Theres A Reason Why Actual Movies Cost Millions

[Darren Bradnock]

Yep, it's generally all rented and we're all contractors. Don't know about the Red One as a stills camera, too big and heavy for that. They do a grip for the Epic for stills, can be stripped down to the basics and is about the size of a medium format stills camera. And the camera is not configured as a 3D camera, 2 cameras are used on either a beam splitter 3D rig or a side by side rig.

 

[Hamish Gill]

What do you do for a living Darren?

 

[Darren Bradnock]

Usually a Grip, at the moment i'm a Remote Head Technician on The Hobbit. I tech a Filmotechnic Flighthead V stabilized head.

http://www.filmotechnic-canada.ca/flight-head.html

 

[Hamish Gill]

Ah... That explains why you once in a while crop up with some indepth cinematography knowledge
You find it interesting?

 

[Hamish Gill]

Ah... That explains why you once in a while crop up with some indepth cinematography knowledge
You find it interesting?

 

[Darren Bradnock]

Definitely has it's moments, studio work can get a bit tedious at times. Prefer doing tracking car or helicopter jobs.

 

[Hamish Gill]

Just films then or TV too?
Bar Peter Jackson filming lord of the rings and the hobbit ... And of course 'Bad taste' I can't claim to be aware of much Kiwi cinema... I guess that's probably ignorance? What sort of movie industry do you have over there?

 

[Darren Bradnock]

Here's a couple of Red Ones on a 3Ality Digital TS4 side by side rig

A couple of Sony T heads on a Libra Head

Early morning start

 

[Hamish Gill]

Blimey, that stuff looks enormously complicated, but I guess like anything it becomes fairly day to day!
So do you set the stuff up, or do you have to know how to fix it if it breaks down?

 

[Darren Bradnock]

I've been in the industry for about 8 years now, the first movie i started on was Without a Paddle, since then i've done King Kong, The Water Horse, Avatar, 2nd unit pickups on Yogy Bear, and a whole bunch of commercials. And now The Hobbit.

The camera guy's sort the camera gear, i rig the head and tune it. Have been fixing a few things for the camera boys in pre-production. Between the first 3D camera tests and pre-production Red changed the Epic trying to fix a overheating problem which resulted in the +13 which is 13mm longer, so i had to modify the mounts on the 3Ality rigs to fit them. We have now just received the +16 version, gotta love the way we're pretty much doing their R&D for them. Thats the difference between Red and Arri or Panavision, wouldn't catch them selling a camera that wasn't sorted.

 

[Hamish Gill]

I shall keep an eye out for your name on the credit roll next time inser one of those films then(?) 3)