Category: Production Tips

How to Avoid Gear Theft

Posted on by Oriana Chacon

Sad to say, there are some slick, professional gear thieves out there. It’s a serious epidemic, with theft from vehicles and sets at a frightening and expensive level.

According to ESTA’s Production Equipment Rental Group [PERG], the anti-theft organization that operates online missing equipment database and alert system Rental Guard, nearly $9 million worth of professional motion picture camera equipment was reported stolen in 2016. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
Theft hurts everyone
Gear theft is about much more than the equip …

21 Film Set Jargon Decoded

Posted on by Oriana Chacon

Whether you’re dipping your toes into film production, looking for camera rental in Miami or simply need a film crew job, knowing the language of production will help.

If you’re new to film-making, here’s one thing you’ll notice on a film set. People there speak a strange language, filled with nicknames, acronyms, and abbreviations. It’s called the language of production.

So here are 21 of the most commonly used film set jargon and what they actually mean.

1. Dailies

The term refers to raw footage stock of the day. The d …

Holiday Gift Guide for Filmmakers and Crew

Posted on by Oriana Chacon

Filmmakers can be a tough crowd when it comes to buying gifts. They are an esoteric group, and I should know, I’m one of them! But as experienced filmmakers Moving Picture Rental has some hints since we use these products daily and monthly, some of them for many years. And what’s a better gift to a production friend or family member, than an item that’ll enhance and help them do what they do best! BTW, we’re not receiving any compensation for our product picks. We’re just doing it for fun and to pay it forward.

Gerber Suspension Mu …

The Top 5 Reasons You May Need Production Supplies

Posted on by Oriana Chacon

[caption id="attachment_1443" align="alignleft" width="354"] MPR Production Supplies[/caption]
Who would ever think that in addition to all the gear you’ve just rented that you’d also need a truck full of production supplies for your next video production in Miami! Well, we’ve complied a list of the top 5 reasons why you may.
 
1. Traffic
Safety on set is the most important aspect of any production. Crew are struck by cars every year on film sets throughout the country.  Pedestrian accidents in South Florida are very high so any kind of v …

Crew Services and Crew Hire to make your life easier!

Posted on by Oriana Chacon

There’s a recent trend in the film and television industry — crews are getting smaller, the deadlines are getting tighter and the jobs are being rewarded later than ever making for shorter preproduction schedules.   Overall time constraints as well as budgets are becoming ever more challenging.  Moving Picture Rental responds to this pain producers and production company owners are experiencing by offering a very unique service at our office’s in Fort Lauderdale, Miami and New York City.   We call it Moving Picture Crew Services.
Cre …

Digital Media Archiving, Storage and Preservation for the Modern Age

Posted on by Oriana Chacon

The Irony: Analog recordings made 100 years ago are more likely to survive than digital recordings made today!

The Truth: There is not a “Magic Bullet” solution available today that will work for everyone. The digital formats you have recorded your material on coupled with the amount of digital material you need to archive and digitally preserve will dictate the solution and practices that will work best for you.

 
What is digital preservation?

Data backup: Making multiple (two or more) copies of a digital file. The copies should be st …

A Producers Guide to Timecode: The Who, What, and Why of Timecode and Framerates

Posted on by Oriana Chacon

Time code is one of those technical topics that is commonly misunderstood by many production industry professionals.  What is it? Why is it important?  Where does it come from?  What will happen if I don’t have it?  We’ll try to answer all those questions for you, and with any luck, help you avoid time code based pitfalls in the future.

Time code is an electronic means of determining an exact location in digital audio and video recording.  The current time code standard was developed in the 1960’s by the Society of Motion Picture …

Free Video Tools for the “Budget Challenged” Production

Posted on by Oriana Chacon

At Moving Picture we are all too aware of how expensive it can be to create art. So, for the budget minded filmmakers out there, we’ve provided a few useful free video tools for you to try out.
MPEG Streamclip
(http://www.squared5.com)
MPEG Streamclip is one of those oddly versatile tools that should be installed on every computer you use. It will play nearly every sort of digital media you throw at it. This includes XDCAM MP4 files from the Sony EX-3 and F3 and MXF files from Sony F5/F55 and Canon C300. About the only thing it won’t play is RE …

FullDawa Productions and Moving Picture presents Anoraak – “Crazy Eyes”

Posted on by Oriana Chacon
[caption id="attachment_464" align="alignright" width="245"] Panasonic AG-AF100 Camera with Zeiss CP.2 Compact Prime Lens[/caption]

Recently, the up and coming French artist Anoraak came to Miami with a small production team from FullDawa to shoot a music video in our fair city.  Moving Picture provided our new Panasonic AG-AF100 camera with a PL mount adapter and Redrock handheld rig, a set of Zeiss CP.2 Compact Prime lenses, and a Camera Assistant for this walkabout of Miami.

The lightweight AF100 and Redrock cinerig provided a stable and …

To Convert or not to Convert – A Guide to Video Mini-Converters. (Part 2 of 2)

Posted on by Oriana Chacon

Welcome to part 2 of the Mini Converter discussion series.  Last week we talked about AJA Downconverters and SDI to HDMI converters.  This week we will talk about HD video distribution and HDSLR video monitoring solutions.

3. How do I spread beautiful HD video around my set without “daisy chaining” all the monitors together?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Okay, I admit, distributing video isn’t much of a conundrum, but it does give me the chance to talk about another conve …