Jess Haas SOC

You think thats crazy look at this matte box! ~Jess p.s. I swear there was a "good" reason for it, although we ended up removing it as it was scaring the actors!

...

The shots you mention are all shots that bothered me for the reasons stated. I expressed my concerns to my editor and a number of other non steadicam operators(mostly directors, producers and DPs) and they all seem to like the shots and think they should be left in. I had already planed on dealing with most of those shots but it is good to have someone that agrees :-) The most annoying thing about most of these shots is I know I shot better versions but they didn't make it in to the final film which is all I have access to. The shot at :49 was intentionally started at a dutch angle and rolled in and honestly I feel like it works fine. Anyone else have any input on this? The end of the shot is obviously less than ideal but i feel like cutting it sooner would be awkward. Thanks everyone for the input! ~Jess

Sony has been using transflective LCDs in their camcorders for a while now which is why they work so well outside. As far as I know small transflective LCDs are much simpler and cheaper to make than 7" which is part of why they aren't as prevalent. Marshall has a nice reasonably priced tansflective LCD but it is 4:3 and severly lacking in other features. ~Jess

https://www.yousendit.com/transfer.php?acti...9cc06214a76fcbd Looking to get some feedback on what works, what doesn't and any changes it might need. I am hoping to have it finalized this weekend. If you have a moment please let me know what you think. In addition to this I plan on having a selection of oners available for viewing. ~Jess

ACF-50: http://www.skygeek.com/10013.html Also very similar and my preferred lube for most things, Corrosion-X: http://www.corrosionx.com/ Both are thin film aviation lubricants and I believe both are available in both an aerosol or a pump spray bottle. They differ from conventional lubricants in that they create a very thin non sticky layer on the metal that does an amazing job at fighting corrosion. They also lubricate and don't seem to attract contaminants quite as much as stickier lubes. WD-40 and most simple hardware store lubricants should be avoided for most steadicam related uses. When it comes to silicon oils, teflon lube and white greese it is possible to find a wide range of products with these description on the container. It would be nice to get some more specific recommendations. ~Jess

I have seen it. I have also watched someone spend 30 minutes trying to fine tune their balance with it. Personally I would avoid it. If you are looking to learn on the cheep get a Steadicam Pilot and live with the weight limitations. You aren't going to find much else out there for $1500 but in this case I would say you get what you pay for. ~Jess

Looking to throw a gold mount plate on the Camos I just got. If I wire it up directly can it handle the power of an anton bauer battery hot off the charger? Also any opinions on if I should go with an anton bauer plate or smaller batteries? Have lots of AB batts so thats best for me and I have never had anyone complain about me using them on a directors monitor but sony or panasonic batteries would definitely be lighter. Any opinions? ~Jess

Hovercraft? :-)

I got one of those four tap boxes, took the end off and replaced it with a lemo tha fits my sled and added a little velcro so I now have 4 P-Taps on my sled for all HD jobs. Never really felt that the P-Taps could fit the wrong way in the breakout box but maybe my velcro is helping that. I have noticed a number of RED power plates where after a little wear the P-Tap was almost completely square and fitting in the wrong way was very easily done. Before I had a Red power cable for my rig I had a last minute Red gig where I really didn't want to fly with the battery on the camera. I didn't have the right lemo handy but I did have two spare P-Tap connectors so I soldered up a male to male P-Tap cable. Ran this from my sleds P-Tap breakout box to the P-Tap on the Red camera plate and was good to go. This isn't really ideal but it worked great and I never had any problem with it. I have a proper Red power cable now but the P-Tap cable makes a nice backup and there have actually been some other occasions where I contemplated using it for other things. I try to keep a few spare P-Tap connectors in my kit because in a pinch they are an easy and quick connector to solder up when you need to power something form the sled that you don't have the proper cable for. Soldering lemos on set is much more difficult. ~Jess

I won't argue with $150 being a great price and it makes paying someone else to recell them not worth it. That said I have 10 dead proformers. Looks like new cells are under $50 per battery and after popping one open it looks like recelling them will be easy enough and that there really won't be any loss in quality doing it myself. So if I recell them all one afternoon of work saves me $1000+. Money aside I really would consider this more of a hobby project anyway and these batteries won't be my primary Steadicam batteries especially when I get around to dropping some money on some new Dionic HCs. Thanks for the advice though. I do realize that most money saving projects save very little money but I am the type of guy who likes to do many things himself for the hell of it. ~Jess

http://www.sjmediasystem.com/mb-mb-6.html http://www.sjmediasystem.com/mb-mb-3.html make sure to get some spares. ~Jess

I did once use a Varicam that didn't have the scan reverse function. It was the oldest varicam of many that the company owned and someone later told me that it was purchased gray market so that may have had something to do with it. Yes it was actually a varicam and not some other model it just seemed to have a slightly different firmware. Every other varicam I have ever run into has had it, so im not sure how common ones without it are but they do exist. ~Jess

Looking to recell a bunch of proformers. Popped one open and on first glance it looks like they are using a Sanyo N-1900SCR. Can anyone confirm or deny this? The cells themselves aren't marked but the assembled battery pack has a Sanyo sticker saying that it is a 14.4v 1900mah pack. I guess AB is rating the pack higher than 1900mah in order to get the 30watt hour specification which seems to be supported by the fact that Paul's recent postings call it a 2.1amp hour battery. Of course they could have switched to different cells on the most recent run but I am not finding a 2100mah Sanyo cell. There is a 2400mah SubC cell but it is slightly longer and slightly heavier so I think I might not bother trying it. ~Jess

A DP friend of mine is putting together a reel building shoot this weekend and has convinced me it will be fun and a good oner for my reel as well. Only problem is that the redbyte that was part of his RED package seems to have grown legs and wandered off on a recent shoot. Anyone have a downconverter they are willing to loan me for the weekend? I promise to baby it and also to be ready to chop off any legs that it may grow. Can try to get some money out of him but considering the budget is exactly $0 and he just dropped the cash on one only to have it disappear I thought I would see if anyone is feeling generous. ~Jess

I have done upside down low mode many many times with the RED and never had a complaint. ~Jess

Just did yet another red job but this time the camera had the SIM handle. I usually use a top rod and no baseplate but with the sim handle you can't use top rods as it replaces the entire red top. With a few washers and a 1/4" screw I was able to attach a square to round rod to the handle but with the distance and the angle my Heden motor wasn't able to turn some of the super stiff super speeds that we had. A dogbone probably would have helped. In the end I ran with the ET sliding baseplate which wasn't too bad and allowed for quick switches to tripod but I would have liked to keep it a little lighter and the weight a little closer to the gimble when using antlers. Mounting from the baseplate had slightly better results with the stiff lenses but it was still not ideal. Had to really get everything set perfect and couldn't use an eyebrow with many of the lenses or they would get even stiffer. ~Jess

As far as fliping in post goes I seem to recall that some old 35mm cameras such as this are not happy being run upside down. Not certain about the BL4. ~Jess

Can't the RED do multiple SDI lines out? Have you tried hooking the AJA directly to the RED to see if you still have this problem? What sled do you have? If the HD-SDI signal down the post isn't the strongest the modulus could be providing enough interference to kill it. Or of course the RED could be freaking out for some reason, are you powering the modulus from your sled or the red battery? ~Jess

In Tiffens line I would look at the new Archer and higher. Also take a look at what GPI-PRO and XCS have to offer and look at what is available used from any of those three. Your also going to need a follow focus of course. Bartech is a good option. ~Jess

Chris- your not the only one whose back feels better from Steadicam. I have a suspicion that it might actually have something to do with a muscular inbalance of sorts. Strong back muscles tightening the back without comparitevely strong ab muscles in front to tighten the front. Throw the steadicam up and the strong back muscles make sense, without it things are a little out of wack. Just a wild theory, been meaning to work on my abs some more regardless. ~Jess

I am from Austin after all. ~Jess

You are assuming that Rodriguez actually does all of those jobs he claims to do. Taking credit for something and doing it are two very different things. ~Jess

The BL-4 is a beast that you really don't want to have to fly but sounds like its too late for that. I have done a few days with a BL4 and while it is not advisable it is possible to fly it. Superspeeds and a clip on are a good start. Might want to just go with no mattebox at all if you can get away with it. As far as low mode I would just tell them its not possible with a BL4. For mounting a follow focus motor the camera actually has a square hole in it where you can stick a square to round rod. Obviously make sure you have 400ft mags. Not sure if anyone has steadicam mags for these or not. I have some very heavy weight plates I made up a while back if you want to practice flying with a lot of weight. ~Jess

Does anyone know if the lens has teeth on the focus ring that will match up with my follow focus motor? I have all the different gears for my motor. Also I may need to scrounge up a rod bracket for it today. Anyone know someplace in LA that rents it? The further west the better. I know this camera has a composite output so won't need a downconverter. ~Jess