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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Jump Start My Red

S

Sam Crutsinger

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So I'm working this indie film called "Carried Away" in Fort Worth, TX right now and today we're on the road shooting exteriors and driving footage. Base camp ended up being a bit far from the action so they plugged the Red's battery charger into an inverter and plugged it into the 12v socket in the back of an SUV. Nobody realized that the dinky wire behind that 12v socket wouldn't get enough juice to the inverter and they found themselves needing to keep shooting but staring at 2 dead batteries.

I'm their DIT/Editor. I just came out to drop off some AA batteries and hung around to snap a few pictures. It's a good thing I was there. I saw that the inverter had a removable 12v cable that left 2 bare bolts poking out for POS and NEG hookups. I told the DP that his problem was that he didn't have enough amps getting into the inverter. It was *capable* of doing the job. It was a 400W inverter and the charger is 250W max I think. I told the DP I knew where he could get plenty of amps, and I scurried away and grabbed my jumper cables. We hooked the cables to the battery and clamped onto the input bolts on the inverter and everything lit up. They plugged the camera into the charger and shot several takes running the Red off of the car battery.

I looked at the producer and said "I'm pretty sure this is the first time anybody has powered their Red One with jumper cables."

redjumper1.jpg

redjumper2.jpg
 
No good.

No good.

Cail Young said:
Next time, use this:

http://www.red.com/store/409110
Click to expand...

I know that's the right tool for the job, but that wouldn't have worked, primarily because I didn't have one on me. The wiring behind the 12v accessory plug was too weak to supply the power. It was the TRUCK that was the problem.

I guess I could use that with a 12v extension cord and just keep moving from socket to socket until I found one with better gauge wiring behind it, but this was shooting in the middle of nowhere. We were burning daylight and this gig has a seriously hard core schedule with little room for failure. I had to make it work with what was available on the side of the highway.
 
Sam Crutsinger said:
I know that's the right tool for the job, but that wouldn't have worked, primarily because I didn't have one on me. The wiring behind the 12v accessory plug was too weak to supply the power. It was the TRUCK that was the problem.
Click to expand...

The 240V inverter is going to draw a lot more than the 22V inverter as transformer load.

That said, it's a great jerry-rig.
 
Andrew Walker said:
If the crew knew they were going to be in the middle of nowhere, why not bring a small generator?
Click to expand...

We didn't know we were going to be in the middle of nowhere. For some reason the takes kept driving us farther away from base camp.
 
Justin Kirchhoff said:
Hey Sam, where exactly in Fort Worth are you guys shooting? Digital Shakedown is based here and I could provide RED support if needed. PM for any future problems or projects.
Click to expand...

Burleson, Waxahachie, Oak Cliff, I-30, I-35W, all over the place, but mostly in the western half of DFW. We'll be driving the shoot out to Arizona for the last couple of weeks. I can't wait to shoot Arcosanti, AZ.
 
Andrew Walker said:
If the crew knew they were going to be in the middle of nowhere, why not bring a small generator?
Click to expand...

Basically, everybody "knew" they could charge the batteries off the inverter plugged into the 12v socket. What they didn't know was that the socket it was plugged into wasn't cutting it. It wasn't until they went through their 2nd battery and went back to grab the other one off the charger that they saw it was still dead.

Shoulda, coulda, woulda. Live and learn. In the end, we covered the shot list and stayed on schedule with a little duct tape engineering. At the end of the day, that's what matters. Git 'er dun! ;-)
 
Hi Benjamin,

I'm the DI Colorist at 12 Forward in Dallas. I've been a film and digital colorist in Dallas since 1983.

I use Assimilate's SCRATCH for color grading and finishing. http://www.assimilateinc.com/

We own a RED One which has allowed us to become a reliable solution for RED One workflow.

Here's an FTP site which has two of my demo reels. http://12forward.com/omar/

You can email me for more info.
 
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