Brad Grimmett

Happy birthday Chris!

Oh great! I'm about to start a feature in the Bahamas with the Red and we'll be doing a lot of water and boat work in the ocean. We'll have cards on hand and it sounds like we'll need them. Thanks for the tip.

Your right hand operates the gimbal HANDLE, not the gimbal. Your left hand operates the gimbal. You operate regular.

Why would you operate regular if you feel better goofy? That just doesn't make sense to me.

Sounds like a pain in the butt John. Thanks for the info.

Hmm, I think I'm confused. If they were walking next to you with a hardwired HD monitor (which sounds like a real treat), why did you need to have a hard wired down converted image? Why didn't you just transmit the down converted image to video village?

Couple of questions about that photo Erwin... Is that tiny BNC running off the front of his rig just for monitoring? Is there a downconverter that works with this camera so it is possible to be completely cable free while still sending an image to the village? Also, what is that cable running from the camera and down towards the bottom of the sled? Does the Venom suck so much juice that he had to add a battery to his system or something and run the power outside the post? Just curious...

Anyone know the specs off hand for them on a Master Series vest? I can't seem to find them online. Thanks.

What's the current highest bid? I'm sure I can beat it. Josh I told Ron I'd give him all of the loose change in my car. I've been parking at a lot of meters lately, so the current offer is probably about $1.37.

From what I understand this is very common for Preston rentals (and other items) that aren't steadicam specific. I've heard of this practice for quite a while. An A.C. actually offered me the same deal before I owned a Preston. In your case Nick I think I'd just say no. In the end all this practice is, is bribery....you're bribing them to rent from you and not a rental house or someone else.

I don't think I'd ever go up on a crane without being clipped in. This is especially true after hearing about Bill Brummond's accident a couple years ago. One little tiny problem and you're seriously injured or possibly dead. With a fall restraint your chances of serious injury are greatly diminished. I'm actually very surprised the grips didn't at least try to talk you into some kind of fall restraint. That was an unnecessary risk in my opinion. I'm glad it worked out this time, but you might want to re-think it next time.

Nice Afton. I think I have to add that to my "to do" list.

Not this time....uh, I mean....uh, no.

If anyone gets a call to work on a feature called "Baby-O" or "Mikey and Dolores" please contact me ASAP. The production company may be called "Doxie Productions" or "First Take Productions", or possibly something entirely different. The producers are Gary Arnorld and Michael Meltzer and the director is Charlie Matthau. The DP is John Connor. The start date is May 3rd or sometime close to that, probably in Las Vegas or Los Angeles. Please PM or call me @310-562-5652 if you or anyone you know gets called for this job. Thanks.

Since we're on the subject of the iphone....I recently spoke to an old friend who works for AT+T and he told me Apple was coming out with a flip phone later this year. A quick search on the net came up with this. I'm sure some of you will be interested.

The operator fell because there is such a severe slant at Fox News....makes it hard to operate in there.

What is that, a cable box on top of that thing? I hope you got the Spice Channel for in between takes....

You might be better off buying sim cards when you get to where you're going...I don't know. Just a thought since it might be easier and you won't have to wait. I'm not sure about the price difference, if any.

Happy Birthday Ron! Hmm, I didn't realize you were 67....I thought you were 69. Scotch is on me the next time I see ya. Don't worry, I'll get you a sippy cup so you don't spill old man.

Some of the girls from Jumbo's are bigger than elephants, so it makes perfect sense to me!

No, I think it's different. A body mount will move up and down as the actor walks. And it will tilt, pan, and change height as the actors body moves, so the camera is accelerating, sometimes in the exact opposite direction that the actor is accelerating or moving. Steadicam is obviously different, as is the dolly shot I referred to. The steadicam allows us to see more like our eyes do. When you walk your eyes don't see the up and down movements of your body. Your eyes interpret your movement and remove the bobbing that your body is actually doing, just like steadicam.

I think I understand what Alan is saying. He's talking about doing a moving shot at an exact constant speed without acceleration and having the perception that the world is moving around the people instead of the people moving around the world. I've experienced this while walking before. It's a strange feeling. The feeling is kind of relative to un-focusing your eyes and looking at one of those out of focus pictures until it comes into focus (remember those?). You feel a little out of your own body. And no, I wasn't smoking anything at the time. It's an interesting thought, but I think it would be very hard to achieve with steadicam since the actor(s) need to be at the exact same constant speed and motion as the operator. Also, I don't know that you can achieve that feeling through a lens. I just wrapped about an hour ago, and the last shot of the day was a girl mounted at one end of a dolly and myself and the lens at the other. We travel down a hallway as she is firing guns with both hands. This setup is more likely to replicate this particular feel than steadicam I think, because our speed is exactly the same and the world is moving by us at exactly the same pace. There is an odd feeling to the camera's speed being linked exactly to the actor, and it's a different feel than steadicam. With this type of shot the acceleration is in the hands of the dolly grip, and for this shot I just did, there was acceleration coming from the dolly, wanted or not. With no acceleration we may have come close to what Alan is talking about, although I don't know if it would have been perceptible or not through the lens. In the end, I don't think this is what we're looking for with steadicam (whether we can do it or not), because the feel and effectiveness of steadicam depends on the fact that things in the frame are moving independently. If every moving object in the frame was moving exactly with the steadicam the feel and effect would be very different. I'm having trouble wording what I'm thinking, but I hope you all get the idea.

They were when I was with them. I could talk all the way over the hill, and very rarely hit a bad patch anywhere in town. I switched providers because I moved and my Sprint phone didn't get service at my apartment. Everyone said, "Oh, Verizon will get service there!" Well, they were wrong for the most part. I literally HAVE to put my phone on speakerphone any time I'm on it in my apt. If I put the phone to my head it drops the call every time. And my service is generally worse with Verizon than it was with Sprint everywhere I go. AND Verizon is more expensive. So, yeah, Sprint was much better for me.

Yeah, but that thing was gigantic! Even bigger than the Treo! The i500 is a Palm flip phone that isn't much bigger than a Razr. OK, I'll stop lobbying for it now... SprintruledVerizonsucks

Nope, they can't blame you to your face....just behind your back. The 1st assistant and DP could be telling people the next day, "We hired a steadicam operator and the guy showed up without a wireless follow focus!" Does it matter that you did your best for them and gave them options? No. But it appears that you've decided to do the job no matter what, so good luck to you, and hopefully it will be a positive situation and experience.