Featuring Motion Control and the Mombo Combo and Focus on Teletec - matthNews February 2012

So here I am in Los Angeles which is famous for (among other things) our congested streets, and I am sitting in stop and go traffic thinking about this month’s matthNews. And it hit me! The traffic jam was a perfect metaphor for the new Motion Control System for stop and go motion that we are introducing this month. And, it also got me thinking that the traffic jams we’ve been experiencing at MSE will abate (unlike the one I was stuck in) soon! For, after 35 years in the same location Matthews will be moving to a new facility later this year. We will stay in Burbank, once famous as the home to Lockheed and the making of airplanes and now even more famous as the Hub of the Entertainment and Media Industry. I dread the move...but the pain will bring forth enormous gain in terms of our productivity and ability to meet the increasing demand for our products. As we have all experienced, nothing is forever and change is inevitable - including the fact that the traffic is moving...got to go!

At MSE, we’re really excited about how we are growing! We love visiting clients and potential clients (and friends) across the world. And, we especially love bringing new “Technology that Complements the Imagination” to everyone.This month we’re excited about bringing a new member – okay, helper – for The DCSlider, which is designed and manufactured by Floatcam, to market.Now the incredible DCSlider – winner of several prestigious awards this past year – is even cooler! Add the specially designed Motion Control System and you can record and save up to 9 moves and repeat each move almost endlessly (well up to 999 times) - manual or programmed movements. For example, with the time extension feature, a one-second move can be stretched up to a minute and a half. And, because of the patent-pending, precision counter balance system on the DCSlider family, only ONE motor is required for all functions of the Motion Control.

Rey Serna of Absolute Digital Broadcast Rentals

We’re so excited about what you can do with the new Motion Control System, that we “snuck” it to two friends. And, they certainly had a lot to say about DCSlider and Motion Control!

Rey Serna of Absolute Digital Broadcast Rentals really put DCSlider and the Motion Control System to the test. “It extends the creative options in shooting time lapse photography and video,” he explains. “Shooting is simpler and more streamlined. Take it on location? Easy. Just bring a battery to power it. And, the idea of one motor! All other systems have to use different motors and/or different gear ratios to do what this system does!”

Serna told us he just finished shooting ten models – with just the DCSlider and Motion Control System. “I programmed the motor to make one move, and the same move was used for each of the ten models,” he explains. “It was great to be able to repeat the move perfectly every time. I don’t have to worry about doing a re-take because the move wasn’t smooth or missed the mark. Now you can just dial in the exact speed, time and distance – and repeat as many times as you want! This really increases production efficiency on the set!”

Rick Gomez of Rick Gomez Photography

Rick Gomez of Rick Gomez Photography told us he’s also excited about what this new pairing can do for his work. “For a recent music video, where, instead of pulling focus, I used the motor to push in and pull out,” he explained to us. “Once I set my closest focus point, I was able to sit back and just play with the move and know that I could always move forward and nail my focus. It’s a subtle thing that many people won’t notice but I think it’s really beautiful.”

Gomez has just done a test for a web series he’s about to shoot with the DCSlider and Motion Control System. “In the series, one of the main characters plays her identical twin,” he explains. “To have her in the frame speaking to herself is not difficult if the camera is locked off. But moving the camera during this conversation adds a nice element.”

According to Gomez, there is a lot to say about DCSlider and the Motion Control System, and it’s more than planning a move and timing it and repeating moves. “I can shoot sound with it!” he says. “Other motors and sliders are incredibly loud. And, it’s so easy to program – 30 minutes tops and you have it figured out. I tend to do smaller productions and the Slider allows me to create a very expensive look without a huge crew!”

At MSE, we’re really proud of what DCSlider and the new Motion Control System can do! We’re so excited about this new combination that we’ve shot a “sneak peak” video test of the DC-Slider/Motion Control System mounted on a car that'll be up on our website soon.

So, don’t forget to stop by our booth and see DCSlider, the special Motion Control System and the new HD DCSlider at work. You’ll really like what you see.

When it comes to supporting production communities in Mexico, Teletecis the name many shooters call on. With a main office in Naucalpan Edo, outside the metropolitan area of Mexico City as well as Laredo, Texas, Peru and Brazil, they cover every sort of project. “Some of our biggest clients are part of television production, television stations and Universities,” explains Joaquin Avila, Sales Manager, Broadcast, Teletec. “Our equipment is always available at Tecnologico de Monterrey en sus Campus; Estado de Mexico, Toluca, Guadaljara, Puebla as well as Universidad del Valle de Mexico, Universidad de las Americas and many other campuses.“We also service post-production and production houses like Televisa, TV Azteca, and all the government television stations in the Mexican Republic.”That’s a lot of support – and a lot of equipment needed. “And most everything we supply is from Matthews,” he adds. “They are quite simply the industry standard.”

The relationship between MSE and Teletec started over 16 years ago, when Bob Kulesh introduced David Alexander (Teletec founder Didier Alexander’s son) to Ed Phillips at LDI. Alexander found that Matthews equipment and the company’s philosophy met his needs. “The first order was MSE’s staple – the Century stands and accessories,” he explains. “And it just naturally grew from there. Today, we carry all of MSE’s range of products. We’ve got MAX out in several locations and we are really anxious to get the new HD DC-Slider from Floatcam and the new SkyScrapers.

“It almost doesn’t matter what MSE comes up with,” he continues. “We’ll want it. This is a company that knows what the industry needs – and supplies it. We never have to ask – when there is a need, we always know Matthews will be there to fill it.”

Recently, one of the biggest needs Matthews has filled is to outfit a large lighting truck for TV Azteca’s Novelas (soap operas). “TV Azteca is one of the most important producers of Novelas, which are exported world wide,” Avila adds. “The programs are shot at Studios Americas, a large seven stage facility in Mexico City.

“The truck carried a complete line of MSE equipment: stands and accessories, hardware, lighting control, diffusion, wood products, dollies and track. Having Matthews equipment in high profile, pressured shooting situations like this simply makes it so much easier to set reflectors, control lights, and move quickly on a busy set!”

Teletec’s ability to handle large set-ups such as this has caught the attention of yet another television studio, and Teletec is completing a proposal to outfit it – “with Matthews Studio Equipment,” of course, laughs Avila.

Keep your good ideas to yourself and only share the bad ones?The Mombo Combowas only possible with the advent of the combination 4-1/2" Large Grip Head first introduced by Matthews in 1980. This was the first such head of its type.

Don’t laugh. The industry slang name for this head is the Lollipop - for obvious reasons. If you know the product, visualize it in your mind! Trust us – it doesn’t taste good – it just works really well and, as a matter of fact, it is the best and strongest head of its type. Now, of course, as time passed after we first introduced this product, others copied it. So what else is new? Ours is still the strongest and still the best! The combination feature allows one to use it as a large grip head or as a receiver for large lighting fixtures, and/or to fix the light to the head and flag it with the same piece of hardware.

So what does this have to do with the Mombo Combo? For all the years that preceded the Mombo Combo, Grips would take combo stands and insert the Lollipop into the top receiver of the Combo Stand to hold overhead frames, flags and cutters up high. The idea of building a more robust Combo Stand to better facilitate this need for overhead applications using larger tube diameters with larger castings and incorporating the Lollipop as an integral part of the stand was born. That's when we shared the idea with others.

The result was we got beat to the punch as the expression goes. One of the other manufacturers heard of our idea and got to market with what I just described before we did and so I cannot honestly say we were first on this one, but turnaround is fair play... and very soon thereafter we had our version ready to serve the industry.

Ours, of course, is better!!!!! Anyone care to Mombo?