That's A Wrap!

  We finally wrapped on the twelve week Sci Fi extravaganza/catastrophe I've been working on for what seems most of my life. It just went on forever. Although our lead actress was a minor and we worked mostly ten or eleven hour days, I often joked that this was the only company that could make a ten hour day seem like a sixteen hour day. All in all, we had a great time. I did a fair amount of rickshaw work with my operator, Larry McConkey, and we turned in some really beautiful shots. (No, I did not get part of his rate) although I should have for trying to outrun a seventeen year old girl. There was a little bit of everything and we pulled out most of the tools in the arsenal. Mostly our crane of choice was the Moviebird. It's always a pleasure to use this crane. The bearings are so smooth and the option of lengthening it to 45' comes in handy. We also did some work with the 72' Hydrascope, the Phoenix, and the Aerocrane jib. I must give credit to my B Camera Dolly Grip, Kenny Bolton. This guy stepped up and delivered. He is turning out to be a fine dolly grip. I had my dolly of choice, the Hustler 4, and a Peewee 4 for the small dolly. Both went through the wringer and came out the other side as good as the day of the loadout. I must thank the Chapman team at Chapman-Atlanta for their service. Thanks to a great cast and crew, we pulled it off and had some laughs along the way. Thanks also to Cinemoves and Mike and Parker. They're our go-to guys for technocranes.

  I will be at the Grand Opening of Chapman/Leonard at the Pinewood-Atlanta studios this Saturday. I will be doing a demo of the Hustler 4 in what is sure to be an edge-of-your-seat event. My buddy, veteran dolly grip Bill Winn, will be doing the Hybrid 4. Hope to see you there.

  Speaking of the Hybrid 4, I did use it briefly on a series last year. While I liked it (I've always loved the Hybrids), I'm not quite ready to switch over to it. I think I'll let it be out for a while and let some of the kinks get worked out.