Ants have been weather forecasters for years.

The birds are a bit weird. The magpies and other birds we have over here have a distinct breeding season.

About two months ago, there was a trace of rain.

The place went nuts for about two days. In broad daylight, a female bandicoot crashed into the big front window with a male in hot pursuit. The magpies started their breeding season territorial arguments and brood behaviour for a day or so. The wood pigeons, which are among nature's most randiest creatures got stuck into it.

I guess that for when breeding season climate is not right, there is a Plan B written into their genetic memory somewhere. They may well cope better with climate change than us.

At last, Damien Giglietta has posted "Trespass" a horror short made here in the West of Australia. Here it can be found :-

YouTube - ‪Trespass (2009)‬‏ (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOWEICWd5so)

If anyone has some advice could you tell me if it is possible to get a smooth slow-mo in CS5, ramping down would be even better. Here is the clip. The rampdown and freezeframe I want to do in the very last shot. The pacing is a bit weird. It is to fit an underscore.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhiE4a3Xrrw

For the sake of satisfying curiosity, after a fade to head title over black, this clip, a rough assembly, is what the first clip leads into. Warning to the sensitive, two words of offensive language in dialog.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgUP0_yoPC4

The two links above will now be dead-ends. My apologies. I had a little bit of a mishap when reposting an adjusted clip. I will post the new link here soon.

My furthur apology for not posting the new link. I had hoped to replace one of the clips on an old link but could not make it happen.

Here is a link to a short clip of a film-making program brought to the Roleystone District High School in Western Australia, by Lee Chambers, visiting Canadian academic, director and more recently, author of a published novel,"The Pineville Heist".

With director of photography, David Lemay, the students were involved in a small filmed production worktitled "Hugh Jackman Saves The World."

The project was shot on 16mm motion picture film, 50D and 250D, (I think) with an ARRI SR2 camera furnished by Murdoch University, one of the four institutions in or near to Perth, Western Australia.

I took the SI2K camera along for them to also have a look at and shot some behind-the-scenes. David had a look at it and the "look" ( low contrast ) was chosen by him for a few test frames and remained for the rest of my bit of behind-the-scenes imaging for the day.

Originally to be shot outdoors on the sports ground, the project had to moved indoors as the rain poured down.

Behind-the-scenes shooting with an SI2K might be overdoing things a bit, however why not as it was already set up.

Anyway - here is the link :-

‪BEHIND THE SCENES OF "MAKE IT SHORT" PROGRAM 2011.‬‏ - YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrJz3lr4hrg)

After a while, the short movie "Trespass" has been posted on youtube by director Damien Giglietta. As I understand things, it was the young gun team's first venture outside of film school.

It was shot on Steve Rice's SI2K, then a loaner demonstrator from P+S, who were building a camera for him. The camera I now have.

Here's the clip.

Trespass (2009) - YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=eOWEICWd5so)

Damien Giglietta has posted his secondlast project, "Two Minds" on YouTube. It was shot on Steve Rice's SI2K. I was there for the most of it, bothering the cameraman by making sure he used a focus chart on his static setups instead of going by eye and LCD screen.

It was shot with default look selected, then in the final grade a sallow mood appearance was given to it.

The sound and dialogue needed a lot of work as there was a demented cutting machine working in the factory unit next door - on a Sunday. The noise next door started off with loud music from a workshop radio. They managed to persuade him to use a ipod player and headset which the soundie provided. Then he started the machine.

WARNING. There is some profound language and gore.

TWO MINDS (2010) - YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TiTGu_n2tCU)

This is a bit of a double post. I also mentioned this furthur down on the cineform threads.


The teacher in charge of overseeing the students at Roleystone District High School's "Smarter Than Smoking" contest project has advised me recently it finished up well. I am advised they took out two of the main awards of the awards evening; best filming and best overall advert! Good finish all up.

Their ad will apparently be presented in some of the local cinemas and be part of an ongoing anti-smoking campaign.

They shot on my SI2K in DVR2, used camera audio for synctrack for some shots and camera-mute double-system for others. They recorded audio to Zoom H4n digital recorders using Rode NTG3 mikes, had some loaner fresnel lights and flouros, and did post in Final Cut Pro on a Mac.

The pic below is from last year when Steve Rice provided a show and tell about the SI2K system at the high school.


FOOTNOTE: That is not Steve Rice instructing on the camera.

For the sake of prepping a concept rush of a small corporate shot by Darling Films last year, I did my own assembly of the footage which had thus far been shot.

There's a few little things would need to have been done with motion tracking, vertical pan and scan and garbage matte effects to correct my preferred takes which were not always the best ones.

ROLEYSTONE REAL ESTATE TEST ASSEMBLY. - YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_t8h2NBeUTo)

A little clip from what we have recently been up to in W.A..

FOURNIER AIR-TO-AIR IMAGES - YouTube

Getting some practice in before flying a 3D rig sometime next spring if all goes to plan.

hard stuff in the air hey Bob, you only used one gyro, I believe you need two to get it real smooth, there's some pretty good home made rigs for small cams using bungie cords some aluminium plate and a couple of handles on this forum, mainly for chopper work ,though, you were in a fixed wing for this shoot?

Hello Adam.


One gyro only, a deficiency driven as usual by economic circumstances. As you correctly suggest, three axis stabilisation will only come with a gyro pair set at an angle relative to each other. The single gyro in the fore-aft direction under the camera head to conserve workspace. The camera was handhled for similar reasons.

We will be trying another rig in future which will be more elaborate. In all instances the camera head is being operated remote from the recorder unit which is strapped to the cargo retention on the floor.

We are unlikely to be using a helicopter for cost reasons.

We were in a small fixed wing, a Maule M5, the one in this clip.

BOB GRIMSTEAD'S MAULE 2 - YouTube


Among the reasons the owner-operator chose it was for the fact that door-off ops for this aircraft are legal and it makes probably the best camera ship of four-place light singles.

All three doors down the right side could feasably come off but for camera purposes, the rear cargo door and rear right side passenger door removal is more than adequate. Compared to the Cessna singles, the Maule's two wing struts are placed conveniently furthur forward relative to the available camera position and aircraft apparently has a generous centre of gravity envelope.

Wind buffet inside was not a problem for me.

My handling of the camera was the main problem and choice of lens. My personal preference is to be as close to both the subject and background as I can be and that means long lenses. That brings problems of stability and controlled movements of the camera. I fiound that I was fighting the gyro during follows of loops from a parallel flightpath.

Maintaining separation and other safety aspects come first for us which limits some of the more photogenic but less safe courses the camera aircraft could be flown on.

A bit of enjoyment learning the shortcomings of long lenses for air-to-air work in practice for 3D next year.

FOURNIER AIR-TO-AIR IMAGES - YouTube


Lens. Sigma-for-Nikon 50mm -500mm f4 - f6.3 zoom.
Handheld Mini head on cable with KS8 gyro.
Subject aircraft. Fournier RF4D.
Camera aircraft. Maule M5.

I have had the opportunity to play with a latest build of DVR2 SI3D and it is sweet with some more seriously useful new features. It is good to have the assurance of something which just switches on and works predictably.

The local Roleystone District High School, Roleystone Community College, borrowed my SI2K, sticks and some lights to shoot their entry in the 2011 "Smarter Than smoking" TV commercial competition.

They have put it up on Youtube. Here it is. They won best cinematography for it. They also took very good care of my gear and it came back without a scratch.

Smarter Than Smoking 2011 Advert - YouTube


They didn't use the SI2K for 2012. I understand they were possibly going to have access to a RED Scarlett. There has been diversity of equipment they have seen and touched. For "Hugh Jackman Saves The World" directed by Lee Chambers from Canada, an ARRI SR2 Super 16mm film camera and film stock was used.

A bit of a way to spend a Friday night. Lighting test shot on SI2K.

When daddies go bad... - YouTube

I don't quite see RED Epics, Scarlets and ARRI Alexas doing this sort of thing without protest.

The SI2K P+S docking recorder body just happens to be the ideal countermass for the remote camera and an ENG lens on a small jib arm which has been modified for parallel movement. The carryhandle hooked over the rear handle of the jib arm just fine with vicegrip pliers on the jibarm handle to stop it from sliding off and some polish cloth added between to stop the paint being scratched.

There is more to be done to it yet, like proper bellcrank ends instead of crude holes and bolts pretending to be proper pivots wobbling all over the place shaking like a wet dog. The jibarm was a gift horse, not to be examined in the mouth too diligently. It was converted to proper parallel movement by adding a draglink from bottom of the rear camera tilt lever to the centre support.

CRANE TEST - YouTube

Because the original web addresses to the teaser trailer and the behind the scenes clip referred on page three of this thread no longer work, I have reposted the teaser clip to here :-

CADILLAC THE MOVIE PRE-PROD TEASER - YouTube

I am not sure how long it will stay up as there may be some rights concerns over the underscore if youtube matches it to something.

I woke up this morning at 4am, tossed and turned trying to nod off again. Circadian rhythms are a bit disrupted from a few early mornings and an overnighter. Blame film craft. So, as I have always wanted to do a timelapse of our City, here it is. Sadly the clouds came over the sun so there was no hillshadow sweep across the coastal plain or down the towers. Another day perhaps.

WAKE UP PERTH - YouTube

Here is a link to a music video which I did a bit of helping on and shot a bit of behind-the-scenes for a few months back. The motor-cycle greenscreen shots are a mix of SI2K and a Panasonic 35mm sensor camera. I'm fairly sure the front-on and rear-on wides and the side-on wides were SI2K and the closer threequarter-on views were the Panasonic. Post was done by the camera operator, a genius young-ish VFX wizard who also worked on an excellent short film titled "Trigger".

Only Love Things - YouTube


Here is the behind-the-scenes I posted a while back. I shot this with a Letus Extreme on a Sony PMW-EX1. I was not fast on my feet mentally that day and was incredibly slow at focusing.

BEHIND THE SCENES. MUSIC VID. - YouTube


The young actor who was the juvenile double for the lead singer would make a convincing younger version of actor John C Reilly.


The weather for the outdoors backyard scenes was foul, cold and wet with much drying down of people and gear with and a steaming 1.2K HMI light with towels needed. everyone was happy with how it came together.

That was great Bob. The weather here in Perth has been absolutely foul for the last few months, well done on getting the outside shots.

Was that West Coast Highway in City Beach - Scarborough?

Tim. I may have caused you to be misinformed. The weather was the same foul but same time last year. I did not shoot the project, only some behind the scenes and helped with the lighting. I set up the SI2K for the greenscreen. Their DoP did the actual shots with the SI2K and the Panasonic.

The seaside backgrounds I think were on the coast road between North Leighton, from about the Montessori School or old Cable Station up the slope past the windsurfers into Cottesloe.

Most recently, Dan and the gang including DoP Alex McPhee shot a header on real 35mm film for the brand "Picturereel Studios" up at York. I did a bit of motion behind-the-scenes for them but was not much use otherwise to justify the great lunches they put up. They'll never starve you on one of their shoots.

DAN'S HEADER BTS - YouTube

Am off, not to see the wizard tomorrow but to make some digital cinema archive of the shark cull protest gathering at Western Australia's Parliament House. There's a RED guy in Esperance advocating making a 4K archive for future proofing possible documentary production down the track as events unfold.

However no one has put their RED hand up this time round. - I guess you might call that a DEAD hand.

No one with BM4K has either. Probably none here yet or if so, whoever has one ain't saying.

So it's the SI2K P+S body with an old ENG lens on it and some filters on front to try and emulate the Epic's slightly wider dynamic range as close as I can, sharpness excepted.

I likely shall be knucklewalking with weariness by the end of it. I am well out of practice with shouldering a heavy cam and years draw nigh as far as the knee and backbone are concerned.

Might join you Bob.

Good to see you there today Tim. You should enjoy your GY HD-111.

Here's a quick bit of my vision. I eventually found one out of three XLR cords that worked. With all the stress and vexation, I forgot to the the black calibration for the 34 degrees ambient temp it was meant to be today, so I have fixed pattern noise which needs a little more black crush to make it go away.

I'll bet you have never seen such a Heath-Robinson set up as I ended up stringing together, the final long audio cord plus the two duds all wound up around the camera together and a Rode blimp tied onto the top of the camera with a suitcase strap. There was no way I could go agile on the shoulder with it. Still it worked out in the end.

SHARK CULL PARLIAMENT PROTEST - YouTube

Great to see you there too Bob. I bet I have seen such a Heath-Robinson set-up! I didn't realise what the cause of it was though.

I had my own vexations yesterday too. The SD card replacement in my HD recorder decided not to work and I went back to tape only for the day. Then a battery just died in the middle of shooting, I think it may be the dodgy one I was warned about by the vendor of my gear.

This is an SI2K thread so I will put up my video edit from yesterday in the "Show your work" section. I spent last night doing stills at a school swimming carnival, so I only had time yesterday to do the capture of the footage I shot.

For those who have the penchant for Heath-Robinson, here's a happysnap that I harvested off the facebook. Third camera along the media line from the left is myself concealed under the mike muff and all the spare cables wound around the camera, the viewfinder and battery as convenient hooks. The lone old black Miller among all the fancy Satchler sticks. It was troubleshooting on the run whilst the camera was operating. - That is a good little reason alone for using that luxury of legitimate film-makers, "a crew". When the sound was finally sorted, I was surprised how well it actually worked from an on-camera mike given there were fans and a hand operating lens.

I deliberately set up lower because I wanted a media guy's right elbow and his camera structure in the top left of frame in one of the shots.

And me on the right-hand end!

I popped my video from yesterday here:

http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/show-your-work/521751-western-australia-anti-shark-cull-rally.html#post1832853

as it doesn't belong in the SI 2K section.

With the advent of 35mm format sensors and the inevitable progress of electronic tech, the SI2K system, as good as it is, has become a little abandoned by those who want things done.

As a system it is relatively glitch-free these days. With the new generation of solid state drives which enable long continuous running times, my camera has been finding a new life in event recording. I am still working out one or two kinks related to my own skills and organisational practices.

Thus far, the hardware has performed faultlessly including the "parts" camera body, bought a while back as a spares-donor but which was pressed into service as the wide-view cam. The spares-donor is mute.

The Real-Tek audio components on the upper motherboard must have taken an over-voltage hit somewhere in history back and are no longer "seen" by any operating system. Any clues as to what components might have fried and what might have survived appreciated.

This clip was put together quickly by the client from the zoom-camera footage using camera audio which was a blend of location and mix desk.

The master audio recording and wide-camera footage will be used for more finessed production in about three months time.

Galway Girl - Live at Romancing the Stone Gardens - YouTube

Longtime SI2K owner-operator Steve Rice in Western Australia, very much likes his piece of kit.

STEVE RICE SI2K - YouTube

Shot with another SI2K.

The audio sync seems to have slipped in the linkage to Youtube. It plays fine direct from the site.