Jump to content

William Demeritt

Premium Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    1,094

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    64

 Content Type 

Posts posted by William Demeritt

  1. Setting up the Omega AR: by Erik Barone

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    On Facebook, I asked for help setting up the Omega AR for the first time since it doesn't come with a setup manual or any instructions really. Erik was kind enough to write up this brief tutorial, so I'm posting here so it's archived and NOT lost in the sands of time (Facebook).

     

    ============

     

    Ok and I assume you have the 4 stage post?
    The first step is getting the camera's weight as centered as you can in the rings. Which might mean using a riser plate of some sort. I've used the Ikan ELE-LBP. Its not the lightest option but it does the job very well.
    To zero it out take off the drive belt once the camera is mounted in the rings. This will let the rings spin freely.
    Now find the best riser plate height where if you roll the camera left or right 45 or 90 degrees the camera stays put. At a 45 if it drops back to level raise the plate. At a 90 if it rolls over its self and settles upside down lower the plate. It like zeroing a camera out on a jib if you've done that before.
    The drive motors are strong enough if you can't fully zero out the camera but the closer you can zero out the weight the better the system will work. Once the camera is good in the rings mount it to the stage.
    Oh and put the drive belt back on.
    Now its time to set up the rest of the rig.
    I would first say run the top stage of the post all the way up. This will give the rings clearance from the arm and your body when operating.
    From there its finding the best adjustment of the bottom two post stages that gives you the clearance you need from the arm. You're probably gonna end up with total rig length in the 6 1/2 to 7 foot range.
    You also want to move your monitor mount post clamp to right under(or as close as you can get it) your gimbal handle. Doing this keeps the monitor centered to your body when operating and not a foot or so out of your center line where you're straining to see the screen. Plus it keeps the weight of the monitor from having a negative effect on the rig when doing big low to high move shots.
    The thing the is a PIA with your monitor mount right there is you have to move it when adjusting your gimbal for drop time. Which brings us to drop time.
    Unlike normal set ups you want to have the rig in almost zero balance. Meaning if you put the post horizontal drifts ever so slowly to vertical there.
    Crap I'm getting ahead of myself.
    Before you go to do horizontal you should power up the Head.
    Switch rig to 24v volt. Power/Boot Button and the LEDs on side of head should light up Red. Press and hold for a few seconds Side LEDs will go Green and PWR/Boot button will highlight blue.
    Hopefully your camera is close to level. If do tap PWR/Boot button to set the "Level" point. The AR/Omega should be active at this point. You can test this by slightly rocking the rig side to side while in the dock. You should see the rings roll to level accordingly.
    If its work now put the rig in the balancing pin to set drop or in this case "near" drop time.
    Man I hope I'm not confusing you.
    Once you have that near drop time to your liking have at it. If you find the camera is out of level simply tap PWR/Boot button to deactivate system put the get the camera to level by rotating the post up or down. Once you get it level tap PWR/Boot again and presto you re-set your system's leveling point.
    I hope this very abridged Cliff notes version of Omega/AR helps. It really is a fun rig to operate.
    If you need more assistance with set up you could also reach out to Dean Lester Hall who could point you in the right direction.
    Good luck.
    • Upvote 1

  2. Were you ever in a situation where you said "No" ?

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Years ago, I showed up to a low budget job. Before loading into the space, the production had a letter from the stage owner that they wanted me to sign, I believe it was a waiver of liability or hold harmless for the stage. Long story short, I didn't sign it, refused to set foot on the stage, and I wound up leaving.

     

    Important part of this story: when I told them I wouldn't sign it, the person replied, "But everyone else has signed it."

     

    Safety starts with me (and you and you and you). Just because everyone else developed the same blind spot to the same potential threat or danger does NOT mean you should too. Just like in Jess' story, go speak to the person in charge so you know exactly what's going on, and don't accept "everyone else is going along with this" as a viable reason for you to participate.

     

    Also, I highly recommend learning about guns. Lots of gun owners, gun enthusiasts on this forum and in our community, and we camera people wind up around a lot of guns loaded with blanks of various types and sizes. Safety Pass program doesn't have a firearms awareness class (for some stupid reason), so just ask another gun owner to educate you about firearms. You may not overnight become an NRA member, but you will know what you're looking at when the gun wrangler shows you what they're using on set.

  6. Taveling with Gear

    in Cases/Carts/Stands and Transport

    Posted

    Right now, I've got 3 cases

     

    Case A (Pelican 1650, newer): <50lbs, carries sled, dock, monitor.

    Case B (Storm iM2950): 54lbs, carries vest, arm, AKS, a hammock, excess gak.

    Case C (Pelican 1650, OLD STYLE): 70lbs, carries batteries, power cables, BNC, chargers, etc.

     

    I'm pretty sure the old Pelican 1650 (Case C) itself is excessively heavy, probably going to swap it for another iM2950 (which seems to feel like the lightest case).

     

    Another question: so you're out of town, and sometimes you have to move cases from point A to point B, manually. Do you have them set up to roll? Does anyone travel with something like a Rock-n-Roller Maxi cart? Something that collapses down and fits inside the cases, but then can be busted out to carry the cases? I'm in Puerto Rico right now, and we traveled to a remote beach that had me pulling/carrying cases more than I prefer. It's probably a unique situation, but one that I'd love to avoid in the future.

  13. using LLC on union show, do i get hours?

    in Legal / Business Practices

    Posted

    Here's the Cliff's Notes I've come up with so far:

     

    • Longer show, W2 for hours and loanout for gear
    • Shorter show/gig, oanout for both hours and gear.
    • The union has no objection to doing loanout, so long as the hours are reported to IA.
    • Time cards have a loanout and personal social security number.
    • NEW: If you're the owner/operator of your corporation, you can file an exemption with the state that you don't need to carry Workman's Comp insurance.
    • If a show says they can't do loanout, it's not because of the union. Most likely, their workman's comp requires each employee and their hours be reported so the production company can pay the workman's comp insurance premium based on the number of workers and the worker's hours.
    • I worked a show that tried to counter with the workman's comp insurance issue, I told them the corp was exempt because it's just me, and they let me do the loanout. Not union, but still worked.
    • Some studios don't allow for loanouts except for department heads, which makes sense because a lighting director might have his guys on a show, so they have workman's comp insurance through his corp. Production still pays hours to IA through payroll and pays the employee directly while reporting earnings through the corp.

    The item about the workman's comp insurance exemption was told to me by an insurance vendor who normally does provide workman's comp insurance. Basically, if the loanout is simply you (so you have no employees), you file this form:

     

    http://www.cslb.ca.gov/Resources/FormsAndApplications/ExemptionFromWorkersCompensation.pdf

     

    Hopefully that helps us out!

    • Upvote 1

  14. Veteran op now DP

    in Off Topic

    Posted

    I'm seeing a lot of old Steadi friends getting days, double-ups and whole episodes to shoot of late, which is great...Doc Karman and Rich Davis come to mind. Who else has been getting a shot at it, or moving/moved up lately? Post away!

    How's your Lisigav import business?

  16. Paralinx fried by Alexa

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Sorry, I didn't mean to confuse the issue, my showing those videos weren't to imply anything about the CineLive. In our testing, I remember we found a loop on the SDI ground, which sounds like the similar issue to Matias' setup.

     

    I'm pretty sure it works like this:

     

    ALEXA powered by 12V onboard

    Video device powered 12V off the onboard PTAP

    Video device connected to ALEXA via the SDI plug

     

    Connect 24V power cable to Alexa, and the SDI line backfeeds 12V over the SDI ground. Unprotected devices get damaged. I need to ask some of my electrician friends, but I think it has something to do with voltage differential in a system that has 2 power supplies in 2 different voltage without a common ground. The 24v power supply has it's own 24v power and ground, and the Video device has a separate 12v power and ground (the onboard 12v battery).

     

    Safest method: power Video device from ALEXA 2-pin power cable through the body. I think the video manufacturers have been building in protections for this now, but I'm not entirely sure.

  17. Paralinx fried by Alexa

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    I don't think we ever got a real, reliable explanation, but Brian Freesh and I were able to recreate something VERY similar with a CineLive sled and killing a Teradek Bolt.

     

     

    I believe this has to do with the Alexa having a common ground for the SDI video and power system of the Alexa? Not entirely sure, I'm thinking an engineer can explain. However, the issue always seems to have these characteristics: camera powered in 24v mode, video device powered by 12v battery (either within the 24v series or 12v battery outside), and the video device connected via SDI. Here's a video illustrating the SDI grounding carrying power.

     

     

    Basically, any devices that aren't protected from voltage over the SDI ground (chassis) get damaged. It fried a Teradek Bolt, apparently fried your Paralinx Arrow X (assuming it's the SDI model), and a protection in the BlackMagic Hyperdeck Shuttle caused the battery to trip but the device didn't get fried.

     

    I'm not sure if this brings you any closer to a definite answer. I think perhaps the newer devices have protection on the SDI ground, but I'm not positive. I haven't killed my IDX CW-3 yet, and I'm fairly certain I've powered it from a 12v source while the camera was in 24v off my sled (either from a battery in parallel OR from a separate battery [MON line] while camera gets 24v from CAM and AUX).

  19. Anybody has experience with the WHM-BG Artificial Horizon Modules

    in Monitors

    Posted

    I have one of these, and it generally worked well for me. One issue I did have was that during quick movements (hard whip pans, or fast FAST movements), the calibration would go out mid shot and lock to the far left or far right. You'd have to wait a few moments for it to realize it was at horizon, or just recalibrate between shots. Great for an external horizon if your monitor doesn't do it, but I found myself distracted by the inconsistency on occasion. Granted, I never sent it back to the factory for repair or anything. Steve Wagner did message me to say that it's a balance between the sensors, so I think it's probably something that exists in all gyro-compensated digital levels.

  22. using LLC on union show, do i get hours?

    in Legal / Business Practices

    Posted

    I'm working on a show at Warner Bros right now, and was told that WB doesn't allow for rate to run through Loanout ever, so I've been doing similar to what everyone here is suggesting: rate through timecard, rentals through the corporation.

     

    However, I did email Barbara Jerome regarding IATSE's policy regarding the use of loanouts for rate as well as rental, just trying to understand why WB would have the police they do. The accounting dept of my show indicated it was a union policy not to allow loanout, but when I emailed Barbara, I got this response:

     

     

    Hi William,

     

    It is not a union rule. It is a WB policy. We have no issue with you being compensated through your loanout as long as you submit a time card and get your benefits via WB.

     

    Best,

     

    Barbara Jerome

     

    Perhaps I am extrapolating too much from that, and I've done a few promos and music videos that were IA through my corporation (one was entirely payroll, the other was payroll for rate and invoiced for rental), so I need to find out if everything worked as I imagined. However, I figured that indicating I was using the loanout for the hours worked, and on the time card I had to give my social security number AND the Federal tax number, I figured that the social was used to report benefits paid to the union on my behalf and the Federal Tax number was for reporting the income.

     

    I need to call around tomorrow to verify that the hours from those jobs were reported on my benefits, but that's how I figured it worked. SSN for the benefits to be paid, and the Federal Tax number for all income paid to my corp.

     

    In my research regarding Workman's Comp (at least in California), most workman's comp (and workman's comp insurance) passes through the loanout to the individual working on the production. So, if I am working for a production, I am covered by their workman's comp policies as a pass through to me, individually, not the loanout corp. SOME workman's comp policies specifically do NOT pass through (perhaps they're cheaper? or have been used for fraud before?). I've worked for one company that specifically cited their workman's comp as a reason I couldn't use my corp.

     

    Anyway, considering I'm not an accountant and still getting my feet wet with the use of my corporation, I'm still learning, so don't bet the farm on my advice. However, I took Barbara's response to mean the unions have no problems with us using loanouts for the rate, so long as the benefits contributions are still made in our name (hence why your social security number should be on the timecards even when using the loanout). I've crossed out the W4 exemptions sheet on a few union gigs, ran it all through my corp and nobody seemed to have any issue. Of course, I'll be irked if my benefit hours aren't there... will report back when I know more.

    • Upvote 1

  24. cinetronics digital level

    in Monitors

    Posted

    The Cinetronics Digital Level is incompatible with other monitors much in the same way that computer hardware isn't always compatible with operating systems or specific software. The level is not open source, it doesn't use any standard data for the monitor to interpret and then display on screen. The interaction between the hardware within the CDL and the software running the Gen 2 monitor is specific to the Gen 2 monitor only. The CDL is just an IMU inside the case; the monitor is what interprets the data the IMU is spitting out.

  25. Transvideo CineMonitor HD X-SBL

    in Monitors

    Posted

    Here's something fun I discovered about my HD6 X-SBL: the tally light works with the HD-SDI record flag! On most cameras, you can turn on the "Record Flag" over HD-SDI, and if you enable the monitor to detect, the red light tally and on-screen tally displays will trigger. Gives a little bit of extra confidence when you roll the camera to make sure you're still rolling.

    • Upvote 1
×
×
  • Create New...