Brad Grimmett

Jim Bartell makes, or made, a battery meter called ICBM. I've got one on my Master and it's great. It tells you voltage and how many amps you are pulling. I'm not sure how much he charges, but I think it's quite reasonable. Maybe Jim will chime in and give you some more info.

It's been done many times before, but I think the results have been less than stunning. I've never done it myself though, that's just what I've heard.

I don't have email for him, but here's his phone #. 323-938-5659

Afton, Did you ever see a receipt for the taxes? Surely FedEx would show you a receipt to prove that they ACTUALLY paid what they said they paid. I don't think they would give you a break in the price if they really paid $740. It just doesn't make sense. I had a similar situation with UPS a few years ago when I bought a motor from Heden. When I questioned it they threatened to try to ruin my credit if I didn't pay. That was the last time I will ever ship with UPS. Of course I was never able to get a receipt, but I paid out of fear of having a credit problem. Sure sounds like a scam to me.

No, I haven't tried the Canatrans yet, although I'd like to. Unfortunately, it's very doubtful that production would be willing to rent one on this job, so I guess I'll have to wait. Which rental houses currently have them for rent?

I'm doing a feature right now with a Panvised F900. I've been having some transmitter issues and I'm hoping for some help. On a couple of occassions over the last 10 days I've had times when I just couldn't get a signal from my Modulus, no matter where I put the antenna. Most of the time the signal has been rock solid, but on these occassions it just goes away completely. On one of these occassions we were in a medium sized room and the other we were outside. Sometimes it's fine until I pick up the rig, at which point it goes away completely. I'm flying two wireless receivers for sound, and I'm thinking that this may be part or all of the problem. Sound seems to ALWAYS need to use the receivers, so it's been hard to test the signal with the receivers off. I tried moving the Modulus farther away from the receivers, but it made no difference. The times the signal has been good we've been using sound's receivers as well, so I'm a bit stumped. I checked the cable and all is fine. So far, voodoo is the only explanation I've been able to provide. I know many of you have had problems like these in the past, so I'm looking for some help on what else to try to fix the problem. By the way, we don't have an NTSC monitor, so we're using the HD monitor to view the wireless signal. My 2nd AC is an electronics whiz and says that this monitor needs a really strong signal or else it won't sync. Is it possible that this is the issue? Thanks

I tried ordering some ACF-50 the other day through SanVal and was told they were out. I'll try the manufacturer tommorrow, but I'm wondering if there is another place to order it. Not sure whether I'll be able to get any direct from the manufacturer, so I'm looking for alternatives. I'm shooting a feature in a really dusty and nasty location and could use some quick. Thanks for any info.

Thanks for the info Alec. I'm doing well. Hope you are too. I've at least got the small Miranda on the back right of the camera instead of the icon, but it would be nice to have the combo unit you mentioned. I've already got my assistants on the case, so hopefully we can find one. I'm sure there are some around, but finding one that's available is probably the real issue.

Alec, Was that a Panavised F900? I'm currently flying the pig you pictured above on a feature and would love the setup you mentioned. Just curious where that package and downconverter came from.

I would never buy that vest because of where the front straps are. I bet your armpits and the underside of your biceps would be rubbed raw by lunch.

:P 5 grand for the segway, the rest is for the steadicam brand i guess? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> There has been quite a bit of re-engineering to create the steadi-segway. It's not like they just added a couple of foot pedals and quadrupled the price. It was created for a totally different use than steadicam, and not by Tiffen, so I wouldn't be so quick to blame them for driving up the price for pure profit. The guy that actually created it is European (German I think) and he is trying to sell them for many other uses, not just steadicam. If you want to try to buy one from him directly I'm sure you can get his name and contact info from the folks at Tiffen.

You can attach the plate to the handle. It's strong enough to hold the weight. The problem is the movement in the handle. Once, in a pinch, I used a mini Cartellini to hold the handle in place so that it couldn't move. It actually worked great, but it's obviously better to have a low mode bracket if possible. If this is the only option you have, try to get a mini cartellini and attach it to the front of the handle, on the lens side, to keep the handle from moving while you're operating. It works great, but it's a pain when you need to reload because you need to remove the cartellini every time in order to get the mag off. Good luck.

Matias, Give Tiffen a call. They would be able to get you in contact with the creator. You may be able to rent it directly from him, or through Tiffen.

There are two computers on this Segway, one is the main, and one is the backup. I was told by the guy that created it that the backup will kick in immediately if there is any problem with the main computer. The backup is part of what makes it so expensive. So it sounds like the possibility of a crash caused by a malfunction is unlikely.

You steer with your toes. It's very easy. There is a support bracket that wedges between your legs for balance. It's pretty brilliant. It wasn't created for steadicam, but it sure works pretty darn good with it.

Wow, that's stubborn. You'd think as a director he would want his film to be the best it could be. Seems like he's going against that by doing any of the operating himself. He must really want that credit!

Apparently he hires a steadicam operator on every movie he does. He just always takes the credit.

It actually just looks like the middle of a C+ stand screwed into the top of the camera with a monitor mounted on top. I just wonder what advantage this had over low mode.

I think I remember Jon Myers telling me he had some of these, or knew where to get them. Send him an email, he may be able to help. Joncamop@aol.com

That's what I originally thought too Mitch....but since it's a panavised 235 I believe the yellow cable is power since many of Panavisions power cables are yellow. Funny, one of the first things I noticed when I looked at the picture was that cable pulled tight. I can just imagine some grip dragging on the ground behind him.

Wow, it's amazing how many of those are helicopter related.

Rich, Sorry to hear about your accident, but it's good to hear that you and your wife will recover. Sounds like you're lucky to be alive. It's very sad to hear about Michael Stone dying. Was he on his way home from work, or is that still uncertain?

You can expect civil responses to your posts if you'd like, but I doubt you'll get any. You're obviously delusional and it's probably best for everyone involved if you just stop posting here all together. You certainly haven't been winning any fans with your recent or past posts. And I don't think you're going to scare anyone with your libel and slander threats. You've made it painfully obvious that you're unable to follow through on anything, so it's pretty laughable to think that you would follow through on any threats you make.

I agree. Unfortunately, I had a job late last year that became a problem because the DIT told the DP and Director (who were both new to HD) that flipping the F900 upside-down was out of the question. She basically made up some BS about the electronics not working upside-down or some such nonsense and they got scared and made me use an absolutely horrible low mode bracket that was rushed to set at the last second. (Of course later the DIT came to me and told me it would have been fine to fly the camera upside down. To which I replied, "I know! I do it all the time!) Every shot was low mode because one of the main actors was a kid, and every shot suffered because of the bracket. The loom of cables hanging off the camera didn't help either. Needless to say, no one was happy with the shots, especially me, because of the neverending wobble and vibration caused by the wanky bracket. So, as a result of this nightmare I started looking for some kind of solution, and found those handles. I'm glad to hear good things about them, but hopefully won't have to use one. Thanks for the info.

Regarding the first part of your post....are you talking about yourself or someone else? Because it really seems like you're talking about yourself. Have you finally looked in the mirror and figured out what you really are? I sure hope so. Regarding the second part of your post.....are you making some kind of threat to Job? It sounds like you want to anally rape him, which seems like something you might do, but I'm not sure why you want to do it to him. I'm calling the FBI so they can sort this all out.