Rich Cottrell

Alec, I have been offline for a while, but I have to stir this pot a bit. I mean no disrespect, but I do come from a different client base [live television for those who do not know me], so here is a different perspective on this topic I disagree quite a bit here? All of my first steadicam gigs were wired shows so I come to this from a different background then you? I am not sure what the job Alfeo was on, but my current take on wires off my rig is this: If they [production] want/need to have wires off my rig, they are sacrificing quality, but if I am getting paid my full rate, I fly the rig as long as the wires do not pose a safety issue. I do a bunch of TriX gigs, so I am used to being stuck on a wire. When/if a gig has RF audio problems, I am often ready for that dreaded wire to come calling my name? While I have never had an audio guy offer up a Cat5, when I do Robotic Camera on Nascar events, they use Cat5 all the time to run microphones and intercoms over great distances. The wire is so cheep they throw thousands of feet of it away after the event. The adapters that go from the Cat5 to XLR are so simple I would love to see an audio guy with this in HIS bag of tricks. If you took the insulation off the Cat5 [which the audio person will have to do on the ends to put on the XLR adaptor], then you will have one super flexible solution. The cool this is they do not even solder these things on, the XLR has these three little binding posts and they just twist the wires on with thumb screws. From an steadicam POV -- strictly based on Operating-- this could be a better solution to other hard wires. I say could because I have never tried it? But back to your point of cost and screwing people? The way I am thinking about this, the only thing that production would be cheeping out on is Audio Rentals. The mixer would still have his job, and so should the boom operator. Someone would also have the job of wrangling your cable. I understand on ?big? shows many things are expected. My question is, if both a small show and a big show both pay your full steadicam rate and rental, but one of these shows wants/needs to hardwire audio for whatever reason [it is their show after all], why should they not get to make that decision? There is always some risk of audio dropouts with anything RF, so if they put RF receivers on the camera, would they not be possibly sacrificing Audio over Steadi? Why can they not decide to sacrifice Steadi over Audio? If I am getting paid my full-rate and both me and my gear will be safe, then only one getting screwed is them, because they are paying 100% for something that will be less then 100% steadi. I will have a harder day flying the rig and it will not look as good as it could, but I am not being screwed here? they are screwing themselves. If another steadicam operator is stuck with the same situation the very next day, and they too are getting their full steadi-rate and rental, how are they getting screwed by this whole thing? They are told, well Rich Cottrell did it yesterday, why can?t you? Maybe the shot will not look great on their reel, but the client is still paying them 100% for steadicam. The client gets less then they could out of the steadicam, but the operator sill gets paid his or her full rate. Wires make operating complicated, but so do stairs, cars, rain, ice, cold, heat, crowds, heavy cameras, long days, dogs, and children. anyway that is my take as of 2am, Rich I forgot -- actors make operating complicated too!

I became a father this year and was given some good advise... "It is better to have a bad Will, then to have none at all." so even if you do a cheepo at home kit, you have something in place... and if you have that gear insured, your wife/family should have a starting point as to how much the gear is worth. rich

David, Have there been any updates to report on the guild membership applications? rich

I will admit as a man... I too can sew? a little. I will never forget my first TV job, while I was still in college at a PBS station. It was during "pledge" --- aka the quarterly ?beg-a-thon? -- and I would have to dress in a shirt and tie. One day I lost a shirt button so I was sewing it back on burring a TV break. One of the producers was in shock when he saw me re-sewing on my button. When I asked him what he did when he lost buttons, and he said he would take his shirt to the seamstress. This still blows my mind. Seriously, basic sewing is a simple skill. If you can clean your steadicam arm or gimbal yourself, you are 100% teachable to sew. And if you can master machine skills, you can make anything you might need? rich

here is another... this was a full page AC ad from Oct. 1981

I have been trying to clean up a little, so I am going through my huge AC collection trying to par it down. I have found a few gems... like this back cover ad from Americam Cinematographer September 1981. enjoy,

Well I finally got me GPS too, and now after less then one week I keep asking myself? ?Why the hell did I not get this sooner?? I ended up with a Garmin [a Nuvi 680 for the techno-distructo types]. I really did not consider any other manufactures after seeing a friend's Garmin 350. He travels from Toronto with this baby for HDNet all over the USA and I got a chance to play with it last year in LA. The Garmin works great for me. The interface thinks like I do for the most part. My model has real time MSN Direct traffic and weather reports, but I feel you do not need this because so far, in my week of having it here in Philadelphia and Adirondak, NY, it does not work all that great. I would be hitting road construction that MSN did not know existed, or I would be flying through "Slow Ups" that MSN was warning me about. But everything else about the navigation in my Garmin works great. I would give it two thumbs up, but I am supposed to keep both hands on the steering wheel. rich

I am not in the feature world, but what I do now, is I keep an extra copy of the BFD manual in my kit. It is only a few pages, so it fits behind the lid foam in my FF pelican case. If the AC has not used the BFD before, while I show him/her how it works, I tell them I will give them ?my copy? of the manual so they can add it to their stuff if they ever get a gig with the BFD again. Then I just print out another copy from the internet. On my last gig, the AC came back the next day knowing more about the BFD then I did because he memorized the manual! I wish all manufactures put their manuals on the web. rich

Erwin, I could use these babies. I still have the original DSD/WK style vest, so I think these are the right parts for my vest. Let me know what I can send you. I am in Philadelphia. rich

Jeff and Alec, If you do end up doing a team cleaning, how about we video this and put it onto Afton's Steadishots site? That would be awsome, because I too have never been or seen inside a gimbal, let alone cleaned one. Even in my Model 2 flying days, I was blessed with a clean gimbal. so what do you think? rich

let me add?Simon Wood is a nice guy too! I got to meet and work with Simon last month here in Philadelphia and he was a cool fella. He mentioned to me he sort of stopped visiting the forum regularly when things got so negative over the past years. [and, sadly, I assume this happened with more then a few people] I hope Simon visits the forum again someday? It is nice to have another international voice? but it is also cool to hear from someone who does steadicam on big live broadcasts on a regular basis. Throw in doing it off a segway/Handsfree, and I am sure he has lots to offer our lil? steadicam forum. And Simon, when you do read this, my brother even called me up when he was watching the British Open and he told me the steadicam on the segway was one of the coolest things he had seen. I was off doing NASCAR so I never got to see it, but let us know when the next big Handsfree Steadicam show is, and I will DVR it for sure! rich

I too think it is a BAD ida to put your "rig in your sig." For example: If I do a search to learn more about the "XCS TB-6" I do not want every post that someone who owns a TB-6 to come up. I only want to posts that are talking about the TB-6 to come up in my search my five cents rich BTW I love this forum and all you guys... and girls!

Mark, Thanks for that post and your much appreciated input. Alec, You are 100% correct on two counts. 1) I do spend too much time thinking and worrying about the gear. 2) I did end up getting the XCS sled. Not wanting to worry about my gear helped drive me toward an Ultimate. But back to the point you were making? I do spend too much time thinking about the gear and not enough time in the rig. I used to spend too much time doing both, but over the last two years I have been neglecting the skill development. For the last 6 months I have been particularly pathetic with training. With that said, I will be off-line from the forum for a while? playing with my rig. I will be back soon? but not till I killed this lazy cycle. Thanks for your "boldness" because you have said something I have been telling myself for a while? I think the way this works is I admit I have a problem and then I do something about it? Sincerely, Rich Cottrell

Charles, I agree with your points but I have been thinking about this potential situation: Live music gig on a small stage with a multi-piece band. Steadicam works on the stage. With my Klassen vest I keep the vest?s arm as close to my body as possible, but that leaves like 3 to 4 inches of the vest?s arm sticking out the other direction . This makes for a nice hook that could catch hanging stingers and mic lines as well as something that can pull over a mic stand. I could put gaffer tape from the vest to the end of the arm. This would make a ramp so the cables could not get hung up on the vest? but you can see that sometimes while you might not need to walk through a doorway on a live gig, there might be tight shooting situations. The stage always looks big when it is empty, but once you get all the sound gear and the instruments on stage, your walk-able area decreases. I can be clumsy, so bumping into the wrong stuff always worries me. Another situation on live gigs? I do a thanksgiving parade in Philly. It is a three hour show, but we have a huge rehearsal marathon the day before the show. This past year on rehearsal night, I had a few people bump into my back and two got hung up on my vest momentarily. If you read my posts about my back mounted vest from the past years, you will see I love my vest as well as my friends who make it in Toronto. The gang at Klassen FX are always making the vest better. I told Walter, it is like giving a super model plastic surgery. Anyway, my curiosity remains about the front loading, back mounted vest? But I still do not know of anyone who owns one? rich

I was just curious if anyone out there has bought one of the Tiffen/Klassen "Dual Mount" front mounted back mounted vests? This product has been out for a little while now and I would love to hear from anyone who has been using one on set. I own the Traditional Deluxe Klassen vest, but I am very curious about this new design. I fly a lot of video cameras so I was wondering if this new vest might make my life a little easier on live gigs [due to the decreased weight and smaller footprint. I regret not trying one on at cinegear? I have followed this topic on the forum, but little new has come out over the last months... so does anyone have one of these on set??? Thanks rich

One thing about New Balance shoes before we all go out and buy a pair of 907?s [which BTW I looked at yesterday at a NB store?] New Balance designs their shoes to match the way you walk and run. You should use the athlete?s degree of foot pronation as well as foot size when picking out one of their shoes. They have shoes for "overpronators" like the 907, but for someone like me this shoe would be bad. I "under-pronate", which means I use more of the outside of my foot when I run and walk. With New Balance you can match your shoe type with your foot/stride. Hew is some info: http://newbalance.com/techcenter/yf_in_mot....enc=ISO-8859-1 Years ago when I was still doing track and field I had bought a pair of New Balances that absolutely killed my feet. They killed me so much that the new pair of shoes were only ever used for cutting the lawn. They were worthless to me! I must have had a mismatch between shoe and foot types but at the time I did not know much about New Balance?s shoes. My point is this: if you do not get the right type of New Balance shoe for you foot type, you might get the completely wrong shoe and you will be one miserable person all day. Because I was a runner, I tend to mostly buy running shoes, but I am starting to try other styles now? Two years ago I sprained my ankle. It was not a running or steadicam injury, but I was the loudest noise I ever heard come out of my body. I ended up having to take some PT and that?s when I started talking shoes with the physical therapist. He recommended I NOT use running shoes for steadicam. He felt the extra cushioning that the running shoe provided was not worth the extra risk of rolling the ankle. He told me to try using cross-trainers. I know some of you mention Marrell?s but they make a bunch of different styles besides their famous moccasins. While I do have their moccasins, I have never used them for steadicam. I like to have a tightly laced shoe when I am in the rig. I am curious if anyone is using light weight hiking boots? In theory they make sense to me because they are made for hiking with a pack of gear over uneven terrain. That means they should offer lateral support and extra cushioning? in theory? right? Hiking boots might not be made to take the payload of the steadicam, but I think the two activities are similar enough to consider. rich

I went to the post cinegear event two years ago and had a good time. I was a greenhorn at the time, but I took my SOA workshop in 2001, so even going to cinegear was a progression for me. I was in luck that year because Paul Magee was out there too and he helped introduce me to some operators from across the country. I saw some familiar faces, and met a few of you from this forum. (At the time I was flying a CP model 2 with a GPI-Pro arm and a DSD vest with a BFD.) While most of you were strangers to me, and I to you, I was glad I took the trip. I had a good enough time that I am now trying to fly out to Cinegear every other year. I still consider myself a newer operator, but while I too was turned off by the tone of the "experienced operators only" I already decided to go again this year--regardless. Now I have an idea to throw out? Thinking back to my too numerous keg party roof top BBQs at Penn State I wanted to throw out an idea? Why don?t we all take an extra $10 bucks to the get together. Everyone that shows, kicks in ten bucks at the door. This is not a cover price but a kitty for tipping the staff and covering any overages. If only the projected 40-50 people show, then we give over a nice tip to the staff [on top of whatever we tip while we booze the night away]. If 100 people show, then we have some cash on hand to quickly cover extra appetizers and soda. No one has to be the collection agency, we just need a bucket to drop the cash. It is the honor system. The honor system worked while I was in college and at the time we were all penniless students? or am I just too much of a communist to think as professionals we could pull this off? with peace, love, and harmony from Philadelphia "the city that shoves you back", rich

I'll be attending as well. rich

For out of towners [like myself] this info is important? Place- Gladstones Date- June 24th Time- 6pm till "The End" David said Gladstones is in Malibu but this address from their web site: 17300 Pacific Coast Hwy Pacific Palisades, CA 90272 www.gladstones.com 310-454-3474 see you there rich

I was just thinking about this topic for the last three days... Up to this point, I never liked to leave my batteries on the charger for too many days. Sure I have insurance for my residence, but something about leaving my chargers plugged in all the time freaks me out. I have this picture of a big fire in the back of my head. [but AB always recommends keeping their batteries on their chargers as much as possible.] My first charger was a Q2 which I used for about 4 years, then I also got a Titan Twin a few years ago.. When I only had the Q2, I only had (3) Digital ProPacs, and a two position charger, but for my broadcast TV work this was always enough because I did not need to power the camera. I bought the Titan Twin when I started playing with the Dionics and needed a newer charger. I recently dumped the Propacs and I now I fly with (4) Dionics and (3) Trimpacs. I finally I got a "real" charger ? a Dual 2722?so I now have three chargers and 6 positions for 7 batteries. Anyway, back to the topic? I guess it is because the Dual 2722 cost more then my first chargers, but recently I have wanted to keep at least two of the Dionics on the 2722 at all the times. Now that I am doing that, I am thinking about keeping all the chargers working as much as possible. But I never liked the noise that my Q2 makes so I often think I shout retire that charger? and I am still a little freaked out leaving 6 batteries on charges at all times? So a few questions: 1) I know TV stations leave AB batteries on the chargers all the time, but while I could live with my steadicam getting destroyed in a fire, loosing my home and personal belongings would be a tough blow. Has anyone ever had a problem with leaving their Anton Bauer chargers plugging in all the time? 2) Does your Q2 make a lot of noise? Mine is a noisy beast! Also I have one thing to clarify: Jason says we should discharge our batteries for storage. Do NOT do this if you have Dionics. AB says you should only discharge them 50% for storage. And finally, thank you Richard Davis for that tip on the Trimpacs. ["Trimpacs especially seem like they don't like being left out when not in use."] I am new to using trimpacs so that was a great tip for me. My best from south Philly, rich

I did not get out to NAB, so... Did anyone check out the new BUZ hardwired zoom system from Bartech Engineering? thanks, rich

John, I have another thing that might help. I have a gorelock docking bracket and a American Grip steadicam stand. The stand has a rocky mountain leg, and the Gorelosk actually locks the sled into the docking bracket. When I worked a studio show and had just the chip chart problem you are talking about [as I always do]. On day, I looked at that rockey mountain leg and my gorelock and had a "ahhhhaaaa momment." I put a shot bag on the stand and spun the rockey mountain stand so the leg was in line with the lens. Then I could either tilt the sled up or down depending what way the rockey mountain leg faced. I could only tilt a few degrees, but it worked out fine every day no matter where they put the chart [again this was a multi cam show in a studio so they put the chart at eye level] rich

call: Robert D. Jones Regional Sales Manager Sachtler Corp. of America 516.867.4900x132 he uses AbleCine in NYC for US sales for sure [but he might also use other venders too.

When I bought my PRO arm I was surprised by the lack of padding that the arm bag offered? so I added some extra padding myself. I bought a closed cell exercise pad and cut two pieces that would wrap around each section of the arm. Then I made two little snug pillow cases for these pads [with medium to heavy weight back fabric] and sewed a piece of female 2 inch velcro onto each pillow case. Then made some straps out of the matching 2 inch male velcro sewed them on as well. Then I stuffed these pads with the foam and sewed them shut. Now I have these nice looking and easy to take off pads that I wrap around the bones before I put my PRO arm into that soft case. There was plenty of room to accommodate the extra padding inside the GPI-PRO case and I like that these pads are right on the arm. When I am wrapping the gear, I wrap the pads on the arm while it is still hanging on the docking bracket, and then I slide the padded arm into the soft case. I also made a circular pad to fit on the bottom of the soft case to add extra padding to the bottom. I know this solution of mine will not lengthen the life of the soft bag but I do feel this makes the soft bag a little better for protecting a $20,000 investment. I have not been putting my gear through too much abuse, but so far I am on my first PRO soft case and my first set of pillow pads too.

Fuel to the fire... Well... because the SuperBowl came up... The steadicam operator who did the 1/2 time show is not the regular MNF steadicam operator. I can not remember his name right now, but the regular MNF steadicam operator [he looks like the Eagles head coach BTW] should have also done the Super Bowl (game action) this year. For the Super Bowl a few of the game action camera operators are part of the half time show, but usually from what I understand, there are camera operators who are there just for the half time show. Back to the steadicam op? For MNF, he operates on a Triax and he uses a Stanton zoom and focus control. While I have never talked with him, I have worked a few NFL games these past years in Philly that were also MNF games. I have seen the external Stanton focus motor his lens and the Stanton demand on his steadicam gimbal. I have never seen a focus assistant with him. What I have seen is a utility with a docking stand nearby so as soon as a TV time out happens he can dock the rig if he needs to. I have a picture of the MNF operator in the rig from last year's ProBowl [again I am sorry but i forget his name. I am told he is a very nice guy to work with] but it is too big to attach to the forum. Email me off the forum if you want me to send it to you. I am not saying this is the way to go with "foucs for sports coverage", but MNF is the only regular sports broadcast that I know of that uses the steadicam for every show.