The Rat Pac

I’m Craig Brink. I’m a Rigging Gaffer. This is my story.

So here I am once again, finding myself in the UPM’s office as the guy who has to justify how dimming for the DP and Gaffer’s lighting is being controlled and why. There are seldom many favorable options. The DP and gaffer don’t want lessons on how to light a set, the dimmer room is conceivably 400’ away, the fluorescents need to be switched off & on and oh yeah, that 60 watt practical needs to be on a dimmer too. The UPM is starting to think I’m personally on a mission to kill his budget.

It was then that I thought to myself, someone really ought to make a miracle pack that was designed for these needs; the needs of a rigging gaffer. It wasn’t until a few months later that the RATPAC came to be and the UPM and I started speaking the same language.

Does the art department ever call you at 4 o’clock in the afternoon when you’re on the other side of town because they need to redress the set and turn the fluorescents on? The dimmer operator clocked out two hours ago and no one is going to get close to that dimmer board. This is exactly what happened to me on more than occasion when I was working on the show “Flash Forward.” No worries. Go ahead and do away with all the cheap electronic DJ packs, piles of cheap extension cords, Socapex cables and DMX Deuce boards. One flip of the switch inside the control module of the RATPAC and your dimmer is now a NON-DIM switcher that any PA off the street could figure out.

Do you care about fan noise on your dimmers when Slash is slamming his strings at 100 decibels on stage? I didn’t think so. Fan technology has come a long way since it’s origins in rock and roll. Someone just needed to put it in a dimmer pack. The RATPAC takes care of this problem too. The RATPAC is light enough to be lifted with one hand, by one person and is quiet enough to put in the perms. Yes you heard me right – the RATPAC can operate in the perms and you’d never know it’s there! Good thing Slash was never a gaffer.

I’m sure at some point in the future, I’ll get dragged into the UPM’s office again to have that same old budget talk. But at least now the RATPAC has something to offer that doesn’t involve asking the Gaffer and DP to give up precious control of every light on the set.

Listen to other rigging gaffers tell you their story of how cool the RATPAC is by checking out the videos here:

Testimonials

Marc Marino from movie 21 Jump Street..writes….”the perfect solution for practicals in my dimmer rigs. Every show I do, the first 1-200 channels are always for fixtures and practicals.”

Geno Bernal from “The Event” writes…“eliminating long cable runs and having smaller water falls is good for everyone…with this sleek design we could utilize the perm space more effectively.”

Alan Rowe 728 instructor.. writes…“looks fantastic.”

John Crimmins…“Iron Man 2”…writes…“can’t wait to get some hands-on time.”

Marty Bosworth..“Fight Club”…writes…“good idea.”

Dan Riffel…Iron Man 2..writes…“a useful tool.“

Michael DeChellis…“Hawthorne”…writes…“perfect for location work.”

Dave Kagen… writes…“a long overdue solution.”

Joe Ressa…“Gray’s Anatomy.”…writes…“brilliant, I can’t tell you in how many instances this would be useful on our sets and locations.”