JL Fisher Open House a Success!

I attended the Open House on Saturday and must say that they did a great job. There was a large crowd and plenty to look at as well as barbecue and beer (Beer!). The first sight that greeted me as I rounded the corner was track. Everywhere. There was track and dollies curving and twisting all among several vendors set up under 20x silks covering the lot. I also sat in on a portion of the Moving Camera panel and it was nicely done. Funny and informative. Some really nice things were said about the Dolly Grip's contribution to the filmaking process by the DPs, ACs, and Operators sitting on the stage. I saw several familiar faces I hadn't seen in years. Lloyd Moriarity was a panelist and it was great to see him again after almost 20 years as well as Donald M Morgan who I worked with a few years back. Most of the comments came back to the things we've all been saying here: Be a team with your operator (and AC), keep your ears open and your mouth shut. I also met some new friends. Rick Davis, a veteran Key Grip, with Grip411 was onhand in a booth with his latest equipment directory and a copy of his newsletter Crew and Review. His book is a must have for Keys, Best Boys, and Dolly Grips. It has specs as well as info on where to get almost any piece of specialty equipment you could need. Please check them out at http://grip411.com/. I'll have more about them in a later post. There were also booths for several other companies including: O'Connor, Panavision, and Hot Gears (and Beer!). If you missed it this year, you should try and make it next year.