In lieu of purchasing a Manfrotto SkyRack, is there a historically functional grid system hardware that could roll along a one-inch conduit black pipe for overhead light placement?

18:52yes, there is a better and you're on your way. Next question. All right, this one's coming in from JJ McKenna in Skabo, California. In lieu of purchasing a Manfrotto SkyRack, is there a historically functional grid system hardware that could roll along a one-inch conduit black pipe for overhead light placement? Courtney? Well, the problem with using a one-inch conduit as a rack pipe is it doesn't support enough weight to hang heavy lights on or any lights at all on.

19:24And the other problem is, if you look at the way the Manfrotto is designed, it's a pipe grid system, but the things that roll back and forth to let you move is an extruded aluminum I-frame type that hangs below the grid. Because you can support it by the top part of that extrusion, and the roller things roll on the bottom side of that extrusion.

19:49because otherwise you're going to run into the supports with the rollers. So it doesn't make much sense to make something that slides over a one-inch round conduit because it's going to run into however you're supporting it very quickly. Otherwise, it will bend down into your shot. You know, Courtney, you just made me think that the software folks at MiddleThings are going to get into hardware now.

20:14It's going to be called RollerThings, and they're just going to do just camera, Just little lighting support systems. Chris, once you're done shaking your head at my dumb jokes. No, no, your jokes are beyond dumb. So, you're like the dad joke of the production community. I'm getting that on a business card. I have often said that there's no such thing as the good old days in television.

20:43And because technology just gets better. but i have a question so courtney do you remember the first time you saw somebody show up on a set with like a commercially available uh store-bought sound card because in the beginning of our careers there was guys like getting ex you know l brackets and a v cart yeah you built something something you fashion something together because you had a particular need and i think that and i

21:19think that that sort of diy attitude gets lost and i think that there's some advantage to it um and i remember i had a friend who had a he he moved his edit suite into his house in in hollywood and he had the he was a nerd and had no friends uh he the the dining room was the machine room and the suite was in the living room.

21:41And he had all these cables running all the way around and all the way down the hallway and back into the, and I said, why don't you just pop a little hole through here? And he goes, I don't know how to do that. I'm like, it's called, you kick a hole in the wall, if nothing else. I mean, it's not that hard.

21:57And I think that there's a certain amount of, like, can't you just build this thing that people need to learn how to do. All that being said, But when I took a closer look at this thing, there is an aspect of this Manfrotto thing that's really pretty ingenious. I want to show you here. So basically, you hang one of these extruded things on the ceiling.

22:21You put this one on another ceiling joist. And then these guys here, you notice they're not parallel. And the reason they're not parallel is they've built this little brackety thing that allows you to slide it up and down the rack here and up and down the rack here. So you have set screws in one axis and then a roller in the other one.

22:43That's great. Clearly, it pivots. No, I think you can roll anything anywhere. anywhere. So very clever. And that's what Monfrato has done is they've looked at our industry for decades and built physical things. So I got to say, CJ, I think this thing is pretty ingenious the way that works. And Courtney's right. If you do want to slide one of these, what are these things called? There's a name for this extendo thing-o?