Booth Brothers at CineGear Los Angeles Paramount Studios

I arrived in LA on Thursday June 4th, Jens, Mandy James and I came from Zacuto HQ in Chicago. Got to say compared to last year’s CineGear with 105 degree weather, this was a pleasure, it being 64 degrees every day. Immediately we took a 1 hour hike at the Runyon Canyon, one of my favorite things to do in Hollywood, it's really steep and challenging. Then it was off to the Avalon Hotel for our Zacuto LA appreciation party. We’d like to thank the Avalon for throwing a great party including DJ, this special event was planned by Avalon's Helen Ryan. It was a lot of fun and we met some of our friends and fans from on the web.

Jens and I spent a lot of time talking with Robert Primes ASC about (hot cameras, lighting, film, it was fun and we learn a lot when we talk to Bob), also saw old friend Georgia Jacobs, Misa & Jehu Garcia from Jag35.com (with their awesome tiny DOF adapter, got to get one of these for shooting video of my daughter), Ryan Campbell (who owns everything Zacuto including a original version one baseplate), Bill Strehl (who we continued a talk about trade shows for NAB 09), and many many more, see pics: CineGear Images

Jens did a great job as usual in setting up our booth, it's a huge operation coordinating everything to arrive and get it setup. I have to admit that Paramount Studios is a much better venue then Universal Studios where it was held last year. Nobody liked Universal, it’s hard to get to the backlot and it’s in the valley (very hot). I did have to park all the way on the other side of Paramount studios, but I got to walk through the entire studios including bungalow’s stages and all to get to backlot. It was fun but I wouldn't want to have to do it again.


Our booth was swamped pretty much the entire time. Many people stopped by our booth firstRobert Primes ASC was around both days while we tricked out his 5DMKII and he came back on Saturday looking at setups for the AFI, other ASC fellas who came by the booth were Jon Fauer ASC, Stephen H. Burum ASC, had a long talk with Rodney Charters ASC about growing up with a Bolex and what’s missed and what’s gained by not having had that experience. I saw Howard Preston playing with a 5DMK2 on a Gorilla kit. There were so many others that visited but I’m not so great with the names so if I didn’t mention you, feel free to send me an email and I’ll correct it.

I designed a mount for Jan Crittenden and her new Panasonic AG-HPG20 portable recorder (so it can mount on a tripod leg, 15mm or 19mm rods or ¼ 20 screw), Dieter Goerke, Evie Silvers of NAPTE, Canon folks: Simon Kerr, Joesph Bogacz and Kelvin Surginer (who designed his own Gorilla kit and had it in Canon’s booth), Edward Done, Kate Walker from Film Independent, Jeffrey Stansfield, Mario Ortiz from Cinema Verde Productions, Dave Walker from Indie Slate Mag., David Butler from STE-MAN, The Booth Brothers, Christopher Saint & Philip Adrian, stopped by the booth (we love these crazy eccentric guys and their work at Spook TV is amazing), Sam Pietsch said hello. When Leaving CineGear I saw Simon Sommerfeld (James Mather’s partner in crime) of the Digital Cinema Society on the sidewalk.


By Steve Weiss/Zacuto