Some film school students from Savannah were in town last weekend shooting the director's thesis which I guess is like a final in film school. I had driven by and noticed the activity had the earmarks of a film shoot and had to go investigate and gaze at the equipment which was an F900 with a lens to die for. Sorry for you guys that are used to being around this stuff. Here in this little town of 4000 my PD170's are as exciting as it gets. This was the car lover’s equivalent of seeing the latest Ferrari. I’ve attached some pics of the camera. The movie’s title is “Chuck”. I really don’t know any more details about the project. They were busy with a very tight shooting schedule so I didn’t want to interrupt.

Hey Lamar,

I guess they have to use the 900, since another student crew recently dropped their Varicam... There's a fair amount of actual professional high-end production going on around here. Of course, they wouldn't know about it at SCAD since they basically don't communicate with the local production community. I suppose it's just as well.

Ouch! Thats gotta hurt. The Operator/DP was always very good at maintaining control of the camera or getting someone else to when it was not locked down. It reminded me of maintaining c-spine control on an accident victim. Ya think they're extra sensitive to this at SCAD after the Varicam drop??? :-)

......since another student crew recently dropped their Varicam.......

since another student crew recently dropped their Varicam...


Yikes!!!

He should have to put that on his resume....lol

I know mistakes happen, but wow.

It's why you insure equipment. An experienced pro I worked with had one of his most trusted guys drop a high-end Betacam rig into the ocean a few years back. Fortunately, they were in shallow, clear water. He dove in and got it, and they dumped a cooler on the boat, filled it with salt water and carried the camera back to his house still submerged in sea water.

At home, he ran a fresh water bath, transfered the camera into the tub and let it sit for a few days. Then, had an engineer come over and do some surgery in his bathroom to make sure all the circuit boards, heads and transports didn't have any salt deposits prior to removing the camera from the bath.

After a proper, and extended period of drying, they put all pieces back together, and it fired right up! Lucky, I guess.

In any case, yeah - you can drop a lot of stuff on set. But the camera is the last thing you want to see take a fall. Especially something like a Varicam. I know very little about the school's property, and it's quite likely that wasn't their only Varicam - I couldn't tell you that. I was just cracking wise about their student crews. I was once a know-it-all student, too. But those memories get foggier with each passing year. :)