Bored - what's there to shoot?

[Avi Cohen]

Im about to shoot my frind being pepper sprayed @ 300 frames here this week in LA

Maybe you can come be a 3rd angle.

 

[Will Keir]

I don't spew negativity at any of my fellow artists, only love and positivity! We are in this together. I wish only success for everyone, including you Will. All the best.

Good to hear, I'm right there with you bud.

 

[Will Keir]

I'd like to see a pic of this little device you rigged.

Hi Joseph, don't know if anyone has mentioned this yet, but I also cannot afford V-lock batteries at the moment. I am busy shooting a horror feature and needed power on various locations, so I bought a 70amp 12 volt deep cycle leisure battery (£45) which gives me about 840 watts of storage. I also bought a pure sine wave inverter, a more expensive model (£70) which has all sorts of inbuilt protection... it also sounds an alarm 10 minutes before the battery is depleted, giving ample warning to shut down the RED in time before the power goes out.

Total cost of my portable remote power solution = £ 115 (roughly $180)... I know for a fact that stuff is generally cheaper in the US, so you should be able to get away with a lot less.

My battery inverter solution works perfectly and I had 6 hours shooting out of it the other day without having to shut down.... don't know what the actual life would be, sure there would be some loss in the inverter conversion but for this type of inverter it's apparently less then 10%.

I also carry a 20 metre extension as I needed handheld through the forest shots and it worked great in cold weather.

There's a solution for what to shoot: Bare stark winter trees... they look beautiful and ominous at the same time.

 

[Julian Gerretsen]

I'd like to see a pic of this little device you rigged.

Hi Will,

Link to a small gallery of shots:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150784568647265.466599.693402264&type=3&l=7038854687​

Let me know if you have any problems accessing it. I couldn't give you the full demo and plug my red AC supply into the inverter for the photo as the AC supply is currently at the location, 30 miles away!

I'm no rocket scientist, so this is just basically off-the-shelf components. I'm in the UK, so prices are probably dearer and availability poorer, so you should have no trouble sourcing these in the US.

The battery and cigarette lighter lead with clamps are from a camping shop:

http://www.gooutdoors.co.uk/numax-75ah-sealed-leisure-caravanning-battery-p96547


I bought the inverter from an electronics supply place - looks like the price has gone up slightly...

http://www.maplin.co.uk/pure-sine-wave-150w-12v-inverter-386169


Theoretically, the battery holds a full 75ah: 75 X 12 = 900 watts of available draw

This type of inverter is apparently about 90% efficient, so to be safe, add another 10% of loss, so if you are getting 80% efficiency out of it, that's a total of 720 watts available on a single charge to power the camera.

The red with the LCD draws (I think) about 70 watts an hour. So a single charge should last roughly 10 hours or so. Plenty for those remote shots. Like I say, I've had at least 6 hours out of it without needing to shut down.

You could probably get a smaller deep cycle battery if you wanted something lighter. There are much smaller 20ah units that only weigh about 12lbs. Should give you around 3 hours.

The inverter is a super duper pure sine wave 150 watt model which is supposed to deliver cleaner power than normal household AC, so far the RED AC box hasn't complained at all. So it should be very safe with the camera as there is lots of inbuilt protection in the inverter: surge, under voltage, short circuit etc.

This is a pretty basic and crude setup, but it works. Look, on a lo-budget film like this, it was a choice between forking out $1600 on convenient v-locks in order to be able to shoot in a remote forest or having that same amount of money to spend on creature effects. Effects won.​

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[Al Lougher]

If you can fly to South Florida I have a short film shooting April 21st you are more than welcome to bring your camera (same goes for anyone else )

 

[reuben colazo]

I just got an MX and I am/was in the same boat with my girlfriend. Not fun.

Ha! You have an epic and nothing to shoot? Then why did you buy it? My problem is that ever since getting mine, I have only time for 3 things, shooting, post and reduser! Seriously, Epic 1241, is tiring me out. i have shot the last 12 of 14 days -all days 12 hours at least and at least half were 14 to 16 hours... and the two off days were spent with red cine x doing one lights and transcodes. My girlfriend wants to break up. My kids are pissed I couldn't take them to John Carter. My dog is lonely. My eyesight is blurry. I dont know what is going on with current events. I have not eaten a proper hot meal. My epic is a bitch and she has me whipped.. I am happy.....

 

[Joseph S.]

Ever since I got the side handle, I haven't put the camera down.