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Hand-Made Camera Assistant Front Boxes

Tanner Stauss

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Age
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Location
California
***2019 Update***

I can't believe it's been almost 10 years since I made my first front box with my dad. We always meant to get a real website going and build more, but life happens. His health was up and down. I got busy with work. Living 7 hours apart never helped. Despite all that, we built a lot of boxes. There are some lucky owners in countries all over the world that get to hopefully cherish theirs for years and years to come.

I am sad to inform that we will no longer be making our beautiful front boxes. My parents home and the wood shop containing my fathers legacy were lost in the fire in Paradise, California in November last year. They drove through flames, so I'm beyond grateful for their survival. While still picking up the pieces it's hard to imagine replacing the collection of tools and woods my father had, and we probably never will. It's pretty hard, he lost everything that he loved. But we're moving forward, piece by piece, day by day, and I truly hope one day soon he will be back to wood work. I'm not sure if it will be front boxes, but I just want to see him create again.

I never created any other posts or marketing about these front boxes other than this post from 10 years ago which I also put on cinematography.com. Like I said, it always just stayed a side project. I know we missed a lot of people who wanted one too, I wish we hadn't. Still, I received hundreds of emails from this post, as recent as today. I thank those people with an appreciation for the traditional AC craft and certainly a love of fine woodworking that reached out through the years. I truly appreciate you all. And to those that own one of the rare Stauss Front Boxes, I hope it serves you well on many sets(and don't forget to oil it every now and then).

Much Love...

****************


***Original Post***

I have several new camera assistant front boxes for sale. These boxes are a labor of love. They are hand-made from numerous types of hard woods such as Walnut, Blood Wood, Zebra Wood, Hickory and others. If you are a camera assistant on film productions this is something you must have. These are unlike anything you have seen or used before. If you are working with a beautiful camera dealing with thousands of dollars worth of equipment, why would you want anything less from your front box?

I have used several different front boxes that are floating around the industry and came up with something that I think exceeds all of them as far as functionality, quality and beauty. They are sturdy, beautiful and have a couple improvements I thought that an assistant would need in a front box. For example a small metal friction plate located in the slate holding slot that keeps the slate firmly in place. The dividers are adjustable or can be completely removed if you need more space. The pen holders will accommodate just about any pen, marker or similarly shaped tool that you have and they all include a mounting bracket on the back. It will fit a standard sized 11 inch wide slate, including most smart slates. It is very strong and will last you many years on the set or studio.

We can also do custom orders. If you have an idea for a combination of woods, size or a certain feature that you think would be useful, let us know, we can do it.

You can call and arrange for a pick-up of one of these or they can also be shipped. I am located in the Los Angeles area.

They are all about the same size, varying a little bit. They are between 9-10 inches deep, 14-15 inches wide and 4-5 inches high in the back.

The solid dark Walnut boxes are $350 as well as the other single color boxes. The combo boxes with other wood jointed on the tops are $425.

There is one smaller solid Walnut box that measures about 8 inches deep that will sell for $325.

If you have any other questions about them please give me a call or reply to this thread.

Contact Tanner Stauss at 310-717-9533
or
Staussproductions@yahoo.com


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This is gorgeous man! I've never seen anything like it! THey're like the Cadillacs of front boxes...

The best idea is the bracket locks, I wish I had that on mine...

I'm sad for I don't think it'd fit my Cartoni Sygma because of the front load dialer knob... A regular one is already a bitch to hook up...

You got me all excited now with all these pieces of art!
 
Thanks Lewis. Spread the word.

We're looking into developing our own mounting brackets that will be universal to many different heads, O'Connor, Sachtler, Cartoni, Gear heads, etc. So, I am curious what front box you have now, and how you mount it to your Cartoni Sigma. Could you possibly provide photos of your setup? You can post them here or just email them to me. They would be very useful for our R&D.

Thanks for the compliments and hopefully we'll have a solution for you soon. :)
 
OBO

Make an offer as to how much you would pay to have one of these. Thanks.

Also, after a little research, I found that the mount included should be compatible with most O'Connor, Sachtler, Cartoni, Panahead and Arrihead front box mounts.
 
Bumpity.

If someone wanted one of these, what would you pay?
 
Where i can buy O'Connor, Sachtler, Cartoni, Panahead and Arrihead front box mounts ?
 
Just make sure to get a nice Stauss made Frontbox for your new mount. :)
 
I bought one of Tanner's front boxes and it is not only beautiful but is solid as a rock. People love it when it comes out on bigger shoots.
Great product if you need a front box.
 
Damn - those are beautiful. Wouldn't want to bring one to a set afraid that it might get scratched or something ;-)
 
New Batch of Boxes

New Batch of Boxes

I have 5 new boxes finished that are ready to go.

The first one is made from a beautiful Lace wood. This is a very nice batch of boxes. Let me know if you are interested, thanks.

Staussproductions@yahoo.com


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Wow Tanner, those are gorgeous!! Not sure I 1st enough to need one (though I'm pondering saving for one anyway), but if you ever invented some sort of DIT cart box....

I will totally pass this around though.
 
Thanks a lot Sierra, I will work on a DIT box. How about a full custom wood DIT cart?
 
***Update***

I can't believe it's been almost 10 years since I made my first front box with my dad. We always meant to get a real website going and build more, but life happens. His health was up and down. I got busy with work. Living 7 hours apart never helped. Despite all that, we built a lot of boxes. There are some lucky owners in countries all over the world that get to hopefully cherish theirs for years and years to come.

I am sad to inform that we will no longer be making our beautiful front boxes. My parents home and the wood shop containing my fathers legacy were lost in the fire in Paradise, California in November last year. They drove through flames, so I'm beyond grateful for their survival. While still picking up the pieces it's hard to imagine replacing the collection of tools and woods my father had, and we probably never will. It's pretty hard, he lost everything that he loved. But we're moving forward, piece by piece, day by day, and I truly hope one day soon he will be back to wood work. I'm not sure if it will be front boxes, but I just want to see him create again.

I never created any other posts or marketing about these front boxes other than this post from 10 years ago which I also put on cinematography.com. Like I said, it always just stayed a side project. I know we missed a lot of people who wanted one too, I wish we hadn't. Still, I received hundreds of emails from this post, as recent as today. I thank those people with an appreciation for the traditional AC craft and certainly a love of fine woodworking that reached out through the years. I truly appreciate you all. And to those that own one of the rare Stauss Front Boxes, I hope it serves you well on many sets(and don't forget to oil it every now and then).

Much Love...
 
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