I've been seeing a lot of threads online regarding neat case setups, both for kit and as run/set bags and was wondering if anyone had any setups to share? I found an extra 1510 laying around and wanted to see about either converting it to a run case and/or maybe making a film loading kit for the occasional film job I have pop up.
Paging @Caitlin Brown, @Andrew Hwang, @Joshua Cote and all you other fine folks with sexy setups...
I'm quite happy with my custom foam case cut by Case Design in the UK for a Pelicase 1510 that fits the cPRO hand unit, Cinefade VariND, two motors, camin and all accessories and cables. I added velcro in the lid myself for Panavision clear pouches, so only a little DIY required.
A neat accessory for the Pelicase I came across is 'Rucpac', which basically allows you to convert it into a rucksack (albeit a very uncomfortable and un-ergonomic one), which may help when travelling or reaching remote locations by foot.
www.rucpac.com
Very Nice Oliver!
I've always been curious about the RucPac system, especially for those docu-style jobs like @Fabio Giolitti just wrote about! Seems great for hiking into who-knows-where in case of rain, I just can't really believe that its somehow comfortable - $100 ain't the cheapest experiment :)
Hi Aidan, it's kind of ok to use it with a 1510 size of case, I got it also for my 1560, where I can store a set of lenses, Cooke s4 for instance (without 180mm). But this is not anything you want to carry for like a 3 hour hike. It's less pain than carrying the case in your hands if it's rocky, but surely nothing for a long walk. What will help is if you attach some foam on the back of case as there are three points where it lays on your back: your shoulder blades and your coccyx. No idea if those are the right words, just used Google. ;) whatever, if you manage to soften those points it will be much better. I switched to a fstop Shinn with the master cine icu for those moments, it's much more comfortable, lighter, has got more space and you get it rain proof too.
Here's my loading pelican! It's an old iM2450 from a set of Maxima wheels, with the original lid foam and a custom trekpak. I've found that a rigid divider works best for loading stuff; keeps the delicate items safe and makes it easy to have a set place for every item.
My one complaint is that in hot weather the tape gets tacky, which is why the loops for the sharpies and dentist mirror are threaded into the foam in the top of the case. The lid foam folds down with a compartment for lab notes and other paperwork. Excited to see what you put together @Aidan Gray!
Ugh alright yes I'm going to do this... Thank you for posting! I have to ask, what exactly do you have in there?
Now if only I could find a way to strap my jumbo tent to the top 🤔
@Aidan Gray Here's a breakdown - I've found this minimizes what I have to carry in addition to the tape rolls, extra cans, tent, and other gack we always have to lug around! I'm still working on adding/subtracting things to be the perfect setup. Lmk if I should go into more detail on anything!
LID) Easy grab-and-go lengths of each tape
Dentist mirror
Sharpies
Baggie of Arricam mag resetting tools
1) Gash stock, 16 and 35
Spare cans, 16 and 35 (for in a pinch)
Desiccant tin
2) Disposable shower caps
3D printed combi shutter tool
3) Scratch test magnifying glass
Perf scissors
Horsehair brush
Spare rocket blower
4) Plastic container with cotton swabs
and orange wood sticks
5) Wax pencils
Analog converters with spare cables
6) 35mm cores
7) 16mm cores
8) Clipboard with fotokem lab reports
Labels for tracking stock amounts
9) Spare fotokem shopping bag
Lightproof bags (all sizes)
Stopwatch
Passport chip chart
10) Camera notes booklet
Spiral notepad and pen
More disposable shower caps, for some reason
Not pictured: Assorted oils and lubes for mags/movements. Still in my run bag from the weekend.
Also here's the clipboard from (8) with the velcro labels for tracking film stock. Including, of course, my trusty Pana-cardboard that lets me write on stacks of carbon copy lab reports.
Hey @Aidan Gray and Focus Pullers!
First of all, big fan.
Second, I've always liked the idea of having the 1510 Pelican as a run bag, but I haven't been able to perfect it. I mostly made this run bag for my 1st AC who was splitting off from the group to film something, but I wanted him to have everything he needed plus backups. I can share what I've done on the last job and maybe others can chime in on ways to improve it.
In my 1510 Pelican case I have the Jason Case Lid Organizer, which is really nice for cables or smaller hardware. I think the most important cables to have in there would be extra 2 pin lemos to p-tap, short SDI, and a p-tap splitter in case anything goes bad.
I usually have 3 sections in my pelican case. In the left section it was everything filter/front of lens related. It would hold a whole stack of filters from top to bottom. The rola pola will usually sit perpendicular to the filters and on it's side (since it's too tall). I believe I was able to slide the hard matte, eyebrow, and a diopter tray as well (all sitting perpendicular as well).
In the middle section it was battery related. I think I was able to put at least two 140wh Anton Bauer Batteries (camera), a 98wh Hypercore Batteries (director's monitor), a A98 Micro Bebop (1st AC's monitor), a card wallet, and a cable wallet.
Then on the far right, I would just have hardware, such as the FF, grips, whips, lens support, etc, in case the wireless focus went down or a piece of hardware broke.
For tools, I have a chest harness that holds everything that I need at a moment's notice. For more specialized tools like arms, wrenches, torpedo level, etc. I have a separate tool bag.
The one thing that should probably been in there is a box of Kimtech wipes and Pancro.
In retrospect, I probably could've used the set of hard mattes as a divider, left the cable wallet out and put the cables in the Jason Case Lid Organizer. That probably would've left a little bit more room for other things.
I have seen someone say that sometimes using the pelican as a run bag can slow you down because of the time spent trying to fit everything perfectly in, vs just throwing it in a tool bag/doctor's bag.
I feel like I am forgetting something important that might need to be added to the run bag, but I can't think of it at the moment, but what are your thoughts? Am I forgetting something important? Is this all just a pipe dream to try and fit everything into a pelican case?
Thanks!
@Andrew Hwang I have the same frustrations with using pelicans as run bags. I've found that soft bags have more versatility and more space to easily/safely throw items into on the go. I have a 1510 with items for prep and custom rigging (i.e. large ultralites, shark fin, cheeseplates, other specialized items) but the bags I actually take with me to each setup are always Basecamps.
Very interesting... I've sworn by my Burke Bag since it entered my life, however I recently tore through it which is what started this whole thing, especially after seeing dope assistant like Andrew make the Pelican cases work. Soft bags might have more versatility, but I also find myself absolutely stuffing them full of stuff - I suppose that's for better and for worse. This is my medium run bag with the DP's filters a few batteries, and some media - once you start adding backup cables, hard mattes, flags,
Cinetape/Preston parts, etc, etc... You can see how I run out of room pretty quick.
@Caitlin Brown I've only used the Pelican as a run bag once. What was your biggest frustration with using it?
@Andrew Hwang Mostly how much time you have to spend getting everything to fit, and how quickly it gets messy when you take one thing out. When I work with a basecamp bag as my main run bag, I can fit everything I need into about half the bag, and leave the rest open for matteboxes, filters, batteries, etc.
I'll comment with my first "tool case" that got me through the first couple years of camera assisting and still comes along with me (although this is the case I'm trying to recycle into something new)...
The first several years of assisting, I was mainly doing travel jobs in and around the US - lots of doc-style, small crew, run and gun type projects... I needed a very small kit that could fit into any plane (even the four seaters), had the tools I needed to do 80% of anything that was thrown at me, and was laid out well enough to tell somewhere where something was quickly over a walkie. This is a Pelican 1535Air (1510 but lighter, no top handle) with the Pelican Top divider - depending on the job, I also had a laptop top divider from ThinkTank that I could switch out if I was mainly handling media. On the right hand side, I have two tackle boxes - one was mainly household batteries (AA, AAA, 9V, 2032s), sensor swabs, orange wood sticks, Qtips whilst the other was was BNC connectors, emergency WACO connectors, and misc 3/8-16, 1/4-20, and metric screws/bolts/washers/nuts. The cable wallet is a bunch of misc. backup cables (Dtap splitter, LEMO cables, BNC, HDMI, USB cables, etc.). The little Husky bag towards the side handle is all my writing utensils - sharpies, pens, dry erase, overhead, hilighters, chalk pens, grease pencils. The small clear plastic pouch is all my ultralight arms - even though most operators and DPs aren't a big fan, it allowed me to pack like 2-3 arms into a really tiny space and I could handle almost any mounting accessory with them. I also had a few small Wooden Camera Easy plates as well for special situations. The shower caps and bongo ties are pretty self explanatory, but they were great for emergency rain solutions and could be found anywhere. On the left side is my lens/monitor cleaning stuff (Kimtech, microfiber, small 8oz bottles of Flanders monitor cleaner and Pancro), some red/green paper tape for media, and under all of that is some hand warmers. In the back left are a circuit finder and a multimeter, both made by Kleintools. Even though we normally have electricians to figure this out for us, these are probably the two most common tools that come out of this case currently - the circuit finder is especially handy when shooting on location when something goes wrong with a very small crew and tight schedule. The top organiser is full of misc hand tools, passport chip chart, lights/lamps, gloves, ear plugs, and most importantly ibuprofen (and AdvilPM).
Way less sexy but this is my "Smart Tools" case - it features:
cmotion cpro FIZ
cmotion cpro ONE
2x cforce mini motors
cPro Motor
cPro Camin
Steadizoom
Hand Unit Rain Cover
Premarked Rings, Iris Strips, Chargers, Straps
6x Hand unit batteries
SmallHD 703Bolt
SmallHD703U
LBUS/CAM cables
Teradek Bolt 1000XT 2:1
my backup gold mount charger
my BT Revolvr 19mm Studio FF
2x Bright Tangerine 19mm Bridge Plates, 2x ARRI dovetails
Scatterbox2
Gold Mount shark fin
Set Straps
Gold/V-Mount Turnarounds
Its a lot of gear in not that much space, but its kinda messy... Its also probably like $90K? 😅 The whole reasoning behind it was I was doing so much travel via train in and out of NYC last year that I just wanted two cases I could take with me and pretty much just needed a camera cart locally to work (of which I had one in NYC, and one in DC)... The other downside is this thing is HEAVY - I think like 90lbs or something? Really not a joy to take up a 3rd story walk-up, or up the stairs of a subway. I also wanted to leave my gear in my cmotion bag in the event I needed to take it all out at once (didn't have room, etc) and honestly its actually worked out quite well. I wished it didn't look as trash, but maybe a good example of function over form?
Great thread! Lots of usefull information in here already. I am just tagging some 2nd ACs here, maybe you guys can add some of your set-ups? @Thomas Vargas @Steven van hengstum @Boris Suyderhoud @Leandro Paiva @Thomas Bultstra @David "clean" Berryman @Pete Candler @Chris Battensby @Dylan Stoel @Goktug Bakan @Camille Filleux @Leon Frind @Omar Dessouky @Oliver Gross @Arne van Wunnik @Lasse Heggen @Adam Russell @Francisco Borges @Florian Bellack @Elizabeth Coggins @luigi cortese @Jack Khorram @Joonsang Yoon @Drew Marsden GBCT @Iaroslav Kerget @GABRIEL BUESSIO @Rajesh Penta @Sabrina Mendez @Jerry Liu @Carlos Hernandez @Ernest Tu @Ollie Cipres @Simona De Lullo @Carla Sosa-Fuster @Chris Friebus @Vanessa Ward @Patrick LaValley @Eric Kim @JASWINDER "Jazz" BEDI @Jose Burgos @Gosia Zur@Rick Maassen van den Brink @Pablo Gómez @Adam Lichtenberger @Philip LeMoyne @Matteo Aloisi @Benedict Lo @Matei Ioncica @Benjamin Raynaud @Davide Scalenghe @Jessyca Marilyn Caracci @Sarai Morales @Adam Russell @Tony Pratsch
This is my tool kit. only thing really custom is I don't like paying for trekpak and I like high vis for dark sets. you can buy choroplast for cheap and spend a few hours making custom divider systems. I just gaff'd it together since I was lazy and it's held up for a year but about to upgrade to a bigger kit case since I can't stop buying junk.
My preston fiz kit has custom foam by innerspace cases. used blank englishstix tags for labels so any 2nd can find what I'm asking for. (3d printed battery holder thanks to @Aidan Gray files on thingverse)
+10 points for the "Embrace the Suck" patch 😂 I setup a very similar case for a friend who needed a place to store his monitor and Teradek - I like the hard divider approach more than custom foam I think... Although I really do dig your Preston case!
@Aidan Gray Thanks! I tend to not like permanent divider solutions as well but my preston's kit won't be expanding much so decided to go fully protected for when it goes under a plane.
ohhh never though of hard divider trays like that. I'm currently trying to figure out how I want to re-organize for my new kit case. Upgrading from 1510 to im2620. Might have to intergrade the hard divider idea for quick access items.
Here is my 1510 pelican with a custom cut foam. It houses everything I need and is my everyday Focus Kit.
@Brian Aichlmayr has a pretty great custom Pelican setup. Hopefully he can post some of his stuff as I saw it about a month ago when he was prepping in Michigan. I can send along mine as well when I get back from out of town.