William Demeritt

Happy Birthday Amando!!

Hi everybody,

On the prowl for a PRO vest. I suppose I could go up and have Jack fit me for a new one but I am ashamed of my love handles. If any of y'all back-mounted diehards have a PRO hanging out in the garage taking up space and causing domestic problems I would be happy to take it off your hands.

 

Dave

I've got some old gym socks for sale for ya buddy! ;)

And get rid of that underscore in your name... AND SHAVE! AND CLEAN UP YOUR HAIR!

Hell no! If you'll be using a black metal band, use Dimmu Borgir.

 

Be careful though. Most of their lyrics are based on Satanic verses...

Dimmu Borgir is like the Limp Bizkit of norwegian metal. BJ is right, call Mayhem... although you may regret it later. Varg is out of jail now, so he may keep you warm with some church burnings.

Rules are made to be broken. If you achieve your shot by doing that then I'd say that you're probably fine. It may not be the solution for every time, but if it was the solution for this time then it's probably cool.

We've all performed shots with our rigs in configurations we may not be proud of or want photographed, but sometimes that's what you need to do to get the job done.

Somewhat off your topic but still on the topic of the Shuttle, do you guys just carry a couple of SSD drives, or do you have a quick way to format them on set if/when you run out of space?

In working with plenty of student films, or productions unfamiliar with Steadicam, I find myself explaining what we do moreso through analogy. One analogy in particular helped me verbalize how we progress from newbie Steadicam operators into Operators:

Steadicam operation is like playing ice hockey. When someone decides they want to play ice hockey, they learn they first have to know how to skate. You must become so good at skating that when playing hockey you're not thinking about skating; you're thinking about the puck, the players, offsides, who to pass it to, when to take the shot, etc.

You look back at when you first put on skates: you were wobbly, hockey stops took a measured effort and forethought, foot positioning for a snapshot required planning, etc. Now, you don't even think about your feet; you hockey stop instinctively, with a split second reflex. You're always ready to take the shot or pass it. However, when you practice, you still go back to basics: step and slides, rapid slapshots, suicides up and down the ice.

Same goes for Steadicam. Eventually, your foot positioning for a lock-off becomes second nature. You're no longer thinking about how to keep the rig level; you're thinking about the best composition, watching eyelines, bogeys in your shot, etc. You're "playing the game".

For people who've never played hockey, perhaps there's a sport you can think of where you learn the complexities of the game's foundation, and then play the game itself.

Anyone else have a good analogy for how Steadicam works? Or how do you best explain things when people ask about Steadicam?

As someone who thought he was smart enough to export an HD video, embed it in his website and also have a seamless iOS version available, I can say that Vimeo is probably WAY easier and smarter than me (which isn't saying much, but oh well).

Count me in on an Australia visit!

Rusty: would you consider selling the Stanton on the side? If you get a buyer for the whole package, no worries, but if you consider splitting it up, please keep me in mind?

I broke my modulus antenna recently and I'm not sure where to get a new one. Anyone know who sells them? I'm in LA but will order it from wherever I need to.

Thanks.

I buy spare antennas at Fry's, they have UHF antennas cut for our channel range for about $16. They aren't the thick, 90 deg angling antennas, but I find they work well enough.

Just looked at the date of the original post, guess you've done the shot by now, how did you get on?

Phil,

Alas, I never had a chance to perform the shot. Turns out, due to a number of issues, they had to refigure our day so that shot (in that form) had to die. I was a bit disappointed, but I think everyone realized the story didn't need that particular shot.

Oh well, I'm sure I'll have a chance to do something like that again sometime soon.

So that's what Charles meant the other day when he said he had to go "butter some buns."

They've essentially booked you for 3 days. You cannot book any other work for those days. I would charge accordingly, offering whatever deal I felt was reasonable.

Agreed.

Someone has one for sale in the main section of the marketplace. Granted, for a PRO arm, it's probably sold by now, but still.

Smooth move.

Hi Stuart, welcome to the forum!

Well, if you were to call me about the job, I'd obviously ask for some details before I could tell you specifically if Steadicam was possible. Obviously, the more demands on the shot, the more challenging it becomes with Steadicam, especially if there's a better tool for the job.

If the camera you're working with is not a hulking behemoth of a camera, I would say so long as the width of the aisle is such that I can walk chest forward, straight down the aisle, then the shot is "possible". The orientation of the operator's body would be somewhat uncomfortable as the weight goes up, but that then comes down to the duration of the shot, what we're shooting, and for how long.

For your scout, I would say if you cannot walk down the aisle of the passenger section, back straight and chest/hips forward at all times, without bumping arm rests or seat backs, then the operator will not be able to either.

Can you describe the shot you may have in mind? That'll help with this hypothesis.

A note for other PRO users: I've had great success with the Sachtler Tilting Telescopic Monitor Arm in getting the monitor on the same plane as the batteries. I mounted it upside down and attached the Cinetronic universal yoke to it, and now my batteries are coplanar with my monitor.

I'll post a photo when I get home tonight if you want to see how it works.

Love my Cinetronic monitor, the support from Chris is great. Can't wait to see the next gen housing and digital level.

A few questions for the techies:

- What kind of sled do you have? Monitor?

- How is the AJA being powered? How is the monitor, camera, etc being powered?

I haven't had time to track down the problem, but I know when I run my Decimator 2 off the CAM PWR on my PRO2 sled, and use my Modulus 2000 with the 4-pin LEMO connector for power and video signal, I get video distortion on the receiver end. If I use the 2 pin AUX PWR port on my sled to power the Modulus 2000, I get no video distortion. Of course, it primarily happens with RED cameras, I haven't tested it yet with an Alexa.

Looking online real quickly, it looks like the AJA downconverters can handle PSF (Progressive segment frame, although I heard it once called Progressive shift frame) or regular P (progressive).

Bump, still asking for $1500 OBO, will throw in modified SD upper and lower junction boxes. If you're interested, I'll explain what "modifications" were made.

This is all fantastic work!!! I am thrilled to have a low cost option on the horizon. Can you post a pic of what got soldered to what on the inside of this box? I would like to see exactly where the pigtail was soldered!

 

Again, this is great!

Christopher,

I'd prefer not to show off what I did inside, but I will say this: if you look around for soldering tricks related to adding an external antenna to a wifi card or PCB, you'll see where I got my idea from and probably what I did.

Once I get something I'm confident with showing off, I'll show all. Thanks!

Ok , all y'all arm chair federal copyright attorneys here's the dilemma myself and the rest of the crew is in. We were hired by one production company to do a week long concert festival, 5 bands a day in South Dekota. That particular production company originally had the rights to all the footage and everything having to do with the venue including the take of entrance fees. They ended up selling all the rights and responsibility to another company a week prior to the event, not telling any of us on the crew. That company decided they didn't want to pay any of us. We all have a class action suit against them and they are in process of agreeing to settle for 60.5 percent if the total. Oh and by the way , the company being sued is in NJ, we worked in South Dekota and the Crew is from CA and NY and there were 12 cameras.

 

Can we all take ownership of the footage until we get paid?

I think ownership of the footage is secondary to getting your rate, unless you think the footage is a valuable asset with interested buyers already lined up. Ultimately, you want your contracted rate/money owed, regardless of the status of the footage.

What was the grounds for which they didn't want to pay? Didn't agree to the rates, so they refused all payment? Simply don't have the cash to cover the payment? Also, was your contract with the original company, or did they have you sign a new contract with the new company? Likewise, what has happened to the footage of the festival? Packaged and sold? Still being held onto?

I would imagine if the original company sold off all the rights, but let you continue to do the work knowing the new company had no interest in the footage and just wanted the box office, then the original company is still liable for your rates if they knowingly allowed you to work the job whose footage was doomed without canceling you.

If the new company accepted your contracts, but later decided the footage was to be doomed, then they're liable for your rates as per the contract regardless of if a useable product results (just as if you were hired for a 1-day commercial, worked successfully but the finished commercial was never sold or aired).

Just wanted to warn everyone again of this company. I did work for them back in May, and they even signed contracts with me to pay equipment rental within 30 days and balance within 90 days. So far, 90 days has come and gone, and they haven't paid either.

Avoid at all costs. Not only do they fail to pay, they also sell off your material to their clients. I'm currently pursuing action against them for failure to pay. As far as I can tell, they have nobody actually running the company. They're a sister/child company of Anthem Media Group / Allied Media Group based in Kansas City , but they seem to share the same office.

we should get together...I will bring tweezers

I'm scared, Sarge. You think we'll make it home alive??

I got a splinter once

That'll teach you not to bring your A game to a pub with an untreated bar surface. How do you get splinters out of your forehead?

I did the HD upgrade through PRO, so I'm selling off the leftover parts. I upgraded the center post cable of this telescoping centerpost (tools necessary to extend the post), but I'll throw in the GPI centerpost cable as well.

The XCS 3B.308 cable alone is worth $600 new, and it was in this unit for barely a month before I did the upgrade.

Asking for $1500 OBO. Located in Los Angeles, happy to arrange for local pickup or shipping.