JakePollock

i've been flying the ultra from a rental house for a while and had gotten pretty spoiled by the simplicity of one brick on the sled... ...but now i'm starting to fly an artemis which uses the three brick system. the rental house (different from the one with the ultra) bought some chinese 14.4v v-lock li-on batteries. but when fully charged, they're really 16v. combined to give 24, they're really giving 32v which is more than the sr3 can handle. and when we tried hooking up the 435, we had no problems with power to the camera, but couldn't get the tap to work as the voltage was too hot. any ideas on how to solve this problem? are there 12v v-lock batteries in the market? and for those with proformers or hytron 50's, when fully charged are you getting 14.4 or above? the other odd thing about the artemis donkey box is that even when hooked up to both bricks, we get 24v (in reality 32) only through the camera power. all the accessory ports read 12 (15v). currently the rental house hasn't bought a wireless focus system, but aren't most systems 24v? and what about wireless video? the box has two ports for camera power, but i don't know if there are amperage issues with running everything off the cam power port. cheers, jake pollock taipei, taiwan

one of the rental houses here in taiwan has recently bought a sachtler artemis and i was the first to take it out on a job. being used to the ultra and then flying a very old 3A in beijing last november, i was pleasantly surprised by the artemis. anyway at the end of each day, the in-house assistant insisted on loosening the springs in the arm to the lowest tension point. since it's a rental item, i'm somewhat obliged to defer to their judgement. however, i'm curious if there is any real significant effect on spring longevity by releasing the tension. obviously even at the lowest tension point, it's still set for a minimum weight, so it's not like zero-ing out a fluid head at the end of the day. right? wrong? cheers, jake pollock taipei, taiwan

rock on rob! sorry i wasn't able to hook up with you in january. traveling with my girlfriend and jumping back and forth on day trips out of bangkok. will most likely make another visa jaunt in march. if so, i'd still love to hook up for a beer... and maybe a peek at that tilting stage of yours. cheers, jake pollock taipei, taiwan

rob, i was shooting a hell job on sunday and only found out about the devastation late last night. glad to hear that you're ok. i'll actually be going to thailand next month; if you're free maybe we can hook up for a beer. be interested in learning more about the scene out there. also, any contact info for the labs there? i'd also like to visit them. jake pollock taipei, taiwan

ya definitely gotta hook up with louis and james puli (father and son duo). louis was one of my instructors there and he's a great dude! jake pollock taipei, taiwan

the other thing is that even if i did have my own camera, the rate would certainly include the inclusion of such a significant difference in gear! jake pollock taipei, taiwan

just finished dp'ing a short (all on the 85mm by the way) with one day of steadicam. normally i fly a rented ultra, but the sled is down for repairs, so we used the msb back-up sled with the ultra arm. originally i added extra weight to the bottom of the sled to help balance the 535 in it's full glory (no light weight mags and no chance of removing the eyepiece in taiwan), but once i mounted the sled onto the arm, i had a dickens of a time trying to set up the arm. first, the arm was previously set for a very low weight, so the assistant and ac had to help me hold the rig up to get the arm to sit in the sweet spot. i dialed in the forearm without any problems, but for the life of me couldn't get the back section of the arm (bicep?) to take the weight. i know the 535 is a heavy mother and all but it should still be within range of the arm (and since the msb is a lighter sled and we were using wired focus control, the overall weight of the sled was still reasonable). so i would venture to say that the back section's adjustment screw is stripped? and another question: what would you have done? you're on set; the arm is screwed and won't adjust properly. have you ever been in that position? how did you get the shot? i took the extra weight off the bottom of the sled which helped with the arm; however it was still far from being ideally adjusted. even worse, though was that with so much weight on top i couldn't get the rig to really adjust properly. i was dealing with almost reverse drop time. moral of the story was that operating such a poorly set-up rig was a real drag. jake pollock taipei, taiwan

i recommend you search the archives for tilting heads. currently the ultra cine has a built-in tilting head; however, those of us without ultras would be interested in seeing a light-weight tilting head that could be added to older rigs but not interfere with the top stage. let us know if you come up with anything fun. jake pollock taipei, taiwan

right on mate! we, the class of 2004, raise a glass in your honor! jake pollock taipei, taiwan

matt, have you talked to phil or louis for advice? i'm sure mr. balsdon would have an idea of what to do. jake pollock

david, you're absolutely right, my name isn't chinese. i'm an american living and working in taiwan. sorry, i've heard your name a few times here and some how assumed you were over in hong kong. how's the work in singapore? but more importantly, when are you going to get and AR?! jake pollock taipei, taiwan

toby, another thing to consider and suggest to the director is changing size throughout the circle. more like an ellipse, or do a perfect circle- but with the actor not at the centerpoint. then you can worry less about being so exact and give a more dynamic move. since you mentioned that the aim of the shot is to suggest a change in the character, this kind of move may be more dramatic. and the editor could choose to dissolve between the shots either when you are closer or farther away. the impact of the shot would be quite different. hell, maybe you guys could try both ways and see what the director likes better in post? jake pollock taipei, taiwan

i had never seen e.r. until i moved out here to taiwan. i saw the first series for sale on dvd and figured, what the hell... if nothing else, it'd make a good steadicam reference to show directors here. i was totally blown away by some of those oners in the second half of the series. and the frequent mention of guy bee's name in both the first and second series' behind the scenes docs was a great and well deserved nod. but the thing that really got me was that my girlfriend never noticed how the camera didn't cut. she was just totally swept up, trying to pay attention to the characters and the story. and, on one level, that's what moving the camera is all about. jake pollock taipei, taiwan

david, i'm glad to hear that someone from this side of the world has seen it. for a while i was imagining that it'd take another five years before the alien got to asia. buy it, man. i'm sure there are some hong kong filmmakers who would come up with some very interesting shots for you to pull off! jake pollock taipei, taiwan

rob, glad to hear that the insurance is covered! what about the mystery bolts? did you ever figure out why they busted so quickly on you? jake pollock taipei, taiwan