What is this? doing?

P

Park Edwards

Veteran
What is the thing the guy is holding? Or more importantly, what is its purpose? I see these all the time, from bts stuff, but dont' know what it. It looks to be some kind of scrim, falg, diffuser. Is he blocking out light for the person in front of him to help better see?

what.jpg
 
That is a scrim, or net. It looks like he is blocking glare from the hand held monitor that they guy in front of him is holding.
 
That is a Double Net, as indicated by its red border. Doubles cut one stop of light. Singles, with a green band, cut 1/2 stop.
 
Double net. Besides light loss what the grip is doing is helping break up the wind on the camera guy. Steady cam asks for it all the time.
 
Specifically, a 4x4 double net. Being that he's hollywooding it like that, rather far from the talent, my first guess was to break up wind as well. Not really sure though.
 
Joncarr said:
Double net. Besides light loss what the grip is doing is helping break up the wind on the camera guy. Steady cam asks for it all the time.
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Although not for any lighting reasons, you are right about breaking the wind.

It's to break the wind and I do believe that is a steadi cam (not able to be seen) in that picture. Notice the four antennas coming from near the battery pack of the camera... that is a wireless transmitter sandwiched between the camera body battery plate and the batteries. It's used almost exclusively on steadi-cams. I think the 1st AC (with remote FF unit (or perhaps a Director with a monitor?)) is blocking the actual steadicam, which is operated by the dude in blue jeans.

A steadicam is a very well balanced and responsive tool. When strong gusts of wind catch the rig, it can give unwanted movement, thus usually grips form a protective wall with 4x4 doubles to help break the wind. I'm not sure why they don't use solids, like a 4x4. Maybe because it's hard to see through and you run the risk of not being nimbly able to stay out of the steadicam's way or see where you are going/blocking. Maybe it's to avoid blocking too much ambient fill light. I guess I should ask my grip brothers on the next show. I just know it's standard to use a double.
 
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Ryan Patrick O'Hara said:
Although not for any lighting reasons, you are right about breaking the wind.
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Correct, I should of worded my statement a little differently to avoid confusing. I should of said besides gerenal light loss of a stop, what the grip is actually doing in the picture is breaking up the wind for the camera op.

good call on spoting the steadycam, I was leaning towards that myself.
 
Personally I think he should have been using a solid flag but didn't want to miss seeing any of the action. :cheesy:
 
Just for general information (for the OP), a net is useful for knocking down brightness of a light source without changing its hardness (sharp shadows). Easier to manage in large sizes than neutral density gel.
 
If it's solid, I think it would be to difficult to hold as it would be more like a sail, this way, it blocks the wind enough, but still lets some go through making it easier to control. As mentioned, these also come in small sizes made for the specific fresnel, circular, and clip right on the front of the instrument.
 
If you have a solid and a gust of wind comes you'll blow away. A double will cut down the wind alot, but is still easy to handle when the wind comes.

Also definitely great to be able to see through.

Woops, didn't see maranfilms post. Oh well, driving it home!
 
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