There are a lot of things you need to keep with you on a film set. Your phone, obviously, for viewfindering and texting producers. A light meter for the DPs and gaffers. Your sides for the day, your notes on those sides. Sometimes a wireless monitor.
While you can line them all up on your belt in a row, that's not usually either stylish or really functional. Too many things hanging off your body make it likely you bump something into a light stand, or put it down and forget it.
This is where the Peak Design Field Pouch was designed to come in.
It's a small, fold-flat pouch you can wear on your belt, or with a strap around one shoulder. It's designed to close firmly with velcro whether it's empty or nearly bursting at the seams. It has a ton of little pockets inside, and it's perfect for keeping a meter, a phone, a notepad, some sides, and maybe some SD cards or breath mints all on your belt.
Keeping it all together so you are more organized, but maybe looking just a hair less clunky than having all on separate belt units.
The new pouch, Peak Design Field Pouch V2, which is out now, has a few helpful revisions that make it even more useful for filmmakers.
The biggest is adding two "camera clip" mounting points to either side of the bag. These are a huge improvement, since the camera clip is far more versatile than for just mounting cameras. You can of course mount your camera, which gives you fast access for when scouting or just grabbing your own BTS. But you can also mount pretty much anything that takes a 1/4", including action cameras if you want a timelapse of your working day for a BTS reel, or even a wireless monitor.
Personally, the item I'm most likely to forget and put down somewhere are those wireless monitors, those sleek units with built-in wireless receivers. These integrated units have completely changed life on set, but really are too big for most pockets, asking to be worn on a neck strap.
If you hate a neck strap, it's seriously worth considering the Field Pouch V2, which is not just the perfect size to put the monitor internally, you could also mount it externally with a Peak Camera Clip V3 so that it's handy when you need it and has a "home" when you don't. It is sticking off your body so you do run the risk of running into something with it, but honestly considering how much they swing around and get abused in a neck strap, it seems roughly equally safe and much slicker to keep it on your waist.
One of our favorite features is the complete and absolute darkness of the "black" bag as opposed to the other colors, which have contrasting leather highlights. This bag is "murdered out," as they say about black cars with black rims.
While the "wearing a lot of black" thing about filmmakers is a bit of a cliche, it's actually for a very real purpose. I've seen light readings affected by reflections of the shirt you are wearing (a DP in a black shirt getting different readings than the gaffer in a white shirt not paying enough attention to the reflections of their shirt), and stray light bounces are an issue. It's always appreciated when brands targeting those of us who spend a lot of life on set keep this in mind and offer a true all-black version.
Overall, if you find yourself feeling like your pockets are getting too full or your belt is getting too confusing, the Field Pouch V2 is definitely worth a look.
