Bret Allen

Good advice Jeff, it may cost me the equivalent to a job or two to get liability, but better to be safe then to loose my house. In the meantime, I simply explained to the production company that I do not carry liability insurance and that I will require a CI from them. They responded ?no problem, we?ll add you to ours? no argument, as I scratch my head? Problem solved. I just have never encountered this before. Thanks for the input.

I have been a Steadicam owner/operator, and a Tulip crane, for nearly twenty years. This summer I invested in a Jimmy Jib Triangle and have been working it pretty well. I just got booked on a ?King of the Cage? fight in Reno for next weekend, two days at full rate. When I received my deal memo from the production company, this was one of the SPECIAL PROVISIONS 1. The Jib Operator will provide a Certificate of Insurance naming the below Names and Addresses as Additional Insured: (And they list about four of the Hotels that are involved including the production company them selves. 2. The Jib Operator agrees to hold harmless the Booking Agent for any damage or loss incurred to any equipment or harm to their person at the agreed event. I have never had a production company ask me to provide liability insurance before, in fact I always have obtained the insurance cert. from the production company. Has anyone else ever run into this? Any suggestions on how I should handle it? How much is it going to cost me to get liability insurance? Thanks for any advice, Bret

Without a doubt no job is worth getting hurt on, or worse. We as Steadicam operators, will be asked to do things that that push the envelope of our abilities and our equipment?s from time to time and knowing when to say no is key. When do we say no? Be informed. Know all the details of the shoot that you can. Ask questions. Talk to the director, stunt coordinator, key grip/rigger, location scout, whoever you think can give you as much information to make the shot as safe as possible. If it?s clear to me that safety is the first priority on everyone?s mind, and everything possible is going to be done to insure safety, then I?ll accept the job. That said? I recently took a job for the Canadian ATV Company Bombardier, some pictures at: http://www.filmtoys.tv/atv.html (Note I used an old Model One. It?s shoots like this that equipment can get broken). This would be a big international shoot, big time action sports director, stunt drivers, etc. I asked all the questions I thought I needed to know. We were going to be on ATV trails in Northern California and ASSUMED the bikes wouldn?t be able to go very fast. I did a pre-rig with the Key grip the day before to be able to hard mount the Steadicam to the front or the back. We talked about the risks of being harnessed in or not and we agreed that it would be better to be harnessed in. What I thought would be leisurely tracking shots on trails turned into ?balls out? chases at speeds of about 40 or 50 MPH around curves over bumps and potholes. The first run scared the crap out of me and my harness was not nearly tight enough and whipped me from one side to another. I had the key tighten my harness so tight that it made my ovaries hurt, no wait I?m a guy. So now that I feel sufficiently strapped in, the next thing going through my mind is if this driver loses control and goes over the cliff or wrecks in anyway, I?m a dead man. At this point I was totally committed and all eyes are on me to get the shots. My life was in the hands of the stunt driver. And with every run we got faster and faster. Folks, to make a long story short, we ended up having a great day and no one got hurt and the shots were out of this world. The director was happy, Bombardier was happy and I felt pretty good about my work, and it was just flat out fun, but? I really didn?t ask all the right questions. I didn?t have the courage to stop the shoot and demand that the key grip build me a roll cage out of speed rail. It was foolish of me to continue, when I knew more could have been done to make the shot safer. We may all face making shots that could dangerous, but be smart, be safe and know when to say no.

Wanted, CP WRC 4 motor has amp built into it. I want to sell my old system but my motor died on me and the system is not complete. If you have an old one in you closet let me know. bret@filmtoys.tv FilmToys :blink:

Buy yourself a pair of good lightweight hiking boots. You must always have good ankle support or your going to go down. And, use a spotter when you?re in rough terrain. I once had to do a shot in a in a dried riverbed over large river rocks (6?+ round) to see the suspension work for a Bombardier ATV spot. My spotter was carrying most of my weight for that shot, but no way could I have done it alone. A sidebar on that shot. They should have used a jib arm, but it was a last minute request from the director and I knew I could give him ?pieces?.

I don't know if this helps. If you can locate on old model 1 or 2 for parts, I believe it used the exact same electronics. I saw one on Ebay once for cheap. Believe it or not, I still own an old model 1 and still use it (17 Years now) I love the dynamic balance.

Hi Greg, Just some advice from a 17 year operator. Buy a 2 cheap line levels from the hardware store and remove the levels from their mounts. Permanently glue one level under the dovetail mount on your rig (out of site). Attach a narrow strip of Velcro to the monitor and the opposite Velcro to the other level. This way in an emergency, you can quickly attach the monitor level, calibrate it to the level under the donkey box and your back up without anybody knowing you had a problem. We never want then waiting on us. Sorry I can?t help with the actual problem.