Why are always asking for super wide lenses when we get a say in lens choice? This tends to apply most to events, cool spaces, or epic scenes. The jib has a role of establishing the space BUT also taking you into it. You don’t need much zoom to achieve this b/c the tight camera angles will capture those details. I have two polar opposite situations where wide angle lenses are super useful to me. The first one is MMA and the second is orchestras! In MMA, you want to position the end of the jib so it comes just over the cage bar. With a solid 2/3” 14x4.3 or a 4.5x13, you can usually fit the entire cage in your shot when flying around it. When it’s time to take viewer into the cage, you can boom out from the crowd, go super high over the cage, and then drift down INTO it for quite an experience if you’re watching it on a big TV at home. For orchestras, a lot of clients love the jib right on the stage to get the perspective of flying over the musicians. A super wide zoom lets you get the entire stage in the shot and zoom right into close ups of fingers on instruments or bows moving on violins! On top of that, you can start doing jib moves zoomed in while booming in the opposite direction to create a pretty trippy effect!
New Gear for Universal Jibs - NYC Jib Operator at work!
Universal Jibs is excited to announce adding a SmallHD 1303 HDR monitor to the equipment roster! This monitor is amazing and has been something I’ve been wanting to punch on for a while. Being a jib operator in New York City (NYC) means we can be outside in all kinds of weather, including the sweltering heat and humidity you’d think was only reserved Florida. The SmallHD1303 has a brightness of 1500 nit which makes seeing the monitor with the sun right over your shoulder easy as can be. Prior to acquiring this unit, I used a combo of a Marshall MDVLCD9 and SmallHD702 Bright for outdoors. The Marshall monitor is an early model daybright, but no where near the screen power as SmallHD. It was however, a bigger screen size so it was easier on the eyes and I could just have the SmallHD unit set to the side incase the sun really started to obstruct my view for pulling focus or framing. As luck would have it, I was on a job where the 3 Phase power was set up incorrectly for the whole production, which was a live dinner event for about 5,000 people. The event literally kept going in to darkness over and over again while they tried to figure this out!! My Marshall became a victim of circumstance so I was suddenly in the market again for a monitor. I was torn between Boland and SmallHD Daybrights but ultimately I was just on set filming a few days for the PBS Series “Breakthroughs” and the directors monitor was a smallHD 1703. I was blown away by EVERYTHING on it…..2 weeks later I finally got enough guts to punch it : )
Rain Gear - Protect the Jib
I’m probably way to excited about this subject, but having proper rain gear has really saved me from having to replace parts on the Jimmy Jibs. Being a NYC based jib rental operation in the summer months means it can be sunny one minute and pouring rain the next. I found wrapping electronic components with garbage backs to do well except for certain potentiometers on the zoom/focus handles would die and occasionally there’d be trouble inside the control box. Shooter Slicker makes amazing rain covers for Jimmy Jibs and can customize anything for your particular needs. https://www.shooterslicker.com Since investing in these easy to use covers, I haven’t had to do a single repair following a gig in a monsoon. They have a great control box cover which I have modified to seal around an israeli arm mount for my monitor. Being a jib operator in New York City also means shooting in the freezing weather! The control handle covers come in handy in the winter as well b/c you can put pocket heaters in there to help keep your hands warm on a cold day! I’m still in search of warm gloves that give you full function on touch screens and tactile touch on controls. For now I layer up latex gloves with pocket heaters in the control covers.
Canon CN-E 17-120 on a JIB
What a wonderful lens! Many times a year the client springs for the Canon CN-E 17-120 F2.8 and they never regret it. When shooting live content and with large sensor cameras, it’s always tricky keeping up with focus. It gets especially tricky if the jib is swinging around aggressively. Cine servo lenses such as the Canon CN-Es or Fuji Cabrios help solve this issue as they are fully parfocal servo zoom lenses. They blend the functionality of a 2/3” broadcast zoom lens with the super35 world. The CN-E 17-120 is a lens I particularly like to use….I know who doesn’t like a $25k+ lens?! The servo motor is extremely clean and accurate. I can start jib moves and at any point sneak into a super subtle push. You should expect this kind of quality from high end ENG lenses, but I haven’t quite experienced a lens that was THIS accurate with its servo. A good measure of quality is how easily you can start and stop a zoom from it’s beginning and end points. With lesser quality ENG lenses or simply beat up ones, I find the starts/stops aren’t perfect. When completely wide, you sometimes get that dreaded zoom bump when starting a push. I work around this by tapping on the zoom control to get the lens slightly off the starting point. It does not give any noticeable amount of push, but it allows me to comfortably sneak into a push without having to think about it. On the 17-120 this is never a worry!
Jibs Vs Drones Part 1: AUDIO
It’s a common question DPs often have for me and unfortunately the answer isn’t always clear cut. Big swooping wide shots are very important tools for editors as they transition scenes together and connect you into a larger space. But what is better when you need to consider audio?
Jibs make very little noise and often the fans on larger sensor cameras are far louder than anything electronic on a Jimmy Jib. This means all of the swoops and establishing shots can be accomplished capturing live audio! Drones are very loud and even the smallest and quietest ones will sound like a landscaper is out to drive your field recordist crazy. If audio capture is important, then jib is the way to go.
There is a gray area here though. What if it’s an outdoor wedding and you’d like some big shots? The drone flying 400’ off the ground may not interfere with audio if it’s a small unit, but you lose a lot of perspective and intimacy of the shots. That being said, maybe you want a few of those big shots to show off the surrounding? However, if you are flying low enough so the subjects don’t look like ants, you are probably ruining the audio a well as making all of the guest listen to a drone! A large format jib such as an 18-30’ Jimmy Jib Triangle, paired with a wide angle lens, will get an impressive height perspective and also allow you to zoom close up to the subjects without disturbing audio capture or the event itself!
