[Todd Terry]

That flashing “on” light, and the operation at 70% are definitely classic symptoms of the instrument simply not getting enough juice… I would say your battery is definitely underpowered.

On the upside, and I can’t absolutely swear to this, but I do not think there is any danger to the instrument in operating it this way. There’s been many times, usually after quite a while of shooting, that I’ve had a light that would no longer operate at full power but performed fine when turned down a bit. And often Astras (which I use a lot) will run out of gas at full blast, but when flipping the switch to go to the fanless lower-power mode they work fine.

For LEDs like those, we always go with full goldmount bricks, either AB or some other brand, and have never had any trouble.

So…. if you need the Dedos full power, I think you need new batts. However, if you are able to get by with them turned down a bit, or never have any need for them full blast, I don’t think you are hurting anything.

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Todd Terry]

Me too, Stephen… but I never let that leave the house….

After all, it’s a major award!!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all!… hope you all have a good one.

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Todd Terry]

There’s little to no practical reason not to shoot it in color.

Mark beat me to the point I was about to make… it’s like a haircut, you can always take more off, but you can’t put it back if you change your mind. Shooting color will give you the maximum flexibility. What if you later change your mind and the project just doesn’t work in monochrome? Or you find a super desaturated look works better, with just a hint of color? Or you want to repurpose the footage down the road for something else? Having a full color version is the way to go.

I can think of one scenario where shooting BW might be to my advantage. IF I was doing a project for a client, where the client wanted it in BW and I absolutely positively knew that BW was indeed the best and only choice, I might shoot BW if I was afraid that the client might change their mind about that way down the road and I had a personal vested interest in keeping the project with my BW vision. Then I might shoot BW just to “lock in” that decision. Which is a tiny bit evil, but I might do it anyway. Then again, I still probably wouldn’t.

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Todd Terry]

Actually, Bob, I’d love to take a sabbatical… but I don’t think I could make that happen.

I could probably personally afford to take a year off (though might not be the fiscally best idea), but my business definitely couldn’t. The majority of our business is a dozen or so advertising agencies in the southeast… and most of these companies we do jobs for several times a year, some going back 20 years. I might could take a sabbatical, but they wouldn’t… they have constant needs, and without me around their business would go elsewhere… and probably not come back. I’d be starting my business over from scratch, and I’m way too old and tired to do that.

I’m hanging in there for now. I have decided to outsource all of our internal beancounting to an out-of-house CPA firm that specializes in handling all the financial voodoo for small businesses… they will do payroll, payroll taxes and all that assorted stuff, send our invoices, pay our bills, do quarterly and year-end tax returns and all that stuff. I think at least that part will work out well… and honestly when you consider the cost of their services vs. the amount of time that it all took my soon-to-be-former partner, if you look at the percentage of his salary that is equal to the time that all this financial work took him then really outsourcing it is a huge bargain. It actually makes me wonder if we shouldn’t have done this years ago. We’ll see out it works out, I’m hopeful that it goes well.

As for the rest of the duties, I’m gonna play it by ear and see what we need.

Thanks to all for the advice….

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Todd Terry]

I’ll give it a read.

“Everyone looks good in a Sheinhardt” – Jack Donaghy

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Todd Terry]

[Mark Suszko] “…series of lecture videos about …”six-sigma” techniques…”

Guest lecturer Jack Donaghy?

https://youtu.be/aocZo3oeNxw

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

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[Todd Terry]

Hi Bob…

Yes, I’m a fan of the Astra (though growing more and more a fan of the Fotodiox flapjacks of late).

I wish I could help, but that’s not exactly my situation. I have no 6x Astras, only 4x (mine are old enough that that was the highest available at the time). I also general use more robust batteries than you’re talking about… so I don’t have any experience with that exact combo.

I’m gonna shoot you a private message off forum….

[Todd Terry]

[Mark Suszko] “They’re out there, I guarantee it.”

Yeah, I know… I just feel very very under the gun to find someone great, and find them quickly. And it is an opportunity for growth, I just have to get through the pain of having to do that.

On the upside, I could hire two people for less (probably well less) than the salary that is being freed up. Or suck it up and do those things myself and pocket the difference. But I’m old enough and tired enough (i.e. lazy) not to want to have to do that.

And I’m a whiner.

Thanks all…

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Todd Terry]

I might be wrong (I probably am), but I didn’t think the XF Utility worked with Mark II footage.

I normally shoot with the C300 original so I use the utility all the time, but the one time we rented a Mark II as an additional camera on a shoot we could not use the XF utility (it would not identify the clips), we had to import clips manually/individually and we were told not to use the utility for Mark II footage.

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Todd Terry]

Ok, personally I hate when I ask a specific question about a piece of gear, and then get responses that don’t answer my question but rather try to talk me out of it or tout something else… and from people who haven’t used that gear.

But I’m gonna do that myself now…

Mainly because you wanted to know if it was “travel worthy.” I would imagine so, those big hard-body soft instruments are usually built very well (I have no experience with that exact light, but have used many others). But that also points to the reason that I would never use that instrument on location (on stage maybe if I just happened to have one, but not on location). Namely, they are bulky, clunky, and heavy. I think you’d be much better off for location work with something like Astras that are half the weight, give beautiful light, are more versatile… and if you choose they can be battery powered to boot. There’s just been so many technical advances in lighting instruments these days… that Mole has been updated to LED but still it strikes me as a very 1940s-era old-Hollywood fixture.

There’s the soft version of the Astra, or you can get the harder version and pop a diffuser or a Dfuse softbox on it. You said you didn’t want to “mess with Popup umbrellas or building a soft box” but a popup box like the Dfuse literally opens and attaches in two seconds… and that’s not an exaggeration. And the softbox probably only weighs a couple of ounces, opposed to the twelve pounds that the Mole weighs (and the Astra itself it much lighter weight…6lb vs. 12lb). I’d also never put that Mole on anything less robust that a C-stand, whereas a lighter instrument like an Astra or such could be put on a much lighter-weight stand (medium-duty Matthews stand, or whatever) if needed.

I’m not shilling for LitePanels in any way, but I love their instruments and especially the Astras. I really can’t conceive why anyone would buy a hard-body softlight these days. To be honest, I wasn’t even sure they still made them.

Or maybe you’re a young buck who likes to lug around heavy and bulky things. I used to be… but those days are long gone.

Just my two cents, there’s probably people around who still love them.

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com