As a one man band…what do you think about: Matthews ROAD-RAGS C-VIVAL KIT

[Bob Cole]

[Chris Baldwin] “I do need to get myself a third light for
backgrounds and so on…”

The Source 4 along with a bunch of slide-in patterns would be very
helpful for that. I don’t think the Kinos will be very useful for
background lighting, even with the Matthews kit, bec. the Kinos’
light doesn’t project that far (or so I hear).

— Bob

[Chris Baldwin]

oh yes you are right. The road rags are not for shaping the kinos on the background. They would be for cutting the kino’s off the background and taking down a white shirt or the likes. As for the background light I’m not sold on the source four but only because of their size. Its obviously a great light and I use it often on bigger shoots but when I’m a one man band I need a small light to creat a slash or a sconze look in the background. I’m thinking a 300w fresnel of some sort…

I’d love to get two little “lite panels” for small touches and maybe even scratches and/or backlights. But they are expensive.

I guess I’m lookinf for any general feedback but I’d also like to know if people like the road rags? does the portability of the case make up for the time of assembly? How long does it take to put the flag together?

Thanks

Chris Baldwin
Shoulder High Productions
Media of the World; For the World!
https://www.shoulderhigh.com
newsletters@shoulderhigh.com

[Bob Cole]

Totally ignorant opinion, as I haven’t used Road Rags, but it looks a bit flimsy and overpriced. — & would it do the job of knocking down the Kino on a white shirt, any better than some extra diffusion on the front of the Kino, and a grid to make the undiffused light more directional?

For the backgrounds, I meant to say, Source 4 “Jr.” zoom — a bit more manageable size-wise and does the job. At least for me, it’s much more adaptable, and faster to set up, than the slash/fresnel trick. One stand, one light, and an appropriate setting of the internal blades — plus an internal pattern holder that gives you an infinite variety of shadows, and a nice gel frame for color. I do wish it were a little smaller.

[Frank Otto]

Here’s a link to a review in Videomaker Magazine:

https://www.videomaker.com/scripts/article.cfm?id=9033

Having full-on flags, scrims and cutters already, I don’t have many opportunities for using “kits”. I did use the original “Road Rags” and “Survival” kits on a few magazine assignments – they take a few more minutes to assemble but they work quite the same.

If you travel by air, then this kit is more compact than lugging around a grip box…

Cheers,

Frank Otto

[Todd Gillespie]

Hi Chris,
I love my Road Rags kits. I do NOT have the kit from your link, but I do have all the components.
I don’t use my RR for shaping source light as much as cutting down Sunlight and bouncing sunlight.
I’ve found that I prefer the larger 24″-36″ frames.
I was trying to figure out if it’s a good price…$300 for the RR kit, $150 per C-stand @ 2, Minigrips, case…yeah, it’s a good price.

As I said, I use the RoadRags as a bounce too, so I ordered the silver reflector as well. Since I have 2 RR kits, it really helps with outdoor interviews. I can use one to cut down the sunlight (used for the kicker). add some fill light with a bounce reflector, then I’ll use my Kinos (w/ daylight tubes for the key) -almost the exact set up you have.
The MiniGrips are cool and very useful with other stands, but you don’t need them when using the C-Stands since they come with a Gobo head.

I think they are a much better investment than traditional flags/reflectors. They’re more portable, more durable (since you can’t poke through them when storing them), and don’t require a lot of space to hold or store.

BUT, if you are a one-man show, it’s still a lot of weight to add to your setup. The C-stands are still big and heavy, by comparison. Since I don’t have everything in a case like that, I don’t know how easy it loads.

But you can’t go wrong with the Road Rags.

Hope this helps,

Todd at UCSB
Television Production

[Ralph Keyser]

For a compact travel kit, I like ’em. They do take a few minutes to setup, so they aren’t as fast as traditional flags and scrims, but they work just like the real deal. They pack up much more compactly than a traditional set. I like the larger Road Rags II set, but it all depends on what you are shooting.

Ralph Keyser
Albuquerque, NM

[Anthony Miles]

the road rags are great, if you are traveling or as a one man band. They can save a trip to the truck being able to stack them on a kart with the rest of the gear. To get a really good cut on the larger 4×4 bank kinos in my experience a 4×4 black solid floppy is the real trick, although a good 23×36 solid will do quite well if you have a bit of distance from the background, depending on how critical your application is. Inteerviews great, product shots pretty good.

I can set up a road rag in very little time, much less than a walk to a vehicle to get a couple of 24×36 flags or scrims. Never seen them have a durability problem, my regular silks fray much faster than the road rags.

Hope that helps,
Anthony Miles