Juan Carlos Oganes' film-making and work blog.

Saturday, April 16, 2011

New follow focus and snap gears

As the filming date approached last year back in November, I set up and got together all the items and things i needed for it cleaned and ready.
My Indisystem rig has followed along with me for all these years and proven to be a good sidekick. Never gave me any problems and I know with this war-period film, it was gonna be put to the test thru the harsh elements: dust, scratches, close-by rifle blows, dirt, debris, wind and the wear and tear it changing set ups often.

After so much of that stuff in the past six months I can say it really is made to last.

I even posted an entry about Tim Ovel and the rigs he makes for us filmmakers. That was like two years ago. Again....this is no infommercial nor am I being paid to say this here but I'm very please after all these years with the equipment I got. It is also and opportunity to answer all who have written me asking about him and if my rig lasts. It does and he is alive and kicking. In fact, I happened to reach him on the phone while he was at NAB to share with him some suggestions I had for the things I encountered that I'd like to customize. He was nice enough to even send me a brand new follow focus and the newly designed snap gears!! Tested them as soon as I got them and they did their job fine on the field.

I would like this to be a statement about a product that is quite good and about a guy who is quite honest and enduring in his mission: Customer Satisfaction. And I'd like to say this with not only proof but also with the fair, moral and professional right to state this: I have read on some forums and blogs about how cheap and bad his products are. About how he has disappeared and how he doesn't follow up on you.
And I have also read and done my homework to at least briefly find out who was saying so. I don't want to dismiss any of the people who have the right to state their own opinion (heck, this is one too) but I do take professional opinions more seriously. And I mean professional when the person stating this or that has really done a lot and for years and with enduring or large scale stuff. In my case, I've been in this entertainment business for almost two decades already, done many nationwide TV commercials, corporate videos, short and feature lenght films and in fact this war-period movie is my 10th film. Apart from it all, about 95% of the people who have stated that Tim's rigs are crap are guys who -lets face it- are either newcomers or haven't done anything big-time as far as it seems.

Still...I respect their opinions and I also know the rigs limitations. Ive used film equipment for several gigs I had and yes, there are tougher and fancier stuff on the market out there. But companies who seem to market to middle or entry level people seem to charge like if they were like the big guys for something that can actually be priced lower like Indisystem does. I mean....if XX company is charging almost a grand or so per follow focus...how can Tim charge 3 times less and still be in business? many argue that it's because it's cheap or whatever, when actually it's not. The others could make stuff better perhaps in some areas, but if u customize ur rig with Tim I'm sure you can get a lot for your money.

This has been an honest and humble statement, people. I may have mentioned stuff about my chops but that was not out of ego, it was just to make a point that many need to look at the whole picture first. Entry level people as also pro people have a right to state their opinions, but when some are pro and have shot a lot with Tim's rig like I did and not been disappointed, why suddenly are newcomers leaving comments all over the net that badmouths this product? Entry level people and pro people have a right to pay the just for a product that does the job...not just pay for a brand.

It simply makes me suspect there's something fishy here. Dirty competition perhaps...? Mmm....