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TJ Williams Jr.

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Everything posted by TJ Williams Jr.

  1. Sorry for the lack of response on this one... I've been on this movie and haven't had a chance to respond. The problem has been resolved and it was surprisingly simple. My rig is a bit of a franken rig and has some xcs, pro,and rig engineering parts. Since I use xcs posts I attached amp connectors to my bottom and top stage and had the rig wired up so I could swap my short and super post. Amp makes lots of pins for their connectors and I had installed the wrong ones! Greg was kind enough to take a look at the rig and suggest the proper pins. Now that I have the right pins in everything is working great! Lots of re-wiring but its gonna be great! Thanks everyone for the tips. I'm also upgrading all my wiring to 14 gauge to make sure there are no hot spots. Best wishes guys. Tj
  2. Hi everyone! I'm starting a feature on Monday the 17th, and its my first time working with the Codex recorder on top of the Arri Alexa. I didnt find out that we will be using the Codex until I showed up to prep today, and honestly the arri + codex is pushing the limits of my breakers to power the damn thing. I'm trying to arrange a few people who would be willing to rent me their rig on call in case mine goes down for whatever reason. If you have a backup rig it would be great to hear from you, or if you would be willing to rent your rig day by day it would be great to hear from you. I am not looking to house an extra sled for the entire shoot, but it would be great to have a few people in my back pocket to call in case something terrible happens. Just a little insurance policy. If you are interested please either reply here, or PM me with what sort of rig you have and what sort of $$$ you would want per day and per week. We can exchange contact info privately, so if you do reply to the post and are interested please also PM me your contact information. Hopefully everything will go off without a hitch. I'm just nervous and want to cover all of my bases. Thanks a lot steadicam family! Best wishes to all of you from TJ.
  3. Hey Steve. I'm actually just looking for a backup sled, but already have a backup gymbal, monitor, arm. Would you be interested in separating out the gear in pieces for sale? If so e-mail me at tjsteadicamjr@gmail.com Cheers, -TJ
  4. Well Damn! I just bought two of these new yesterday... thats a bummer.
  5. I want to revitalize this conversation and steer it towards feature films. I primarily work in low budget features (Tier 0 - Tier 2 films), and the current one I'm negotiating on is asking for some incredible deals. The current project is a Tier 2 film shooting for 5 weeks. They want to rent the steadicam kit for $2500 for the show... now this may only be for 5 days or so, but still thats $500 / day!!!! Is this a low budget feature standard down here in LA? Normally I would only see rates this low on a Tier 0 or Tier 1 project, and I didnt expect it on this one. Honestly I was completely blind sided... they also only want to do a $10 / hour steadicam bump, which is fairly low from what I've normally done. Anyone who work in movies have info to this regard? What do you guys do for long form projects on a weekly rental or pay to play? Also what do you guys normally get for a bump on steadicam days? Thanks for the info everyone. Cheers, -TJ
  6. This is exactly what was baffling me. I would have the camera reading 9v on the alexa display, but then I would throw a volt meter on the cable and it would read out 14.4v. I guess it makes sense since the volt meter has basically no draw at all. Wow I think this might be it guys. Eric, Afton, Mark, Victor, and Alan thanks a ton for talking this through with me. I'll take in the rig to Terry and talk wiring. Maybe I can have him rewire the thing with all 14 gauge through out before my next film. You guys are heroes! Cheers! -TJ
  7. It happens during both 12v and 24v operation, and seems to happen more frequently at 12v as opposed to 24v although I havent done any sort of empirical test on that yet. Just a feeling.
  8. Great to know that the XCS is wired at 14 gauge. I'll bring that up with Terry when I bring it in because I dont think my wiring is that fat right now. I would expect too thin of wire to cause heat issues though not power fluctuations, but its a good place to start. Thanks Eric. As far as I know Mark there is nothing in between the batteries and the power outputs except for circuit breakers. The power is passed straight through. Do you guys think a short of some kind could be causing this? Some sort of voltage loss to the housing perhaps? Seems so weird to me.
  9. Thats an interesting point. I think I know what gauge the wiring is inside of the custom boxes I had made. I think its 20 gauge, but I dont know what gauge is inside of the Rig Engineering battery stage, or the XCS post for that matter (although I somehow think without knowing that the wiring in the XCS post is going to be adequate for powering a small car)... This does seem to happen only on cameras like the Red, and Alexa with heavy power draws though. Maybe I should check out the wiring inside of the Rig Engineering bit. Thats a good idea of a place to look. Thanks!
  10. The Rig is essentially fully custom. Its based around the XCS post, but both the top and bottom electrical distro boxes are custom machines, and custom wired, so he didnt really mod it from anything. The battery bottom stage that I use is from Rig Engineering, and its a basic three battery pro style setup with two AB's top and bottom towards the rear, and one AB diagonal under the monitor. The diagonal AB is my camera power position for 12v, and my back top battery is system power (which works great). That leaves my back bottom battery for AUX power or 24v camera. I run Dyna 190WH AB's on it, but before you go off on my off brand batteries this power situation happens no matter what batteries I put on my sled. Often times I will run whatever AB back battery comes with the Alexa for Handheld on my rig, and even so it still has the power drops. I think it must be something to do with the Sled because it also happens on different camera power cables. It happens on my 12v Alexa, 24v Alexa, 12v Red, and so on. no good pictures available right now. I'm cooking dinner. -tj
  11. Hey guys, I have a custom top and bottom stage on my rig (wired by Terry West), and am wondering if you guys could help me figure out an electrical issue. Before you dismiss me and tell me to take it to Terry, I've been working on this with him also, but figure I'll cast a wide net for answers. The issue is that my camera power has a tendency to drop out, and it seems pretty much at random. Its both the 12v and 24v power. Whats strange is that the power doesnt drop all the way out- it just drops from 14.4v or 24v to about 9v, and will shift back and forth from one to the other, but never anywhere in between or lower. Sometimes this shift is very quick maybe just a few seconds, and sometimes it will be minutes. Obviously this shuts down any camera that is being powered by the rig, so I have resorted to powering things on camera for quite some time while trying to figure this out. I went through and spread the pins on the post (XCS post) to make sure each connection was nice and solid in the post / bottom stage connections, but the problem is still persisting. I'm not really an electrical engineer, so before sending this in to Terry one more time I was going to open it up here and see if anyone has a good idea. Hit me with your best shot! I'm stumped. -TJ
  12. Hey guys! I have an MDR-2 and HU-2 system that I'm looking to upgrade to an HU-3 but I want to still be able to use my old HU-2 as a backup. If anyone has an older model HU-3 with G3 radios they are looking to sell I'm in the market to buy now. Let me know what a fair price is for you, but I'm thinking $5000.00 used. Get in touch with me at tjsteadicamjr(at)gmail(dot)com Thanks guys! -TJ
  13. Thanks Erwin! How are you by the way man? its been a long time since we worked together on that little project in Mt Hood on the lake.
  14. Hey everyone- I bought an Exovest last year after trying it at NAB. I owned a WK vest for the last seven years and felt it was time for a change. There are a lot of things I loved about my WK, but at the end of the day it was an older model, and was very wide and difficult to get through doorways with, so I was looking for a slimmer option. So far the Exo has delivered everything I hoped it would. I find it to be a comfortable vest once you get it fit to your body well. Its true that it places stress on different back muscles than the standard vests do, but they are higher up on your back and feel like a larger muscle group, so I havent noticed any enhanced fatigue. I do like how the WK distributed this weight a little better, but for a slim vest it is much better for me than standard vests. At any rate I would love to answer any questions people have about the vest. I start a flim in May and will have a chance to stress test it over a long project, but until then I have only been doing one day jobs here and there. Ask away and I'll do my best to answer! Hope everyone gives the vest a chance. Its a pretty great piece of gear.
  15. Hey guys, I'm in LA and have some holes in my bottom stage that have stripped out. Unfortunately the holes are tapped into aluminum, and I'm not sure if there is enough meat left to re-tap them as heli-coils I'm looking to get in touch with someone who works with steadicam gear or camera gear to take a look. I think there are several solutions, but need help finding someone who can help me decide on what is best. If anyone has contact information for Joe Ortega, or has a good suggestion for someone with a drill press and patience their information would be much appreciated. If you would rather not post information directly to the forum feel free to e-mail me at tjsteadicamjr@gmail.com Thanks for the help guys! -TJjr
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