VaricamLT: on the latest series-- "Ryan Hansen Solves Crimes on Television"

CharlesPapert

CharlesPapert

Director of Photography
On the second week of shooting season one of "Ryan Hansen Solves Crimes on Television", a new half hour comedy for Youtube Red. We have two Varicam LT's for primary shooting, with a good size stable of secondary cameras representing many different looks and formats, from low to high tech.

On the Varicams, lens selection includes my usual stable of Cabrio 19-90, Alura 15.5-45, Alura 30-80, Alura 45-250, Zeiss 70-200 and Tokina/Duclos 11-16, plus a set of 3rd gen Super Speeds.

IMG_4471.jpg
 
That picture was taken in the venerable police station set on Mateo St. in downtown LA that has been used in many movies and TV shows over the years. When I snapped the picture I was standing pretty much on the spot where Charlie Sheen and Jennifer Grey flirted on a bench in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off".
 
Alex Derrick said:
Cool! Thanks Charles for sharing.

Why did you guys opt for LTs over v35s?
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It was mostly an availability thing--and also price point. The rental house we went with had the LT's available. There's been a bit of growing pains with the configuration--we don't like the VCT plate bottoms, and finding a baseplate system that doesn't flex against the body (for the focus motors) has been tough. Overall though, we are doing a lot of handheld and the operators seem quite pleased with the lighter body. One of them has the setup so dialed in, she can take her hands off the camera even with the 19-90, two focus motors, Cinetape horns, mattebox and filters etc. all fore of the lens mount.
 
Charles, I have two suggestions for your baseplate flex issue. One is the ARRI quick release plate solution. It is a marvelously over-engineered system that is so very ARRI. In general it will hold any camera in place like a rock. The other solution is that you can remove four screws from the bottom of the VariCam LT's base to take away the front wedge used for the quick release system. With that removed there are two pairs of 3/8x16 sockets revealed, located for the correct centering for either 15mm or 19mm studio bridge plate systems. I know you say you're shooting a lot of handheld, so I would suggest using those holes to mount directly to your tripod's own QR plate and then use the fore/aft adjustment on the head itself for balance. This way you get rid of the flex issue as well as lower the camera's stance on the head by almost an inch. If the tripod head doesn't allow enough range to achieve balance then you can employ an offset plate which will push the camera further back (or forward) from the center of the head.
 
Mitch--as you can see from photo above, we have removed the wedge and have a baseplate in place. We do need the traditional setup as we have some studio zooms that require support, and may have 6x6 involved as well (I can't recall offhand). I think the two spacer plates we were supplied by the rental house were Wooden Camera and Zacuto. My AC's tell me that the Preston motors can exert enough torque to where flexing is visible between the spacers and the body, even with two 3/8-16" tiedowns. I believe one of them has solved this via a rod for the focus motor attached to the top cheeseplate which seems to be working.
 
Instead of that odd spacer plate you're using, you could use our baseplate. Removing the wedge makes it the correct height for the ARRI bridge you're using with zero flex. Another bonus is that it also serves as a nice shoulderpad setup for handheld use. Worth checking to see if the rental house has the Panasonic baseplates available. Most purchased one with each camera.
 
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