Meet The Gaffer #78: More Menace Arm Rigging & Multi-Guest Interview 

This is nothing compared to what you do! Thank you.

Well I think this stuff is wizardry and love how you break it all down for us noobs. Would love to buy you a beer or two or three someday!

That sounds good to me:) I should know this, but where are you based?

I'm in Chicagoland. Hit me up if you're ever in town!

Will do! I grew up in Worth (South West of Chicago), But have not been back more than 3-4 times since the early 70’s:)

You are most welcome. Happy to help!

Looking forward to seeing that!

I’m glad you find it helpful! All the best out there, Tyler.

I was thinking the same, but I noticed how bent the speedrail is, just using support at the end with ratchet straps between the beams could become a safety issue, last thing he wants is a skypanel on a lady's head and to not get called back for another shoot. Maybe he safety chained to something on the ceiling ?

If you look at 8:08 you can see a concrete beam crossing the ceiling from left to right. I was thinking 4 furniture clamps with ratchet straps strait down to the menace arms.

It is very possible, that the property manager or owner doesn't want any gear hanging off their building including their metal beams. We have encountered that scenario before. Doesn't matter if it is historical or not, it is not up for debate. We must abide to their wishes, after all we are guests to their property even though the production pays a rental for it.

@@EDDY69 I'd hope that "not getting called back" is not the worst consequence a gaffer could imagine in the event a skypanel was dropped on someone's head!

👍🏻

Hi Matt, We’ll see what happens, but these days I don’t end up on too many larger shoots. It will happen, but probably not right away:)

Thank you! Appreciate the encouraging feedback... I’m glad there are people out there who find the effort worthwhile:)

You cannot believe how helpful this totally specialised, professional insight is to students of the craft of lighting. I recommend this resource to all my Year 3 students at Birmingham City University. You are cutting edge, my friend, no textbooks discuss the situations you cover,, period.

Great! Glad to be of service. It would be fun to visit your neck of the woods some day... I’ve only been as far as Oxford.

If you’re interested, I added a link to a photo that Alan sent showing the over-under technique of the second stand in a two stand config. It’s in the explanation of MTG#77. Cheers.

@Luke #BringBackPieMakingEpisodes ;-)

Do you light two person interviews with far side keys using CRLS?

@@meetthegaffer unfortunately i got my crls end of 2019. By the time i got a chance to use them all of 2020 happened and I didn't work the whole year. So we shall see what 2021 brings. For now, I do little experiments at home and get inspiration from a select few youtubers! :)

Ha, ha!

I don’t have experience with Kupo.#77&78 talk about menace arms a bit...

Your welcome:)

That will work fine, but I doubt you’ll need the ratchet strapping for a few LiteMats. Just a regular sleeve should do. Interestingly, when there is a bow due to weight in the middle of a length of pipe, you want to invert the menace fitting and ratchet on the bottom side. Is this instance you prob don’t need either way. Hope that makes sense.

It’s always part of the early conversations! How many crew are you allowed? On smaller shoots the favorite answer is that there will be people to help😉 The main thing is thinking through how much time you will actually have to load-in, set-up the first shot, and then breakdown to move to the next set-up, or even jump ahead to the next shot while the first is being shot. You have to reinterpret what you are being told into reality. That takes experience. Other people will always downplay how much time it will take you, so you need to think it through and stand up for your department. If you have time you can do a lot alone, but will you have that time and will it be safe? In time you get a feel for the personnel, expertise, and time it will take to complete given scenarios. And then always figure there may be delays for unforeseen issues you may have no control over. If time is not an issue on the back-end, I always ask that we add to the front-end. It never healthy to rush:)

Offset is fine, I’m just picky😀

@@meetthegaffer Thanks! 🙏

I had help from the camera and sound guys, just not dedicated grips:)

Wondering the same too.

In retrospect it may have been possible, but you know how it is when you map things out on a set up day and try to provide as much room as possible because it’s not precisely known where all the cameras will land. Once they landed I was able to find two spots for the goalpost stands, which have a much smaller footprint than the menace arm stands. It’s a dance:)

Makes sense! An insight to real world situations.

Luke Seerveld that‘s such a good point you make. Every setup is different, and the less you know before, the more Improvisation you have to do on set. This improvisation is a part of this work I love. Thanks for sharing all this.

Hi Redd, One of the invaluable sections of Alan Steinheimer’s book, “Shaping Light For Video”, is the many pages of glossary... Scratch Light: An edge light, often subtle, delineating one side of the subject’s head. Hope that helps!

Thank you Luke! Learning a lot from you!

Ha, ha! I’m glad you find it helpful.

That should work just fine. The stand does sound quite beefy… I’m not familiar with those, but I’ve seen pictures.

@@meetthegaffer Thanks Luke! Hey Andrew Lock did a good episode on the Avenger Super Wind-up Stand if you want to watch it.

This is all speed rail, 1 1/4” aluminum, schedule 40 pipe. The menace arm kit is from Modern Studio Equipment, not Matthews. Hope that helps?

it does, thank you

Well, the placement wasn’t quite right and yes the length and strength probably not up to it:)

This might have worked, maybe with an 800 joker, but everyone was seated quite far apart. The trick was getting a good amount of soft yet directional light, from the lowest vantage point, as opposed to just a soft glow from above, into the faces of the women in the individual chairs, including the host. I love that everyone is trying to solve the problem in their own way. There is no one perfect way:)

Indeed. You had a very complex problem to solve and I can only imagine it takes all your many years experience to find the solution you explained. Priceless!

They were probably 12ft + 8ft pipes connected to make 20ft lengths, something like that. But it was 5 years ago, so not sure. 😬

With experience you learn what is safe, but often it’s wise to make other people feel safe by having as little bend as possible. In this case it was safe but as you point out, to some it may appear on the edge.

@@meetthegaffer That´s right. I am not familiar with goal posts (nor building with pipes), so I wondered.

It’s a good question because safety should always be top of mind:)

Yup, that has been my experience at times when working on network affiliated pieces where the original exec producer doesn’t believe a separate lighting person is needed. The camera person in charge often has to sell a kidney to bring someone like me on and then it’s assumed everyone will help. I said yes, so it’s on me... and I had a great time:)

Do you mean amazon or B&H links to gear?

Yes please. Love to help financially help you buy buying gear through your link

Sorry, I’m a crappy marketer🤪

Maybe! A lot of ways to approach it. When shooting up into a bounce you have to have a clear path for the beam of light. With all the moving parts I didn’t really know what to expect.

I get you on the beam of light thing especially with roaming can ops or the director changing the the blocking. Overall it seems the s60 kippered you a bit - they seem quite heavy compared to plastic panels or even flexible panels on four by frames.

.. My next buy will definitely be a flexible/cloth panel that could be taped to a ceiling, wall or bit of poly. Any tips beyond Brightcast?

A lot of people use LiteMats by LiteGear. Up to this point I have not really been a fan. What I like about LiteMats are the “barndoors” and diffusion system. I don’t like that they aren’t flexible, that output was not exciting, and the connectors and lack of straightforward DMX. I like Aladdin’s cable connectors and battery/DMXable solution. What I’m looking forward to is Aladdin’s 3’x3’ Fabric Lite.

Good point! That could have worked, but I didn’t have crank-ups readily avail by the time I realized the Skypanels were a bit much for my first attempt @ rigging:)

Luke Seerveld Thanks, I was just wondering if and when you make a ‘switch’. Or if trusses are used at all on the road. I am used to gaffers ‘protecting’ their knowledge and it is nice to have people like you who likes to share. Grtz from Belgium :-)

If I did the same rig over and over I would figure out a better way of doing it, but since it doesn’t come up that often I don’t sit down and consider all the options and plan ahead to the next time I have to rig a similar Q&A... but I should! Thank you to everyone for keeping me on my toes:)