Sarah Thompson

Arm is now sold, pending being checked out by Robert Luna. Sled is still available: $3900 for a quick sale.

Update: the vest is now SOLD. The arm and sled are still available, no open offers yet.

Thomas + others, I'm basically looking for offers around the following: Vest $3000 Sled $4000 Arm $3500 Buyer pays shipping. I can do paypal, cashier's check or bank transfer. I'd like to move this quickly, so if someone was to make a sensible offer for some or all of the gear and do Paypal, I can potentially ship same day via FedEx. I'd like to see the gear used rather than sitting here, and I'd love to pass it on to a newbie who will hopefully fare better than I did -- I'm willing to do a very good deal if someone wants the whole rig, for example.

PS: Correction -- I typo'd when I wrote the description of the sled. It's set up for 2 AB batteries not 3. Also, photos for the rig are here: http://findatlantis.com/rig4sale/rig/

PS: I am located in Cupertino, CA, just south of San Francisco. I'm willing to ship anywhere however.

Hi folks, It seems I'm one of the ones that got away. A back injury basically means I can't fly anything for more than 2 or 3 minutes without being in extreme pain, so the gear has to go. :-( I'm selling the following: Series 3 arm with Pelican case. Cosmetically it shows its age, but it works fine (35lbs up to way more than you'd sensibly want to fly). It comes with a set of 4 posts of various lengths with the right diameter for a 3a sled (or equiv). 3a sled. Good condition, has a few modifications including a TFT monitor and 12/24V power. Comes with a variety of plates, cables, etc. Modified to take up to 3 Anton Bauer batteries. Comes with a really solid metal-clad flightcase. I can throw in a Mitchell stand if you want one. Ultra vest. Very good condition. Sorry, I don't have a flight case for the vest. It almost but not quite fits the pelican that the arm lives in (another vest might fit, or it would fit without the arm). I need to sell relatively quickly, so make me an offer. I'm happy to sell the whole lot together or split it out as necessary. I'd also consider taking a Pilot in partial trade (my back is probably fine for that weight, but not for a big rig sadly). Let me know if you want more detailed information/photos/etc.

http://www.youtube.com/embed/WoZ2BgPVtA0 A story about a set of very Steadicam-like arms made for a 2-year-old suffering from arthrogryposis. Some of you may have seen this already, but I was sufficiently boggled by it I had to post it here. :-)

I just bought a used Sony clamshell monitor that happened to use the same batteries. It came with a power supply/charger with a fake battery. I popped it onto the Ninja, and it powered it just fine, so I therefore have a mains power solution. I'll probably modify the cable and build an 8V regulator which should make it possible to power it from about 10V to 25V. I don't know if the Sony parts are still available, but I can dig out the part numbers if anyone wants them.

Did you remember to black balance? ;-)

I'd underscore the awesomeness of McMaster-Carr. I've built Mars robots and specialized cameras for work, and use them all the time because they are incredibly good at having stuff show up next day. They also carry most of the bizarre things I need. They aren't so good on module 0.8 gears, but other than that...

Hi Eric, Who is making the adapter? Atomos or AB? Thanks, Sarah

Hi folks, I've been experimenting recently with an Atomos Ninja HD recorder. Seems to work really nicely, I'm happy with the results, and going straight to Prores is really nifty. However, its out-of-the-box power solution is kind of nasty. It has two Sony NP-F style battery mounts on the back and no other power connectors. The standard (small) batteries supplied with it are just giving about an hour of record time each running ProRes HQ, which (duh) isn't remotely enough to be useful. It can accept larger NP-F style batteries, but since I'm trying to move my rig to AB gold mount for everything, I'd rather power it from that. Thing is, I can find gadgetry that will let me hook an AB battery to it, as if I was powering a camcorder, but I'd rather be able to power it from the same battery as the camera (which might be on a steadicam rig or mounted to the rail system with a cheese plate if I'm using sticks). My Google-fu is failing me -- does anyone know of a suitable adapter (i.e., 12V in, fake 7.4V NP-F battery out)? If it was not for the weirdness of needing a fake battery rather than a plug, I'd probably have just built my own little power regulator, but... Thanks, Sarah

Very nice work -- I went through the whole site this morning. I'm a newbie starting out, piecing together my first rig currently, so I am probably in your exact target audience. I'll PM you with my reactions rather than post them here, but good work!

I've experimented with Mamet's approach. It works, but I'd be uncomfortable calling it better or worse than the alternative (i.e., what he'd call an inflected shot -- a long master, long Steadicam tracking shot, etc.). Realistically it's just another tool in the toolbox for constructing a visual story. It leans less on the actors (so might help if your actor isn't too great, I suppose...) but much more heavily on the editor -- if the rhythm is off, the sequence can stop making sense. It can also help to sell an emotional idea that isn't directly playable. I've recently been doing rewrites on a feature script that was mostly pretty good, but the writer strayed into some lazy action ('Jack notices that <something emotionally complicated happened off screen that you don't see directly>') that translated fairly straightforwardly into juxtaposition. I haven't shot it yet, so I'm crossing my fingers that it'll work in the edit, but it does seem to make some kind of sense. I don't think I could have done the same thing adequately with a long master approach because it would just be no way for the actor to get the information across. OK, here goes, I'll stick my neck out and link an example. First thing I'll say is that Spin was never really intended to be a short film -- it was shot very quickly (couple of hours) mostly as a source of test green screen footage for checking out a post toolchain (compositing/CG/sound). I can list a lot of things I'd reshoot or do differently if I was really aiming for it to stand up as a 'real' project. However, another thing I was trying was Mamet's approach, partly because I'd just read a couple of his books -- the short has no dialogue, and in fact its story never really appears directly, it's all inferred through juxtaposition (of sound as well as images). Its nearly all composed of locked-off shots because every shot has a green screen comp going on with some combination of matte painting or CG background, and I wasn't feeling like spending a week or several doing matchmoves.

Two pieces of advice SEARCH WORKSHOP then come back and ask your questions <3-year-old-tantrum-mode> But I wannit an I wannit NOW! </3-year-old-tantrum-mode> Good advice, thanks. Really. The workshop part won't happen until next year most likely -- it would be awesome if there was one I could get to sooner (or, listed at all currently, actually), but I'll have to wait. I am doing my homework as best I can, however -- the archives here are very useful, as is the handbook, of course. All I'm currently trying to do is piece together a rig without dropping a large amount of money on something that won't work well and/or that will end up swapped out sooner than I'd like. Thanks again!