LOS ANGELES—Good/Dreams is an independent content branding company that we founded and over time, we have learned every shoot presents itself with a new set of problems and requires solutions that can only be achieved when we prepare ourselves for everything. But who are we kidding? We know that’s impossible.
What is possible is the use of the most efficient tools for the job to get a leg-up above our old pal Murphy and his terrible law.
NEEDED TO LIGHTEN THE LOAD
Casey Goode (L) and Danny Reams Our problem is that we borrow production gear where we can and that requires that we frequently have to make it work. It seems that every camera we use comes with its own set of accessories, and this translates to more cables and separate power sources. Keeping track of three different battery chargers the night before your shoot can sometimes be a real challenge. After living with this less than enviable situation for awhile, we decided that it was time for a power source solution that covered a vast array of cameras and their accessories, as well as one that could also power our F&V Lighting LED light kit.
This is where we discovered the new Cue series batteries from IDX, and not only were the batteries from a trusted brand in the industry, they were also affordable.
Producing the kind of lifestyle branded content that our company turns out requires us to present viewers a day in the life of the people we follow. The key to this is equipment mobility. Big equipment packages require lots of power and this generally requires big batteries and lots of them. To our delight, we found that the Cue series was not only able to power a RED package we were using, it was also happy powering the monitor we were using and other accessories from its built-in D-tap.
BUILT-IN D-TAP TO THE RESCUE
This capability proved to be a real lifesaver for us, as in one instance we learned (too late) that the D-tap on the battery plate of the camera we’d rented was bad. Luckily we had a backup with the D-tap that’s built-in on the Cue.
On another shoot in the middle of the Santa Clarita Valley, we were following an old (1989) Nissan 240sx through the canyons and were using a Blackmagic Pocket Cinema camera with an external monitor. We had the IDX Pocket cinema V-mount plate attached to our rods and powered the monitor via the Cue’s builtin D-tap. Those small batteries each lasted about four hours. We were amazed. When you’re a crew of two, you only have so many pockets you can fit your media and batteries into. With the slim Cues series batteries, all you really need is one on the camera and one in your back pocket.
IDX’s Cue batteries have proven their dependability to us time and time again. It’s important to buy gear you can trust from a company that also provides excellent customer service. In our book, IDX is great on all counts.
Casey Goode and Danny Reams are California natives and co-owners of Goode/Dreams. They may be contacted respectively atcasey@goodedreams.comanddanny@goodedreams.com.
For additional information, contact IDX at 310-328-2850 or visitwww.idxtek.com.
