This is the kind of video that may not get a ton of views but is infinitely more useful than something like a "what's in my camera bag" that typically gets a bunch of eyeballs. Huge thanks for making this! I need to get practicing now...

Thank you! I watched 5 videos trying to get over-under and yours contained both best explanation and visual examples.

This is a great video not just for production careers, but also musicians. As a teenage guitarist I destroyed my first cables very quickly, and I wasted a lot of time trying to figure out what was wrong with my guitar before realizing the real problem.

I am sound volunteer for , well every church I have been a member of, sharing this my team and the musicians , this is gold, and makes me seem less OCD. and presentation was excellent.

This video was great. The thing that confused me for a while when I first started was that I'd wrap the cable correctly, but still get knots while unwrapping. I finally realized that if one of the ends passed through the center, I'd get knots every few feet. Important to know!

Omg yes! I was a best boy and gaffer for most of my career. I brag that I wrapped enough cable to go to the moon and back. I always gave the wrapping sermon to newbies just after coffee on day one. The eye-rollers rarely lasted. The arm-rollers always had me jumping off the tailgate screaming Nooooo! You made my day.

This is the best video ever made in the century.

I started working in the industry back in the 80’s and began working as a chief lighting technician, aka gaffer in the 90s. I was always taught to wrap stingers with a clockwise twist and XLR cables over and under. The reason being that the internal wires in the AC cables have a twist to them and wrapping them clockwise works better either the twist of the internal wires. With XLR cables the internal wires don’t have such a twist and work better with the over and under method. As far as I know that is how it is done on most US film sets. That being said I know a lot of guys with personal equipment who insist their cables are wound over and under. As far as I know the cable gods have not struck them dead and their cables seem to work fine but that being said I have no problem with mine as I have a good number of personal cables. I think it’s just a matter of being consistent how are you wind them and don’t switch back-and-forth. A good tip if you get a cable that has been wound improperly and has kinks, you can lay it out in the parking lot or the grass on a hot sunny day for a few hours and then rewind it. That usually fixes the problem. I could be wrong or standards may have changed. For the last 20 years I have worked primarily as a DP and Director and leave the cable winding to others. Good video though.

The video I didn't know I needed. Thank you for this!

Thank you!!!!! This was not a dumb topic. I am very grateful for this.

I'm going to be that guy.... I put my velcro or tie at the male end of the cable. For audio this is important so there isn't a flag hanging in the shot if its used with a handheld mic. For power, I just like to not have my tie in the middle of everything. Lastly, I adjust the first and last loop so the heads are close together. The less slack the heads have the less they tangle when you stack/store large amounts of cables. This is especially important when working with audio trunks. Love the video.

Most modern men's lives have indeed significantly improved just by this video. xD Thank you!

I am not a gaffer :-). But I wanted to leave a thank-you note here after I watched this video and practiced on my regular extension cords almost everyday. And I noticed it is even better if I start the first loop same way every time.

This is great! Thanks for posting this! I often do event production jobs, so we have to tape down cables when they cross a doorway. Ramps are not really practical indoors, nor are small mats, esp. in a posh venue, so we tape shit down. The trick is to throw a few perpendicular strips to tack the cables down and then run a long parallel strip, or strips, where the cables cross the doorway. Extra points for putting angled white, or contrasting colored tape over the perpendicular tape. When it's time to wrap, on the wall side (no tape side), put your foot down on the cables and then pull up the parallel tape first. As you move down the line and the tape is lifting up, move your foot along, as well. Keeping your foot near the tape being pulled up, avoids the tape wrapping around the cables. Then, pull up the tacking strips and you're good to go. I personally prefer the Over-Over wrap for my stingers and most cables. The hundreds of cables we use, seem to be fine using Over/Over. I am the guy that fixes the cables, and connectors fail, before the copper conductors, inside, fail. Some of the less compliant cables, fiber, or triax get the Over/Under wrap. Hopefully the triax is on a spool, so you can just roll it up. The best is when the spool is in a hard case, on wheels. A tip for wrapping long cables, or heavy 3/0 (aka horsecock): Rather than holding the whole coil, put it on the ground and use your foot to hold the coil down as you reel it in and make the concentric circles. I'm getting older, so sometimes I'll do it on a trunk, or a case and use my knee/hand. That way, I don't have to bend over to pick the damn thing up.

I have been taught this long ago by one of the instructors in a cinematography workshop, thanks for a refresher )

This video changed my life.

Best video on cable wrapping I’ve seen.

Hi I am nowhere near a career in the films industry, nor is it my dream, but I want to say thank you, you are about to save the life of a ton of cables of mine!

This is also known as a "roadie wrap" as it's used by all roadies at concerts. To remember it, they tend to relate it to their job: Over worked, under paid...

Nice Pirsig reference in the title.

Great series! Would love to see cleaning camera bodies, labeling & inventory management!

Hi Dale Just brought new 7m head extension cables for my Aputure 600D Pro. Thanks a lot for simple but good advice. Regards Nigel UK

Your video definitely helped me today :D thnx

Great, needed that reminder.

Note of caution to unwind power cables fully especially those under high load. Keeping them (tightly) coiled up while in used (maybe because one is trying to keep the long length in check) is said to cause heat build up

Thank you for the content, Dale. Very informative! Looking forward to more of these 🙏

Loved this! 😁

Very informative. I also like how you dropped science on the anatomy of cable which leads to why that technique must be used.

Bravo ..... also entertaining. For all you impatient people out there that aren't interested in the possibility of using the cable/cord again, it really doesn't take that long before you can do it without really thinking much about it. In the words of some sports giant - just Do It 🙂

OMG the poor people that have worked after me over the years -- this video is going to change their lives lol

You should do a video on wrapping long lengths of 3 phase power cable, camera cable and/or multicore using the figure 8 method.

100% this is the best way to coil!

Awesome tips !

Super helpful!! 🙌

Master class of setting and striking : Cable LOL Damn your video can replace my theatre classes

Good guide for newbies! You should take it to the next level and do one on rigging broadcast cables! As a live sports cameraman of 30+ years, I can assure you we learn quickly in fear of being possibly strangled by our colleagues! 😂

This is the first Video that i will show to our apprentice 😄

Great video! Any reason why you don't just over-under every cable? It seems like you deviated from it on the small cables, but I don't think there would be any problems caused by wrapping it that way.

Dude these zen videos are really great. Might be a good idea to toss in time stamps but killer content nonetheless!!

5:25 my trick to using tape is wrap something else around it like from a plastic bag and then use tape. over that. cable won't get messy glue on it

I think it would have been easier to see how you were winding in the beginning, if you had a lighter jumper on, as the black didn't show up very well on the brown. Otherwise many thanks, I am trying to master this for my campervan electric hook up cable which is quite heavy

I'll do it! I don't want to get sent to Alberta.

I haven't seen any videos about over-over but with twisting your wrist so it follows the natural way of the cable. Is this a wrong way or just not as efficient?

Hi Dale, thanks for the really great video! It was very interesting. I'm curious to know just how many cables would you typically wrap at the end of an event? Would you have any idea of like the total length or number of cables that have to be wrapped? Cheers!

jumped to 4:11 and it is worth it

First!

The cardinal sin got my expensive 75ft extension cord so tangled it was basically unfunctional :( now I know.

American arm rap is much better than Canadian. That's why you don't understand.

5:32 made me cringe

This is super incorrect, and on any union set (in the US at least), if you wrap 12/3 single extensions ("stingers") over-under you will certainly be screamed at. Over-under is only for video cable, data cable, sound, or basically any small, more delicate cables --NOT any type of power cable that the electric department uses (except for MAYBE zip cord and of course, DMX--which is still data cable). 12/3 stingers, bates cable, banded cable, 2/0, 4/0 etc is ALWAYS over-over.

Over under.. what's this sorcery! 😅