Before Use, review the safety manual, Proper Examination of MAX Menace Arm, prior to operation. What is the MAX Menace Arm? MAX Menace Arm lets grips and gaffers hang a light, flag, or camera exactly where a stand can't go - flush against a wall, into a corner, over a set wall, off a rooftop, or below a balcony railing - without touching the location. It was built to solve one specific, recurring problem: how do you rig a light in a spot where nothing can be attached to walls or ceiling, there's no floor space for a standard counterbalance boom, and the rig must be kept out of frame. MAX answers these challenges with a self-leveling head, a counterbalanced-from-the-base arm that extends up to 17.5 feet parallel to a 10-foot ceiling, goes 6 feet below grade, and tops out over 20 feet in the air. A Grip's Solution, Not a Factory Concept MAX started out on set - Key Grip Richard Mall built the first version out of necessity while rigging a backlight where nothing could touch the walls. Matthews brought this solution to market in the mid-aughts. Word spread from crew to crew, and MAX went on to work on hundreds of productions - Avatar, Inception, The Dark Knight, Iron Man 1, 2, and 3, There Will Be Blood, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, - and many, many more following its Sci-Tech Academy Award Win. Academy Recognition In recognition of MAX's impact on the industry, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences honored Richard Mall with a Scientific and Technical Award for the design and development of the MAX Menace Arm, presented at the Academy's Sci-Tech Awards ceremony in February 2013. The Academy cited it as a "safe and adjustable device that allows rapid, precise positioning of lighting fixtures, cameras or accessories" - recognition rarely given to grip equipment. What It's Used For Backlights and top lights in spaces with no ceiling grid or rigging points Lighting over set walls without cutting or building through them Light placement on rooftops or balconies to go below grade Flags, frames, and diffusions boom in out of frame
