Mark

This probably is the jib you have used in the past. They also own a JJ III, but had a very difficult time getting any operator in to use it because it was totally thrashed. they finally bought the T Jib but as I have said, it gets little to no maintenance. They seem to get upset when you try to fix things that are wrong with the arm. I would re-cable the whole arm and set it up properly for my use when I would shoot there, but when I would come back a couple of days latter to use it again, someone had changed everything around and it would work for sh*t. Needless to say most operators refuse to work there unless they can bring in their own gear. The production company refuses to budge.

They even bought their T Jib during a time I had a long term rental with them with my own Jib on a show there. They came in and told me not to bother bringing in my jib next week because they bought the new jib, "what a pisser".

As far as the pops go this is the only T Jib I have seen do this. I think the only way to fix it will be to strip it and rebuild it. I don't like going out of my way to fix things on it because of the way I have been treated by them in the past. If they would give me time during ESU I would like to at least recable it but I generally only get about ten minutes to do anything before they go into rehearsal. That is only enough time to get my controls on the arm and check the balance of the camera.

Just a funny note to all of this, a month or so ago the other camera operators and I came in at our call time, and the stage manager rushed us right into rehearsal. My first shot was high over the top of the truss, looking at the whole set, with a sweep into the host a la "Millionaire". Just as I started to move something fell from the camera and almost hit someone in the head. Guess what it was? It was the safety cable for the camera. I rest my case!

Things could be worse though. We could be talking about Paramounts CamMate.