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SquareDog posted:I was told that the Element Technica Atom rig with Epics is only 45 lbs! How much more with a gimbal and arm I don't know. At indie rentals were due to get 10 epics just as soon as they'll ship them to us (and we're higher on the list). In a side note, were getting two Alexas in a couple weeks as well, so stoked to play with all that gear! Alright so here's a quick collage of the good and the slightly less good in 3D. The 3ality rig has two Epics in it, the problem (and why it's so heavy) is that it's a terribly balanced camera and we needed to add weight to balance it properly. Second problem is that the 3ality system is pretty complex and heavy, thanks to all the electronics that run through it (it weighs around 21 lbs alone!). It's very much an over-engineered system in my opinion. I.e. it tries to do too much and therefore becomes too complex and cumbersome. Though I will admit, the things it does are very clever. On the other hand, the Element Technica rig (here still a prototype) weighs next to nothing. Add to that two SI2K cameras (that also weigh nothing), a simple Preston remote focus system to power the camera movement, and the Cinedeck itself as a monitor, and you have something that weighs almost nothing and doesn't lose much in quality at all! Even with the extra Anton Bauer to power the Cinedeck and the stupidly heavy ARRI baseplate. This is the kind of 3d rig I would gladly shoot with all day! With a big grin on my face too. Running shots, stairs, 18 hour days...all not a problem. Steadiman fucked around with this message at 00:02 on Mar 18, 2011 |
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Mar 17, 2011 23:36
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ogopogo posted:Do you know Starling? EnsGDT posted:Steadiman, any hints on how to balance the Merlin Steadicam with a 7D on it? I cannot get the fucker to balance right. Other than that, check that you have the camera's center of gravity as much in the middle of the mounting bracket when you attach the camera and then carefully adjust the fore/aft and side to side adjustments to get it to hang level. You can find, or get really close to the camera's CG, by getting a rod or stick (or even pencil) and rolling the camera on top of it. The point where the camera doesn't tip in any direction is the CG. Do this for fore and aft and side to side and mark the rough point where the CG is, that's where you should align the mounting hole of the plate. then fine tune with the balance adjustments on the Merlin after you mount it. Should work. hope that helps.
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Mar 18, 2011 11:46
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Walnut Crunch posted:Since this is steadicam time, any advice on a steadicam rig for an af100 with something like a nikon 17-50 on it? What would you buy to be easy to set up and reliable, but trying to watch price as much as possible? SquareDog posted:We do have HA5's. Just call the shop and ask about getting a demo! I usually do them anyway.  Also, the Merlin is tricky but there's no reason to hate. It's the most efficient way to do this cheap. It's difficult to operate because the light rigs have no mass just by their nature (same as light cameras) so the smaller rigs are actually more difficult to operate than the big rigs. Makes for very good practice. If you can control the little one, the big ones will be easier! EnsGDT posted:It was definitely top heavy but thanks to your sage and wise advice I got it balanced out! Thanks man. My DP and I thank you. ogopogo posted:Cool. I assist for him every now and then and I swear he's shown me a picture of you somewhere. Thought you looked familiar. Mozzie posted:Hey Steadiman do you know Michael Heathcote? Also, found this picture of the 2 Alexa rig on Hugo Cabrez. Notice the Segway/Handsfree, Larry McConkey (the operator) insisted on using this instead of carrying the rig physically, because otherwise he simply would not physically be able to carry the rig for the whole day. I think he spends 80% of the shoot on the Handsfree and would only carry it himself if the Handsfree didn't fit in the room he had. It was a heavy shoot!
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Mar 22, 2011 13:29
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exponentory posted:How heavy are the Alexas? Do you work with Larry often? He's done some insanely good work... . There's a wonderful story of when he was shooting a film with Julia Roberts in India and, on his 60th birthday, they surprised him in the middle of a big shot when Julia stood up and started singing "Happy Birthday" to him with all the extras. Since Larry is such a humble guy, he didn't realize it was for him and just kept right on shooting, slightly annoyed at this unrehearsed turn of events.Tiresias posted:Steadiman: that's an awfully short post for an Ultra 2 flying a a 3D rig. :P Larry truly is a magic man. I still love watching his explanation of that shot from "Raising Cain". exponentory posted:The way he had the characters pull her in the right direction to keep the shot going is hilarious and brilliant
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Mar 23, 2011 22:19
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Alan Smithee posted:Hey Steadiman, good to see you're still alive somewhere. Where you abouts these days? SquareDog posted:Hey guys, My Thesis film is done with its film fest circuit and is now available to view online. check out my thread on it in Cinema Discussio and say something lovely. . I hope it'll open many doors for you.
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Mar 24, 2011 19:55
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ogopogo posted:Pretty sure I met Steadiman today  . Ah well, Vegas...Didn't get to see much but I am insanely interested in the Samurai! That thing looked almost too good to be true, I'll wait for some user reviews before committing but I really want one!
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Apr 23, 2011 01:49
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exponentory posted:Speaking of RED, I had a hell of a time dealing with one last weekend. Overheating and drop frames all over the place. We were shooting on a jib in a small room, which was pretty hot, to a red drive (CF module was shot due to a bent pin). One of the main problems is that it wouldn't cut the roll after it was shooting for over a few minutes and had to be hard rebooted. Is this just an issue with the original non MXd Red ones or just a heat limit for writing to the Red drive? In other news, I just wrapped my fourth film as DP and am about to go into grading for it. Was a tremendous amount of fun and we managed to do some amazing things for a budget of less than 400.000 Euros. I cut together a short demo reel from some of the footage and would love to share it with you but, because the film is unreleased, I can't put it on YouTube so anyone who wants to see it will need to be added to my Dropbox Here's a bunch of random pictures of the production for no other reason than to kill your bandwith:           
Steadiman fucked around with this message at 01:25 on Aug 12, 2011 |
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Aug 12, 2011 01:04
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SquareDog posted:Another Dutch Christmas movie, huh? You must have the DP market cornered on that now. . Though I am finally shooting a non-santa related movie in January. Shooting in Greece if all goes well and we start preproduction in October/November. I must say I am really enjoying my gradual move into serious DP-ing and have been getting more and more nibbles from abroad too so I'm sure I'll be over there to take your jobs in that department as well soon. Deal with it!Unexpected EOF posted:Well poo poo, looks like if we get our locations we'll be renting Diablos or just working with the cameras we have already and hacking slow-mo. Desert shooting, so there's going to be heat problems all around. Steadiman fucked around with this message at 02:38 on Aug 12, 2011 |
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Aug 12, 2011 02:34
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Mozzie posted:How to solve ever red problem ever: shoot on alexa. Jalumibnkrayal posted:The movement on mine isn't smooth enough for that unfortunately. You really have to crank it. I did find a video of a guy who built a simple tabletop macro jib that yielded some very impressive results so I'll probably give that a try. .You wouldn't even need a dolly in such a small space, if you size the arm right, and have a boom and a swing axis for traversing the board, then you can do everything with it and get the lens really close to the action. Sounds so me like you are going to have a fun afternoon building it! Just remember to add enough counterweight and you'll be fine. Hell, I think for a game board you could get away with a very short arm, maybe even a 2:1 ratio would be enough weight wise. Also I've put a low res version of my reel on Vimeo now, it's password protected (again because I'm not officially allowed to show this stuff yet) but the password is my user name , feel free to have a look, but remember that it is ungraded footage still. http://www.vimeo.com/27724230
Steadiman fucked around with this message at 14:07 on Aug 18, 2011 |
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Aug 18, 2011 14:04
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Interesting development happening here: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/29/idUS381262194920111229 ARRI has apparently been a bit of a naughty boy, still I am glad they did it if it's true because atleast they finished what RED doesn't seem to be able to finish properly.
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Dec 30, 2011 20:33
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Alright guys, I have been doing some tests with both the Scarlet and Epic for an upcoming shoot where I need a lightweight B-camera. Here's my little mini-review. I sort of knew the Epic but when I last used it, the software was quite buggy. Now that the Scarlet is out there, I kinda no longer see the point of the Epic. As far as I can tell, they are the same camera in almost every way. Physically the only difference is that the Scarlet has a plastic-y body and the Epic metal. The only other difference is software, which to me doesn't really warrant the rather gargantuan price difference. Sure, the Epic does 300fps at 4K but how often do you need that? Unless you're Zack Snyder obviously. Other than that, the Scarlet actually has playback in its firmware. The only way to get it on Epic now is with the beta firmware which I don't feel quite comfortable with but I am told it works. One other thing the technician cautioned me about was that there's two separate frame rate settings, which can screw you quite badly if you forget it. So let's talk touchscreen...I don't like it. I hate it in consumer cameras and it's even more obnoxious in a "professional" camera. Adding to this frustration is the fact that you can't have both the LCD and the viewfinder working at the same time (without an add-on module, or so I'm told) so if you're using the viewfinder and want to change a setting, you gotta disconnect the viewfinder and connect the LCD. You can also use the REDMOTE, or however that is capitalized, but that is still quite unreliable apparently, and has a tendency to stop talking to the camera and give you the silent treatment too. Ofcourse you can add that grip thing to the camera body, which gives you some access to menus, but that thing is insanely dangerous since a lot of the buttons are in a place where it's really easy to push your palm against when you're holding the camera. The soft buttons, right under your thumb and palm, default to such wonderfully useful settings like your white balance and your eject media button (Christ who thought that was a smart idea?)! Another thing the grip allows is to use a smaller battery to power the camera. An interesting idea for creating a tiny, self-contained, camera. The downside is that the camera sucks that battery down so fast that it could make a shitload of money hooking in Vegas. So the only really reliable way to access the menus is through the touchscreen, which fortunately you can lock, but it's still a huge hassle to work with unless your fingers are absolutely tiny. We're talking Hobbit size here. And then there's the plugs. Thank God RED finally ditched those weird tiny video plugs that would snap off if you even thought about them funny. Now there's BNC plugs and all is right in the world. Ofcourse we immediately go wrong again when we reach the power plug. RED, in their infinite wisdom, decided that one custom power cable wasn't enough and so they changed the plug again. All the people who bought RED power plugs (i.e. me ) can now look forward to spending another substantial amount on Epic/Scarlet cables. Yay!So what did they do right? Well, they finally learned how to ventilate the camera. The airflow no longer crosses the printplates and has an exit on top. So dust in the camera and overheating should no longer be an issue. The startup time is also absolutely great. It also has a nice feature that you can easily remove the PL mount and replace it with a mount for photo camera lenses. It even allows you to focus those using the touch screen. It's a nice brochure feature but not one I'd see myself using. Could be handy for very low budget productions that can't afford a focus puller. Let's talk picture quality. It's great. Really impressive and I have to give credit where it's due, RED knocked it out of the park here. It holds up amazingly well under really low light without losing definition in highlights or adding grain. I've seen a demo projected at 4K and it was spectacular. Explosions in low light retained their color without really washing out and you could still catch quite a bit of definition in the dark bits. So both the Epic and Scarlet score major points there. My conclusion would be that they are both fantastic cameras that are horrendous to work with. Some fantastic ideas and a lot of really bad ones come together in a tiny and light package. However I do believe RED seriously hosed up with the Epic since it just seems so ludicrously pointless. If I hadn't worked with it and know a lot of people who got them, I'd think the Epic would turn out to be a big practical joke. I can imagine people who bought an Epic might have raised an eyebrow or two when the Scarlet came out. Sure there's some differences but not nearly enough, as far as I could tell, to justify the huge price increase. I don't see myself ever booking an Epic unless I absolutely needed the 300fps. These are, obviously, just my opinions and I may very well be wrong on some points but this is how I saw it. I'd love to hear other people's experiences with both cameras ofcourse.
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Jan 6, 2012 19:36
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Tiresias posted:Of course, you know much like I do, a great image will attract all clients, but a great image paired with a camera that's easy to work with and has great support from the manufacturer is the one that will survive in the most markets the longest. RED has too many strikes to stay in good graces for long with the Alexa and F65 coming out, whether it's affordable and a great image or not. ) and I am sure the images will turn out great. And as for the inreased sensor size...nice idea but honestly, who cares. It's hard enough to build realistic looking sets and make actors look good, instead of absolutely, pore-countingly, terrifying, on IMAX, let alone if we start going even higher res than that. For movies it seems rather pointless and again I'd rather take a Scarlet. See you at Arrowhead
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Jan 6, 2012 20:27
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mobot posted:...Any words of wisdom?  . That said I do still really like the Scarlet in so far that it's a good alternative to a full-blown Epic. Another thing that kind of baffled me was that the compression is now set through picking a ratio but there's no clear indication as to what the ratio represents. So if you're used to the RED One compression, you will have to read the manual because they changed it.Back to your question, I personally am extremely interested in the c300 and hoping to test it very soon if Canon will let me. If I fall in love with it, I should be able to use it on my upcoming movie as a camera for the Steadicam Tango (instead of the Epic/Scarlet combo). I think I would prefer this for no other reason than that I won't have to deal with RED's annoyances. As good as the RED stuff can be, it is still designed by a very stupid committee of silly engineers without ever talking to people that actually have to use it (or so it seems). This to me is an annoyance that I will do my best to avoid if I can. Sure, the picture is great and they make perfectly fine cameras, but at the end of the day I am much more interested in how good it is to work with. To that end I trust Canon a lot more than RED! To be fair though, that is choosing the lesser of two evils. If you can arrange some sort of test with the cameras you are interested in and compare workflow, that would probably help you a lot. Maybe at a tradeshow like NAB or at a rental house. I wouldn't worry too much about picture quality, that will be fine for what you need on all of the cameras. What you want to look at is how easy are they to use, how reliable are they, how battery-friendly are they, are the menus easily accessed and can you easily fit it in your workflow. To me, personally, those are the key components of a camera. The question always in my mind is "What problems can I run into if I am shooting on the North Pole or in the Gobi desert with this thing?". If the answer comes back with "none" then that probably means I am looking at a Moviecam SL and shooting on film. But if the answer comes back "very few" then it's a good digital camera Another thing you might want to look at/google is JVC's newly announced 4K consumer camera. Unfortunately, aside from knowing that it is coming, I know nothing about it but it sounds like it might be right up your alley! Ofcourse that is not out yet, and might not be out for a while, but it has my interest and I think it's something to keep an eye on. What the average consumer could possibly need 4K for is beyond me though, I am imagining home made movies that will now require a camera department. The market for 1st AC's might soon be booming with gigs for aunty Wilma's birthday and little Jimmy's bar mitzvah! Get in on the action while you can! Hope that helps!
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Jan 14, 2012 19:21
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SquareDog posted:Not that I especially care about the Scarlet but I should correct you on something. The Scarlet will do 4K at up to 30 fps, it just can't do 5K that fast. It only does 5K at 12fps. If you have it set to 3K it can go up to 48 fps. Just thought I should mention it since you based a big part of your review on it.
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Jan 15, 2012 01:09
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SquareDog posted:I've played with it at my work and it's legit. it could be because of HDRx? That halves the processing power and by extension, framerates.
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Jan 15, 2012 11:39
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Walnut Crunch posted:A lot of Panny cameras have flash band compensation on them. I'm not sure if it really works, but I think it lessens the effect.  Oh and thanks for the explanation of the differences between RedCode36 and the new ratios! Very helpful
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Jan 22, 2012 13:29
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FLX posted:I had an opportunity to spend my first day with a DaVinci Resolve panel yesterday.
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Feb 6, 2012 01:33
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EnsGDT posted:Note to self, try and convince one of the first year students that the RAID we dump footage to must be in the dark or else they'll expose what we shot.
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Feb 12, 2012 17:02
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Just wrapped day one on my fifth feature as DP! Terribly excited with where we're going with this. Next stop is two weeks on Cyprus, we have a bunch of cool stuff planned including a rather large crane/Steadicam step-off shot for the opening sequence and probably a five minute oner, also on Steadicam. I am simply tickled pink to be shooting a movie that does not involve any kind of Santa
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Feb 25, 2012 22:26
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SquareDog posted:No Swarte Piet!?
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Feb 25, 2012 23:00
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EnsGDT posted:I'm totally jealous Steadiman. As a Greek and a filmmaker, I'd love to come work that with you . We'll be shooting all over the drat place!
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Feb 26, 2012 18:11
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EnsGDT posted:Well, I live in Florida, and I'm in production. I'm not sure which of the two is the bigger hang up? Tiresias posted:Be careful, he's a screamer and will steal your woman. No comment on the woman bit...
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Feb 27, 2012 19:10
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You two smart-asses realize Steadicam operators pretty much all know each other through some degree and there's one probably very close to you, and your family, right now. We are all connected by a single call. Just saying :-/ Also...awesome pants!
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Feb 27, 2012 23:59
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Marxist Glue posted:Any cinematographers travel overseas a lot? Make sure you know exactly what is in your kit and you are able to explain the functions of the more esoteric gear. I like to carry brochures for that purpose. Depending on where you fly into Italy, the English at the airport might be bad (this happens even on big international airports there) so this makes brochures even more handy to explain stuff. You won't be hassled any more than a regular passenger so you should be just fine. I am assuming you have proper visas to work in Italy? Also bring a few books...it's a long flight ogopogo posted:Starling knows he's good at standing around, and Fletcher will tell you about how good he is at standing around, haha!
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Feb 29, 2012 00:13
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bassguitarhero posted:I travelled to Ireland for a shoot and have taken my HVX in Pelican case with me many times, no problems. One time I was asked to turn on the camera, but that was it. They checked my person a little more closely, but that was it. Mostly they have me open the case, nod and give me the go-ahead.
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Feb 29, 2012 01:01
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Just wrapped the Cyprus section of my shoot and had a blast! Even though it was basically 12 consecutive days of nearly 12 hours a day, it was awesome! One thing we ran into, though, was that our RED One (ugh) decided halfway through to no longer allow us to change the ISO setting anymore until we updated to the latest firmware. That was certainly interesting, especially since this happened during a nightshoot and we were stuck on ISO 250 with very a small lighting package in a tomb. I will admit, I was furious. Especially since it worked fine the day before. Thank goodness we had one 6K that I could blast and bounce into the set but it was far from ideal and I had to break my own rule of never going beyond 2.8 on my Superspeeds. I really am starting to actually hate RED instead of just being annoyed/surprised with them. I wish the budget had allowed me to get the anamorphic Alexa package I was trying for. Production also forced me to bring a zoom lens along with me (for speed), an Angenieux 25-250, that I hated. I was okay with bringing a zoom but I wanted me an Optimo. That was beyond the budget so I was stuck with a slow Angenieux that maxed out at 3.5, had a minimum focus of 1.7 meters, is wooly as poo poo, kept zooming by itself between 44mm and 85mm for some magical reason, and is going to be a nightmare to grade next to the primes. They wanted me to use it for almost everything to justify the cost. Fortunately I managed to constantly find reasons not to use it and they never got mad! The local gear we rented had one of the crappiest cranes I have ever had to use. An ancient Felix crane that barely had any height and used a terrible PeaPod head that I think only really works for tiny DV cameras. Anything heavier made the head vibrate like it was being electrocuted everytime the move became a bit too fast and there was no subtlety in the movement at all. Didn't matter if I used the wheels or the joystick, the panning/tilting was more like an on/off switch than a gradual ease into the move no matter how I set up the sensitivity. Other than that we did some awesome stuff though, I am insanely proud. Still five more days to go in Holland and then we wrap. It's going to look epic . Here, have some pictures!     
Steadiman fucked around with this message at 11:03 on Mar 14, 2012 |
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Mar 14, 2012 10:51
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Man I keep forgetting Arrowhead is next week and I'm supposed to be on a plane to LA on thursday, the day after I wrap my movie. Can't believe how fast time goes! My mind is still consumed with the last two days of shooting, one of which is going to be huge, that I can barely see beyond that. Looking forward to seeing y'all there and don't worry, I've pretty much stopped biting people for wrong posture so I've been getting better
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Mar 18, 2012 17:46
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Speaking of ARRI, anyone going to the open house in Burbank on Thursday? Light meter, by the way
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Apr 8, 2012 18:17
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A camera is just a fancy box that captures light. It's the light it captures that make the image, the box itself is useless for anything except being a carrier of media. While some cameras have more buttons than others, they are all still just boxes that capture light in some way. People worry way too much about the box and way too little about the light that hits it and that worries me. Available light sucks when you know how pretty it can be once you augment it with some gorgeous lamps. I'll take a light/lens fetishist over a camera fetishist any day of the week. Atleast I won't have pointless discussions with them that don't lead to anything about a subject that doesn't really interest me. Don't know why I keep getting pulled into camera discussions, I never had this many pointless camera discussions when digital wasn't around. I miss those days already.
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Apr 14, 2012 06:47
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About to drive 13 hours to Cannes to DP my first American feature! So excited I can't stand myself! Budget and everything! Had to share my excitement with you guys . Full access to all the best parties and cameos from some of the biggest names in the movie industry, should turn into an awesome movie!
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May 8, 2012 20:03
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Quick update from sunny Cannes. Having a blast here, I'd never been to Cannes before...it's an absolute madhouse! Especially when you're filming there! It's like Vegas only with more expensive cars and less casinos, I love it. So far I've had the privilege of working with people like Polanski, James Woods, Jessica Chastain, Robert DeNiro, Scorsese and a bunch of others who all have awesome cameos. And Thursday I get to chill with Bertolucci . That's not even mentioning all the parties we get to shoot at, from Calvin Klein to Vanity Fair. Pretty cool! Right now I am definitely loving my job, though it is a very tough shoot and I am not yet sold on the C300 they are making me use. We've been having some very odd internal flaring issues with them that are bugging the hell out of me. And as part of the deal production made with Canon, I am expected to do a piece on camera as DP to say how awesome I think the camera is! Of all the things we're doing here, that makes me the most nervous :-( Anyway, have some pictures!! Excuse me, I have to go get back to the sun now    
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May 22, 2012 08:45
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CaptainViolence posted:whaaaaaaaat Also, update on our shoot. We had some awesome drama here that was all captured on camera (google "Alec Baldwin Harvey Weinstein" to find out what happened) that got the cameras kicked out of the AMFAR party the other day, and I found some neat videos of us working hard! This was a tv show that is apparently very big in France, we did a scene there while Alec was getting interviewed and I was not expecting to be featured this much: http://www.canalplus.fr/c-cinema/c-festival-de-cannes/pid4392-le-grand-journal-de-cannes.html?vid=652386 And this I found on Youtube which should give you a good idea of the insanity that surrounds us whenever we go outside to shoot, and this is still relatively calm compared to when we go outside on the boulevard! My AC almost got arrested at one point outside when the cops didn't realize she was with us and I've "accidentally" punched more photographers in the stomach than ever before! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8tUBqIrVcY EDIT: Also, unrelated, the title track to the other movie I just DP'd. A lot of fun to do, we shot the song at a bunch of our filming locations and the whole crew is in the video too . I am in it at the very end, operating the remote head. Let's see if you can spot me!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvHlnL_8Lx4 Steadiman fucked around with this message at 11:37 on May 26, 2012 |
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May 26, 2012 11:34
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TheBigBad posted:My last non contract gig (at this point film school sets were running pretty well comparatively) was a film shot in a house in the mountains. They provided one soapy water filled cooler of water with some plastic cups. Were charging for granola bars- something outrageous like $5 (as a donation to the film). They would not provide lunch on what appeared to be a 14 hour shoot. We were not allowed to leave to go get food, and we were required to wait in between set-ups in a covered porch during sub freezing weather. I don't know whether to respect your professionalism or call you a world class pussy
Steadiman fucked around with this message at 16:21 on Aug 9, 2012 |
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Aug 9, 2012 15:12
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EnsGDT posted:Can't it be both? Professional world class pussy goes for serious bucks these days.
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Aug 9, 2012 16:28
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thehustler posted:However, I seem to be suffering from amazingly painful lower back problems. I can only wear the rig for about 10 minutes before it starts to hurt a lot. Is this a technique thing? I'm quite a short bloke, not very strong really, and I know it takes time to build up strength. But I figure my slightly curved spine (always been that way) is loving things up." Remember that even with a light weight rig there can still be considerable downward mass! It is an exponential increase depending how far away from you the weight is. If you had a rig that weighed a total of, say, 20lbs (very lightweight) but pushed it out all the way then the total amount of downward mass can increase almost tenfold. The result of this is that you are essentially now carrying 200lbs on those tiny muscles! Now imagine flying an 80lbs rig! And kids, you can try this effect yourself to see how much fun it is...pick any heavy object and hold it close to you. Easy, right? Now hold out your arm all the way and see how long you can hold it...yeah, that's right. Physics is fun! So to solve your posture problem you need to start looking at yourself operate. Get a friend to film you or stand in front of a mirror and just stand there. Look at yourself, are your shoulders aligned with your hips...back straight? Good! Now let go off the rig, does it fly away from you or come toward you? If yes then: not good, adjust the socket block until it stays floating without touching it while you are standing perfectly straight. Once you get that down, push the rig out farther and adjust your own balance accordingly. Ideally you should only need to push your hips back a little bit while maintaining the whole shoulder/hip thing and you will be in balance again (it floats there). The adjustment you have to physically make to stay in balance is actually tiny, all you're doing is shifting the common center of gravity between you and the rig, this lies right between your hips and the sled. There is a tendency to lean back to balance your upper back and assume a kind of rockstar pose (pushing your hips towards the rig). This is very bad and looks very silly. Reason is you are actually pushing your hips towards the rig when you lean your shoulders back, thus actually pushing the common CG closer to the rig so you have to lean back even farther to get it to balance. By then your spine is suddenly carrying the weight and muscle aren't doing anything! Very bad...the spine is not meant to be used like that. So don't do that, silly kitten! Focus very hard on keeping your back straight and shoulders/hips in line and you should start feeling relief almost immediately. Also make sure you and the rig are balanced and you're not fighting it from falling away from you or flying towards you and that you have the vest nice and tight. If you have these things sorted, your life will be so much better and you can start focussing on getting awesome shots! You should not be doing anything else while practicing this! No shots, no walking, no monitor on. Just standing and learning to balance. This is really basic operating stuff and you MUST have this down before even considering tackling actual shots. This is important stuff! Also, Mozzie, this is coming from a guy that knows Walter and thinks he is a genius and an all-round lovely guy, the Klassen vest is a very expensive placebo that actually does more harm than good if not used properly. But people use them, and use them well. But don't say things like "scrub tier"...dude, I'd expect better from you. Oh and CaptainViolence...get all your fingers below the gimbal please! Watch your grip. It is a dangerous way to hold the gimbal because you are holding the rig above the CG and your hands are possibly compromising the bearings in the pan-axis. This could affect the stability and inertia of your pans and also you are giving up a level of control and feedback. The mantra of every single Steadicam workshop ever is "Stand up straight and watch your grip". Keep thinking that mantra in your head while you practice and pretend it's the instructors yelling it at you and you have the full workshop experience Look! Posture!!! First picture I could find of a side profile but notice there is no actual leaning going on (an image commonly associated with Steadicam operators). I am just standing straight and normal, even while screwing around with my settings on a boat. Always in balance, never fighting the rig. Steadiman fucked around with this message at 09:54 on Aug 23, 2012 |
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Aug 23, 2012 09:48
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CaptainViolence posted:I was confused about what you meant until I realized what you were referring to ... that picture I posted actually isn't me! I just pulled it off Wikipedia for demonstrating a somewhat proper posture, and didn't even look at the hands. Fear not, I keep my hand placed under the gimbal on the CG just where it should be when I operate!
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Aug 23, 2012 11:11
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CaptainViolence posted:I've seen a couple videos of workshops and something I noticed is that the instructors have to keep reminding operators to stand up straight. I think it's one of those things you'll really have to focus on at first because if you're not paying attention you'll slip into a bad posture again while you're concentrating on something else. Also, thehustler, the pain gets less with training. It is like excersizing muscles, you are doing a workout and it gets lighter as those muscles are trained. Good luck and if you want to go on...TAKE A drat WORKSHOP!
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Aug 23, 2012 23:17
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thehustler posted:Shame I'm in the UK
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Aug 25, 2012 13:25
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I saw the Delta at IBC a few weeks ago and was absolutely blown away by it. I admit I've always had a soft spot for Aaton ever since I first worked with the 35 and Xtr range (way back in the olden days, we used this thing called "film"), they just design such lovely cameras to work with. I missed working with Aaton. This will hopefully put them back in the spotlight a bit, though they always seem to play second fiddle to the might of Arri and seem to be permanently resigned to B-camera status :-(. But this camera might just come out of nowhere and make a big splash. It really is that good! As far as the Black Magic...well I think it's a neat camera in specs but, after having tried it for a bit, I am really disapointed in the form factor and usability. It is a lot bigger than I was expecting, but in all the wrong places. I.e. it is wide and tall but not long, like an oversized DSLR. This bothers me a lot, and always has with DSLRs too but here it is taken to another level. It is just not a good form factor for filming. Having a fixed monitor in the back is great for quickly checking stills but terrible for shooting moving pictures. It's also very much aimed at the post-process, fantastic logging features and great little touches to make an editor's life easier (obvious considering the company) but very little thought was given to actual on-set use because of that. Don't get me wrong, it definitely has a market in the owner/operator/low budget scene, but I strongly doubt it will be very competitive compared to what else is out there. There's other 2K RAW cameras coming out that seem much more usable. I am becoming a bit fed up with brochure-cameras (cameras that just have bullet points of awesome sounding features but are absolutely crap to use on set) In short...it's still a mess in digital world, and only getting messier with cameras like the A-Cam, the Canon 4K thing, that I forgot the name of, and the SinaCam coming out (I absolutely loved the SinaCam by the way!) But this is just, like, my opinion man...
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Oct 3, 2012 11:17
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Yuns posted:... In other news, I DP-ed a 48 hour film contest last week. Was a blast to do, even though the film we made is pretty drat weird (I am not responsible for any part of the story) but I enjoyed trying to create a creepy look with extremely limited budget/time/means. The actual shoot was just under 12 hours with around 66 setups. We didn't win but I still think it turned out nice. Have a look and let me know what you think! It's basically about a director who gets sucked into his own hell after being an rear end in a top hat for his whole life. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqvMyEmFVhI
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Oct 6, 2012 13:09
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