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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 :)

View factor studios - FF & RED motors

Curran Giddens said:
I appreciate any feature (like the breathing elimination mode) that can help a non-professional (like myself) to pull focus. I think you are taking the right approach....
Click to expand...

But eliminating breathing can be take care of quite easily in post.

Don't get me wrong on this I think features are great. It's just the tried and true methods are most often there because they work. For example a mercedes with every feature on earth but no steering wheel or brakes is probably not going to make the driver that happy even if it has the most advanced GPS system on the market.

I pulled focus for almost 10 years and the best young focus pullers I now work with still use traditional methods they just have a few new tricks and tools they add to them.

I am pretty sure I am doing a really bad job of explaining the small additions needed to make this as good if not better then current high end models on the market. What I am recomending seems to me like it would be a very simple thing to add. I also am in no way undermining what Curt has done as I do not have the skills to achieve what he produces and does. I do however have a long relationship with the follow focus wheel and even though different things about it may seem small I can assure you that many things that seem unimportant are key elements. Think of it this way there are big time proffesional focus puller making over $250,000 a year that spend 12hrs or more a day for possibly their whole career just spinning that focus wheel. Even though it may seem unbeliveablysimple their are key things that seperate a good follow focus from a prosumer one. I understand Curran that you want features that will help you or the focus pullers you hire to do a good job its just you would be suprised at how effective a simple white marking disc or a raised rotatable focus mark will be in the process.
 
I uploaded this picture that may help. Having a white disc like this that spins with the follow focus wheel and has a stationary black outside surround with a focus mark point that can be rotated and locked would be perfect. I do not see this being that hard to incorporate.
 
Daren,I totally understand what you are talking about and believe me we didn't just say to ourselves " lets get rid of that stupid white thing." I respect that there is a certain way things are currently done but on the same token I want to try and innovate and takes steps forward rather than do what everyone else is doing just because thats the way its always been. If our culture continued to design around the current way that things are done then we would still be hand cranking our cameras. All I ask is that people try out something new and see if it makes their lives easier. I can easily add the ring and thats not a problem. I do think that the time that will be saved by never having to look for a pre-marked ring and never having to correlate lens positions to the focus ring may be a benefit to some people. Getting rid of lens breathing would be huge for the indie guys that can't afford $10K in glass. There is a huge number of non-pros that are buying the red camera and I think a large number of the sales on this system will be coming from them. BTW, the time that it takes to move the lens to one stop and back to the other may not even be 20 seconds.. thats just a guess. It might be 10 seconds, it depends on the lens.
 
Thats cool Curt. It will be interesting to see how it all plays out. Your new system may very well become the industry standard of the future. I just wanted to explain the little tricks focus pullers do with the current standard configuration.

As far as the recalibration of a motor goes I know exactly how long it takes to run a preston and arri motor through the range and yours may run quicker. I just have run into times in the past on set where that small wait was just a little too long. Mainly due to a grumpy director, star or DP that is looking for blood and you don't want to be the one sticking your neck out at that point.:gun:

When you break it all down I am one of your biggest fans. I am confident from what I have seen of your work you will put out the best matte box going and the look and ergonomics of your follow focus is better then anything on the market right now. I look forward to using your equipment soon and for many years in the future.

I am sorry if I came across harsh or super critical as that was not my intention. Because I am blunt and speak my mind I can tend to come across that way sometimes.
 
No worries... I have thick skin :) I really appreciate comments on our stuff, it makes me think more about what we are doing and why. In the end it doesn't do us any good to ignore the customers.
 
Nice looking stuff there Curt.
Would it be possible to include one of those little pizeo electric speakers in the unit that says "You blew the split...ASSHOLE!" at the end of the take?
 
Curt,

This is probally stupid to even ask but, does the control unit have reversing switches to allow oppisite rotation of function while keeping the direction the knobs turn the same?

Chuck
 
Curt, I wasn't aware of the Mirus before now but having looked at the specs and photos, it would seem to be a normal style head with the addition of motors and a computer to make everything repeatable, adjustable etc.

I am starting my company with a clean slate as far as equipment goes - instead of buying a regular head AND a moco head, is it possible to use your Mirus as a full time head and if so, will it stack up in quality of movement to the major players' offerings such as O'Connor, Satchler et al? Is there variable damping, a manual override switch or something that allows the electronics to be switched off when not needed, turning it into a normal head until a moco shot is needed?

My reasoning being that it would be better to spend a bit more on one head and get the whole box and dice, than to have to buy and carry two heads around the place for a shoot.

Cheers for your efforts across the board, I'm keeping a close eye on your FF and MB for my two rigs too as well as the Red Motors, SuperGrip and other bits :)
 
Hi CVB,

The Remote looks great !

Could you explain better the idea of skipping the markable focus ring in favor of having presets ? In the situations where you use a remote nothing is preset, everything is changing all the time! crane, steadicam and hand-held.

The focus puller needs an easy to read system as their attention is cycling from the camera position to the subject to the focus disk and back again.

It's never going to work like everybody is on the green set of marks, press the green button.

Add all the cool features you like, but don't skip anything vital and necessary for frou-frou stuff.

I'm a huge fan BTW. If you'd like to discuss further and get in touch with some focus pullers / have a set visit etc. send me a PM.

Matt Uhry
www.mattuhry.com
 
visceralpsyche said:
I am starting my company with a clean slate as far as equipment goes - instead of buying a regular head AND a moco head, is it possible to use your Mirus as a full time head and if so, will it stack up in quality of movement to the major players' offerings such as O'Connor, Satchler et al? Is there variable damping, a manual override switch or something that allows the electronics to be switched off when not needed, turning it into a normal head until a moco shot is needed?

My reasoning being that it would be better to spend a bit more on one head and get the whole box and dice, than to have to buy and carry two heads around the place for a shoot.
Click to expand...

I am in the same position here. Starting my company from scratch and I'm hoping to use Mirus as a full-time head.
 
Where can you find out info on the Mirus and see images?

Viewfactors site has been just a holding page for a year now?
 
visceralpsyche said:
Will it stack up in quality of movement to the major players' offerings such as O'Connor, Satchler et al? Is there variable damping, a manual override switch or something that allows the electronics to be switched off when not needed, turning it into a normal head until a moco shot is needed?
Click to expand...
Thats the general idea. The head is setup so that you can move it around using the pan-tilt bar and chose to record or not. I'd suggest you just record everything... never know when you might need it. The head has on board flash data storage (4 GB) and that will cover about quite a number of hours of recording. You can also archive the data to a computer to free up space.
The system has user definable attributes for max speed, ease in, ease out etc. that will allow you to make it feel like a fluid head or what ever you like.
As far as disconnecting the electronics goes... nope. The electronics are what makes everything work. The input bar sends an electronic signal to the computer that is used to control the motors... no effort is needed to move the head back and forth. In the coming months we will have some tutorials online so you can see what we're talking about.


Matt Uhry said:
Could you explain better the idea of skipping the markable focus ring in favor of having presets ? In the situations where you use a remote nothing is preset, everything is changing all the time! crane, steadicam and hand-held.
Click to expand...
We understand that there are many situations where nothing is preset but then again there are situations where things are preset. The idea behind the presets are for the moco side of the motors... say you want to do a motion controlled rack focus, its totally possible using presets because the pull will be exactly the same each time you use it. The red motors are capable of much more than just turning a lens and we have some other things in store that you guys aren't clued into yet :)

Matt Uhry said:
Add all the cool features you like, but don't skip anything vital and necessary for frou-frou stuff.
Click to expand...
No doubt, we'll make sure that the vital stuff is there.


BTW.... Nick, the website is now forwarding to viewfactor.net. Thanks for the suggestion.
 
cool, I was not aware of this site.

So is it possible to use the Mirus as a standard Head with tripod as I'm looking at getting a O'connor 2060 and if Mirus will do the same job plus more would be very cool.
 
So the Mirus needs power so I'm am understanding it correctly that it can't work as a O'connor as you need to plug it in to work or is it battery powered?
 
Yes, it runs on 24-48V. We will have a battery pack available for the 48V option within a couple months of shipping. We are going to try and have an accessory power output to run other things besides the head.
 
Thanks Curt, now I get it!

I LOVE the idea of using the electronics to effectively simulate a normal head type, with regard to ease in/out, feeling like a fluid head etc. I guess the only potential gotcha is running out of power for it at an inopportune moment, but then again that can happen with any part of the electronics jungle on a film set and is by no means limited to the moco head!

Consider me interested, will keep a close eye on developments before my cameras ship :)
 
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