For nine years J.L. Fisher has opened their doors to the public for a day of gear, seminars, and food with great success. We’ve dropped in for the last five and this year was no different – we saw a lot of friendly faces including cinematographers Rob McLachlan and John Simmons, Local 600 President Steven Poster, and many others. If the name J.L. Fisher doesn’t ring a bell, they specialize in camera dollies and track, audio booms, and massive jib arms and crossarms for film. They’re probably widely-known for their Model 10 dolly, and if you’re ever able to make it out to their Burbank, California facility, they’d let you try one out rigged with the latest in camera technology. Besides the tons of J.L Fisher gear you could familiarize yourself with, thirty or so vendors came to showcase their own products – ARRI, Panasonic, Mole-Richardson, K5600, Backstage Equipment, AbelCine, Band Pro, Hot Gear, ZGC, Radiant Images, and more. If you weren’t able to make it, here’s twelve things you missed:
Moving Camera Seminar
The SOC, Local 600 (camera), and Local 80 (grip) put together an educational Q&A workshop focusing on the relationship between the cinematographer and camera and grip departments on set. Six different members of the two unions took stage, moderated by Hugh Litfin. After introductions, Litfin asked them various workflow questions and set responsibilities. As it turns out, all of them have different experiences and ways in how “they” do things, but echoed the fact that once you do become part of a team (whether it be 1st AC, 2nd AC, dolly grip, etc) you tend to always work with the same people and become a family.
Grip Trix Tracker XL Electric Camera Dolly
Looking for a new ride or maybe a dolly system with a little more speed? The Tracker XL might be your answer. It’s a fully electric powered dolly that’s extremely versatile – if you need seating for a four person crew, no problem. How about rigging for a jib or steadicam? It does that too. The entire Tracker XL is completely covered with a 3/8” cheeseplate that offers unlimited rigging options. Side panels can removed or repositioned as step plates and it drives on a four-wheel independent air bag suspension so you can adjust your load to keep the rig level. The Tracker XL runs off lithium batteries and has a top speed of 40mph – perfect for drag races to the local grocery store. More info griptrix.com.
Krane AMG 750
Krane was offering three different multi-carts dubbed the AMG 750, AMG 500, and AMG 250 for their perspective payload capacity (in pounds). The AMG 750 can be transformed into nine different modes and folds down to a very collapsible unit that can virtually fit into any backseat. Opening up the cart to its largest mode only takes five steps and the cart weighs just under fifty pounds. More info kranecarts.com.
Cooke Anamorphic /i Lenses
ZGC was showcasing Cooke’s Anamorphic/i line of lenses, and probably like many of you, they’re on our wish list. The line comes in 25, 32, 40, 50, 75, 100, and 135mm flavors with 2x squeeze and an aperture of T2.3. The lenses include a 2:1 oval bokeh and are color matched with all of Cooke’s primes like miniS4/i lenses that were also on display. While they’re the smaller, lighter-weight versions of the S4/i lenses, they offer the same resolution and optical quality at a lower price. The lenses are also interchangeable for film and digital images up to 4K and beyond. Like the Anamorphic/i lenses, the miniS4/I lenses are also color matched with the other prime lenses from Cooke. More info at cookeoptics.com.
SKATER Mini
This product from J.L Fisher has been around for a while now, but every time I see it, it grabs my attention. It’s basically a very flat tracking device for cameras that’s stabilized with three adjustable wheels. The unit comes 2” off the ground and offers up to thirty degrees of tilt. What’s great about the SKATER Mini is that you’re not locked into a traditional “back-and-forth” movement like a slider, but you can do much more with it – everything from panning shots, curved movements or 360 degrees. If they added a motor, I’d chase around and film cats all day. More info at jlfisher.com.
Pictorvision PV-HL1 Drone
If you happened to visit the Drone exhibit at NAB this year, you know how fast the market is moving. Pictorvision had on display their PV-HLV2 heavy lift drone which can fly a RED Dragon for up to twenty minutes of flight time. The company has a PV-HLV1 which can fly can fly the RED Dragon for up to fifteen minutes. Besides the two drones that support the RED cameras, Pictorvision offers medium lift drones for cameras like Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH4. More info at pictorvisoin.com.
Mole-Richardson Spacelite 4
If you’re in need of a 900W LED overhead light in either daylight or tungsten temperature, the Spacelite 4 is worth a look. The fixture is very comparable to a traditional 6K, but consumes 80% less power than a traditional incandescent. The unit is equipped with four 225W Quantum DOT LEDs at 3200K 95CRI tungsten or 5600K 90CRI daylight. It features 0%-100% flicker-free dimming with minimal color shift and is DMX controllable. Also on hand was Mole’s 900W SeniorLED that’s a 5K equivalent available in tungsten or daylight as well – 3100K 95CRI and 5600K 90CRI. While at their booth, I heard the company is working on a bi-color overhead Spacelite LED that might be available as early as Cine Gear Expo (June 2015). More info mole.com.
K5600 Joker-Zoom 800
When you want a lensless lighting design you might want to check out the Joker-Zoom 800. It’s a new accessory that fits right on to the existing Joker 800. The unit has an open-face style reflector that’s focusable from 15-55 degrees. It does have a slightly larger diameter though so K5600 offers a larger scrim set and barn doors as an accessory. Mole info k5600.com.
Radiant Images Headcase VR 360 Rig
The company has been tossing nicknames at the office for this unit like “Spider Rig” or “Blossom Rig” and we can clearly see why. The rig was designed for virtual reality and combines 36 megapixel array of 17 Codex Actions Cameras to capture views from all directions. The system can capture true RAW uncompressed files up to 60p. The rig has a global electronic shutter so moving objects are free from rolling shutter artifacts and has been used on shows like FX’s The Strain. Also on hand was the Ready Rig Cine Pro, a support system for MōVI and other gimbals, the Novo 4K – Radiant’s cinematic version of a GoPro, and their POV helmet rigs, which are a lot of fun when you’re shooting porn. Wait, what? …when shooting horror or action sequences. More info at radiantimages.com.
Dedolight Bi-Color LED
Dedolight has an assortment of LED fixtures and the series that caught my eye was the DLED series. Available in 20W, 40W, or 90W, what’s unique about these lights is their focusing. The design is similar to that of a focus ring on a lens allowing the user to smoothly adjust flood to spot. Each version is available in a tungsten, daylight or bi-color and all have high 90 CRIs. More info at dedolight.com.
The Food
Come hungry ‘cause you’re going to leave feeling fat, out of shape, and in need of a nap. J.L. Fischer always has a delicious spread. Everything from steak and chicken to sausage and hamburgers equipped with all the trimmings, salads, vegetables, and cold drinks you can imagine. Still hungry? They have ice cream too – which I’m proud to say I tried three different kinds.
The Swag
If you’re in need of new tees for set this is definitely a place to stop off. Everyone was giving away something. ARRI was providing hats, Backstage Equipment and K5600 where giving away tees. As I sat and ate lunch, three guys were talking about trying to get a second hat from the SOC. We even tried convincing ZGC to raffle off a set of Cooke anamorphic lenses, but they weren’t budging. We were able to hoard a bunch of cool stuff so we’ll be including them as a free ad-on in our giveaways over the coming months.
Besides the good eats and swag, dealers like Band Pro and AbelCine were on hand showing off the latest from RED, ARRI, Sony, and Panasonic where you could test out various cameras and lenses they had on display. ARRI had their own booth. Panasonic had one as well, illustrating a production to post workflow with the VariCam. Until next year. Check out some of our photos below.
2 Comments
Is funny to see ready rig photos but not one little note in the article on how cool and effective is the readyrig especially with movi or other gimbal.
Hey Marcello – we make note of it in the Radiant Images section since that’s where it was on display. After we watched Alessandro (creator) put it on the guy in the photos we spoke with him. They have two versions available at Radiant Images – a rental and a buy version. The buy version is a scaled back version of the rental one – not as many features, so that wasn’t so cool to hear. After watching the guy in the photo using it, you still need an assistant to adjust the rods. It’s definitely cool in the fact that it reduces the load you’re carrying around on long days, but besides that, we can’t really gauge how cool it really is without a full test. Have you used the Ready Rig on a shoot yet?