Colin Donahue

Ron, I spoke with Jay O'Brien at Boland about three weeks ago concerning the 6.5. I told him I wanted to come down and check it out. He said he would contact me when they had one to show. I have not heard back yet. Have you scheduled a vistit? They told me they don't really have a showroom and it is not the type of place you can just "drop by" Colin Donahue

Jade, as Rob said, make a list of all your equipment, serial #'s, price, and country it was manufactured in. If there is a US Customs office in Atlanta, take this list and all your gear and travel info, show info etc. to the Customs office. Usually they do not make you bring the gear in to be inspected, but they will put an official stamp on your list of equipment. This may help you in the DR, but it is most important for getting your stuff back in the country through US Customs. I worked on a show where they made some back room deal(we litterally went into a back room and paid somebody off) to get my stuff into the Bahamas. It was the one time I did not get my list stamped at US Customs, and I could not get it back on the plane to leave the Bahamas. I had to have it air freighted to LAX and it sat for a week before I could get it. I got the show tol pay for the time my gear sat there because they claimed they had all of the shipping issues "taken care of". Good Luck. Colin Donahue

Eric, is there any chance of seeing this unit on the west coast? You mention several models on the website but I see only one. Also, in the video I notice the the gimbal handle rotates at the same time as the zoom rocker. I would find this very difficult to use because If I am trying to feather my zoom while walking forward and booming up and down, I need the grip on the gimbal handle to be stable and and if the handle is movig as well, the combination of forward movement, booming and zooming on a handle that rotates woudl be more difficult. If it works, the price seems right. colin donahue

Richard, thanks for the info. I have a call into Tiffen, but I had heard back. Colin

I am trying to get a docking ring for my Archer so I can use it with a Masters docking bracket. Does anybody know what the diameter of the post is? Thanks, Colin Donahue

I would like to go just to find out about this whole Lisa gav thing. I have done several searches on google but am only referred to the steadicam formun. I, Like Rob Vouna, am a bit afraid of what i might find out. But if it works on a unicycle, I will bring it! Colin Donahue

Arri small light kit case. Outside dimensions approx. 33"X 11"X13" $100 "Anvil Type" cases. Outside dimensions 24"x9"x14" $50 I have two.

This is a battery mount designed to fit onto the rods at the base of the Archer for easier balancing. This mount does not have a power cord attached. It is only threaded for a screw on one rod. There is no P tap on this mount. $100 contact me at colindon@pacbell.net

This mount allows you to attach an Anton Bauer Battery to the rods at the base of your Archer for easier balancing. It is wired with a consumer connector which can be easily replaced. The two nylon screws allow for a snug fit without scratching the rods. I changed the base of my sled so I don't need it anymore. $200 contact me at colindon@pacbell.net

Ed, I had this set up for a while. I replaced the AB mount on the sled with one with a power tap and my new AB mount that slid onto the rods had a P tap as well. What I ended up doing was splitting the power off the AB mount at the base, sending one line up the post and another line with a lemo that could reach the second battery mount to connect to the second battery ( with a lemo connected to the AB mount) if I wanted to run them in paralell. Because of the nature of the balance of the Archer. It always works best with the heavier battery on the rods mount and a lighter battery on the back mount. The setup I most often used was a Hytron 140 on the rods mount and a Hytron 50 or Dionic 90 at the base. When you run this setup in paralell the battery at the base (dionic or hytron 50) tries to charge itself off the hytron 140 and the readout on the battery goes wacky and sometimes dissapears. I talked with Paul Dudeck about this and he said it would not hurt the batteries, but I may not get full benefit of 2 batteries. I often ran them seperately just using the Hytron 140 on the rods to power the monitor, recorder, downconverter, etc. using the P tap on the rods mount. This is unfortunate, because I was using the most powerful battery to power the stuff that drew the least power. Maybe you have a better idea? Colin Donahue

Pete, very nice design. I had a battery mount made for my archer as well. It was a much cruder design, just a block of alluminum that slid on the rods and nylon screws to keep it snug. With the rods pushed all the way in, the machinest noticed that the distance between the rods was narrower at the base than it was at the ends of the rods. He had to make a it a little looser to compensate. Even with that, I have to make sure the rods are loose before I slde it on, otherwise it won't go on. Good Luck, Colin Donahue

Matteo, Mine broke as well. I think I was holding it at the time so no damage. We are all amazingly lucky! Anyway, this was a couple of years ago and Kyle Young (when he was still at Tiffen) gave me a few new ones. He said they changed the design. I have not had a problem since, and I check it every now and then. It still looks good. Colin

I can't wait to see the boland 6.5 either. That is just the problem. I have been on the phone with them, but can't seem to get a date or time to let me drop by to see it. May have to wait till cinegear (if they are there). I was told the price on the 6.5 was around $3400. They also said frameline generator was in the works, but not anytime soon. Colin Donahue

Brian, Tried the unicycle thing with the Archer. I think the rig is too big. I found it pretty hard to do. I noticed in your pictures that you have the rig directly out in front. I had mine on the side. I found it hard to turn. If I can get my rig lighter I will try again. Here are a couple of pics. Colin http://i719.photobucket.com/albums/ww199/c...n/unicycle1.jpg

"The big news at Tiffen though is their new OLED 7" monitor. No such thing as viewing angle. It's ALWAYS viewable. The contrast is amazing and the power consumption is stupid low. Less than .2 amps with a fully white screen and in the milliamp range when black. SD for now but they are building it to be SD and HD when released, this is going to be great." Does anyone have anymore information or detail about this monitor? Colin Donahue

Did a shoot the other day and had 25mph winds. I made some make-shift antlers with a cartolini clamp and a grip arm with a knuckle at each end. I attached it to the nose of my archer sled placing the antlers about a foot in front of the post just under the lens. Because the sled was so front heavy, and I didnt have a lot of time to make adjustments, I put a hytron 140 on the back of the camera. This extra weight bottomed out my G-50 arm, but I was able to do the shot and they seemed to help. I did a search on the forum and couldnt find much, but most of the pics showed the antlers high above the camera and over the post. How much difference does it make where the antlers are and how high they are? I have a similar shot to do tomorrow or on Sat. Thanks for any help Colin Donahue

Christian, my experience with clamps like these is that they are strong enough to hold full size cameras, but they are not stable. The big cameras will wiggle because you cannot get it tight enough with out cracking the handle. Also, because most of the handles are plastic, and the clamp does not cover the entire handle, you can break the handle off the camera with too fast of a move with a clamp like this. I have a low mode bracket made by Brant Fagan, and it is rock solid. Colin

$39 US I took 2 out of the 10 left, so if anyone else wants one, jump on it Thanks again for the tip Rob, Hold one for me. I want it. Colin Donahue

Job, Wondered if you would mind posting some pics of your modification. I have the archer vest and have a similar problem. I moved the lower vest clamp over to allow for the socket block to be lower, but for some reason that I cannot remember, I moved it back. Maybe what you did will work better. Would love to see it. Colin Donahue

Which top ten show is non-union? Is it a reality show? Seems like the union should be all over them to sign a deal. Brad, It is a reality show. Extreme Makeover Home Edition. They have bounced between top ten and 20 for the last 5 years. It should be a union show. Colin

I am working on a non union job and just got the deal memo. One of the sections includes the following: "Employee acknowledges and agrees that due to the nature of the program content, certain situations activities and occurrences may take place which are unknown to Employee at this time. Employee hereby accepts and assumes any and all risks associated therewith, including, but not limited to serious personal injury, death and or property loss. Employee understands that if any harm befalls Employee as a result of this production, the sole remedy shall be limited to workers compensation insurance coverage." This is a top ten network show. I have worked on it for several years and there are definitely risks involved . I told them I did not want to include this in my deal memo. Is this standard stuff? What are my options? I would appreciate feedback from anybody who has experience in this area. colin

Dave, I wasn't sure if you were asking for a critique of the whole peice, or just your steadicam work. The shots are pretty straight forward, not too difficult. A couple of times you ran into headroom issues. It does seem like the same shot over and over. In the end I see you try to break them up a bit by going at different angles or using some foreground. Did you have choices in this or were you directed completly? For someone starting out it looks pretty good! colin

From: American Cinematographer Title: The Steadicam and "The Shining" - GARRETT BROWN "I quickly realized that when Stanley said the crosshairs were to be on someone's left nostril, that no other nostril would do" I sounds like Garrett Brown was using crosshairs!! I will let him know he has "no business framing anything with a lens" :P :P the next time I see him! Actually i have been shooting for 25 years and never used crosshairs, Recently during a workshop I added them with white tape to my monitor to help with some exercises. I left them on for a few months. I found them useful for some shots and distracting for others. I peeled them off about a week ago. I was just a little bit suprised by the passion of some towards them. Colin "still learning to frame"Donahue

Actually, I hate crosshairs also, but I just needed a reference to practice keeping it straight while I am learning. Thanks for responding everybody, I will put these suggestions to use. Just curious. Why do you guys hate crosshairs? Colin Donahue

I spoke with Dan at Tiffen, and he says the new interchangable post sytem is not too far off, but they still don't have the extensions for the G-50 arm. I need to get some extension posts made, but I am not sure what to make or what to make it out of. Are the extensions actual posts that you replace your post with? Or are they rods that slip over your existing post to make it longer? What should metal should I use to make the extensions? Aluminium? Steel? Can anybody help me with this? Colin Donahue