I arrived in LA on Thursday June 4th, Jens, Mandy James and I came from Zacuto HQ in Chicago. Got to say compared to last year’s CineGear with 105 degree weather, this was a pleasure, it being 64 degrees every day. Immediately we took a 1 hour hike at the Runyon Canyon, one of my favorite things to do in Hollywood, it’s really steep and challenging. Then it was off to the Avalon Hotel for our Zacuto LA appreciation party. We’d like to thank the Avalon for throwing a great party including DJ, this special event was planned by Avalon’s Helen Ryan. It was a lot of fun and we met some of our friends and fans from on the web.
Jens and I spent a lot of time talking with Robert Primes ASC about (hot cameras, lighting, film, it was fun and we learn a lot when we talk to Bob), also saw old friend Georgia Jacobs, Misa & Jehu Garcia from Jag35.com (with their awesome tiny DOF adapter, got to get one of these for shooting video of my daughter), Ryan Campbell (who owns everything Zacuto including a original version one baseplate), Bill Strehl (who we continued a talk about trade shows for NAB 09), and many many more, see pics: CineGear Images
Jens did a great job as usual in setting up our booth, it’s a huge operation coordinating everything to arrive and get it setup. I have to admit that Paramount Studios is a much better venue then Universal Studios where it was held last year. Nobody liked Universal, it’s hard to get to the backlot and it’s in the valley (very hot). I did have to park all the way on the other side of Paramount studios, but I got to walk through the entire studios including bungalow’s stages and all to get to backlot. It was fun but I wouldn’t want to have to do it again.
Our booth was swamped pretty much the entire time. Many people stopped by our booth first Robert Primes ASC was around both days while we tricked out his 5DMKII and he came back on Saturday looking at setups for the AFI, other ASC fellas who came by the booth were Jon Fauer ASC, Stephen H. Burum ASC, had a long talk with Rodney Charters ASC about growing up with a Bolex and what’s missed and what’s gained by not having had that experience. I saw Howard Preston playing with a 5DMK2 on a Gorilla kit. There were so many others that visited but I’m not so great with the names so if I didn’t mention you, feel free to send me an email or comment below and I’ll correct it.
I designed a mount for Jan Crittenden and her new Panasonic AG-HPG20 portable recorder (so it can mount on a tripod leg, 15mm or 19mm rods or ¼ 20 screw), Dieter Goerke, Evie Silvers of NAPTE, Canon folks: Simon Kerr, Joesph Bogacz and Kelvin Surginer (who designed his own Gorilla kit and had it in Canon’s booth), Edward Done, Kate Walker from Film Independent, Jeffrey Stansfield, Mario Ortiz from Cinema Verde Productions, Dave Walker from Indie Slate Mag., David Butler from STE-MAN, The Booth Brothers, Christopher Saint & Philip Adrian, stopped by the booth (we love these crazy eccentric guys and their work at Spook TV is amazing), Sam Pietsch said hello. When Leaving CineGear I saw Simon Sommerfeld (James Mather’s partner in crime) of the Digital Cinema Society on the sidewalk.
I did an interview with the camera department TV: http://www.cameradepartment.tv/; Jens, did an interview with Matt Jeppsen from Fresh DV, it’s not out yet so keep an eye out for it.
Topics that were hot: DSLR’s, Z-Finder V2 and when it’s coming, Gorilla kits, DOF adapters, content, content & how to monetize content. Keep an eye out for Zacuto films productions, I’m adding a new division and going back into the content game after a 7 year hiatus. The bug is back in me and I must say, I missed it.
Got to thank Rod Bradley who at the last minute lent us his Red camera & EVF for our booth and saved the day.
Had conversations with two magazines about creating shows for them to have on their websites creating dialogues like FilmFellas; Debra Levine as well as the President of (HDvideoPro, Digital PhotoPro, PCPhoto, Outdoor Photographer) Then we had a fun little dialogue with Sanja from American Cinematographer magazine, Jens, Bob Primes and Stephen Burum about a show for American Cinematographer’s website aka ASCFellas. Everyone seemed really excited about the idea; although, Bob was leaning into me & Jens about how the lighting scheme would have to be different and he didn’t think the Made Men aka GoodFellas is the right image for the ASC guys. Jens and I thought it’s actually perfect. Well keep pushing on this idea and we’ll see what happens.
Can’t tell you how many guys came up to us just to tell us how much they love our show FilmFellas, our product videos and our marketing. Many mentioned that they have learned a ton and that makes us feel great, because that is truly our intent. It was especially gratifying because we are working hard on these shows and it’s nice to now that it is really making a difference to a lot of people. Got to thank all of the guys in our office, especially Scott our Zacuto Producer, Joe our rental manager for coordinating the cameras from our rental department, Matt & Patrick for working cameras and Ed Pickart our FilmFellas editor.
Thanks to Hien Le from Letus, Ross Kanarek from Switronix & Jonathan Houser from Cinemek for acting as dealer reps and exhibiting with us in our booth. It’s so much better to have them talk about their products that we sell, leaving our crew to talk about how Zacuto products mount their products.
We were thrilled to see our Zacuto dealers from Japan Grace Nakamura (Intecs Inc) and Isabel Baselga (Ceproma, S.A) our dealer from Spain as well as Louis Le Feur (Broadcaster) our dealer in France. Thanks for coming the long distance to be at CineGear.
All in all it was a great show. Huge turnout. Fabulous weather, great to see so many old and new friends, especially the friends I’ve made on the web and never met. We had a fun party at our home away from home, The Avalon, and had a fabulous time in LA.
Click here to see all CineGear pics: CineGear Images
- Steve
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