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View From The Office:


Philip Perkins

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Well the office view doesn't get much better than this. When the Winter Olympics came to Vancouver,I really wasn't interested in working on them knowing that it might be a real cluster f***. However I'm glad I said yes when a friend from a Canadian network called and asked if I would be interested in working for 28 days in Whistler, very nice day rate, good per diem,great accommodations and some of the most beautiful scenery in the world, it was hard to say no. The gig is easy, basic ENG kit, three wireless, ifb is via cell phone and the hits are live into local and national news. I'm really glad I said yes.

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The office view at 06:00 just around sunrise. This is an Inukshuk, a navigation marker used by the Eskimos for hundreds of years . Elevation here is over 7000 ft.Just up the hill is a feed point for hits to any where in the world. It is all fiber optics, able to handle 1080 and up to five channels of sound. Everything here in Whistler for the Olympics is Fiber Optics,gone are the days of miles of camera / audio / video / communication  cable runs. There is not even one satellite truck up here,everything is done via fiber.Yes there are analog runs to the microphones etc.but the distance to patch points has been greatly reduced.

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My office the past couple of weeks. (pictures from my Iphone)

Downtown Port Au Prince.

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Filming at one of the hundreds of Camps that have sprung up around Port Au Prince.

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Filming some of the great work the USAF was doing at the Port Au Prince airport.

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I will post some more pics in the "Images of Interest" section.

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My office for the launch video(s) for Adobe CS5.  Another job with a few channels going to a stupifying number of places (w/ various delays and submixes and isos etc) to video and audio recorders of various resolutions as well as a few "classes" of video village (as in "premier", "business" and "econo").  Why am I presiding over this pile of dinky mixers instead of my beloved "Carte d'Amore"?  Long story. 

Working while sick sucks.

Philip Perkins

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Philip, as scary as your view was, this is what my brother Moe saw doing a job for me today. Wild wild west.

CrewC

I love the laptop on his back, that he can't see....so the assistant can check his email?  How long does it take this guy to get "suited up"?  Were you transmitting sound to this guy/thing?  You're right--way scarier. 

Philip Perkins

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Philip, as scary as your view was, this is what my brother Moe saw doing a job for me today. Wild wild west.

I'm reminded of Dick Van Dyke's "Bert the Chimney-Sweep" in Mary Poppins, where he had a bass drum on his back, a trumpet in front of his mouth, and a bunch of other musical instruments all over his body -- literally a one-man band!

--Marc W.

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Two ways to make a movie. My father's use of the Eclair for feature filmmaking, even back as far as "America, America" was revolutionary in its time. Maybe we're being a little harsh on this new rig? Nah...  who "operates" the laptop on his back?

Jeff--didn't your dad have some special hanging rig for the CM3 that he used on "Medium Cool"--I think it was the punching bag scene, wasn't there a nickname for it? 

For really goofy (and heavy), see the original Steadicam prototype...wish I had a pic.    I'm old enough to remember IA grips giving us a hard time about mounting

a 16mm camera on a Fisher dolly...."toy camera" etc..

Philip Perkins

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For really goofy (and heavy), see the original Steadicam prototype...wish I had a pic.

Philip Perkins

I wish I had a picture from "Bound For Glory" of the rig that I used to record sync sound the first time a Steadi-Cam was ever used. Garrett Brown came to our set with the working prototype for what would later become the Steadi-cam. It used an un-blimped Arri 2C with a large channel that went from the camera body to the film mag that was placed at least 2 1/2 feet away from the camera. It was heavy, it was noisy, but the moment we saw Garrett come waltzing down the steps of the camera truck, we knew it would produce amazing footage.

-  Jeff Wexler

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I'm pretty sure we had that rig on my last film.  It was going to be used as a poor-man's 'Children of Men' rig to shoot the inside of a car by poking the camera through a hole cut in the car's roof.

I think we also used it, not in the back-pack mode, as a high-speed camera, which the RED was not capable of doing.

The laptop is a military-grade computer which processes the information from the chip.  It can run with significantly fewer "bits" attached, and can be closed while recording, allowing great maneuverability of the "camera". 

Robert

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Isn't that a Panavision laser rangefinder in the top?  Is this a homebrew rig or does it come from Clairmont etc?  I assume Moe is recording double system?  What frame rate?  Is the rig damped in any way a la Steadicam, or is the pole just something to hang onto?  And lastly--what is this bringing to the party?  Ultra high rez?  With that backpack it doesn't seem any more maneuverable or able to squeeze into tight spots than many sorts of rigs.....

Philip Perkins

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