Of course the condor in my silly April 1 post does not have a grill. (I would love to hear what OSHA would say if you did have a grill in a condor!) The cover to protect the controls, which is something I have never seen before. It does look remarkably like a grill.
I'm aerial lift certified like most of my co-workers. It is a good thing. I had operated them for around 20 years with no certification. Working in a smaller market (Ohio) it wasn't required. I hadn't even heard of lift certification until my local started having classes.
I learned much about the safe operation of condors from taking certification classes.
Working as a gaffer, I don't operate them very often any more. It is a bit disappointing. They are fun to operate.
Back in the day I used to operate them all the time. This is me positioning a light box for a Wheaties commercial. I'm guessing the year is around 2010.
PS: I'm really behind on my blog which is a good sign. It means work is finally picked-up.
Work has been on the slow side--for me--the first 4 months of this year. I had been working only 1-2 days most weeks. Most of the jobs have been weirdly small, too; just me and one, or often just me!
I haven't done a movie so far this year. Some has been bad luck. A DP wanted me on a Randell Emmett movie in Ohio, but of course, production strung me along and in the end would not hire me because I was a distant hire. They were that cheap. That made me miss another movie. Then, there was a horror movie shot near me. The DP wanted me for that, too. I didn't tell them this, but I turned it down because it was 20 days of nights. There was a low budget indie film that had Nancy Schreiber as DP. I was excited about working with her. Production offered me less than $250 a day! I unfortunately had to turn that down. Oddly with work slow, I couldn't afford it. I would make more money working a couple days a week with my truck. I have taxes and bills to pay. It has been a strange work year so far.