How has this NYC Jib Op never heard of this place?! I get that Rock Lititz is far from home, but it’s such an amazing campus and place to work. Rock Lititz is a massive production facility with several arena sized spaces geared towards touring acts to tech their shows. I’ve been jibbing a show that would typically have me having a Jimmy Jib in NYC’s Beacon Theater for a live awards event. Instead, the entire show is a hybrid virtual event against a massive video wall. Somehow it’s been cheaper for production to rent this massive facility for 2 weeks than to actually do this project in a theater. Rock Lititz has been amazing! The hotel on campus is wonderful, there’s a huge gym with a bouldering wall, a brewery on site, and the area has a number of attractions. Take this NYC Jib Operator out of New York anytime and take me right back here!!
Jibs vs Drones Part 3: Practicality
Another installment of jibs vs drones! This time, let chat about the practicality of both. Say you want to do live sweeping shots a parade and be connected to a live switch. That seems like it’s a slam dunk for a jib right right? However, it’s surprising the number of people that are trying to turn to drones for this. Of course, the drone can soar far about the parade lending views a jib could never do! But is this practical? First of all, let’s forget the legality issues with doing that as it’s sort of obvious there would be loads of them. Let’s focus on work flows. A drone needs frequent battery changes, is not as weather proof, and only get you a handful of shots. Jibs can run off AC and don’t burn thru battery power nearly as fast, so that lets us provide much more sustained coverage. With proper rain gear, jib rigs are impervious to torrential rain that would make a drone crash almost instantly. The drone would be locked into some kind of blimp camera angle. That’s an amazing shot, but it’s not nearly as versatile as a jib would be. When I’m jibbing a parade for example, I position the end of my arm to come within a few feet of the floats. This lets me very high and wide but still maintain an eye angle to the people on the ground. It also lets me zoom right into close ups of people on the float and give the effect of flight within that space. Doing this with a drone would certainly be an amazing skill set, but those propellors can slice a person up very easily so it’s just too risky. Even the smallest contact with a tiny branch can knock an sUAS out of the sky. For now and years to come, it’s simply not technologically feasible to do this kind of camera work with a drone. This doesn’t mean a drone shouldn’t be considered for some grandiose high and wide shots, they will look amazing!