Progress report on the AGrip Jib Crane 6/27/12

Today is June 27th 2012 and at this point we've shot quite a lot of stuff with the AGrip Jib Crane. Many people remember the first Blog Entry for this Jib. Since that time Ryan Spencer and I did a lot of shooting and we cut a reel; now I feel like we have finished what amounts to "Round Two", which is in my mind, another 6 month time period of using this crane, and getting more experience, and adding to our family of Jib footage.

We've done quite a few shoots. I am going to write about some of them.


Recently we did a video for the artist named "Kornbread", we used a lot of Jib in this music video. The location was a gritty factory that had a a couple two story sections with steel grates and pipes. I lit this set up really cool and then when we filmed with the Jib Crane... It just looked awesome!

Kornbread Video in post production right now

Post production time line of the Kornbread video that is Jib heavy

Another shoot that we used the Jib Crane on was on a music video for an artist named DeSaint Reed.

Behind the scenes Jib shot from Desaint's video

Here is a link to the music video:

http://youtu.be/neFNl0BjRkI

The Jib shots start at about 3:58

We were able to get these beautiful Jib shots BECAUSE, the AGrip Jib can be set up so fast. All you need is somewhat flat ground and a close place to park the van. If you have that, then the Jib can be set up quickly and using a generator, you can get your shots on location. Mixing this amazing Jib crane with locations is simply awesome.


The AGrip Jib Crane was also used for Rebecca Black's new music video. Here is a link to the video:

http://youtu.be/PEXgUdNGkts

 

Jib Operator Ryan Spencer operating on the Rebecca Black MV

There are Jib shots throughout this music video. As you can see, the Jib shots look really cool with the beach house location because the Beach house had an area that you could see over with the Jib. The Jib was a great call for this music video.

The AGrip Jib Crane was used recently on a music video for Fredro Starr from the group Onyx. We used the crane in a private parking area in an apartment building in downtown Los Angeles. The parking area required us to enter a gate and drive up 1 story where we were in a parking lot, yet not on the street level with street traffic. This was the PERFECT spot to use a Jib. We would not be bothered by the police yet, since it was a dangerous street below we got to see the police in our shots a lot. For this video we wanted police syrens flashing onto the Mercedes that Fredro was performing on so we used lights and gels to do this. The Jib Crane was able to look over the wall at the real police and then fly over to Fredro who appeared to have been performing near police syrens. This was an amazing shot.

The Crane was also used in this same area to film a performance shot of Fredro on a fire escape. This vertical area worked great with the Jib. This video is going to be awesome. Stay tuned.










A Director that I work with hired me to get Jib Shots for his music video and after the first day with the Jib, the director decided that he wanted every shot in the music video to be a Jib shot and so he started hiring me for multiple days. We have gotten a lot of cool shots for this music video. The directors name is Lightfield Lewis. The music video is starring Lightfield's father, actor Geoffrey Lewis.

Behind the Scenes shot in the Arts District of Downtown Los Angeles

Actor Geoffrey Lewis being filmed by the AGrip Jib

One of the memorable shoots that we used the Jib Crane on was the B.A.D. video for the Rap group called "B.A.D. Company",

Check out the video:
http://youtu.be/lAaa2wCfINk

This video is filled with Jib Shots. It was a lot of fun working in 1 location with vertical areas such as external stairways, and 3 story shelving. I think that the Jib shots added a lot to this video. One of the uses of the Jib on this video that I especially liked was how we mixed aerial overhead shots of the fight scene near the stair well, with hand held shots filmed on the ground inside the fight.