Shooting in a dusty hot place

[Laura Creecy]

Sorry wasn't really sure where to post this - hoping some camera folks might have some inventive solutions - about to shoot a film 10 days in a dusty, dry, hot, place - any inventive solutions to try to keep the dirt dust out of my Mac Pro tower without completely covering it, stopping the airflow, and it overheating?

Hiding in the camera truck might stop some of it, but I am not sure its a practical solution at all times if the truck isn't near set.

 

[Stephen Pruitt]

So long as you're not talking huge amounts of dust in the air in an indoor environment, you should be fine for a short period of time. I mean, if your computer is indoors, it's likely to be okay. However, if you're talking about setting it up in the middle of a baseball diamond, you may have an issue.

We shot for an entire summer in a very not, dusty environment with our RED Ones, and I find it hard to believe that your Mac Pro is more vulnerable than a RED. I think you'll be fine.

Stephen

 

[Laura Creecy]

Close - think dirt roads on a ranch - It's been outside a lot in the city, on concrete, and it was pretty dirty on the inside after a month of that, took about 4 hours to carefully take everything out and can air/wipe the layer of dirt off everything. The whole front and back of the tower is swiss cheese to allow air to flow through to keep it cool.

 

[Marc Wielage]

Sorry wasn't really sure where to post this - hoping some camera folks might have some inventive solutions - about to shoot a film 10 days in a dusty, dry, hot, place - any inventive solutions to try to keep the dirt dust out of my Mac Pro tower without completely covering it, stopping the airflow, and it overheating?

You can't get a van or something? I think just a low-cost cargo van with a few metal shelves and chairs would be a lot better than putting a Mac Pro through the torture of desert heat and sand. I would definitely invest in a few fans to cool down the back of it, assuming you can't keep the van air conditioned. One trick is to run 12VDC fans at 6 volts, which only keeps them at half speed. That's not too annoying.

If it gets over 100 degrees, you could theoretically keep the side panel open, but Apple doesn't recommend it.

 

[Elsie N]

Get one of those inexpensive pop-up tents. That should give you dust protection. Heat dissipation could be something else.

Orrrrrrrrrr, you could build a box around it from those washable metallic electrostatic filters. Assuming the electrostatic properties do not in some way interfere with the machine itself.

 

[Laura Creecy]

I haven't built it yet, but my solution is going to try to velcro space blanket around the 2 long sides of my cart, which is parallel to the closed sides of the computer, to try to reflect the heat, and carefully ventilate it as needed. For the short ends of the cart, on one side try a air conditioner filter or something like that, to at least minimize dust being sucked into the front, and put one of those window fans (the kind that have two small fans and is long and rectangular to point out and exhaust the heat out from inside the cart. And of course try that under a popup tent as much as I an stand the heat.

Unfortunately, I dont think production has the budget to swing for a van, nor do I.