A Cine City/ Indian Film Equipment Follow-Up

Welcome to the DOJO!

I am writing today’s post for a selfish reason and, to tell the truth, out of a little annoyance. You see, due to some video posts I put up last year about items I purchased from a company called in India, I get quite a bit of email asking about Indian film equipment. And “quite a bit” is a relative term — I receive 100+ emails a week asking about Indian Matteboxes, follow focus units or Steadicams from India, which is a lot unless you compare it to the number of SPAM emails I get offering to sell me ways to increase the size of me penis. Unfortunately, those number in the hundreds per day and I believe most of them are sent by my wife…but I digress.

Anyway, a little over a year ago I decided to bite the bullet and give ordering some of the Indian equipment a try. I had been seeing them on eBay for 6 months or more at that point and had always been tempted by their pricing. The reason I say I was taking a chance is because I couldn’t find any “real” reviews for their equipment. I saw a lot of online coverage that was obviously produced by the company, , under various names and I came across a few reviews by people who had been given the equipment in exchange for giving it a good review (if you’ve searched for information online then you know the Youtube videos I’m talking about).

So what I did was start with one of their cheaper items, and an item I knew it would be tough to mess up: the Cine City Indian Mattebox (or whatever they call it). The matte box arrived incredibly quickly, something I found to be a regular feature with the Indian Cine City — they have great response time for orders. And, the mattebox was better than I had expected. It was an obvious knock-off, but was amazing for the price. I am constantly complaining about how the film industry is forced to pay for over priced brand names and finding something more appropriately priced, especially for independent and low budget filmmakers, was a breath of fresh air.

This encouraged me to try more of their equipment and I had soon ordered their Indian shoulder mount (with the front brace and belt) and their Indian Glue Pod Car Mount. Both items were fantastic for the money and performed exactly like their higher priced name-brand versions. I also came across a buddy who had ordered one of their Indian rod support set-ups and saw that it was identical to my Cavision rails…something more than a little disturbing because I think he paid half or a third of what I shelled out! Their rain cover is also a direct Indian knock-off of the Kata one and quite a bit cheaper.

Since then, I haven’t had the need to order any more equipment. I’ve got just about everything I need, outside of the higher end Indian Steadicam or follow-focus units. I’m still not ready to shell out big money for an item I just can’t find any real reviews for. I’d love to find a low budget alternative to the steadicam (although the Atlas camera support is an excellent option, made here in the US), but I’m not really ready to drop $500 or a grand on something that might not work right. Yes, I’m a cheap bastard. If anyone in my area (Los Angeles) has one of their higher end units, I would love to check it out and do a full review. However, until I actually get my hands on that stuff, I can’t comment on it.

Now, in addition to the stuff I own, I have found out a few things about the . First, they do a ton of business on eBay and have at least six different IDs on there. The ones I know about are: cine-city, dv-shop23, 23filters, cinemall19, dvaccessory, 5-colors. They’ve also got their main website under the name thecinecity.com. What a lot of people don’t realize is that they also have a site called Digital Cinema Gears (DCGears) and post quite a bit on Craigslist. You don’t realize the DCGears site is theirs because it lists a US address. However, if you ask to drop by their location to test out one of the items, like the Indian Steadicam (the Flycam), they tell you that their company is from India and ships direct from there. I also know of a few other sites who sell the Flycam Steadicam and a few other units under different names, like the Image West website. From my own interaction with the Cine City guys (who have always been incredibly polite), they seem ready to offer wholesale accounts to anyone interested in supporting their product.

That is the extent of what I know about Cine City and the Indian Film Equipment manufacturers. What I’ve ordered from them in the past has been great and I’ve talked about it here. I’ve had some good interactions with them and incredibly fast shipments (I have stuff get to me faster from them in India than I do from companies I’ve purchased from in New York or even here in California!). And that’s it. I’ve been dying to check out their Indian Follow Focus, their steadicam / flycam stabilizers and some of the other cool filmmaking gear they’ve got, but I just haven’t risked the money yet. I will say that if you need a low cost alternative for a mattebox, rod support system, shoulder mount or car mount, then is a decent and low budget option. There is no need to pay inflated brand name prices for that stuff…let the guys working on hundred million dollar films pay out the nose just so they can say they’ve got a Chrosziel matte box or whatever. Pick up what you need at a budget you can afford and then put whatever extra money you have up on the screen where it belongs.

I hope this helps and I hope it clears things up a bit. Until next time, Keep Shooting!

-Mat Nastos, the Film Sensei
http://www.FilmSensei.com

One Response to “A Cine City/ Indian Film Equipment Follow-Up”

1. jason ellis
   

   i bought a mattebox and follow focus system from this company. both came very fast and were of very good quality. im going to purchase their steadicam in a few weeks which im sure will be fine.

   
   November 6th, 2009 at 6:53 pm

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