Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Putting Back on the Tool Belt- The Aftermath

It wasn't as bad as it could have been. The best part was, I couldn't find the belt to go with my tool pouch so I found one of my wife's old belts (a rather girly camo number that goes great with designer jeans) and wore that. The first thing I told the Best Boy was, "No, this ain't my sister's belt, it's my wife's."
It was kind of fun to work the set again. It was just plain old nuts and bolts series shooting, like they've done for 50 years. Some other guy was tied to the dolly all night, so I set flags, carried sandbags, built 12x's, and sat by the carts. We started with 5 guys (one of them being a "permit") . But by lunch, two of them disappeared (I don't know where and didn't ask) so me and a buddy pretty much hauled ass after that for the rest of the night. We laid 100' of track and all I did was throw out wedges. That part was strange. The Key said they had more days coming up and to leave my number, but I don't think I want to do that on a regular basis. I'm too damn tired. I'm sick of getting laughed at because of my belt anyway.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

can you post some pics of the new ensemble you were wearing?

just curious...

Anonymous said...

i know this is off the topic but my monitor kacked out today.ive been on the internet checking out what is out there but i'd like to know what are you guys using out there.any suggestions on where to go and what to get

The Grip Works said...

I use a transvideo rainbow with reciever. I set a transmitter on the directors monitor (takes an output from the monitor) and the monitor has a PAG battery pack. It is truly cordless and mobile, and can be rigged to the dolly or crane weight bucket by way of Israeli Arm/ Magic arm, and the grip department is self sufficient for video tap.

Azurgrip said...

It depends on just how high tech you want to get and how much you want to spend (also depends on where you are with the availability of product).

Cheapest way is buying a cheap LCD tv with a tuner built in, but it's crap shot with the brightness of image and it also depends on how good the transmitter it.

I personally prefer to have a hard wired image whenever I can. I've found a middle of road solution by using a Boland monitor (that's been upgraded to 9v to 30v so I can use my DeWalt batteries). But it's still a big investment at upwards of $800.00, but easier on the bank than a 4 to 5000 dollar TransVideo that Grip Works is using.

Because my monitor doesn't have a tuner, I had to buy a seperate one from NebTek, so that's another thing to take into consideration onto of how you're going to power your system (batteries? etc).

I m happy to get into it further. You might also want to check into the history here at Dollygrippery as you might find some more suggestions.

D said...

Azurgrip actually wrote a post a while back just about this subject. I don't have an answer because I don't own one (if I need one for a particular shot I get it from video assist) A camera operator on my last show almost changed my mind, though. He showed me one he had just bought for around $250.00 that had a beautiful picture and a memory built in that you could play back the last take on. I can't remember the maker but it was a French company. I'll see if I can get in touch with him and get details.

Anonymous said...

I used to have a consumer lcd receiver with transmitter but it broke down and does not get manufactured anymore. Nowadays I prefer to have a hardwired image as well; The transmitters can have a delay from 0,5 seconds up till 2 seconds which makes it impossible to operate a dolly or crane!
I do own a Nebtek with an israeli-arm(?). It has its own adaption to be powered by Canon batteries. As less wires as possible!

Good Luck, Onno

The Grip Works said...

Try the Titan transmitter from transvideo - no delay that is discernable from a hard wire. I hate hard wire running to the weight bucket.

Anonymous said...

Ha, looking at the specs of the Titan: not allowed in Holland :-(