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Traveling with Camera Gear SUCKS!... But here's how to do it - YouTube
Channel: Potato Jet
[0]
- What's going on, everybody?
[1]
I'm out here in Washington DC,
[2]
we're doing a project for Boeing.
[4]
They make things like planes and jets
[5]
and things that go to space,
[6]
all kinds of cool stuff.
[7]
We do a ton of traveling with our shoots
[8]
and we've learnt a
whole lot along the way.
[10]
I always have nightmares of leaving
[12]
the gear behind somewhere,
[13]
or the gear not coming
out on the carousel,
[15]
not being able to do the shoot.
[16]
So here's a little video
on how to travel with gear.
[18]
Now there's three ways to
transport your gear, right.
[20]
You can carry it on the plane with you,
[22]
which I try to do as much as possible,
[24]
especially with the cameras
and batteries and lenses.
[27]
Second option is to check in,
[28]
sometimes you're just required to do that.
[30]
And third is to ship it,
[31]
but then you have to
coordinate where it's gonna go
[34]
and it takes a little bit longer,
[35]
but essentially my go to
[36]
is to try to carry it on
plane as much as possible.
[40]
Most flights, we're allowed to carry on
[42]
one personal item, like a backpack
[43]
and then we're allowed
to have one carry-on item
[46]
that you can store in the overhead bin.
[47]
So these are Pelican 1510s
and these are awesome
[50]
because they're hard cases
[51]
and they're just the right size
to fit on the overhead bins.
[54]
Inside here is the camera
[55]
and inside here are the lenses.
[57]
This is my carry-on,
this is Steve's carry-on,
[59]
And we both carry-on
backpacks with our laptops,
[61]
hard drives and little things like that.
[65]
Welcome to Dallas Fort Worth Airport,
[67]
at three AM in the morning.
[68]
We've had some bad weather,
[70]
caused some delays in our flights.
[71]
Basically trapped here for like six hours.
[73]
All our clothes has been checked in,
[75]
so Steve smells like-
[78]
To be honest, traveling with gear
[80]
can get a little bit exhausting.
[82]
We've done a lot of flights
and each time we fly,
[84]
we bring way too much equipment.
[86]
- Just in case.
[88]
Yeah.
[89]
Well that's the problem
with gear and travel
[91]
is as soon as you say
"oh, we don't need this,
[93]
"we don't need a matte box, we
don't need these filters."
[97]
That's exactly what you end up needing.
[99]
First thing you might wanna know,
[101]
is media rate with airlines.
[103]
It's kind of iffy on how to get it.
[106]
So you're gonna wanna skip the kiosks,
[107]
because you can't get the
media rate through the kiosk.
[110]
You wanna just go straight
to the front desk area
[113]
and talk to them.
[114]
Tell them that you're
part of a media company,
[116]
you're traveling for a shoot
[117]
and that's why you have
all these extra bags.
[119]
Whatever airline you're flying with,
[121]
go type in that airline
name and then "media rate"
[124]
and then just look through their policies.
[126]
And everyone's different,
[127]
a lot of them give you like
discounted rates on extra bags,
[130]
'cause we always travel
with a ton of bags.
[133]
And also, most of our bags are overweight,
[135]
usually there's a 50 pound limit,
[138]
before there's like $100 charge,
[140]
but a lot of airlines wave that fee,
[142]
so you can actually take a
big case and just stuff it.
[145]
Today we saved like, what?
[146]
250 bucks, because of media rate.
[149]
And really, a lot of times,
[150]
all you have to do is just say,
"This is my business card."
[152]
And sometimes they'll say,
"we need to see credentials."
[157]
And we always ask, "What do you mean,
[159]
specifically by credentials?"
[161]
and they say, "well some
sort of official badge."
[164]
The thing is, they don't know
[165]
what they're looking for either.
[167]
We talked to some of
those front desk people,
[169]
and they're all confused about it
[171]
just as much as we were.
[173]
Pretty much a business card
alone, with a company name on it
[176]
and just anything that
shows that it's media.
[178]
Once, they were giving us a
pretty hard time about it,
[180]
they were like, "oh, you can't do it
[181]
with just a business card."
[182]
And then they brought out a
printed copy of their policy.
[185]
And then we were like,
"It says right there."
[188]
So literally even the
people that are working here
[190]
don't know that much about the media rate.
[193]
- The trick is to be confident
[194]
in the fact that you are
a media professional.
[197]
That you are transporting media gear.
[200]
- Sometimes they actually
even ask for your website,
[202]
and if you have a website,
that even works sometimes.
[204]
The more ways you can prove
[206]
that you are part of a production company
[207]
or media company, then you're good.
[210]
- And one more thing that you can do,
[211]
is print yourself out, your
own company media passes.
[215]
You can get 'em printed on hard plastic.
[217]
I think they're about
12 to 15 bucks a piece,
[220]
or you can print 'em on
paper, get 'em laminated
[222]
and just have a clip.
[224]
And just have your
picture, your company name
[226]
and the words, "media pass" on there.
[229]
- If it's laminated or hard plastic,
[231]
they're gonna pick it up and
be like, "whoa, this is legit."
[233]
And you could put- copy-paste
a random barcode on there,
[236]
just so it looks even more authentic.
[238]
And then they won't
even ask any questions.
[241]
But, generally speaking,
the people at the front desk
[243]
have literally said like,
"we don't know exactly
[245]
"what we're looking for."
[246]
We just find something
that looks official.
[249]
Now, for those of you
shooting on cine lenses
[251]
or fully manual lenses,
[252]
a good habit you wanna get into
[254]
is to fully open up your aperture,
[257]
whenever you're gonna store your lens.
[259]
The reason is because whenever
you close down the aperture,
[261]
those blades become exposed
[262]
and they're more vulnerable
to damage and shock.
[265]
So lenses are usually
in the safest position,
[267]
when those blades are
tucked up behind the metal
[270]
and wide open.
[271]
And that's a good habit
to get into all the time,
[274]
but especially if you're gonna tug it
[276]
all the way across the country.
[279]
Okay, now we are in Saint Louis.
[281]
Sometimes, when we're
traveling with a ton of gear,
[283]
we're trying to constantly
figure out how to consolidate
[285]
the gear into the least amount of cases,
[288]
or else it's just gonna
be way too overwhelming.
[290]
So sometimes what we'll
do instead of packing
[291]
an entire back for clothes,
[293]
we'll take the clothes
[294]
and kinda just stick it into our gear bag.
[296]
Especially the stuff that
you're gonna get checked in.
[298]
You have no idea how much that stuff
[299]
is gonna be tossed around.
[300]
So I always try to take my soft clothing
[302]
like shirts, sweaters, pants,
[304]
and I try to kinda tuck
it into every corner.
[307]
Just to add a little bit
of that extra cushion.
[309]
But you don't really wanna open up a case
[311]
in front of all of your clients
[312]
and just have a bunch of socks
and underwear laying around.
[314]
So one of the first things I
do after I check into my room,
[316]
is always head to the closet
and grab a little plastic bag.
[319]
One of these bags, there's
always one in there.
[321]
So now your clothes can kinda just
[323]
double as extra padding
when you're traveling.
[326]
And I'll just throw all my
clothes into this little bag.
[328]
Oh yeah, I always get these.
[329]
They always inspect the bag,
[331]
when they see like camera gear,
[332]
they're like, "what the hell is this?"
[335]
If you don't have good
equipment insurance,
[336]
you should get some.
[337]
Let's say your airline loses your gear,
[339]
then your insurance should cover it,
[341]
but what's not insured is the footage.
[343]
Now, you have to remember
[344]
that not only are you using your time,
[346]
but everybody's time, you
have to add all that up
[349]
and you have to realize
that you're spending
[351]
a ton of money per day of shooting.
[353]
So always, always download
and backup your footage.
[356]
If you could afford a DIT,
or Digital Imaging Technician
[359]
to kinda download and check
your footage along the way,
[362]
that's great, but I
get that a lot of times
[363]
you don't have access
to someone like that.
[365]
And this is important,
[366]
don't just download on one drive,
[368]
but make sure you make another copy
[369]
onto a secondary drive.
[372]
These are Western Digital
Passport Hard Drives,
[374]
they're not crazy expensive
[375]
and I at least have to
have it on two of these,
[378]
if not more.
[379]
And some people like to download it
[380]
from a memory card to a hard drive
[382]
and then from this hard drive,
[384]
they'll copy it over to this hard drive,
[385]
I don't recommend doing that.
[387]
Always download from the card,
straight onto the hard drive
[390]
and then again from the card
to a different hard drive.
[393]
'cause I have had times
where the files went corrupt
[395]
as you were transferring from
the card to the hard drive.
[398]
So the issue is, if this file
is corrupt on this hard drive,
[401]
and you back that up, you're
just backing up a corrupt file.
[403]
Doesn't do you any good.
[405]
So two files downloaded
directly from a memory card.
[408]
It takes longer, but I cannot tell you
[410]
how important this process is.
[412]
I shot a project where the
person did exactly that,
[414]
they downloaded it from the card,
[415]
copied it onto a hard
drive and it went corrupt.
[418]
It was an Alexa mini file
[419]
and like half the files from
the day just wouldn't play,
[422]
it went totally corrupt,
[423]
you can't load it into
Premiere or anything.
[425]
It was a dead file.
[426]
And they backed that file
up onto another hard drive.
[430]
They called me like a month later
[431]
and they were like, "please tell me
[432]
you have a backup to this file,
[434]
because our files took a sh***.
[435]
Boom!
I got an extra copy.
[436]
I keep all the files I shoot.
[438]
So you can never have too many backups.
[440]
Another thing when you're
formatting a new hard drive,
[442]
I always just unplug
everything else from it,
[445]
just so that I don't accidentally
format the wrong drive.
[448]
Again, it's a pretty small risk,
[450]
but every little thing like that
[451]
I can do to just lower that
risk just by a little bit,
[454]
I'll do it because let's say
[456]
you're downloading footage and
you just had a couple beers,
[458]
you could wreck your day.
[459]
So now I got solid copies of all my files.
[462]
What I'm gonna do is take this one
[463]
and get it out of my
possession as fast as I can
[466]
just throw it at somebody to take it.
[468]
But basically what I'm trying to do,
[470]
is get rid of it so
I'm not the only person
[472]
responsible for the footage.
[474]
You don't want them to be in the same car,
[476]
even if you can avoid it.
[479]
- They always inspect this thing.
[481]
And sometimes they jack it up.
[482]
They yanked on one of these antennas,
[484]
trying to tug it up,
[485]
'cause they didn't know how
to remove the mimic system,
[487]
and they ripped one of the antennas out.
[489]
So that kinda sucks.
[491]
We're off to Florida for two days now
[493]
and one of the big things you
always wanna keep in mind,
[496]
is to always count the
number of begs you have,
[498]
'cause you're gonna be
tired and exhausted.
[501]
You're gonna start loosing track of stuff.
[502]
So one of the things we
always do before taking off
[505]
is just counting one,two,three,four,five,
[508]
six,seve,eight,nine,10 bags.
[510]
So every time we get in the car,
[512]
or get out of the car or
whatever, we count to ten.
[515]
And at least check the essentials of stuff
[516]
you can't get replaced.
[517]
We like to generally spend
the day before we take off
[520]
and just set up everything.
[522]
We build the camera, we
set it up on the Movi.
[524]
There's like some pieces
that are very, very small,
[526]
you might not even think about,
[528]
but without that little piece,
[529]
a whole piece of gear can become useless.
[531]
Like for example the Movi Pro,
[533]
like if your forget the
base plate for that,
[535]
then all of a sudden you have this giant
[536]
awesome Movi pro that you
can't even put a camera on.
[543]
Oh my god my body is broken.
[545]
I just did one of those mud runs,
[547]
it was like a Spartan race.
[549]
So it's where you just like go
[550]
and run through a whole bunch of mud,
[552]
so you could have this piece of metal.
[553]
It was one of the shorter ones.
[554]
It was only like four and
a half miles or something,
[556]
so I was like, "I don't even
have to prepare for that."
[558]
Wrong move.
[559]
I got cramps in every
single muscle in my body
[562]
and now I am just wrecked.
[564]
I totally under estimated that,
[566]
but at least I can feel
slightly accomplished
[569]
or whatever.
[570]
An I also tested out
the hyper lapse feature
[571]
on the GoPro Hero 7,
[573]
I just had it on a chest mount
[574]
and it turned out pretty cool.
[576]
I actually like this effect.
[577]
I don't know why, it's the
concept of paying money
[580]
to just put yourself through misery.
[582]
It's such a weird concept.
[584]
Carrie was saying it'd be kinda fun
[585]
if we swing up for another one
[587]
and we tell you guys
which race we're doing,
[589]
so a bunch of you guys
can kinda like join in
[591]
and do the mud run with is, I don't know,
[593]
would you guys be
interested in joining up?
[594]
Now before we wrap this up,
[595]
let me just leave you off with one tip,
[597]
which is with batteries
and lithium ion batteries.
[599]
Now once you get your airline picked out,
[601]
you definitely wanna
check with your airline
[603]
what the lithium ion carry-on policy is,
[606]
because all of them could
be slightly different.
[609]
But generally speaking, the
current FAA regulations-
[612]
and again, this could updated,
[614]
all spare lithium ion batteries
[615]
need to come onto the plane with you
[618]
and you cannot check it in.
[619]
So make sure you don't
leave these spare batteries
[621]
in your luggage, or else you
might get to your destination,
[624]
and be like, "where's
all my check luggage?"
[626]
and you have to call the airport
[627]
and realize that they held all the luggage
[629]
at the last place, because there's all
[630]
these lithium ion batteries.
[631]
So remember to keep all
the lithium ion batteries
[633]
on you, in your backpack or your carry-on.
[636]
Do not check it in.
[637]
I'm not 100% sure why they want
you to carry it on with you,
[640]
I heard some people say that
batteries can make sparks
[643]
and sometimes start a little fire,
[644]
if it's in the cabin,
the flight attendance
[646]
can put it out, apposed
to if it's underneath.
[648]
Now generally all these lithium
ion batteries have a label
[651]
on the battery that tells you
how many watt hours are in it.
[654]
Under 100 watt hours is
generally not an issue,
[656]
and then if it's between
100 and 160 watt hours,
[660]
then there's a limit to two per person,
[663]
so we usually try to
travel with four batteries
[665]
within that range, so I
carry two, Steve carries two.
[669]
And a good example of that
would be our red batteries,
[671]
which are 153 watt hours.
[673]
Alright, time to read some comments.
[675]
My last video was 10 Christmas gifts
[677]
that film-makers will love.
[678]
Let's see what you guys had to say.
[680]
Everyday Dad says, "You
had me at sweater."
[682]
I know, this is seriously
my favorite article
[685]
of clothing right now.
[686]
Can't even put it on, I'm so sore,
[688]
my body literally doesn't want to move.
[690]
Ouch.
[691]
"What do you thing about Dji Osmo Pocket?"
[693]
Uh, I ordered one, so as soon as I get it,
[696]
I'll let you guys know.
[697]
"That sweater is lit, because
it has LEDs attached to it."
[700]
That is very factual.
[702]
Hunter says, "Time to sell my organs..."
[704]
(laughing) I'm already ahead of you,
[705]
I've already sold all
the organs I possibly can
[707]
and still be alive.
[708]
"Did you just give yourself a haircut?"
[710]
(laughing) I did.
[712]
And my hair's been kinda
jacked up ever since,
[715]
so please don't look at it.
[715]
Becki and Chris says, "Please
send me the Apache t shirt
[718]
for Christmas.
[719]
Thanks in advance."
[720]
If you guys don't know
who Becki and Chris is,
[722]
they have an awesome Youtube channel
[723]
and Chris actually gave me a
spin around in his helicopter.
[726]
So that was sick.
[727]
This Boeing project has had
us flying all over the place,
[730]
to film all kinds of cool
stuff, like the Apache,
[732]
we have footage of the Apaches.
[734]
We filmed F15s, F18s, like
really, really cool stuff,
[737]
but it's all classified, so I'm
not really aloud to show it.
[740]
At least until they release it.
[741]
I was just over at NASA
Kennedy Space Center
[744]
a few days ago.
[745]
Once they start releasing some
of the footage to the public,
[747]
I can show you guys and
should be pretty cool.
[749]
Anyways, I need to lay back down and just
[752]
be like a dead corpse for a little bit.
[755]
I'll see you guys later.
[756]
Bye.
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