Ed Moore

The one coming up to the stack of TVs is definitely a zoom as you can see the perspective of the hills in the background change quite a lot. But I wouldn't be at all surprised to find Charles is right and they've stabilised some of this, especially the lock offs at each end which are just phenomenal if they were done by hand. Couldn't find a contact anywhere for George but I've emailed the DIT to see if we can get some behind the scenes info.

Yep you're right Jess, I should have said "the problem is... they STILL produce CO2", not that they produce the same amount. As you say, the amount they produce is highly dependent on a number of factors. But even in the case of the Tesla it's still about 75%, plus you have a large battery that needs replacing every so often. As for the emissions, it's definitely nicer in the short term (this is one of the reasons London makes zero-emission vehicles exempt from the congestion charge that's levied on all other traffic in the centre of the city) but in the medium to long term the atmosphere doesn't care where the greenhouse gases are originating, only that they are. The 'safe level' is now considered to be 350 parts of CO2 per million (http://arxiv.org/abs/0804.1126). Many estimates already put us past this point.

Thanks Erwin that looks pretty sweet :) Trouble with electric cars is they produce the same amount of CO2, it just comes out of some power station somewhere rather than the exhaust. How about something like this new VW, due in 2010, that gets 235 MPG? Okay, so it's a bit cramped but I'm sure I could rig something up in the back. Might have to pass on the magliner. On the other hand, maybe I could use the car AS the magliner... :) http://www.greencar.com/articles/volkswage...iciency-car.php

Don't think this has been posted before. Never seen this until an old friend who's now a cocktail designer (!) sent me a link saying "this combines my interests and yours". Brilliant operating I thought - the lockoffs at each end are astounding to me. And the timings of Robert Carlisle getting to each prop at the right point in the dialogue must have taken a serious amount of rehearsal. For the speed they're going and the length of the run I'd say this pretty much has to be vehicle mounted in some way. There's also two grips in the credits. There's no steadicam credit but as the DoP is listed as George Richmond I'd say it's pretty certain it's the same George (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0725104/maindetails) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BD_5ZPLujsQ&fmt=18

That's kind of my point; all the progress in engine efficiency from then until now has been used to do more - carry more weight, go faster, run air conditioning and all the power hungry features now standard in most vehicles - rather than actually *save* fuel. As Erwin points out, fuel is more expensive over here with my car costing about £70 to fill (it's a 60 litre / 15 US gallon tank), so about $111 at today's rates. I don't know exactly how much it costs to fill up in the States but I know it's a lot less. That said, if it *did* cost you $111 to fill up, I bet you'd still pay it. I bet you'd still pay it if it was $300. Not because you are somehow evil, far from it, but that fuel usage is actually inelastic, in that in the West we've built our infrastructure and based the way we live on being able to drive everywhere. If you live in the country, have a load of equipment to get to set, then you *have* to drive there because there's no alternative. It's the alternatives we need to be working on, because rising fuel costs alone aren't going to stop anyone driving.

Couple more fun enviro-facts for you... The Model T Ford, first produced in 1908, averaged 17mpg. So that's a massive leap forward in progress to some of the fuel consumption figures given in this thread. Not. (Many, many sources: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&saf...p;oq=&aqi=) Biofuel produces *more* CO2 in its lifespan than fossil fuels, due to the massive carbon cost of producing it in the first place. Grassland and forest alike are burned in order to make room for biofuel production. It's also hideously unfair on poorer countries, who rush to start their own deforestation efforts so they can meet the US and Europe's demand for biofuel. We end up with all of the benefit and they end up with the carbon cost chalked up to them. (Sources: http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/News/200...ry/07020802.asp, http://www.monbiot.com/archives/2005/12/06...an-fossil-fuel/ http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2007...techange.energy, many others) I'm not trying to lecture anyone here. But it's of great concern to me that these issues seem to be completely off the radar in this discussion.

Guessing you're not going to be queuing up to watch http://www.ageofstupid.net/video/trailer then!

I'm staggered by the fuel consumption figures that everyone seems to be proud of in here... I have a VW Passat diesel estate which is more than big enough for all my equipment, folded magliner etc and I easily get 40 mpg on motorways at 70mph, and if I trundle along at 50-60mph I can get that down to 50mpg - that's US gallons, not UK. Is it just not possible to buy vehicles with sane fuel consumption in the US?

I've done a load of filming for Modec, who in the UK (and soon to be US) make fantastic all-electric delivery vehicles. Range of 100 miles at 50mph. Loading weight 2 tonnes. Lithium-ion batteries. In the UK they are road tax and congestion charge exempt which is a big saving around London. They're also, I think, a really awesome design with insanely good visibility, and some really cool options on the loadspace (like, you can have a sort of open "corridor" immediately behind the cab so you get out of the cab through a sliding door in the rear wall then can walk to whatever side the kerb happens to be at; or use the corridor as a back route into the load space through a second sliding door without opening the back). Unnecessarily big for steadicam really, but everytime I'm filming with them it strikes me what a great film unit vehicle it would be. Especially as there's usually 3-phase power available on set for recharging. http://www.modeczev.com/images_and_videos.asp E

I was saying to Imran at the Broadcast Show that it would awesome to not only integrate an iPhone as a video recorder, but loop the monitor video through it so you can get a popup notification on screen for incoming calls from prospective clients :) Might also be able to use the iPhone's motion sensor to have an on-screen display of "cost per shot" based on Ted Churchill's criteria...

Note that this is the preproduction model made out of lower grade aluminum. The final version will be anodized. We were thinking a nice blue to match the Tiffen low mode / F bracket kit :)

Yes, that's absolutely correct. And you have two options on where you connect that BNC on the back of the monitor depending on whether you want to send framelines to the transmitter or not.

Yes, it carries both. The pin out is: 1- Power Gnd 2- Video Gnd 3- Video 4- +12V

Hi Matteo, The issue with that is that the multipin (I think it's a 6 pin Lemo) that goes into the back of the Archer standard monitor carries 12V power, video signal and the tally light signal. So in order for it to show any video at all, that connector has to be in (for ages I thought the single BNC on its own was the video input but in fact that's wired to the 4 pin Hirose on the stage for use with video transmistters). The monitor does have a XLR4 that can be used to power the monitor, but if we were to make a cable that ran from the new battery plate to the XLR4 input, you would still need the 6 pin Lemo connected as well for video, so you'd effectively be paralleling the two batteries together again anyway. If you were absolutely sure that you never wanted to be able to power the monitor from the normal sled power though, you could do a little simple surgery in the back of the monitor and snip out the 12V from the incoming 6 pin Lemo. However as that's not something you could change back in a hurry, it could lead to unforeseen irritations in the future! E

The panel connectors look a bit like this, only we're going to use 2 pin versionsL http://www.lemo.com/img/Illustrations/b/models/ee.jpg. Adding one of these to your existing plate would be something you would have to do yourself, but there is space to do it. I'm sure Pete will take some photos when he's doing mine.

The plate will be the same but attached to the clamp as Pete says. The battery will hang under the rods (although you could easily put on the other way if you'd prefer the battery to be above them). The other difference is the plate you linked to has a flyaway lead permanently on it - we are using panel connectors on each plate so you can completely remove the cable if you want.

Quick note on power: after some deliberation, Pete and I decided to parallel in the new battery plate to the old one just by adding a 2 pin B sized Lemo panel connector to the back of each battery plate (there is just enough room in the back of the existing Archer plate to allow this), and then I can just add a cable between them as needed. We talked with a technical guy at IDX about the issue someone suggested further up about one battery charging the other and he didn't seem to think it would be an issue. Personally, as long as it allows me to effectively hot swap batteries on RED shoots without waiting for the camera to boot up, any additional power capacity on top of that is a bonus rather than a necessity. Ed

Oh, it appears that Ed is still logged into the forum on my laptop. Oops.

Got a quick update... Ed came down today with his rig and we measured it up and designed the mount. Took it to the machine shop (after lunch obviously) and its being cut out tomorrow or Monday, so should have it back fairly soon. It holds one V lock battery under the lower rods and it has one 2pin Lemo connector which will provide power. Will post some photos when I get it, but Ed took some photos that im sure he will post up somewhere... Pete.

That's assuming it wasn't a case of the AC also wanting some of the glory of sprinting around the stage :)

Unbelievable. Zero fear. I wonder how many times he had to do it at quarter speed to build up the balls to do it like that! Not only is the "dismount" insanely good, the zoom that follows and the operating throughout is extremely good. Wow.

Hmm.. on my G50 I usually have the iso nearly all the way up for a very neutral arm and then lift until the arms are horizontal. Hadn't considered having wildly different amounts of each on each section. That said, I've still got a tiny bit of stepping visible in my shots which drives me mad, so perhaps I need to spend more time experimenting with the arm settings.

Hi Matteo - I'm assuming the P-tap (I think P-tap is the actual trademark, but people call it D tap because it looks like a D and sounds similar enough to get confused) connector is just wired straight to the battery contacts and therefore the entire sled 'ring main', so theoretically wiring a second battery plate into the first via that P-tap connector should have the effect of adding another battery in parallel to the first.

Will probably be Wednesday, got meetings tomorrow.

Crikey Pete, I really better come visit you now, seems like everyone wants one! I think the design definitely needs to account for the rods being bent slightly differently on every Archer. Mine are certainly a tiny bit wonky (they can be tough to slide through the slidey-through bit on occasion) - I think this happened because a grip took the sled off me at the end of a long take then rested the whole weight of it on the lower spar: curses. Power integration is something I think definitely needs working in, but the simplest version would be to wire in a flying P-tap lead from the existing Archer battery plate (irritatingly it doesn't have a P-tap connector already, Tiffen probably saved a whole £2 per sled with that decision) and just connect it to the P-tap on the new plate we're adding. So we're effectively paralleling in the new battery into the sled supply. I think 12/24 is probably a level of complication too far at this point, especially considering it would require running a new power line up the post so there would still be 12V available for accessories.