with other dry lubricants like silicon graphite, hexagonal boron nitride, molybdenum disulfide and tungsten disulfide but got sidetracked with other projects. If anyone is nuts enough to want to try this, contact me for details.....dino

Any external microphone you can get your hands on and this: http://www.fullcompass.com/product/305003.html?utm_source=googleps&utm_medium=shopping&utm_campaign=googleps&gclid=COGk3oLJoLgCFYuk4Aodw08Arw

We have a five foot Kessler with motor and an Oracle controller at work. Having the motor really makes all the difference when using the full travel of the platform. I never could get consistent speed using the little crank. Before we got the motor, I would just manhandle the camera with my freakishly long orangoutang arms. (5'11" with a 6'3"wingspan). I have also come up with a way to mo-dino-fy (as I like to call it) the rig with a counter weight attached by cable to the platform for use in vertical and diagonal moves with great success. It takes the stress off the belts so they won't slip or be damaged. There goes the warrantee I guess. I understand that some sliders now come with this feature.

For the last couple of years I've been practicing with a 5D and 50mm & 80mm manual lenses. I also try to practice whenever our Steadicam guys practice. It's been quite honestly the hardest thing I have ever tried to learn. I think the hardest part has been trying to not get discouraged. Not being able to afford to own the FF gear, I have to fit my practice time into a regular production schedule at work. I have to find a way to make time for practice between my regular duties. I don't know if I'll ever get beyond mediocre at it because I think it's very much a God given talent, but it won't be for not trying.

what I meant to express is that the movie companies can't depend on the exceptions like yourself Mr. Zusak. They have to market to the largest demographic that they believe will spend money on their product. They can't or won't take a chance on something they aren't pretty darn sure will attract dollars in the post theater rental market. They seem to feel that the only films they can sell to that demographic are full of gore, sexuality, and pyrotechnics. Granted, I'm only going by what I see on the movie trailer websites, most of which is some pretty nasty stuff, and what I hear from the young folks I interface with.. If there were more folks of your ilk, this thread wouldn't need to exist. My drama teacher many years ago lamented that the stage had become a place for smash hits or tax write offs, and that the days of it being a good business were over. Is it possible that the film industry has reached that point now? I certainly hope not...d

What else can be expected of a generation and a half that grew up with violent video games, transformers cartoons, and years of violent television? Plus if you look at it from the perspective of the music industry which realized years ago that its profits were driven by adolescent tastes. The studios today understand completely that the eight to fourteen year olds of a few years ago are the movie goers of today and are so desensitized to violence that you have to blow up a bunch of stuff and kill a bunch of people to get them into the theaters. I have six grandchildren and in spite of their parents best efforts they only want to see violent stuff. Anything else just bores the poop out of them.

Don't try this at home. I'm a professional idiot! Bought a butt dolly. Used it on a shoot. Loved it at first. Then it tried to kill me and almost wrecked the camera. Went back to other options for that shoot. (Office chair) Now when I use it I make sure I have a burly assistant or three spotting me. The lack of drag on the wheels coupled with the top heavy nature of shoulder mounting, especially with the long rods, makes for a precariously off balance situation. I would suggest having said burly assistant actually move the unit with you on it instead of trying to do it with your feet. That sucker will shoot out from under you faster than you can say " Oh S..T!!". I'm not kidding dear friends...dinog

While looking for info on alternatives to the trusty Senny 416 for use on boom, I stumbled back to this rather old thread. Low and behold I realized that I had posted to this subject before! And to respond to Mr. Beverly, the Bock microphone could be considered more than a mid-priced mic I guess. But compared to the other products from Mr. David Bock, Neumann, Gefell, Schoeps, Sanken, and the like it's certainly more affordable. My vantage point is the grey area between music recording, film style video, and television sound, all of which I'm at best a jack of trades and far from a master of any. I certainly don't claim to be as qualified as all of you guys. My mic locker tends to be somewhere in the lower middle of the price range with much of my stuff being obscure used stuff I have acquired over many years. I use a lot of stuff rarely mentioned as film makers microphones. That being said, here's a few products I have had good results with that many of you real sound guys may not have considered for Foley work. #1 Royer R121 ribbon- a microphone usually mentioned as a guitar amplifier mic. I have used this for ambient sound and found it to be extremely useful in capturing what a space actually sounds like. It too is an arguably mid priced product, although James is probably going to debate that. Another secret weapon from the dark corner of my bag is the long since discontinued Sennheizer MD211. They can be had for comparatively cheap on the used market. The mic itself appears to be a standard small diaphragm condenser but is in actuality a dynamic microphone hence the the D in MD. More interesting is the fact that it's an omnidirectional microphone which makes it very useful in capturing the space it records in. Added to that, the darn things are nearly impossible to overload. Speaking of cheap small microphones, I still find myself reaching for my little Oktava sdc's for use as plant mics. I almost never touch my Rode NT5's any more, even though they cost considerably more than the Oktavas. beyond that I constantly find the trusty Electrovoice 635's, RE10's and RE15's indispensable for the above purposes. These too can be had for peanuts compared to other more well known microphones. I humbly hope the suggestions are of use to you all and wish you happy recording. Respectfully Submitted, Dino Giammattei.....