Lawrence Karman

While this is unrelated to Charles' post I just had to post it somewhere. Pretty funny and related to the film business:

Hey Ron, it looks like the poor bastards on the Titan would take the brunt of the hit before the plane got to you. At least you could dive out of the way.

When I see crap like that in a deal memo I cross it out and initial it. Never seen that, but when I see the language relating to the company not being responsible for loss or damage to my gear I cross it out. I have never been rebuked for it later. In the end I believe it is up to a judge to sort things out, no matter what the paperwork says. What you really should do is contact local 600 and talk to them about your contract. Try to organize the show and get the producers to sign a union contract. Then you won't be at risk. The union will come down, hand out cards for all the crew to sign and if they receive a majority, they will speak to your producers as your representative and attempt to get a fair contract. This is the means to gain a unified voice, as Iggy was saying. You could also maintain a personal disability insurance policy if you continue to work on risky projects without a union contract and sign BS like that.

We like to think of it as a positive view. The worst part is she finished off MY single malt. Thanks Charles, I'll be here all week.

Goddamn-it this is absolutely the last time I get an AC recommendation from Ron Baldwin: http://www.steadicamforum.com/forums/style...e_types/gif.gif

A couple of the drawings I took from user manuals and the rest I drew in Adobe Illustrator. I posted the same report on the Red user forum. Already, a few people have responded stating they've experienced the exact same issue. I imagine the Red folks will see it sooner or later. Hopefully they'll take good note. I tend to believe it is more a Red problem rather than IDX, as one of the companies has proven itself to be reliable for years, and one is struggling with a number of growing pains with a new product. So you don't think IDX makes those batteries for Red? Or the problem is with the battery cage which Red does make?

Ahh the beautiful Cypress Rhodes University campus. Where did you purchase the Hummingbird?

I too saw nothing at Cinegear that was helpful as far as monitors go. But let me ask this: if none of those small monitors are truly HD, just a scaled down version of it, then am I better off investing in a low priced down-converter and continuing to use my green screen or NTSC LCD's rather than spending far more on an expensive "HD" LCD with limited viewing angle?

Nice drawings Afton. How'd you do that? I hope you forwarded that to technical support at Red (www.red.com) or IDX (www.idx.tv)

Had a day call once where the DIT had a framing chart on tape (Sony 950 camera). He popped it in and I set my TB-6 framelines with it. Might be useful to carry on on a Compact Flash card or a similar tape in our kits. Maybe on the on-board recorder? Would that work?

Does the playback feed directly to your monitor? And what monitor are you using?

Had a chance to fly the RED finally. No problems to report. Fairly light in weight. Biggest drag was having to input sound. I made some very, very thin 3 pin XLR jumpers for sound. That worked really well. I ran the camera/hard drive/down converter/Preston/Red monitor/TB-6 monitor/Modulus for at least 1 hour straight off 2 Dionic 90 batteries and had plenty of juice to spare. Just velcroed the hard drive to the cheese plate on top to eliminate the hard drive/battery bracket.

I believe you can remove one of the PL mount dog-ears. Is it not held in place by two small screws? This should make room for the M1 gear.

Got a RED power cable from Terry West that uses Camera power and Aux plugs on the PRO. You power the camera with 2 batteries and it allows you to hot swap batteries when they are down. This means never having to power down the camera for battery changes and avoid the 90 second reboot. Although without standard film mag reloads that 90 seconds is a welcome rest stop.

It uses a FFA.1S Lemo. Pin 1 +24v Pin 2 gnd. This is a split hermaphrodite plug. NOT the same as the Arri 535/435 plug. It is the same plug that fits in your AUX output on the PRO top stage.

Well done, Erwin. If this has happened at least 2 times that we know of a redesign is in order. Be prepared to shell out more hard earned $. I would like to recant my previous post with apologies to the good folks at PRO. In a recent review of the PRO web site I noticed that the PRO arm chassis is warranted for life. That is why there would be no charge for replacement.

Thanks Robert. So for sure the RED can now output 720 SDI and also it's monitor at the same time? (I know it seems silly to even have to ask that question)

I haven't been booked yet but I might have a shoot this weekend or Monday with a RED camera and I am thinking of renting a daylight viewable 7 or 8 inch HD monitor to go on my PRO rig (need PRO compatable power input.or P-Tap). Anybody have one available? I'm in LA. Email me at lkarman@mac.com

I was shown a prototype drive mount at Element that had rubber feet which acts as a shock mount. It was made to mount to the side of the camera which would orient the drive parallel to the side of the camera (and help offset the weight of the quite heavy EVF) Perhaps this orientation would help. They will show this at Cinegear.

I had nothing but problems with this company years ago and learned my lesson. I posted about my experiences on this board and got flamed from Ron for it. He didn't merit any kind of response. I am saddened to see he is up to his old tricks and sorry you've experienced this kind of crap. My advise is to buy some fine new batteries from a reputable company like AB. I've replaced the Rathbone recells which barely lasted a year with AB Dioniics and could not be happier.

Took a trip over to Element Technica yesterday and picked up a few parts for the RED. One thing to note is that the cheese plate needs to be attached to 2 rod brackets that sit on top of the camera and bolt on from the side. Without these brackets (either the 19mm RED issue ones or the 15mm or 19mm ones made by ET the cheese plate will do you no good. I say this because if you purchase just the plate w/o the brackets you may arrive on the job to find that the camera may only have the bottom dovetail plate and not these necessary brackets, rendering your investment useless. The viewfinder bracket they make is awesome, BTW.

It's a common practice for non-steadicam rentals. You have to ask yourself if half a rental is better than no rental at all. The AC can probably get a Preston from someone else with the same deal.

Not sure exactly what you are doing but you might want to loosen your right hand hold on the gimbal and try to let the arm "float' a bit more. Concentrate on removing your body's influence on the sled position by letting your steadicam arm do it's job.

Here is a source for fiber cable: www.fiberopticcableshop.com 800 777-6269 Cable #: FC-STST-MB6-15meter These were the 50' cables used. I'm sure you can get it in any length.

Eric is right as usual, 2 pairs needed. I will try and find a source from the guys I worked with. I know it was really cheap. The beauty of that system is the deck can sit on the DIT's cart or an apple box a hundred feet away reducing the thundering herd behind you.