William Demeritt

Very nice. Bring it to the Stabilizer Expo in June plz or I'm buying a Basson.

Forget the arm! How much for that potted plant on the safe??? That thing looks killer, and stiction free!

anybody knows where Erwin got his newer "red monster" cart made?

 

 

Thx

I believe he went with A&S Cases to build that cart? They're in North Hollywood on Vineland just north of Magnolia.

What rig did you buy?

In general, I think 20lbs is pretty hefty for a single camera tie-down screw, and you may be placing a camera on that rig that is at the top of the weight range intended for that sled?

Careful Willy... you might be waking up with that llama one morning after NAB in Vegas with that odd taste of fur in your mouth! B)

Yea yea, I've stayed at the Circus Circus before...

I feel left out.....

I sent him your equipment list, home address, hours you were home, locations of your GoPro cameras, etc.

While I'm not formally educated in RF, I spent many years as a competitive Ham Radio operator building large scale antenna arrays and I still hold a more than 25 year world record for the most contacts and most countries worked in a 48 hour period, including bouncing UHF signals off the trails of meteor showers from the 4th call district.

Andrew, you have lots of power options on your cart, you're going to turn into the DIT cart with an iPhone charging station.

My next cart modification will include razor wire and motion-targeting paintball guns for unauthorized personnel... and some Slayer stickers.

Stefan,

Are you going for format conversion as well as input conversion? Like either HD-SDI pass through AND HDMI input to HD-SDI output? I'm not sure if there's a product that does ALL of that and is also portable and compact. Maybe the closest is the Decimator Design MD-DUCC?

http://www.decimator.com/Products/MD-DUCC/MD-DUCC.html

I've got one on my sled, primarily for down converting HD-SDI to SD composite video. However, it also changes SD composite video to HD-SDI (for use with my Atomos Samurai) and will also pass out HDMI. The only thing it's missing is HDMI to HD-SDI.

Atomos also makes these connects which are cheaper than the AJA or BlackMagic solutions, but you'd need to buy each unit for HDMI to HD-SDI and HD-SDI to HDMI.

http://www.atomos.com/connect/

DannyPark2@gmail.com

I got the email, and replied not quite as verbosely.

Ooooh, April 20th, sounds like a good day on a calendar?

So...what happened?

Who got drunk and barfed on Jack's dog

Michelle

danced on the equipment tables

Dan Kneece ("Lady Marmalade" really got him moving)

stole a vat of Lisagav?

Some Associate Producer.

Was there a Tiffen or MK-V piñata?

The Tiffen piñata had too much bobble once we got it up in the air, so nobody could hit it. The MK-V piñata was ordered 2 months ago and all they received was a picture of Howard's middle finger.

I may take that XCS clamp thing off your hands...can I borrow it to see if I can make it work?

back in the good old days of green screens you could do that!

I wear sunglasses with my Cinetronic monitor all the time? B)

Looks a bit like Twojay's rig!

GPI is offering a sale on all equipment from April 1-15 5% off everything. I doubt you'll find a used arm, but that's more incentive to just buy new!

I may go up early and tailgate. Anyone have a portable BBQ?

Some have an older chip in them that limit the range compared to the newer ones. The Brite-View AirSync HD has the new chip.

Good information to know and read, thanks for looking this up for everyone.

I've actually become quite militant about going beyond just receiving a COI, but also getting a signed Deal Memo, Rental Agreement and equipment list back from productions. I always interpreted the COI as proof their production had insurance (read: deep enough pockets) to cover the loss or damage of my equipment that they couldn't claim "Oh, we rain out of money, so we can't afford to replace your whole kit that burned up on the truck on the last day!"

The insurance proves they have the additional resources so as to not leave you without livelihood in a catastrophic event.

I think we all want to believe that productions will do "the right thing", but the rest falls on us to do our due diligence in creating a paper trail that assures us we don't gamble with that instance where they try to worm out of it.

Someone once told me the COI just proves they have insurance, but could be fraudulent, so you can call the insurance agency to be certain you're added to the policy. Does this explicitly link your equipment? No, but it does prove they didn't just forge an ACORD form to include your information.

Hence why I try to go with a Deal Memo and Rental Agreement with equipment list to accompany my hiring. Deal memo proves I was explicitly hired with my equipment for whichever shoot dates, the terms, and requests a COI be provided. Rental agreement has this opening paragraph (I did "borrow" this from another operator, hope he doesn't mind if/when he notices):

Renter(s) assumes full responsibility (see insurance requirements) for all rented items in their care and custody, whether William B. Demeritt III is operating said equipment or not, and agrees to compensate William B. Demeritt III for full replacement value should said equipment be lost, stolen, broken or damaged by any cause whatsoever. Renter further agrees to compensate William B. Demeritt III for costs incurred in the cleaning and maintenance of the equipment necessarily caused by use of the renter in inclement weather. William B. Demeritt III maintains the right to cancel the rental arrangement with renter on the basis of any safety or risk concerns with respect to the operator and/or the operation of the equipment, or any location that places the safety of the operator and/or equipment at risk.

Right up front, they sign a document that says they (and their production by agent by estoppel) assume full responsibility for all rented items (as indicated by the equipment list) whether I'm operating the gear at the time or not. Full compensation is in the contract, which means they have the option to pay me out of their pockets (lost an Anton Bauer battery, etc) or through insurance (my whole cart accidentally rolled off the edge of a cliff).

Someone sounds JEALOUS!!

Second!

Lots of forums help avoid the first-post blues by pinning a simple "Before you post, read this" with all of the "Welcome to the EXCITING WORLD of STEADICAM" type of warnings like:

- Use the search function. Your question has probably already been answered before.

- Lurk first, read the content, take it all in, and ask questions only if you cannot find the answer on your own.

- A small community of working professionals contribute here, so try to show a level of professionalism you would when making a first impression anywhere work related.

- Please don't get your panties in a bunch when the gear you were eyeballing is torn apart by the working professionals here.

I'd be happy to contribute a Newbie Warning thread, but I would imagine the moderators could put something up more reflective of what they want new members to read.

You're probably working on it already, but in case you're not: the photos didn't post properly. Eager to see them.

Chris has been great in trying to help me by switching out many of the monitor components with new ones, but the issue still persists. I'm just hoping the new housing and software solve the issue when they come out..

 

When functioning properly, it's a fantastic monitor.

I'll report back once I've tested my reclocking distribution amplifier on my next shoot, maybe that'll solve the problem?

Alex, do you have the 4:3 or the 16:9 monitor?

I too have very high hopes for the upgrade.

I don't know, with all these posts about the Tiffen arms, stiction, heuristics, iso-elasticity... I'd hate to get wobble when trying to drink from my holy pint while taking slow steps. :lol:

I may be wrong, but I'm pretty sure HD-SDI requires crimping BNC connectors and bulkheads, not solder BNC. However, yea, stranded is easier to work with, but you require a lower AWG to match the transmission capability of a higher AWG solid copper core.