Welcome to our community

Be a part of something great, join today!

Log in
  • 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 :)

VFS Inclino, Imperio, Origo News ??

Status
Not open for further replies.
Hi Guys, I saw Curt earlier this week. I was shooting near buy his shop and he brought my motor back to me after repair. (I guess one of my guys blew it up by plugging the power directly into the motor.) He showed me a proto of a sweet little focus controller for the 5d and 7d cameras. It could sell thousands, if so it would be good news for all of us.
 
Rich Schaefer said:
Hi Guys, I saw Curt earlier this week. I was shooting near buy his shop and he brought my motor back to me after repair. (I guess one of my guys blew it up by plugging the power directly into the motor.) He showed me a proto of a sweet little focus controller for the 5d and 7d cameras. It could sell thousands, if so it would be good news for all of us.
Click to expand...

Could it be that due to this thread going quiet they think we've all given up and they can get away with developing a new product line before they've shipped a boatload of 2yr+ overdue Inclino/Imperos that have been ALREADY PAID FOR???!!!!

I know Curt & Co. need income streams to defray the cost of the wireless FF failure - but when I read posts like this and see tweets from Rodney Charters boasting about Curt playing around on the set of 24 with 5D cages - I can't help but feel monumentally had.

Curt - how about another couple of sentences on here to let us know that work on Inclino/Impero is still underway despite your new endeavours?

After all - we're your damn investors.
 
I think that is all the wireless focus can handle. DSLR Lenses since they do not have long travel and very little resistance. I tried mine on Ultraprimes and Red Pro Primes and the unit shut down after 8-10 turns of the focus wheel. Sent it back 3 times and still did the same thing so I got my money back. Also, customer put the AA batteries in the Impero backwards and the batteries exploded inside. Also I spoke to Curt about putting different connectors for power and the like so that you can't just plug anything into anywhere. If the plug fits, people will plug it in without reading and this will happen again & again. I am over it already. What a waste of time and money.
 
Since I am now out of the boat completely (finally got my refund, only 4 weeks later than they said. What? You really thought they would issue anything on time?!) I for one would like to ask the remaining people (especially the ones in California) if something can be done legally. I feel bad for all of you, especially those of you who had to go on set time after time, renting replacement gear for something you had "bought". Or like me had, had to go on set to do a steadicam/whatever job and had to have to production rent a follow focus for you, even though you thought you had bought both the steadicam (love my floatcam by the way) and follow focus. Every producer I worked with looked at me like I was some poor kid fresh out of film school. Luckily some looked past that to my work but most are all about convenience. I am absolutely appalled that someone like Curt is able to keep functioning in our business and when I hear about his company using our money to manufacture products that get onto big sets (24) I want to yell loudly. He has stood on our backs to get his money to do that and our thanks is NOTHING. That is fraud in my book. I would love to sue him for lost jobs and time or have someone in CA talk to a DA about charges. I would be more than willing to write up my experience for both. This person is appalling and his manner of doing business even more so, especially to filmmakers (I am sure I stand with the majority in this forum) that try complete our craft in an honest and hard working manner. These leaches like Curt drain our resources and time making it harder to get good products. Those of you who want to defend by all means I will read on and listen but two years of no product for $2000 is at least fraud (misrepresenting the use for that money as payment for product, when really it was investment in product development) if not out and out thievery (taking money from people against their will without return). Please sound in about your thoughts. This kind of behavior has to be stopped in our business.
 
wow this thread is so demoralizing. I guess the first thing people who are owed money should confirm that the deposits were 100% refundable - meaning VFS didn't have a loophole embedded in the legal-speak somewhere. I suppose you can claim fraud and since their primary form of business is advance fees over the internet you can take this to both the federal trade commission and more importantly the FBI. I suppose you can try the CA attorney general's office and just forward them your story along with a link to this thread.

http://ag.ca.gov/consumers/general.php

I hope this thing works out well for everyone concerned.
 
Benjamin Zimbric said:
Please sound in about your thoughts. This kind of behavior has to be stopped in our business.
Click to expand...

You make it sound as if the way things went were predetermined. As if Curt had a master plan all along. You either didn't follow the unfolding of the story or you are just trying to make a false impression.

Anything that could go wrong during the development of the Impero-Inclino went wrong. Curt could either ship a bad quality product or take the heat from the delays and rework the product until it was up to the standards he set from the beginning.

You can accuse VF for many things (we have discussed it to the death in this thread) but fraud is far fetched.

The new products they are developing are a way to keep the company alive and complete and finish the remaining Impero-Inclino preorders.

Obviously everyone has a different waiting threshold and some people canceled their orders but they got their money back even if it took a few weeks.
 
You have no case beyond the deposit. If you requested a refund and you were delayed over 30 days, I suppose you could claim lost interest, but that's it.

Everyone loves to talk of sueing, but the fact is that aside from not rolling out his product well, he has refunded the money of the people that have asked for it.. Perhaps a little slow at times, but he's done it.

Curt's repuation has been damaged by this project, and for that I feel terrible for him. He may be working on another product, but many will choose to look elsewhere in order to avoid what has happened here. This will hurt Curt far more than a lawsuit.

Bottom line: He's a good person that was unsuccessful in getting this product out in the way he wanted. I wish him all the best.

Jay
 
Everyone keeps talking about what a nice guy he is... if I am driving down the road and I fail to stop at a stop sign and run over a little old lady it's a crime. I'm a nice guy, I didn't mean to do it, it just happened. Still a crime. Is it understandable that I feel bad about it... sure. If I apologize to everyone involved and try to do everything in my power to fix the wrong does that carry some weight... sure. If I say and do nothing to fix the wrong does that make the crime worse? What if my only contact with the people I wronged comes in the form of them finding out that I'm using the insurance money for my car to buy motorcycles and showgirls to entice more people to come get run over? I'm sure he's a great guy. Doesn't make what he did any better.

After this I rest my case. I just wanted to take everyone's temperature and see how others felt. Most don't feel as I do. My only thought was to make sure this doesn't happen to other filmmakers, not hurt feelings or cut people down. This is business not personal, but it's still the business I love and I want everyone to do great things in it, stories like this only make it harder.

I wish you all the best of luck getting your items, and wish nothing but the best to all of you. We are all the cutting edge of this industry, let's keep pushing and trying new things to make it better. That is, after all, why we are on these forums long after sleep should have arrived. We care and we don't want that next thing to pass us by.
 
Well, at least the guy is trying. That douche that made the carrion monitors (gee no irony there) has just walked away. What I learned from this whole experience was, Don't put something up for sale, unless it on the shelf ready for delivery.
 
Maybe but dont generalize it, RED basically did the same thing in the past where people call them as a scam, it's their experiment at first. But these carrion and VF are unfortunate, altho i did get my carrion and is still happy with it, but that doesnt apply for others that didnt get it. As for VF, i have got my refund and nothing more to say but i'm still shook my head that Curt still doesnt deliver anything ready to be use for those who are still waiting.

This is gambling game, but at least Curt refund you and he is not hiding but Luis dont, he is missing in action.
 
Martin Weiss said:
RivaiC, to compare this business activity (or lack thereof) with RED's is at best far-fetched. RED always kept their cutomers in the loop and were the first to say when there was a delay. They never went MIA.
Click to expand...

Since when i said RED went MIA ? Luis went MIA not RED, please reread.

RED kept you in the loop but the fact is there's never a ready product yet and people believe in them and put 10% downpayment anyway. Same thing with VF and Carrion, there are no differences on that. There is no ready product yet.

What makes the difference is at the end RED delivered beyond what they promised altho there was some delay. But VF and Carrion took 100% of the money and failed to deliver. Curt didnt run away, he's here (he keeps you update until lately went quiet) but Luis went MIA completely (altho not in my case).

PS. I was replying to Nick statement : "Don't put something up for sale, unless it on the shelf ready for delivery."
 
Jay A. Kelley said:
You have no case beyond the deposit. If you requested a refund and you were delayed over 30 days, I suppose you could claim lost interest, but that's it.

Everyone loves to talk of sueing, but the fact is that aside from not rolling out his product well, he has refunded the money of the people that have asked for it.. Perhaps a little slow at times, but he's done it.

.....

Jay
Click to expand...

Unfortunately Curt is not returning any deposits for quite some time. I tried to reach anybody in their office for 3 weeks already and sent many emails. The phone is set to answering machine. The emails are not even read. No word about new units and progress in shipping. All that combined means just one thing - It is finally (officially) over. I can not be sure about the legal aspect, but isn't when somebody owes a lot of money to many people and can not return them, this company hat to declare a bankrupt. One thing is sure Curt haven't good enough parts to produce working units and he don't have money to manufacture a new ones. He is struggling to gain some other revenue streams developing and selling other products and eventually collect enough money so he can return the deposits, and this probably will happen eventually, but not in the next 2 years. I think that all those people that asked for their deposits long time ago and never got any response should be more loud, because many others still think that there is something boiling behind the scene. It's sad but the fire is long gone and there is even no smoke left.
 
I got mail today, from VF.. It didn't sound that they are out of business yet, but waiting for some impero boards. It seems like I've heard the exact same excuse a year ago, but atleast its a sign of life..
 
Victor,
If Curt has indeed "skipped town" and still has people's money, then that is another story all together. I have not heard that this happened, but then, I am not too involved with this situation either.

Jay
 
I just saw curt not to long ago. He seemed to be working just as hard as ever. I know they recently received tooling back from china so they can make parts here in the USA. Ive seen boxes with shipments going out and extra cables and all kinds of stuff try make.

I know he is working on a few new things while he's waiting for some new parts but it's all kind of related and will benefit the Inclino , Imperio crowd.

It's pretty exciting stuff. But curt wants to make sure it's perfect.
Things are shipping and people are using there units all over the world.

It's a small family run operation, and they are there day in and day our all day.
Be patient and good things will arrive.

I don't work of VF Studios , and don't speak for them.
But I have been using their tools for over a year maybe 2.
 
I have to echo Ernesto's comments.
We too have Been using our system for
almost a year. The motors, after a few
upgrades are flawless. The system
syncs very quickly and is very easy to
use. We hope Curt enables hard stops
soon. I know it's not what people want
to hear but I don't think VF is going
anywhere, the system is just too good
for that to happen. If you can hang in
there, you will be impressed.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top