[Bob Cole]

[Dan Brockett] “The reason I will only ship the gear now via FedEx/UPS is at least they will pay for it f they lose or damage it. If you fly and your gear becomes lost or damaged, you are S.O.L. so why would anyone fly with gear unless they have to?”

True — airlines sometimes make you sign a waiver, if they sniff photographic equipment. But I haven’t had nearly the bad experiences that others have, using either very hard cases (Anvil, Pelican) or very soft (Lightware). Bubble-wrap works well for wrapping stuff. Totally agree about having two types of kit: expendable for air travel, A-List when it’s under your control. I know, I’ve been lucky, and my number is definitely UP.

Best of all: don’t take most of your stuff — hire local. Find a good RELIABLE local company/grip to supply some labor and most equipment, avoid most of these troubles — and be greener. It can take a long time to find them, but it’s great to travel and meet terrific people who really know the local scene. There are so many talented and delightful people all around the country.

Bob C

MacPro 2 x 3GHz dualcore; 10 GB 667MHz
Kona LHe
Sony HDV Z1
Sony HDV M25U
HD-Connect MI
Betacam UVW1800
DVCPro AJ-D650

[Bob Cole]

Great suggestions.

Also, watch out for the continuity problem. Because the apparent color of water can change rapidly, it’s vital to get interesting cutaways, to avoid the disconcerting effect of cutting from water that’s light blue to water that’s dark blue.

Apparently water-color-continuity problems gave even Spielberg a headache, with some movie about a shark.

Bob C

MacPro 2 x 3GHz dualcore; 10 GB 667MHz
Kona LHe
Sony HDV Z1
Sony HDV M25U
HD-Connect MI
Betacam UVW1800
DVCPro AJ-D650

[Bob Cole]

[Emre Tufekci] “That can be found at http://www.videocopilot.net“

Thanks Emre! It’s called #40, “Earth Zoom.”

What a great website.

Bob C

MacPro 2 x 3GHz dualcore; 10 GB 667MHz
Kona LHe
Sony HDV Z1
Sony HDV M25U
HD-Connect MI
Betacam UVW1800
DVCPro AJ-D650

[Bob Cole]

[Randall Raymond] “how can you decide on a tripod without trying them all? It’s not the end of the NAB.”

Have to say I’m really surprised by Apple’s decision, because at the last NAB I attended, the FCP area seemed like a massive sea of Apple-idolatry. I guess they were the already-converted.

Randall makes a good point, although forums like this have influenced my purchasing decisions far more than my trips to NAB.

For me the biggest business benefit for attending NAB was the chance to look at various products and decide NOT to buy them. And on a personal level, renewing old acquaintances is kinda great too.

Oh, and the magicians who enliven a few booths are fun.

What’s going to replace NAB?

Bob C

MacPro 2 x 3GHz dualcore; 10 GB 667MHz
Kona LHe
Sony HDV Z1
Sony HDV M25U
HD-Connect MI
Betacam UVW1800
DVCPro AJ-D650

[Bob Cole]

Hey Eric, I agree about just sucking up and paying the extras. Anyway, the picture I saw of your case showed wheels. So you’re getting a dolly for free. That would be another checked piece of luggage otherwise, which would cost more on United. (I take it that you don’t get socked with the >62″ combined dimension charge when you use the Kata Palms 3 case — just the overweight.)

I wonder whether very heavy luggage is actually less abused, just because the handlers can’t possibly throw it that far.

The abuse that checked luggage takes is absolutely breathtaking, but it isn’t that hard to fathom. I’m talking strictly second-hand here, but I have heard that baggage loading is a very low-wage job, with considerable accident risks. If you get the feeling that somebody is taking out their anger on your luggage, you may be right. Maybe we should all put bumper stickers on our luggage: “More pay for baggage handlers.” Sort of like the demonstrators in the 60’s who screamed “More pay for cops.”

Bob C

MacPro 2 x 3GHz dualcore; 10 GB 667MHz
Kona LHe
Sony HDV Z1
Sony HDV M25U
HD-Connect MI
Betacam UVW1800
DVCPro AJ-D650

[Bob Cole]

[Eric Temple] “carry everything in a Kata Palms 3 case.”

Eric, that sounds like a good kit. The Kata’s a pretty big case. If you travel by air with it, do you get socked with an oversize charge? I’ve found that the airlines tend to be very picky about weight and not very picky about size limits, for checked luggage.

Bob C

MacPro 2 x 3GHz dualcore; 10 GB 667MHz
Kona LHe
Sony HDV Z1
Sony HDV M25U
HD-Connect MI
Betacam UVW1800
DVCPro AJ-D650

[Bob Cole]

There was a fantastic COW article about how to do a whole-earth zoom-out/in, which is hard to do because you have to meld quite a few different images; there is no single image that shows the entire earth and the locality that you want to zoom into. The article went into a lot of detail about parenting, different scales of zoom, etc. I just looked for it to give you the link, but couldn’t find it. You may be better served by posting this question in the Adobe After Effects forum. If you find it, please post the URL back here.

Then once you get to the whole-earth end of the zoom, there are a number of tutorials on navigating planets and solar systems using 3d cameras in After Effects. Happy hunting — the information is out there… somewhere in the solar system.

Bob C

MacPro 2 x 3GHz dualcore; 10 GB 667MHz
Kona LHe
Sony HDV Z1
Sony HDV M25U
HD-Connect MI
Betacam UVW1800
DVCPro AJ-D650

[Bob Cole]

If shipping ahead of time isn’t practical, here are some tested travel tips, for a run-and-gun, interview/B-roll shoot:

1. Call ahead of time and find a local grip who has the lights/stands/tripod etc. that you need.
2. Carry-on your absolute essentials (camera/mic/tape).
3. For local shoots I use Kinos, Moles, & Peppers. But for travel, Lowel’s stands fold up nice and small, & the Tota-light in a Chimera works great. (although I’ve had to add a bracket to the speedring so that the tota-light doesn’t slip.)
4. Carry extra bulbs. You’ll definitely need them after your cases are thrown around by the baggage “handlers.”
5. Pelicans are great, but heavy. I’ve started using Lightware cases and had good luck so far.
6. Most important of all: Carry your shot tapes back with you; don’t let them go through the more powerful x-ray device to which the checked luggage is subjected.

Happy travels.

Bob C

MacPro 2 x 3GHz dualcore; 10 GB 667MHz
Kona LHe
Sony HDV Z1
Sony HDV M25U
HD-Connect MI
Betacam UVW1800
DVCPro AJ-D650

[Bob Cole]

[Steve Wargo] “Does anyone else have a recollection of this or am I the only one on hallucinogenic drugs?”

Yes, and probably no.

Here is the web page:

https://www.fms.treas.gov/prompt/regulations.html

Bob C

MacPro 2 x 3GHz dualcore; 10 GB 667MHz
Kona LHe
Sony HDV Z1
Sony HDV M25U
HD-Connect MI
Betacam UVW1800
DVCPro AJ-D650

[Bob Cole]

I would like to announce the immediate detention of Mr. David “Wrath” Weiss. He is now being transported to a little vacation camp in the southern Cuba area.

Bob C

MacPro 2 x 3GHz dualcore; 10 GB 667MHz
Kona LHe
Sony HDV Z1
Sony HDV M25U
HD-Connect MI
Betacam UVW1800
DVCPro AJ-D650