Dave Chameides

I'll throw one more thing out there that I wrote about on The Q&A which sums it up for me. Bob Crone was the lead instructor at Calamigos so many years ago. Wonderful man. He told us one evening that the irony of our job is that if we do it well, no one should ever know it was done. I take that to hurt in the shots I do and in how I conduct myself on set. Good rule of thumb if you ask me.

Charles pointed me to this thread. Thanks for all the kudos on my Q&A tidbit and thanks Afton for entering it into the fray. I scrolled back and read through the original posts and was interested to see what was said. If nothing else, Charles referred to himself as mini-me and for that the whole thing was worth it. My two cents. Be who you are, you're going to suck at being someone else. Now that said, you may suck while being yourself, but them's the breaks. Charles and I tend to share our stories back and forth and some rock and some suck, but we generally go in as the ops/DPs that we are, so that right there should show you that sometimes it's there and sometimes it aint. I think a sense of humour is huge if you can pull it off and generally going in and making people's jobs easier rather than harder (when necessary) is always a good thing. I think the biggest thing to put out there is that no matter what you've done or who you are, you aint all that and a bag of chips compared to everyone else. Sure you may make more than a PA and may have more pressure on you than the transpo coordinator at the moment you are shooting, but they are people just like you and deserve the same respect as you would expect others to give you. I have never felt that actors are better than I am because they are actors, and in turn have never felt that anyone else is beneath me because I am a steadicam op. I've always looked at my gig as something to share as others are generally interested in it, and something I'm damn lucky to have found, and been able to do for a living. So i guess the bottom line for me, be cool, be good, be respectful, and don't expect to be treated better than anyone else just because you own some gear. Oh, and carry extra socks. That helps too. Dave Did I mention that Charles called himself mini-me? I love that.

Anyone know where I can get a new one of these plastic/delron dock parts from?

Just worked with the red epic for the second time. The first came with it's own follow focus set up so I paid no attention. This time, using mine, I had to go off the dog legs on the plate which I never really like. Seems like with all those screw holes there should be a decent rod system to screw in the side of the cam. Anyone know of anything?

Had to pull out my Modulus and receiver the other day (first time in well over a year) and I realized that at some point my shark fin antenna walked away. Any idea who carries these and if there are any better alternatives to use? I doubt it'll get much use if any at this point but i feel odd going out without a full kit.

I may be heading to Haiti to shoot a doc there in May and will be using a D5 or something similar. I haven't flown one of these types of bodies before so any thoughts would be helpful. I'll be checking it out ahead of time but it's always good to have experienced voices weigh in. Also, as I'll be a crew of two most likely, I may be pulling my own focus. For what we are doing it's not a huge deal as it's almost all day exterior but it would be nice to be able to adjust myself for artistic reasons. Any thoughts on motors on these things and a gimbal mounted focus control? Anyone have one they want to donate to an amazing cause?

Tried this a few years back and it worked. I found some extra 8mm tapes I never transferred. Anyone have a deck or cam I can borrow for a week or two? Let me know and thanks.

Anyone who knows me well knows that i am about as untechnical a steadicam op as they come. Other things yes, but Steadi, not so much. So the other day i noticed that the paralell/series switch on my Pro is actually broken, meaning there is no little metal doohicky to even flick anymore and I have no idea what mode it is in. So i got to thinking. First off, I need to pay better attention to my gear I guess as I have no idea how long this has been this way. Secondly, is this something that even needs to be addressed anymore or is that switch a holdover to the old BL days? Anyone actually use this thing? The 12/24v switch seems to only be valid for the Genesis with a dual cable power cable so that i barely use. Any thoughts for a clueless op? And while you're at it, if anyone finds the doohickey, please feel free to pass it along. I'll glue it back and pretend as if nothing happened. Dave

Need a few backup cables made. Who ate people using these days?

Been kicking this around for a while and wondering if anyone has any thoughts. I'm thinking of having a cradle made for a small HD monitor that would have an Anton Bauer batt on the back for monitor power. This would bring the weight of the monitor area roughly up to my green screen so my rig would fly the way i like it to which is where it is now (ya know, old, slightly bad horizons, but enough to keep on working). This would free up the third batt on my system so my thought was to have it rewired with a switch so I could run the new power hungry cameras we are all using with three batts. Effectively i would have no new weight but longer run times on batts and my rig would essentially weight out the same as it does now. Any thoughts pro or con? Also, anyone have any thoughts on if we even need to have isoltaed power for video any more? Is this even an issue? dave

Shooting with the Alexa using Dionic HCs. While we aren't having a power issue per se, as soon as we power up the cameras, the readouts on the batts shoot down to 1 immediately. Power on the camera lcd says it's fine and we are getting decent run times so we've just chosen to ignore the anomoly. That said, it's still troubling me as I haven't seen anything like this before. Same thing happening with two cam bodies and my batts as well as rental houses. Anyone have any thoughts or experiencing similar issues?

Nice work.If Charles or I attempted that shot the bottom of the sled would be dragging in the snow, that's why we choose to work in warm climates. John Lindley was asking me about you last week, I assume for a pilot with Tommy. I told him he'd love you. Good luck! Thanks Doc. Looks like that gig is going to work out. Not too much steadi but it's always fun to work with Tommy and John sounds cool.

Thanks Charles, and everyone else, for the kudos. I'm still kind of shocked by how well that shot came out as I recall it being a complete pain in the arse at the time. The guy was walking fast and I couldn't keep up, thus the reason he travels through that frame. It's funny because the rest of the snow stuff (my first time wearing all the clothing necessary to do steadi in 10 degrees) pretty much sucks. This was the last shot up and I guess on some level I must have figured out by then how to work through all the layers. Checked with the director as well about digital stabilizing and he said that they didn't. I'm inclined not to believe him. That said, when Bob Crone taught me back in the day he always said, the sad part about what we do is that if you do it right, no one will ever know you were there. Guess it's nice to pull one of those off every once in a while. That said, I more than made up for that with all my operating the last two weeks, so I'm pretty much even at this point, with the quality meter dipping back towards sloppy. Dave

So as some of you may know, I moved East to Ct from Cali after a 20 year foray there. I wasn't an operator back here ever so learning as I go (so to speak). As is apparent tonight, it seems to get cold here. Perhaps i should have thought about this a bit more before jumping. Anyhoo, a question about gear storage. We move into our new place on monday and my thought was to build a secure raised enclosed area in the garage to store the gear. It'll be dry, but should I be worried about moisture out there? I'll probably store my batts in the house, but would rather not lug all my cases in from the garage as it's detached and a hike to the house. Any thoughts from those of you warming your tootsies by the fire this fine eve? And will it get colder than tonight or is this pretty much it?

Who made your case and how much did it cost ya?

Just upgraded to the steadyrig batt cage and now need a new sled case, something I haven't thought about in a long time. Anyone have any suggestions?

I'm hoping it's ok to post this here as I'm not selling anything. Way back in my ER days we had a steel docking mount welded that we attached to the wall in the darkroom. The rig sat there at night when we weren't moving to location. I still have it and never use it so email me at vegify at mac dot com and I'm happy to pass it on to the first one who wants it. I'm in Los Angeles and it's heavy so local pickup only please Thanks

As anyone who knows me knows, Im not an equipment guy. Thus, after 18 years operating, the time has come for new T handled allen wrenches. I know that this seems odd, but where's the best place to get single t's? And are there better companies to go with manufacture wise? And is it 5/32 or 9/32 (the handle is surprisingly rubbed off).

I spent yesterday at the Saban theater in Hollywood watching the filming of the GLEE finale in front of about 2000 fans. My wife's god-daughter flew out for it so i was there with her (and of course I think the cast is dreamy too). It was a really interesting experience because I rarely get to watch other ops, especially guys on a large stage where you can see the whole dance play out in front of you. As the guy who's always in the rig and not watching others in it, it reminded me of how truly cool steadicam is and how wild the whole dance between the AC, grips and op are. Andrew Mitchell is the op on the show and to say that he is doing amazing work is pretty much an understatement. He spent the entire day shooting a 4 minute piece from multiple angles, doing what we all love to do, choreographing relatively on the fly, and doing it flawlessly might I add. I was up in the balcony but had a monitor and it was awesome to watch him work and see what he was framing at the same time. The fact that he wears the rig on the wrong side (goofy foot) is nothing short of amazing to me as I can't fathom how he can control the rig that way (ooh I'm gonna hear it about that). So a huge shout out to Andrew and the rest of the crew and a thanks for making us all look good and elevating the art form even higher. While it was great to get to see Andrew operate, there was a sad aspect to the day as well. Glee is old school and is shot on 35 mm using a Millenium XL (if I recall correctly). As I was watching Andrew float around the stage, turning and winding through the dancers as he felt the shots should play out, i couldn't help but realize how different this scenario would be if they were shooting video. Either he'd be tethered, which would effect his performance to the point of not being able to execute the shots he was doing as well or at all (think dancers surrounding you at all times), or, if untethered, I don't know that he or any other op would have been able to physically get through a 13 hour day of that kind of physical punishment due to the weight of the cameras we are being forced to fly. Sure there are smaller cameras, but if this show were digital it would likely be Genesis or F35 so it would have been an issue. I guess I'm just old school, but it was sad to recognize that this type of shooting may be becoming a rarity. Anyhoo, great work Andrew, it was a pleasure to be able to watch you in action. Dave

+1 to this whole post Dave. 2009 was record box office for the studios, and record TV ratings, but yet they are pulling out all the excuses in the book (mainly the recession and all the jobs running out of LA) to sucker us LA operators down on the rate and rental. They know there is a glutton of Steadi Ops in LA now, and jobs are 60% less than they were in 2004, so they are using the laws of supply and demand to cut down LA operators rates and rentals. Out of town rates/rentals are still pretty good. It's a bummer I turned down 5 shows in the past 7 months to stay in LA with my (then) pregnant wife, and (now) to be with my first born son. But in doing so, I've had to turn down some crappy rates and rental jobs in town too (in one case, a seasoned operator (that you know) took it at $5 above the regular operator and DIT rate, and a rental rate that was 1/3 less than standard weekly rental rate. I also call other ops to verify their rates and rentals before accepting a job. And I encourage other ops to call me if they need to know what I got on a similar studio show. But as long as there are 10x or more the amount of Steadicam Ops in LA with 1/2 or less the amount of work here as there was 6-7 years ago, getting back to the "good ole" rates of 8-10 years ago will be nearly impossible without all these other operators accepting "low ball" rates and undercutting our future negotiating abilities. Congrats on the soon to be. Good to hear! It's a wild ride. Don't exact rates to return to what they were, but there is no reason for them to drop off the cliff either. Thanks for the note.

Follow up: They called back and told me steadicam had been cancelled but Im going in to conventional operate for the day anyway. They back pedaled a fair amount saying they really weren't sure what that deal was and that it may have been that they would rent his gear but only bump him if he pulled it out. I pointed out that he didn't even bring his gear so that probably wasn't it. Bottom line is they were not sure and I don't know if this was a specific ploy or not. We got to the place where I explained how unfair this was to do to an op as it puts us in a position of not knowing whether to call and cancel the night before if we got a "real" gig that wanted to hire us the way we were supposed to. I explained that it protected them as much as it did us and we left it that the idea of as used would not be part of any further equations. So there you have it. Im stealing a case of coke while I'm there though just for the time on the phone this took. That ought to show them.

Just thought I'd throw this out there. I got a call to do B unit on a show with some folks I've worked for for a long time. The loader told me that I should check with production because the last guy made a strange deal. I talked to the UPM and she told me that the deal they had made was standard op rate and if they used the steadicam they would pay $1000 for gear and bump up the rate. I talked to her about how I had never really done anything like that and was surprised that this op (who is a name, not a newby) would make that deal, but she assured me that was the case. I agreed to do the job on those terms because I know the main unit DP and going in there and letting him know what was happening, I was pretty sure it would be the last time it would go down that way as he is the kind of guy who doesn't like abuse of any kind and will, can, and has gone to bat for the crew time and again. So while I wasn't happy about taking this kind of deal, I saw it as a way of stemming the tide. This isn't the case, but when i fill in on a show, I always take the deal the op is getting, assuming i can stomach it, and call it a day as it helps them out to not have any problems with taking a day off, being sick, whatever. But, as a courtesy and for my own two cents, I always check with the op to make sure I'm getting the same deal. So I called the op who made that deal to ask him if it was the case, concerned that I might speak out of turn as I was making $110 and $1000 last year with this same group and was concerned that it had gone down this road. When I talked to him, he verified the numbers as best he could without looking at a paycheck, and when i asked him about the as used deal, he immediately said he hadn't done that and said he never would. In fact, he said he didn't even bring his gear that day and left it home in the garage. Needless to say I was happy to hear that he hadn't done that, but dismayed at what was going on. I emailed the UPM last night and mentioned all this. Told her I was only willing to come in for the day under that dealing since the op had already put it in place, but that wasn't the case. She's calling me but first wants to check with the producer as "he made the deal". So the bottom line is that we all need to band together. It's bad out there and everyone knows they have crews over a barrel. I know people working for half what they used to because they need insurance and times are tight. We all need to do what we need to do but for the sake of our fraternity and the future of our stake in this wacky world of moviemaking, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE communicate and check out what you are being told with other ops. I don't think people are out to screw us, but they will try and get the best deal possible. This case may have been on purpose and may have been innocent, and in reality, it doesn't make a difference which one it is. The salad days may be gone, but that doesn't mean we can't continue to make a good living flying the beast and keeping in touch with one another is the best way to maintain that ability. I'm not talking about price fixing, just checking in to make sure everything is as the say it is. Ok, off to shoot my neighbors kindergarten play on the red. It's not union, but they are paying overtime after 16.5 and I get all the pb&j I can eat. Dave

Amazingly that's exactly where I think the problem was. I took that off and spread a thin layer of teflon grease in there and it seemed to do the trick (at least in the living room, we'll see what happens on set today). Thanks Still meaning to come by set to talk NYC, just swamped.

I just may. I'll let you know. dave

Seriously? i'll give it shot but it sounds like it's coming from the pads? Not sure why it would start after such a long time but i;m game for anything