| PERG News: January 2022 |
In this Issue:
In this Issue:
Thursday, January 20, 2022
PERG Member Input Poll: Please Weigh In on PERG’s 2022 Topics
PERG wants to bring our members topical, useful, practical insights and information on the unique challenges faced by rental companies. Please take five minutes to give us input and we will run with it. Your ideas drive what we do.
PERG’s (Hopeful) Plans for In-Person Events in 2022
The pandemic has continually thrown everyone curveballs, and all we can do is hope for the best and plan for the worst. PERG is currently planning a full slate of in-person events for 2022 in the hopes that the COVID skies will clear and give us an opportunity to see each other in person.
PERG Member Calendar
PERG maintains a public Google Calendar that includes all the trade shows and PERG meetings/events. Subscribe on Google to add it to your calendar resources. (If you have an event to add to the calendar, let Harry know).
Rundown on PERG’s Planned Events for 2022
• March 20 - ASC Awards Watch Party
• April 25 - PERG General Membership Meeting at NAB
• May 3 - AICP/PERG Cinco de Mayo Party in Los Angeles
• June 11 - Rental House Breakfast at the Cine Gear Expo
• June 23-25 - PERG Rental Workshops at Filmscape Chicago
• Early October - AICP/PERG Oktoberfest Diner in New York
PERG General Membership Meeting at NAB
Register for a Free Exhibits Pass for NAB 2022 ($159 value)
The $50 fee is waived until April 8, 2022.
Use this registration code (Code: PR04) for free access to the exhibit floor and any other activity at the show that is listed as 'open to all', or use this link which auto populates the code into registration form
We have some details about PERG’s General Membership Meeting at NAB. This year the meeting will be hosted on the show floor on NABs “Create Inspiration Zone” from 4-6:30 pm on Monday, April 25th. We'll start with the general meeting, around 4pm, for which we expect to have some exciting announcements. The meeting will be followed by socializing/networking with beer, wine, and snacks from 5:15 on. It is an exceptional opportunity to see friends and colleagues from around the country. Having the event in Central Hall will make it easier for exhibitors to attend.
Rental House Breakfast at the Cine Gear Expo
Sadly, the days of Cine Gear being hosted on the Paramount backlot may be over. Instead, the event will once again be held at the Los Angeles convention center in downtown LA. PERG is planning to host the Rental House Breakfast on Saturday morning, June 11th. It is yet to be determined if the breakfast will be held on the convention center premises or at another venue that is walking distance to the convention center.
PERG Rental Workshops at Filmscape Chicago
PERG is excited to announce an exciting new event in our annual lineup. Working with Filmscape Chicago and service technicians of the major manufacturers, PERG/Filmscape will host a series of professional-level intensive educational workshops exclusively for PERG member rental company service personnel. The “factory” training is intended to provide service technicians with new skills and enhance each participant’s range of repair services and depth of knowledge. The workshop sessions for rental companies are on June 23-24, the Thursday and Friday before the Filmscape trade show, Saturday and Sunday June 25-26.
PERG will notify members by email when the workshops are ready to be announced and registration opens.
You can registrater for Filmscape trade show now at filmscapechicago.com
The workshop is in the planning stages now. We want to know from our members what specific equipment repairs or modifications you would like to be able to do inhouse that you can’t already. Are there other areas of knowledge that your staff would like to learn more about (wireless connectivity, data handling, other equipment maintenance, remote production, contracts, insurance, marketing, etc.) Please take this short poll and let us know.
Sponsorship Opportunities
PERG events are funded by the support of PERG’s annual sponsors and by companies sponsoring individual events. If your company may be interested in supporting PERG, we encourage you to find out more and reach out to us.
PERG thanks our 2022 Annual Sponsors:
ARRI, Inc. (ARRI Rental, Illumination Dynamics), ASTERA, Camera One, Duclos Lenses, Dynamic, Litegear, Panavision, Taylor & Taylor Associates, Zeiss
Lens Summit in Person at Koerner Camera Systems - Portland, OR
Koerner Camera plans to return to an in-person event scheduled for May 12 (Lens Tech training), and 13-14 (Trade Show).
The Lens Summit is a unique and popular event, providing Lens Tech training for rental companies from a wide variety of manufacturers, followed by an intimate but focused (pardon the pun) trade show all about lenses. The event, created by Koerner Camera, and taking place in their Portland office, was described by the Film & Digital Times this way "The beauty of the Lens Summit is that it’s small enough, focused enough, and casual enough for attendees and vendors to have a real opportunity for one-to-one interaction."
During the pandemic, Koerner revamped the event as a “virtual summit.” According to the website, “The Virtual Lens Summit is an online trade show and community gathering of sorts where manufacturers present their latest cinema products, creating a real-time discussion with the end users of these products on the technical and creative sides. The Virtual Lens Summit was born out of the pandemic travel restrictions which required Koerner Camera to cancel the 2020 Pacific Northwest Lens Summit, which had become the cinema lens trade show. To keep the fire burning, we created the Virtual Lens Summit with the desire to get together on an international level to present products, exchange ideas, information and ultimately reach more people.” Past Lens Summits are available on the Koerner Camera YouTube Channel.
PERG Coffee Breaks, 2022
In 2022, PERG will continue the PERG Coffee Break series. It is an opportunity to hear from thought leaders, experts, and fellow PERG members. We need to hear your ideas for speakers and topics.
Throughout the pandemic PERG has endeavored to continue its core function of focusing attention on challenges and opportunities for equipment rental companies and to bring the community together, albeit virtually. Starting in 2020, PERG started hosting PERG Coffee Breaks—one hour (or shorter) Zoom meetings. Topics included: legal questions about vaccination, the Behind the Scenes Mental Health Initiative, equipment leasing, large format lens projection, care of Lithium-ion batteries, fostering diversity and inclusion in the workforce, and others, ending the year with four sessions for Year-End Technology Roundup.
We acknowledge that everyone suffers from virtual-meeting fatigue at this point, the Coffee Breaks have been well attended, with 50 to 100 people checking in for the events. They have had benefits beyond enabling PERG members to hear from experts during the pandemic. Members can view the meetings later on ESTA’s YouTube channel. The virtual meetings have also proved valuable in responding relatively quickly to developments. PERG has been able to engage more frequently with equipment manufacturers and other vendors to the rental community.
PERG’s executive body, the PERG Council, is working on new programs and initiatives to support the industry. We look forward to making an exciting announcement later this year.
Cinematography World – BAFTA Longlists
Cinematography World is offering PERG members a FREE annual subscription to the magazine! Pay only shipping. Contact Harry.
See their coverage of the BAFTA’s 2022 Film Awards.
PERG 2021 Year-End Technology Roundup
Written by Karl G. Ruling is ESTA’s Senior Technical Standards Manager. He also serves as Protocol’s Technical Editor. Karl can be reached at karl.ruling@esta.org.
In November of 2021, PERG held a series of four virtual events, called the Year-End Technology Roundup, inviting representatives from thirty top manufacturers to speak to our membership about what is new and what is on the horizon in camera, lens, and lighting technology. The aim of the event was to enable vendors and rental companies to reconnect in the wake of cancelled or poorly attended trade shows throughout 2021. The following article was prepared for the Winter 2022 Protocol, journal of ESTA. You can read it online at http://estalink.us/protocolonline (available January 12th). To receive a hard copy of this issue, please email Beverly.Inglesby@esta.org.”
I miss trade shows. For me, who rarely has a production budget and isn’t shopping, they were a chance to see friends and make new ones, and to see where the entertainment industry is going and what people find useful now. I look forward to being able to attend them again, but PERG offered four PERG Year-End Technology Roundup sessions in November that were a good substitute. Three were like new products breakfasts and the fourth was a panel discussion of the near-future for the video production industry. I found them interesting—and, since I attended them virtually from my home office, I wasn’t restricted to new product breakfast coffee-and-muffins. I could eat and drink whatever I wanted: pizza and beer or crêpes and calvados!
If you missed the sessions in November, you didn’t totally miss them. The sessions were recorded and are now free online at ESTA’s YouTube website, http://estalink.us/xmcfh. What you’ll miss watching the recordings is the chance to enter Zoom break-out rooms to chat with the presenters. However, the sidebar for this story gives you the presenters and links to their websites, so you can follow up for more information. I’ll not give you a detailed summary here—you can watch the presentations online—but I will highlight what I found interesting.
What I found particularly interesting in the “Lighting and Grip” session on November 14th were the discussions of light color/camera interaction, controlling lighting without a large lighting control desk, and a couple of LED lamps that screw into an E26 socket. The ARRI presentation (in particular) talked a lot about carefully controlling the lighting in mixed reality shoots—shoots with real actors and props in front of a virtual scene, and image on an LED cyclorama. (ARRI also had a pitch for the continuing importance of HMI sources for motion picture production, but nobody showed any new HMI luminaires.) Aputure showed some LED luminaires that can be controlled from an app, and LiteGear’s Spectrum OS2 ballasts allow color and intensity control without needing a lighting control desk. Aputure and Astera both had color-changing light bulbs that will fit a table lamp’s socket. The Aputure bulb can run on batteries—useful for a location shoot in a derelict building—and both it and the Astera lamps offer precise color control. My first thought is that these would be good for effects, and they would be, but they’d be great for carefully tuning the light from practical sources to match the ambient lighting. Cameras do not see color the same way human eyes do. Sometimes cameras miss color differences people see, and other times they exaggerate them. (The mix of light from the windows and the white LEDs in my home office makes some strangely colorful Zoom sessions.)
The November 9th session, “Camera and Camera Accessories,” had several presentations on batteries. Every camera shown was digital and can be battery-powered. LED luminaires are often mains-powered, but many can run on battery power. With a battery system that will work for lights and camera, a production company can shoot almost anywhere with little hassle. Another hassle-reducer was Rip-Tie’s cable ties with RFID. You can wave a reader over a pile of cables going in or out of the shop, and they’re identified and logged. The reader also can find a cable that is misplaced—yeah that one, over there. SmallHD showed a compact, bright, 4K monitor, while First Mile Technologies and Teradek showed low-latency video streaming systems. Together these point toward real-time monitoring, remote monitoring, and remote file storage on “the Cloud.” All these help assure a director that the camera is capturing what needs to be seen and that the images are secure.
The November 11th session on lenses and lens accessories interested me because I had no idea that some people want to customize these expensive, precision optical instruments. The Angenieux (Band Pro) pitch for the Optimo lens series, for example, is that they offer three points of customization. You can add filters or change lens elements to add flare, to change the shape of iris seen in the flare, and affect the quality of the ボケ, a Japanese word meaning “blurriness” but sounding much better in Japanese. (It’s pronounced bōkeh in Japanese, with the first syllable longer, not louder, and something close to that in American.) This is the soft blurriness of the background or foreground elements when a shot has a shallow depth of field. The blurriness can be attractive, interesting, or distracting. The lens presentations attempted to describe lens bokeh as well as sharpness, focus range, and size of the sensor they can cover. Some of the artistic image qualities of lenses (e.g. flare) could be produced in post-production, but that’s another step and many directors want to see what’s being recorded now. There’s a real movement toward doing effects in-camera rather than in post. (At Showlight Mike Bauman described the use of a matte box to create flashing police light flare on the image in-camera. Bauman explained that the cinematographer, Matty Libatíque, likes to have the look he wants “baked into the file,” not added later. See the Summer 2021 Protocol.)
The final session on November 18th was a panel discussion, “Riding the Next Wave of Technological Evolution.” It was basically a rosy prediction of the future for the video production industry. COVID-19 is not going away, but there is a high rate of vaccination in our industry, and digital workflows make it possible to get things done without being at risk of catching or spreading contagion. The pandemic shut down the industry for months at the same time it drove up the demand for movies, television, and streaming services. There’s now tremendous demand for content, and it is possible to provide it. Michael Cioni predicted that the next four years are going to be great, and Stephan Ukas-Bradley agreed.
There was discussion of the benefits and likely future of “camera to cloud” and replacing physical media. Ukas-Bradley said camera-to-cloud is wonderful, and editing on the cloud is wonderful, but it will be at least three to four years before this is mainstream. Brandon Cooper noted that connectivity bandwidth is a limitation, but he saw hope in the expanding 5G infrastructure. “Imagine being able to shoot camera-to-cloud anywhere!”
“Camera-to-cloud” has real advantages, but some of them are psychological. Cioni says it cuts the anxiety of the director, and the director’s anxiety tends to filter throughout the production. Camera-to-cloud is the end of “Oh, what do the dailies show, are we getting this?” Ukas-Bradley predicted that virtual production and LED walls are here to stay (not like 3D, which comes and goes). Virtual production makes COVID controls relatively easy; it lets a lot of the crew stay at home.
LED walls and virtual production have increased the importance of metadata and having it tied to image and sound data at a moment in time. The general opinion was that metadata has to be transmitted in a form that is universal, with well-understood names so we can understand what needs to be sent and used. The chain of custody of the metadata breaks down in many productions and that is bad. Cioni argued for automating metadata and data sharing. Data must not be lost, but production team members often don’t meet each other, so we need another way to ensure that people have the data and metadata, and know what it is, when they need it.
The pandemic had created a content dearth, so now the industry is busy, but Ukas-Bradley said this has made it hard to get enough gear—and who is going to do the work? We need training for people to work with modern technology. Gary Adcock half-jokingly said rental houses need people in house who understand IP addressing. This is basic knowledge, but getting a network to work—and everything is networked—can founder on very basic configuration rocks.
Of course, there was more. It was an interesting and thoughtful discussion of the video production industry and how we can work efficiently and safely. It had me looking into game engines (good for virtual production) and hand-cranked cameras (which don’t need batteries and often had built-in in-camera effects). Game engines were touched on in the presentations, hand-cranked cameras were not, but both suggest that the PERG Year-End Technology Roundup was a stimulating series of presentations—almost as good as a couple of days at a trade show! Check them out at http://estalink.us/xmcfh.
PERG 2022 Year-End Technology Roundup Schedule
• November 4th: Lighting and Grip
Aputure. Brandon Le (Product Marketing Manager) discussed their next-level LED lighting technology. https://www.aputure.com/
ARRI. John Gresch (Senior VP of Sales and Marketing) gave updates on the Orbiter and SkyPanel product lines. https://www.arri.com/en/lighting
ASTERA. Jesper Soerensen (Field Rep) demonstrated two new products: PixelBrick and NYX Bulb. https://astera-led.com
Kino Flo. Frieder Hochheim (Founder/President of Kino Flo Lighting Systems) provided a glimpse into the future of Kino Flo, now that it is part of Chauvet. It wasn’t a product pitch at all! https://www.kinoflo.com
LiteGear. Paul Royalty (VP of Sales) explained the benefits of the latest Spectrum Litemats firmware updates. https://www.litegear.com
LumenRadio. Sean Dane (US Sales Manager) discussed “The Next Generation” of wireless DMX products—Stardust, Aurora, and Luna. LumenRadio chips are used in wireless-enabled lighting instruments across the industry. https://lumenradio.com
Prolycht. Mitch Gross (North America Strategic Sales) presented the benefits of RGBACL LEDs with the Orion 300 FS Spotlight. https://www.prolycht.com
Ratpac Controls. Nick Stabile (VP of Sales and Marketing) took on the hot topic of data distribution, covering Ratpac’s Data Sphere and Unity boxes. https://ratpaccontrols.com
ROSCO/DMG. Emily Stadulis at DMG spoke about the DASH CRMX. https://us.rosco.com/en
Rob’s Rain Hats. Derek Hammer (President of Rob’s Rain Hats and Hammer Lighting and Grip) described a wide range of custom-fitted rain protection for today’s sensitive electronic lighting units, generators, ballasts, et cetera. https://www.robsrainhats.com
Vitec. Tim Duff (Technical Sales Specialist) talked about the new Gemini 1x1 Hard, Vitec’s acquisition of Quasar Science, and the Apollo App control platform. https://www.litepanels.com
• November 9th: Camera and Camera Accessories
ARRI. Chase Hagen (Technical Rep) spoke about the new Hi-5 Hand Unit. https://www.arri.com/en
Anton Bauer. Ted Doubov (Technical Sales Manager) talked new directions for battery technology and AB’s 26 V ecosystem. https://www.antonbauer.com/en/
Blockbattery. Cody Mendoza (Sales and Marketing Specialist) highlighted the advantages and unique technology of the HCL-1600 battery pro block battery. https://blockbattery.com/
CORE SWX. Joe Teodosio (Chief Technical Officer) spoke about their new all-encompassing mobile power station, the Maverick, a next generation block battery system for cinema and lighting applications. https://coreswx.com/
Chrosziel. Timm Stemann (CEO) talked about cable management systems that can be attached to cameras, and various handles and mounts for cameras. https://www.chrosziel.com/
First Mile Technologies. Bahaa Zantout (Technical Account Manager) and Peter Fairlie (Chief Technology Officer) talked portable connectivity to the Internet, live video streaming, set link streaming, and more. https://firstmile.tech/
Preston Cinema Systems. Howard Preston (President) presented their new Hand Unit 4/LR 2 products. https://prestoncinema.com/
RED. James Lucarelli (Manager of Global Sales and Product Education) describes the powerful new V-RAPTOR 8k camera. https://www.red.com/
Rip-Tie. Peter Rosenfeld (Manger, Sales and Marketing) demonstrated RFID-enabled cable wraps, RipWrap (an alternative to gaffer tape), and Rip-Tie mini for small cables bundles. https://riptie.com/
SONY. Paul Healy (National Account Manager) talked about “beyond cinema”—multicamera events and live capture. https://pro.sony/ue_US/products/digital-cinema-cameras
Teradek/Wooden Camera/SmallHD. David Bredbury (Product Manager) spoke about the SmallHD Cine13 4k production monitor and Colin McDonald spoke on Teradek’s Bolt 4k LT MAX. https://teradek.com/ and https://smallhd.com/
• November 11th: Lens and Lens Accessories
ARRI. Art Adams (Cinema Lens Specialist) focused on ARRI’s Signature Zooms. https://www.arri.com/en/camera-systems/cine-lenses/arri-signature-zoom-lenses
Angenieux (Band Pro). Randy Wedick (Senior Technical Consultant) magnified the subject of Angenieux Compact Zooms. https://www.angenieux.com/
Atlas. Dan Kanes (CEO) detailed the unique characteristics of the expressive and dynamic Orion Series anamorphic primes and Orion Silver Edition. https://atlaslensco.com/
Cooke. Eric Johnston (Director of Business Development) described the Anamorphic/i full frame plus primes. https://www.cookeoptics.com/
Chrosziel. Timm Stemann (CEO) talked about the Zoomer (FX6 and FX9 Universal Servo Drive), the Fujinon Premista Servo Drive and Chrosziel’s lens test projector and collimator. https://www.chrosziel.com/
Duclos. Matthew Duclos described the Duclos focus and distortion chart systems. https://www.ducloslenses.com/collections/test-equipment
Fujifilm. Stosh Durbacz (Sales and Product Development) spoke about the Premista 28-100 Zoom lens. https://www.fujifilm.com/us/en/business/optical-devices/cine-lens/premista
Leitz. Seth Emmons (Director of Communications) gave updates on the new full-frame Elsie lenses and other products. https://www.leitz-cine.com/elsie
Musashi Optical. Michael Burnham (National Sales Manager) presented the Takumi 2, 29 – 120mm T2.9 large format lens and announcing a brand new lens accessory. http://www.musashi-opt.co.jp/global/Takumi2.html
Zeiss. Snehal Patel (Head of Cinema Sales) presented the Zeiss Supreme Prime Radiance Lenses. https://www.zeiss.com/consumer-products/us/cinematography/supreme-prime-lenses.html
• November 18th: Panel Discussion: Riding the Next Wave of Technological Evolution
The panel discussion focused on the future of remote collaboration and connectivity in production and virtual production.
Brandon Cooper: Visionary FirstMile Technology
Michael Cioni: Futurist, Chief Technologist, Frame.Io / Adobe
Stephan Ukas-Bradley: VP Strategic Business Development and Technology
Gary Adcock (moderator): DP, technology consultant, and speaker on digital cinema workflows.
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| Gary Adcock |
The LRLR Raffle and the BTS Boutique Benefit Behind the Scenes at USITT
The Long Reach Long Riders and Behind the Scenes will host their annual fundraising raffle at the USITT Conference March 3-5 in Baltimore, MD. This year’s raffle will celebrate the 19th Anniversary of the Long Reach Long Riders annual charity motorcycle ride. The Riders, who have raised over $800,000 for charity in their years of touring, will be riding June 18-24 on the “Blue Ridge Ramble” tour through the Appalachian Mountains.
The Behind the Scenes Boutique will also be open for business during the show featuring an assortment of great Behind the Scenes swag and the famous Long Reach Long Rider T-shirts and kazoos.
Tickets for the raffle are an affordable $5 each or 5 for $20 and can be purchased at the Behind the Scenes booth throughout the show. Winning tickets for nine regular prizes and one grand prize will be drawn at 1pm on Saturday, the final day of Stage Expo.
The prizes, provided by our generous donors, are: Grand Prize, Spotlight with Renderworks from Vectorworks; Ghostlight from Altman Lighting; SpotFX unit with battery pack and gobos from Apollo Design, American Express Gift Card from Barbizon; Event Safety Summit 2023 Registration from the Event Safety Alliance; Nespresso CitiZ Espresso Machine with Aeroccino Milk Frother from IA Stage; $250 Gift Certificate to musson.com from Musson Theatrical; $250 Gift Certificate from Sapsis Rigging; ProPlus™ Rope Access Harness from Showtech Australia; and a USITT 2023 Full Conference Registration from USITT.
All proceeds from the raffle and boutique sales benefit Behind the Scenes, which provides financial assistance to entertainment technology professionals who are seriously ill or injured and provides tools and resources to the industry through its Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Initiative.
For additional information about Behind the Scenes, visit www.behindthescenescharity.org or call 212-244-1421. For more information about the Long Reach Long Riders, visit www.lrlr.org.
Thank You to PERG Council and Membership
This article was prepared for the Winter 2022 Protocol, journal of ESTA. You can read it online at http://estalink.us/protocolonline (available January 12th). To receive a hard copy of this issue, please email Beverly.Inglesby@esta.org.”
As we come to the end of 2021, I want to acknowledge the men and women of the PERG Council and of the PERG membership generally. The Council are business owners and principals volunteer their time to give our group direction and focus. They represent a variety of businesses that brings our organization a broad range of perspectives on issues that affect the rental industry.
Throughout the pandemic the Council has met monthly to keep PERG working on initiatives and events that benefit the members. Representing companies that rent both camera and lighting are the PERG Chair (2021), Anna Mayo of MP&E Dallas and Derek Hammer of Hammer Lighting and Grip in Indianapolis. Representing lighting rental companies are Carly Barber of Illumination Dynamics, Los Angeles (an ARRI company); JR Reid of JR Lighting, Las Vegas; and John Cini of High Output in Boston. Representing camera rental companies are Sally Spaderna of Koerner Camera in Portland, Chris Konash of Panavision New York, Andy Shipsides of ARRI Burbank, Bianca Halpern of BECiNE in Los Angeles; Alex Pakarian of the Camera Division in Los Angeles; Lawrence Daufenbach of Daufenbach Camera Chicago; and Brandon Zachary of Dynamic in Los Angeles. Representing insurance, PERG benefits enormously from the efforts of Scott Taylor of Taylor & Taylor Associates. From the manufacturing side PERG enjoys representation by Paul Royalty of LiteGear, Los Angeles and the new PERG Chair for 2022, Stosh Durbacz of Fijinon, located in Toronto. And finally, serving on the ESTA Board of Directors as Director for Rental, is Mark Wofford of PC&E in Atlanta.
With companies of all sorts from small boutique houses, to established regional stalwarts, to big companies with worldwide locations, the council gives every constituency a place at the table and can provide expert input on any issue. Every PERG member is sure to know at least a few people on the council, so brining new ideas, questions, and challenges to the executive body of your trade group is as easy as speaking with a friend about an idea or sharing a mutual concern. But more than that, each of the PERG council bring something unique to the council as individuals. Whether it is specific knowledge, business judgement, human insight, a (much appreciated) sense of humor, or simple can-do determination, each person who has served on the Council over the past eleven years has bestowed something unique to PERG as a group that, whether they know it or not, has benefitted every member.
I also want to acknowledge the PERG membership generally. From time to time PERG leans on its members for their help. You don’t have to be a member of the PERG Council to serve on a committee, like the committee that drafted the AICP/PERG Terms and Conditions or the four committees that jointly developed the Safe Return to Work Guidelines in 2020 for Camera, Lighting, Studios, and Vehicles. It is a principle of any trade association that, while companies may be competitors, there are industry challenges that require a united effort. They cannot be effectively addressed individually by each company. For those moments, the rental industry has a dependable partner in ESTA’s Production Equipment Rental Group.
We encourage our members to take advantage of the progress PERG has made. Services like RENTAL GUARD rely on the whole industry using the service and making it the single, central, international database for stolen equipment. Use the Subrental Availability Request to find equipment that you need to subrent. The platform helps you find it quickly and rent it from another member. Participate in PERG’s events. Be vocal if there are shared issues that the trade group could help address.
In this time of thanksgiving, this season of good cheer, and the reflective moment of the turning of the year, I toast the members and volunteers that have given something back to their industry, given something of their special companies, and something even more special of themselves.
Here, in the center of the film industry, the ZEISS Cinema Lens Demo Center offers a home for the rental house and cinematographer. In addition to displaying a historical archive of ZEISS technology, the demo center offers an opportunity to handle and test the latest in ZEISS lens technology. We offer the ability to demo a thorough selection of ZEISS Lenses on several camera formats. We also offer a 9-seat 4K HDR theater, full editorial suite with DaVinci Resolve and Nuke software, and lens projection room as well as a fully furnished prep bay.
Monday, September 20, 2021
Lens Techs Have Their Day
Gary Adcock, the Executive Director of Filmscape Chicago, saw an opportunity to provide an educational session targeted for PERG member companies by hosting PERG Lens Tech Day at Filmscape, Chicago. On August 27th, the day before the Filmscape show opened, lens technicians from PERG affiliated companies were invited to Panavision, Chicago for a day of short but fascinating presentations—Snahal Patel from Zeiss, Jean-Marc Bouchut representing Angenieux for BandPro, Art Adams and Mike Best from ARRI, and Mitch Gross from lighting manufacturer, Prolycht.
Zoe Borys, VP/General Manager at Panavision, Chicago, says that the local film community wanted to support and welcome the various lens manufacturers that made the effort to come to Chicago for Filmscape. Panavision had the space to provide plenty of social distancing. The respective participants all confirmed they were vaccinated, and attendees completed Panavision’s attestation before entering the facility. “It was an ideal time for lens techs from the local rental houses to collaborate and learn from one another.” Anna Schmidt (Chief of Staff at Dynamic), who was on hand for the event, relates that each of the presentations unique, informative, and fun. Everyone got a lot out of the event. About fifteen lens techs and senior staff from Able Cine, Camera Ambassador, Daufenbach Camera, and Keslow camera attended.
A major topic of conversation is about the character of the lenses—characteristics that affect Bokeh, flair, sharpness, which go beyond the baseline standard of an extremely high-performance lens appropriate for today’s high resolution camera technology. Jean-Marc Bouchut’s presentation was about detuning Angenieux Optimo zooms. Jean-Marc hinted of other exciting things coming soon from Angenieux.
Snehal Patel (Zeiss) demonstrated the unique blue flare characteristics and other virtues of the Supreme Prime large-format T1.5 primes.
Art Adams (Cinema Lens Specialist at ARRI) explained just what exactly “signature” means when talking about the Signature series prime and zoom lenes from ARRI. He provided some insight into what it takes to create the look from the manufacturing and development perspective. His talk included detail about how ARRI gathers user feedback for developing their products. The Bokeh of ARRI’s four Signature zooms match that of ARRI’s popular Signature primes and cover an unprecedented range of focal lengths from the wide zoom 16-32, the workhorse 24-75mm, the longer 45-135mm, and the giant 65-300mm (110-510mm with the 1.7x extender). With the resolution of digital cameras, DPs need to strike a balance between having high performance lenses to support today’s high performance display technology and building in optical character and beauty through the lens choices (in many ways, a role formerly that of the film emulsion). Accomplishing this with a zoom is a real puzzle that ARRI has taken pains to solve with the Signature series.
Mike Best (Project manager for Pro Camera Accessories at ARRI) introduced attendees to everything that is new about ARRI’s fifth generation wireless multi-axis lens control hand unit, the Hi-5. Mike and Art both stressed the value of feedback from rental companies in the development of products. Rental companies have eyes on the issues that might otherwise be unknown to the manufacturer because they don’t come through as a repair.
Panavision’s optical technician, Al Collins, generously provided tours of the Panavision facility including demonstrating Panavision’s unique lens projection room. The custom projector was developed to cover every lens from Panavision’s 65mm format down to a 2/3-inch broadcast camera lens. As lens character was a main theme or the day, Al enjoyed comparing Panavision’s new Artiste Primo series lenses, which can be tuned to provide more of a “vintage” look relative of regular Primo.
Mitch Gross (Sales rep for Prolycht) demonstrated the Orion 300 FS, a new full-spectrum LED unit from Prolycht. The form factor is much like a stills photo head, with a Bowens-mount that accepts various front-end attachments including a focal spot (iris, shutters, and gobos), soft box, and Fresnel. Mitch discussed the light’s RGBACL (red, blue, green, amber, cyan, lime) light engine, which enables very accurate color, with wide gamut, and notably, accurate color when dimmed very low. With all the wireless and color control features that people have come to expect from high-end full-spectrum LED, a highly capable, less expensive alternative to lights like the ARRI Orbiter would be a welcome addition to the lighting arsenal.
With the scheduled NAB show cancelled, and the Cinegear show greatly diminished, the continuation of the pandemic has made large trade shows seem a bit unrealistic. With these limitations in play, it is heartening to find opportunities where a small event is can be responsibly held and provide a benefit to PERG members. PERG thanks Gary Adcock and Filmscape for reaching out and doing the organizing. Giving some background Filmscape, Gary told us “Filmscape was founded as a non-profit to provide continuing free education for the extended film and television community in Chicago and beyond. We were proud to host a live multi-day event that combined the in-person networking opportunities with classes and technical training that spans the entire industry. This year, we added an additional day of education specific to the professional rental community to share the latest product developments directly with the frontline rental markets in the Midwest. We hosted three educational tracks of in-person and online classes, geared towards the needs and interests in grip & electric, production and post, and the camera and sound departments. This year we expanded our class offerings to include a broader range of topics beyond just the technical aspects of filmmaking to include legal and business issues. We took the opportunity to stream a range of sessions from special industry guests like Bobby DeChillis, rigging gaffer on the Mandolorian and world-renowned Producer/Director Lilly Wachowski discussing inclusivity as part of her reason for shooting her current Showtime project ‘Work In Progress’ here in Chicago.” PERG will also be hosting livestreams from some of Filmscape’s educational sessions on the ESTA YouTube channel. Filmscape’s sponsors are Able Cine, DePaul University, Dynamic, IA Local 476, Keslow Camera, Koerner Camera, Litegear, Panavision, and Ratpac Controls.
PERG is grateful to the event sponsors, Panavision, Dynamic, and Koerner Camera for getting behind it and making the event possible, and of course the presenters for their participation and terrific presentations.
Leveraging Our Agency Against Theft
The spate of break-ins that began more than a month ago in Atlanta has continued, with repeated attempted and successful thefts at the same rental facilities. We have seen similar streaks in the past where a series of rental companies are targeted. At a time when there are shortages of equipment due to a high level of production combined with COVID-related supply pipeline problems, having assets stolen is particularly frustrating.
PERG urges rental companies to use RENTAL GUARD for these important reasons:
• Theft reports provide notification to other companies that may be targeted next and arms them with information about the mode of theft being used.
• RENTAL GUARD provides law enforcement a way to quickly verify that equipment they may come across is stolen which enables them to take immediate action and not miss opportunity that they may never get again.
• Theft reports show a pattern of activity. Being able to show that an incident is part of a bigger, repeated crime scheme can help persuade law enforcement to pursue the matter, when they otherwise would not. We’ve seen this in several cases that ended with the recovery of equipment.
• You can use the searchable database to identify stolen equipment if it is offered for sale, saving you from potentially purchasing a valueless asset that could be confiscated at any time and would possibly involve you in a crime.
Some principles to live by:
• The risk of theft is often only obvious to people right AFTER they are a victim. The only safe assumption is that every rental company is, at all times, a target of theft. Remind your staff and don’t let your guard down.
• Although insurance will make a company whole for a given incident, it costs them and the rental industry as a whole in the long run. Active use of RENTAL GUARD and similar measures helps fight perceptions that could drive up the cost of insurance more widely. There are broader reasons for rental companies to do all they can to urge action and support law enforcement’s efforts.
Tuesday, June 8, 2021
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