C300: How many trips to unload your equipment?

Eric Coughlin

Eric Coughlin

Veteran
How many trips does it take you to unload your equipment for a typical shoot (assuming you're alone, or, how many people if you're not alone)? Let's say one or two (C-series) camera interview shoot, for example, but you can elaborate for what type of a shoot, equipment, etc.

I use a foldable cart I got from Amazon and typically need two trips to unload my equipment, sometimes three. First trip is typically camera(s), audio, lenses, sand bags, reflectors, tripod(s). Second trip is lighting and light stands. Third trip may be a Litepanels Gemini and low boy stand if I'm using it. If I'm using a Steadicam Zephyr, that's often its own trip.

I want to see if I can condense my equipment/bags to get it down to one trip for one or two camera interview type shoots.
 
Eric Coughlin said:
How many trips does it take you to unload your equipment for a typical shoot (assuming you're alone, or, how many people if you're not alone)? Let's say one or two (C-series) camera interview shoot, for example, but you can elaborate for what type of a shoot, equipment, etc.

I use a foldable cart I got from Amazon and typically need two trips to unload my equipment, sometimes three. First trip is typically camera(s), audio, lenses, sand bags, reflectors, tripod(s). Second trip is lighting and light stands. Third trip may be a Litepanels Gemini and low boy stand if I'm using it. If I'm using a Steadicam Zephyr, that's often its own trip.

I want to see if I can condense my equipment/bags to get it down to one trip for one or two camera interview type shoots.
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Well, I own Sony cameras, but that shouldn't make too much of a difference. I can usually do it in one trip, sometimes it takes two. Of course, this
is for interview set ups, if I'm doing interviews and B-Roll it's probably two trips. I've got a pack that holds two camera bodies, 4 or 5 lenses, external
audio gear, as well as extra batteries and cards and such. That's on my back. I've got one of those foldable LED light panel kits which is small and light..
that bag also holds a couple light stands and reflector, I'll clip this bag off my backpack with a carabiner. Then a tripod in each hand and a small
Scorpion light kit in one as well. For B-Roll I might add a Mavic Pro drone which will fit in a tiny bag, maybe a slider or a gimbal which would be another
bag. Biggest thing for me is getting your lighting kit weight and size down. Nowdays, that's much easier. I still have a DV creator 55 light kit which
is actually pretty good for lighting up an interview, but it's 50ish pounds in it's hardcore. With the new 'cloth' type LED panels and lights such as the
Scorpion lights, you can get a good interview light kit, without using much weight or space.
 
One trip. Cameras are in a big bag with glass, lights are in a ThinkTank Production Manager 40. Grip case, crate with sandbags and other stuff. Audio is in a duffel. Tripods are in their cases. It all piles on my RockNRoller cart.
 
Eric Coughlin said:
How many trips does it take you to unload your equipment for a typical shoot (assuming you're alone, or, how many people if you're not alone)? Let's say one or two (C-series) camera interview shoot, for example, but you can elaborate for what type of a shoot, equipment, etc.

I use a foldable cart I got from Amazon and typically need two trips to unload my equipment, sometimes three. First trip is typically camera(s), audio, lenses, sand bags, reflectors, tripod(s). Second trip is lighting and light stands. Third trip may be a Litepanels Gemini and low boy stand if I'm using it. If I'm using a Steadicam Zephyr, that's often its own trip.

I want to see if I can condense my equipment/bags to get it down to one trip for one or two camera interview type shoots.
Click to expand...

This is where all of your equipment needs to work as a total system. I imagine you have many different types cases - hard, soft, all different sizes etc. Milk crates for example, could be stacked 5-8 high on a lightweight dolly. The equipment in them may not completely fill each milk crate, but you gain the ability to move many at a time. I wouldn't use milk crates for camera equipment, but the principle doesn't change. Assuming you take advantage of stacking, and despite taking up more total volume, a handful of storm iM2600 cases could be easier to move than several different pelicans.

There's obviously also an argument for carrying more things vs sacrificing space to be able to move faster. If you're not into the method I already described, I'd at least look at getting a more solid cart.

Three trips isn't bad, and it seems like you're pretty efficient anyway. If I were hiring you and your equipment, I would absolutely be adding an assistant to take full advantage. Talent aside, when you're up against physical limitations, you also often hit a ceiling as far as looks you're capable of creating. (8x8 set up, push on dolly, being spotted, etc.)
 
One trip.

Been using Magliner carts for years. First, those of people I worked with. Then babysat one while the owner was off living in Europe for a few years; he just came back and reclaimed his cart (with ample warning; no worries). Just bought another one used; like all Magliners, it'll last for ever, is stable when loaded down, and can be easily modified. It's nice to have our/my own working surface, too. My current cart is pretty close to this (ie- a Magliner Gemini Jr with shelf), though with a lower deck to keep bags/cases from slipping. Also, mine's scratched up since it's used. It'll still outlive me.

maglinerjr.jpg

I've also used folding hand trucks, including some models that stay in the tilted-back position (ie- have four wheels)...can get a lot of stuff on those, but not as useful (or as heavy) as a Magliner cart.

But the key thing if I'm working solo (or am solely responsible for my equipment... i.e.- no PA avail), is trying to get everything in one trip. That's REALLY nice as car to location distances keep growing.

But Eric, you've been around for a while. Do you feel like a cart of some sort won't work for you?
 
A few days ago, I asked a question on the forum about travelling overseas doing the same type of shoot http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?360619-Travelling-overseas-what-gear-to-take

I then re-watched Luke Serveld's video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9Aq9KME2kQ

Luke cut a lot of corners re gear, he had to as he's working solo. He had three small Samsonite roller bags and a backpack

But, his work looks and sounds great.

Which has me thinking that if there is no money for an assistant, then the gear has to be scaled back.

So, for me, three trips is two too many
 
I've got something like this now. https://www.amazon.com/Timber-Ridge...rd_wg=4Qny6&psc=1&refRID=WRD14G4RVZQHG2NCKCY7


61RaFEWEf-L._SL1200_.jpg



It folds up nice and small. A Magliner could hold more gear, but doesn't fold up small enough to fit happily in my SUV. Any compact folding cart solutions are welcome.


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I'm working on slimming down my lighting kit. Three Practlite 802s would take up half as much space as three Litepanel Astras, so that's what I'm currently leaning toward. Then I can store my lighting equipment in a smaller bag. The cloth lights always seem nice at first glance, but seem to require too much setup/rigging, have too wide of a beam spread, and typically aren't as bright. A Practilite or Astra comes out of the bag ready to go.



Josh Bass said:
Do what you have to do but personally I think more than one trip is messed up. That’s the sign of needing another guy.
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Unless if you mostly work in a busy city like NY, I don't really understand this mentality. A second trip for me is typically another five minutes, times two for breakdown. So, I'm going to charge my client an extra $200 or so for a PA just to save 10 minutes of time. Yeah, I know, they can help with other stuff too, but if they're a PA, particularly not one I work with regularly, their help with general setup would be limited. Anyway, most clients have a limited budget (like, even Avengers has a limited budget). I find if you budget in a PA, that means you get less take home for yourself. And all so I can save 10 minutes. Doesn't make sense to me. I could see if one is past 60 and wants to cut down on the manual labor, but for a young person it just seems lazy to me. Maybe some day I'll create a topic ranting about why one-man-banding is often the best and most profitable way to work.
 
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Eric Coughlin said:
I'm working on slimming down my lighting kit. Three Practlite 802s would take up half as much space as three Litepanel Astras, so that's what I'm currently leaning toward. Then I can store my lighting equipment in a smaller bag. The cloth lights always seem nice at first glance, but seem to require too much setup/rigging, have too wide of a beam spread, and typically aren't as bright. A Practilite or Astra comes out of the bag ready to go.
Click to expand...



Depending on how you set them up, they 'can' be used as simply as gaffer's taping them to any available surface. Even if you set them up
using their included frame and on a light stand, it's usually not any more than 5 minutes to set one up. The one I have (LEDGo VersaTile)
is plenty bright, (*disclaimer below) but it's got a built in dimmer so I just dial it back. You can also change the color temp via another dial which
can be nice when you are using some nat light through a window and have to match it. As for too wide of a beam spread, you are right there.
Used with the diffusion cloth, it's pretty similar to a soft box which can be a nice look. But I would highly recommend getting the 'eggcrate'
add on so that you can control the light spread better and keep it flagged off parts of your set that you don't want light spilling into!

*Disclaimer......I'm just lighting simple one or two person interviews, so if you are doing more than this, yeah, it probably won't be bright
enough.


Eric Coughlin said:
Unless if you mostly work in a busy city like NY, I don't really understand this mentality. A second trip for me is typically another five minutes, times two for breakdown. So, I'm going to charge my client an extra $200 or so for a PA just to save 10 minutes of time. Yeah, I know, they can help with other stuff too, but if they're a PA, particularly not one I work with regularly, their help with general setup would be limited. Anyway, most clients have a limited budget (like, even Avengers has a limited budget). I find if you budget in a PA, that means you get less take home for yourself. And all so I can save 10 minutes. Doesn't make sense to me. I could see if one is past 60 and wants to cut down on the manual labor, but for a young person it just seems lazy to me. Maybe some day I'll create a topic ranting about why one-man-banding is often the best and most profitable way to work.
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Yup, I have the same experience even though I'm not in a big city. Most of the time, I'm working on mid priced budget work.
Stuff where I 'could' afford a PA maybe, but the client isn't going to pay me anything extra to hire one. So if I make that extra
10 minute trip, I make an extra $250. Worth it to me! Even on one of my larger budgeted jobs, where I was traveling to 4 different
locations by jet, and creating a series (4 separate videos) I did it all by myself. Gear is getting smaller and lighter every year and
I can deal with a little extra gear lugging. It's nothing compared to when I worked at the TV station and had a big
shoulder mount BetaSX cam, heavy tripod, big backpack with 30 pounds of batteries, 7 or 8 extra tapes, a 50 pound
light kit, a wireless mic kit bag and so on.
 
Eric

I think part of being a good operator is having a skill in moving gear.

Understand the above quote about stacking and also consider the quote about always one move and maybe get more people. I agree this is not true for the arrive at single location, setup for the day routine. You can do that alone if there is security and good parking. (Working in London we assume we have to dump kit on the sidewalk, leave it attended and then park - minium two folk)

Im not really going to answer your question because you need to be able to work it out as part of your skillset. Failing operators are the ones that own a jib, slider and ronin but never have time to use any of them becuase of the setup time!

Very quickly an SUV is going to top out. I consider my van with neat rows of boxes a major part of my production offer - without the van my gear has to be packed in such non tesalating and inaccesable manner as to not be accessable - operator fail!

Since I started working with a regular AC who knows the van it has all gelled. Basically jobs where he is not hired I use 1 panel, sticks camera and lenses.

Want more? rent me and my A/C-Grip-Bcam Operator-Boom swinging wizard :)

I guess there are stages.. and you need to understand your specific assignment and match your kit/loading to it.
'Shark pool' - I need to hang all my gear off me while shooting
Move and shoot - Im allowed to put something down while shooting
One trolly
Trolly unload
etc.

Sharkpool I might have the camera on the shoulder and a bag of lenses on my body. No sticks.
Moove and shoot, camera bag of lenses, sticks, bag allowed on the ground while rolling.
1 trolly: I havke a small cart and would expect to be able to move this, possibly with sticks over my shoulder

whatever!

Some notes on my way.

Small jobs are usually soft bags/backpacks
Larger jobs are usually Really useful boxes.. which stack (unlike pelis)
My grip is in Euroboxes - also stacking
I then have kit longer than a Eurobox - eg sticks or Cstands - Im notr really smooth with these now.

Carts seem to have classes ..
Typically 'small enough for elevator' or 'Long enough for sticks' - the two are mutually exclusive. (know your location!)

My cart is about 1m*60 and small enough for elavator, but then sticks have to be managed seperately.

You can see a pic here, the handle folds flat. On is a really useful box, but I can stack about 4 RUB high, https://twitter.com/sammorganmoore/status/959500503536324608
 
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ps I dont like your cart :)

Ive used them or similar. You cant stack cases and too short for sticks. My flat board base one is IMO better !
 
Get a Rock n Roller R12 and give that funny little cart to your gardener. He/she will enjoy using it for collecting leaves in the Autumn...
 
Eric Coughlin said:
I could see if one is past 60 and wants to cut down on the manual labor, but for a young person it just seems lazy to me. Maybe some day I'll create a topic ranting about why one-man-banding is often the best and most profitable way to work.
Click to expand...

Several years ago, I needed surgery on my left knee. The following year my right knee gave out and required surgery. Two years ago, I had surgery again on my left knee. :(

And, I'm almost 60 It catches up with you :(
 
I've used the Rock n' Roller. Doesn't fold down small enough and is a little bit of a pain to setup. I can fit sticks in my cart. Sometimes I'll have some smaller bags in the cart, and then lay the sticks on top of them, or the sticks will lay at an angle. I've got a long 40" light stand bag which fits on the cart in these manners.

I've driven 25,000 miles (mostly for work) in the first five months of this year; a van would not get as good of gas mileage as my SUV, plus costs $30k (assuming it'd become a secondary vehicle), and if it's a production van, it's not as conducive for sleeping in. I travel cheap, and make lots of money by doing so. I have been thinking about buying a class B RV which could fit more gear and be easy to sleep in, but I feel like it'd be more of a luxury than an investment.

Typically when I think about buying a van, I conclude slimming down my kit is a better solution.

alaskacameradude said:
Even if you set them up
using their included frame and on a light stand, it's usually not any more than 5 minutes to set one up.
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Five minutes sounds like a long time to me. Like, I could have done an entire trip with another bag full of lighting gear in that time. An Astra comes out of the bag ready to go, so the light itself takes no time to setup.
 
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My Magliner Jr fits in an SUV fine. It's a JR, not a SR. Makes a big difference.

I'm not a big fan of Rock-N-Rollers. Seem less stable than Magliners, especially when really loaded and on uneven surfaces. Also won't last as long. And finally, I see them around a lot...seems like QC has slipped a bit up there. But plenty of people use and even like them (as we've already seen here :) )

Maybe also look into Krane carts, esp the 500 and 750. They roll nicely and have a growing number of useful accessories, too. Fold up small. I almost went with a Krane, but that used Magliner was just too good a deal (and the size works for me)
http://www.kranecarts.com

A two-minute overview gets across a lot of the basics (including accessory bags, case/shelf, etc):

 
Rock N Roller R12. Best bargain in this industry. I've been doing this over 20 years and it's what I use. Get the deck extender and shelves. I can get at least one to two pair of sticks and a few stands on the extender.

Magliners are OK if you have a lot of space in your vehicle for storage(R'nR's fold up smaller), but you generally can't carry as much vs. a R'nR. I didn't catch what SUV you drive, but before I switched to trucks, I worked out of SUV's and a R'nR will easily fit in one.

I've seen one or two local news guys with the little soft sided wagons at some events where they're just dragging a camera and a very small amount of support from their vans to the media center.

Most working guys/crews are using R'nR's or Magliners. And around me, it's mostly R'nR's.
 
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For the jobs described in the OP, I usually go with rocknroller cart with a tripod/stand accessory mounted on the handle of the cart.

I'll have a case for lenses, media, small monitor, transmitter, filters. Another case for camera and small batteries. Another case for steadicam (when needed), and a crate for sandbags, stingers and clamps. In addition to this, I have pop-out modifiers of varying sizes, the larges being 4'x8'. Then I have another case for a Skypanel or litemat 4 (depending on the location needs). Tripod and stands get put into the vertically oriented carrying attachment, and it all can go in one trip.

The tripod/stand attachment is a life-saver. The pop-out Modifiers also make this possible, without having to carry large frames that don't fit in my SUV.
 
Been doing this for decades, too. Been around and worked with dozens of RnRr carts; still not feeling the RnRr love. But if you go that way (after checking out the Krane and reconsidering Magliners of course :-) ), look at some of the mods and stuff people have devised for RnRrs.

I think the shelf described in this comment on Amazon is pretty cool. The guy gives some of his reasoning (standard RnRr shelf takes a while to put on) and describes how he made his. Pretty clever, I'd say:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-...ef=cm_cr_dp_d_rvw_ttl?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B003AYLJXU

RnRr custom shelf.jpg


There are also a couple good-sounding ideas in this video:

And the GripNGaff bags look like good ideas, though I haven't used them:
https://www.gripngaff.com/collections/bundle-gripngaff-bag-rocknroller-cart

GripnGaff.jpg

So yep, I considered a RnRr cart and looked into what changes I'd make (I REALLY like having a shelf that provides a work space, for example). Still not my cup of tea. And based on recent experience, I'd suggest getting your RnRr from a local dealer so if yours isn't built well you can easily exchange it (an unlikely need, but not unheard of around my area). But hey, clearly those carts work for some people. Maybe some of these ideas and products will let you make an RnRr work great for you.

Looking forward to hearing what you end up doing!
 
The Grip n Gaff bags can really help with reducing trips with a RnR cart. Well worth it. Any soft tripod cases or tripods or booms can just be stuck in the bag and you can stack all of your regular hard cases on the cart.

The RnR is the most poorly packaged piece of equipment I have ever used and they are really cheaply designed, but you can buy three or more for the price of a decent cart and they will last you for a few years. I suggest buying from Amazon or a big box store that offers free return shipping of the product is damaged.

Also, I suggest the R14 for the extra capacity.
 
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