Recently Cinevate gear was covered in a review entitled the Cinema5D DSLR Rig Review. To be fair to all parties involved we decided to share this clip that clarifies some inaccuracies and demonstrates our continued efforts to better serve our customers.

Respectfully,
Dennis Wood

Other Responses:
FreshDV

Cinevate DSLR Rigs:
The DSLR Shoot Rig
The Uno DSLR Rig

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My first task as CEO in 2010 is to once again thank all of our customers for their amazing support last month, making it the busiest December in company history. Cinevate remains modest and earnest in it’s desire to build positive relationships with all whom we encounter. This year promises to be an educational one as Cinevate partners with Adobe, Canon, Nikon and a growing family of highly creative studios. Our Shooter Showcase crew so far has included Casey Warren, Joe Simon, Ray Roman, Kevin Shahinian and this month Stillmotion. December saw the beginning of a great new friendship as Bill Frakes and Laura Heald of Strawhat Visuals came on board using Cinevate gear with Nikon DSLR equipment. Bill Frakes works extensively with Nikon worldwide, although most will recognize his work with Sports Illustrated Magazine.  Googling his name is all you need to figure out that Bill and Laura’s contributions are a good thing for all of our customers.

It would be irresponsible to start 2010 without talking about some of the great new Cinevate gear coming down the pipe. These days, a great deal of product development comes not only from our professional shooters, but also in the form of suggestions from you, our customers. Uno for example came about as a result of a suggestion from Simon Scheiner, a fellow I met in New York during a NJPVA event. He liked our Proteus DSLR rig just fine, but asked for a simpler, lighter, more compact DSLR rig. We made Uno for him, and every other creative artist out there looking for simplicity. Be sure and follow the Uno launch contest as we post entries that promise some seriously healthy laughter.

Medusa, another new product this month, came from the original Proteus cage concept that has been quite popular with many of our customers. Medusa gives them everything they asked for in terms of integrated grips, limitless configurations, quick release functions, variable height/width and better looks. We did this all and shaved 150 grams off the weight too! You’ll be introduced to the Durus Focus Gear Lever this week, a simple idea that required serious thought. This little addition to our Durus Follow Focus system makes it possible to pull focus without actually using a follow focus! Lest we be accused of laziness, Cinevate also introduces our Atlas 30 LTS to compliment the robust Atlas 200 system. To make sense of all the new gear, we’ll be shooting no less than six sessions to be hosted on Cinevate’s Video University next week.

None of this would be possible of course without some serious hard work and dedication from the entire Cinevate team, which has nearly doubled in size over 2009. I would be remiss in not publicly acknowledging their work, tolerance and dedication to the cause with a very sincere thank you. This year promises to a very exciting one indeed as the stream of problem-solving equipment continues.

Cheers,
Dennis Wood

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Cinevate has been busy indeed over the last six months with gear that will redefine how shooters support their camera. Regardless of whether you’re shooting with an iPod, or a $25K ENG camera, we’ve been listening and planning very carefully. For example, our full face viewing aid for DLSR cameras (Cyclops) doubles the effective size of the camera’s LCD using an achromat optic, and provides integration for our amazing Medusa grip system, also coming this month. Not content to settle with just these advancements, we’ve also come up with a solution for still photographers who just want “something” simple.  We’ve yet to show a single picture or even hint at this rig until now, but it’s coming this month.

Being that the holiday season is upon us, and indeed, our version of Festivus, this is a perfect time to simply thank all of our friends for their kind support. Cinevate is all about relationships, be it with our customers, sponsored shooters, industry partners or families.  Business has been very good as we expand our product lines well beyond what started this all...the Brevis 35mm lens adapter. Cinevate has received no less than three innovation awards this year, including the Royal Bank of Canada Innovation Award, and the Premier’s Catalyst Award. The third award we’re not allowed to talk about yet It’s hard to explain the feeling in the air here, but basically I’ve never been more excited about supporting the creative abilities of everyone we work with. We remain inspired literally daily with what folks are doing with our equipment.

Be well,
Dennis Wood

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This is part 2 of the Q and A with Corie Levitt - a student currently in film school who asked some excellent questions.

Q: 6. If you could magically develop any camera rig to promote motion by snapping your fingers what would it be and how do you see it benefiting film makers.
A: 6. You’ll see my answer to this question over the next two months. My only frustration is that I can’t have these products available at a snap of my fingers right now! 

Q: 7. Film makers refer to specialty camera rigs as tools, in a market that provides many different tools by several different companies what makes Cinevate the go to tools for any given job?
A: 7. Our products carry a level of flexibility and integration that make nearly anything possible. The design team makes great efforts to ensure customers with existing products find enhancement, not obsolescence in our new products.

Q: 8. As a film maker myself, I have a generic brand Steadi-cam sled and vest, do you see Cinevate creating such a system that is more affordable than for filmmakers than the Steadi-cam brand. Why or Why not?
A: 8. Steadicam does a very good job at what they do.  That said, you’ll find something very intriguing coming from us in about 2 weeks in this area.

Q: 9. After frequently surfing the Cinevate website I discovered that you have been naming rig setups after your customers, what inspired that movement and what role do the customers play in the development of cinevate rigs if any?
A: 9. Because our components are so flexible, we often find that our customers configure things in ways we did not predict.  We also know that their peers often want the exact same setup, or collection of gear.  We recently implemented a highly integrated management system that allows us to offer these kits with a minimum of added effort on our part.  This strategy simplifies the purchasing process for our customers and just makes sense to us.

Q: 10. Myself being a struggling student film maker does Cinevate offer any student discounts if not would you ever consider such a discount? Why? Why not? 
A: 10. We work on a very tight pricing scheme that ensures our products set a trend for price and performance.  This is why we typically don’t have sales, but rather focus on intelligent pricing for everything we manufacture.  With a growing number of sponsored shooters, we will however be offering their “retired” gear at significant discounts as it becomes available.

Cheers,
Dennis Wood
www.cinevate.com

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It’s been a long time coming. Those who’ve been around here for awhile know that I post personally in a growing number of forums, blogs, vimeo, youtube, facebook and twitter.  This is a time consuming process but I’ve always felt it helped Cinevate as a company to stay closely in tune with its customers.  Folks tend to be pretty honest with their opinions on the web.  As you grow as a shooter, I grow too as a shooter, CEO, father and the like.  Corie Levitt approached me in the hopes I’d answer some questions related to a writing assignment he had taken on for film school.  This email also represents an entire flight pecking away at an iPhone so called keyboard.  Once a bluetooth driver gets released for tethering keyboards to iPhones, I’ll be all over it!

Corie, first of all thanks for your interest in Cinevate.  With your permission, I’d like to share your questions and my answers on our upcoming CEO blog as the questions have some familiar threads to things I often discuss with customers.  Let me know on that point but regardless, here we go.

Q: 1. Your recent products promote camera motion, what do you feel is the importance of such motion?
A: 1. Moving cameras in a way that helps to tell a story in a compelling manner is one way we can help cinematographers.  Tripod mounted, hand held, cable, dolly/jib shots, car mounts etc. are analagous in this sense as brushes are to an artist.  Each has it’s place in a story.

Q: 2. What inspired the creation of such specialty motion camera rigs?
A: 2. Initially the birth of my 1st daughter Olivia (now six) prompted the purchase of a video camera and sparked this journey.  Apart from constant joy in capturing my children’s antics, I also find myself both challenged and inspired by our customers.  In many cases, innovation comes from my own frustration with gear, but very often this frustration comes from those we work with.  This leads to problem solving. 

Q: 3. Do you feel that Cinevate is placing a unique imprint on the film industry in respects to camera motion rigs available to today’s film makers. if so why?
A: 3. Yes.  We’re solving problems for folks using highly innovative products with a build quality that is unique at our price point.  There is a constant level of excitement from the team as we push forward with new creations.

Q: 4. How do you foresee your Pegasus cable rig system assisting the film makers of today.
A: 4. As mentioned previously, cable cams are a tool we want in the kit that are safe, simple and rapidly deployed.  Our customer’s creativity should not be bound by their equipment.

Q: 5. I have observed that your rigs are assembled with tool-less quick disconnect methodology how do you see this design benefiting film makers.
A: 5. My philosophy is that transitions between shooting modes should be possible in less than 10 seconds.  Efficiency and the ability to react spontaneously to changing situations is our ultimate goal.

Cheers,
Dennis Wood
www.cinevate.com