Sanjay Sami

I just had a day of prep with the Alexa XT and the Arricam LT with Hawk Anamorphics lenses. The movie is shooting with film primarily and some sequences - night exteriors - will be shot Alexa. I was surprised by how light the Alexa XT is. It is substantially lighter than the LT - which is kind of light anyway. I had to dial down the arm a lot to get it right for the Alexa. I always thought the two cameras were close in weight.

Ron Baldwin, you said it before me !

Thank you :-)

The outer diameter of the tube it fits is 48mm (conforming to the speed rail Inch and a Half size)

Ariel, the U-bolts should be really easy to have made at any fabricators.

Very nice ! I am guessing this isn't bright enough to be a monitor on steadicam ?

Has anyone used this as a directors monitor ? The inbuilt recording is a cool idea. Are there any Steadicam monitors that offer this ? Would be super convenient to eliminate a separate onboard recorder.

I think I would have been just one of the many extras on set that day. Pretty weird feeling. Should have asked for the trailer.

A couple of days ago I was booked on a commercial. I arrived there and kitted up with a Red Epic - first time for me - and was told by the 1st AD that I was to be in the commercial. It was a set of a talk show, with a host etc and I was supposed to circle around and they would shoot the scene from another camera. They had no plans to use any of the footage that I shot. In fact my camera would not even roll. I was quite taken aback, but complied and did the shoot. They had also rented a Chapman Hybrid MK3, an Oconnor 2575C, Lambda Head, Ronford Slider and some other stuff from me, so I wasn't complaining. But it felt vaguely unsettling, and I was wondering if anyone else had this happen to them. Also, do you bill as an op ? or an actor ? Bewildered.

Ah ... that makes sense Charles. I have also always thought it was Cloroplast. I thought it was a brand name :-)

Lawrence - I like your idea of the chloroplast and zip ties. I will try that for sure, although I use a 1/4-20 to 5/8-16 adaptor into the Alexa handle right now. I bought the Teradek Bolt Pro, but kind of wish I had waited and got the 2000. The Pro works fine though.

Olli The seller is Brooks Robinson and I just saw that its been sold.

Olli, someone is selling one. Exactly in the config you need. I thought it was posted here, but it maybe on the Facebook page.

Axel, I have cut and pasted an old letter I received from Larry here: http://www.steadicamforum.com/index.php?showtopic=88&page=4 This was before the readymade X gyros were available, so I am not sure this will answer anything, but it may help.

I have had great experiences with them as well. Great products.Very robust and great service after you buy their product as well.

I recently had the opportunity to use the new MK-V Nexus 4 and it really was fantastic. I also used a PRO for a week on "The Grand Budapest Hotel" and a Steadicam Ultra 2 for the rest of it. They are all fantastic rigs. They feel very different from each other, but I think thats a matter of taste. As someone who also pushes Dolly, I feel the debate is similar to the Fisher 10 vs Chapman Hustler one. The one thing I can say for sure is that my operating is equally bad with all three, so the sleds (and gimbals) are innocent.

I would like some advice. I have a website that I put up almost 10 years ago and was designed and hosted by an internet company here in Bombay, India. http://www.thegripworks.com/equipment-list.html It has not really been updated since, barring the adding of movies - with spelling mistakes - that I (and 2 other Key Grips who work with my company) have done in the years since. I now want to do this properly, and have actually looked at the website and realised its an absolute mess. I don't know where to begin. I have started the projects page with the movies I started with as a Key Grip in 2000. Before that (since 1991) I did mostly commercials as a Key Grip and was a dolly grip, asst grip on movies - so i didn't include any of these credits. What in your opinion should I keep, lose or add? What works and what is awful ? Please be as brutal as you feel necessary :-) Thanks Sanjay Sami

No one is strong enough to stop a tiger. What Jens said.

We had a similar incident in India, where the director placed a trainee AD on the tracks with a walkie talkie to inform him when the train came round the corner so he could roll camera. She was standing in the gap between two sets of tracks, while she was looking one way, she didn't see the train that came the other way. She was hit and killed immediately. The Director spent 3 months in Jail, and the producer is a wanted man, who fled the country. The authorities need to make sure that they find the source of this accident and the punishment that follows should be appropriate. The condolence form letters issued by production mean nothing. I have been on film sets where crew has been killed / grievously injured and after a few days of mourning and feeling outraged, everything goes back to business as usual.

I have now been using the Exovest for just over a week now. As a background, I have used the 3A vest, the Ultra 2 vest and the PRO vest before this one. I liked the PRO the best of the 3. It fit me the best. I tried the Walter Klassen back mounted vest and it didn't feel right. That is not a fair assessment, because it was not fitted for me. It was Larry McConkey's vest, and the 2 of us are not the same size ... so thats still a question mark. The first thing I will say about the Exovest, and the thing I noticed above everything else, was how comfortable it is. The resistance to the load just wasn't there. It just felt that the load went straight into my legs. I felt little to no effort in my shoulders, where the resistance work is supposed to shift, and nothing in my lower back. It could be that this vest plays to my strengths, as a Grip of 23 years and a Rugby player of 30 years, your shoulders and upper back get used to a lot of work, but I can only speak to my own experience, and this vest feels like it was made for me. I also appreciate the lack of squeeze on my ribcage and abdomen. It translates to a lot less fatigue at the end of a working day. I am very pleased with it so far.

Send a few Grips and Riggers to lurk outside the Production Managers house after dark. That works in India. Legal notices get chucked straight into the dustbin.

What Drop time does Prof Drop advocate ? Sorry :P

That is a TERRIBLE gimbal ! It defeats the purpose if you can pan your sled with the gimbal handle.

Mikhail, by and large you will find DoP's and Directors will be far more bothered about framing issues than about footsteps. A lot of directors will not notice footsteps, but will certainly notice a vague meandering shot that has no mission. Headroom and how you position actors and objects in frame is very important. This is not easily explained on the internet. Usually it comes fom years of working on set and observing how its done - apprenticeship - as a camera assistant, dolly grip etc. Now a lot of people without that background buy rigs and start operating, so the delivery method of that knowledge gets bypassed. I would recommend watching movies with the sound off, so you can look specifically for the subtleties in framing. Hope that helps Good luck Sanjay

Fantastic ! thanks for sharing .