Thomas English

I think if an operator has just a secondhand pro arm for sale, he will have tens of friends that would snap it up in seconds and as a result they never come up on the radar. They are very desirable arms.

I have used the 4pin xlr cable for the litepanel and then a 4pin xlr cable of my sled. I have since had every "japanese" plug connector made as 4 pin xlr s and as cables coming of my sled for the case of any piece of consumer electronics I want to add to my sled on the day. I personally feel that little japanese connector (centre + outside -) is completely inadequate. All my cables came from marell electronics. Noga arm works great, transvideo make a better one that s a lot more sturdy. I have attached control knobs for gekko ring lights to follow focus using double sided tape! but its better with the 3m velcro discussed elsewhere on this forum. Cover the end of the knob with velcro and the centre of your motor with velcro, leave it for half an hour whilst u prep other kit (so the sticky dries out). I have however only done this with bartechs where you can set your end points manually and delicately. To attach the motor to the light I put one bar coming out of the motor and gaffer that to the light. I know this all sounds very heath robinson (done on the shoot day) but I ve done some really big comercials like this and the DoP has been overjoyed to have control over the bright high fall off light that can cause so many problems. I feel it s important to come up with a good solution. Please keep us up to date with what you come up with in the cold light of prep.

Erwin, The specs to me on the Denz-deniz system look very good. The low power output of the transmitter is not such a problem as contructive/destructive interference from your own signal is 2.4ghz big downfall. The best thing is the reciever seems to be "diversity". I can t work out if it s diversity tuner or diversity antenna. But still it looks good. Off course the best thing about it all is the correct connectors are all there, like the transvideo systems. Saving loads of money on weird cables that break. It also looks like it will run on the hot 12v we use (i.e. up to 16v) which is my big no no with cheap 2.4ghz stuff.. it just frazzles after time of too higher volts. The only thing I have not considered is the cost... as I can t see a price list. Transvideo kit is very good.

Erwin is right, promo Dp s (music video) are often less experienced and more experimental running on a tighter schedual on a lot more coffee/cocaine. This can be difficult for the steadicam op. especially for a DP who has done steadicam. I don t know about in the states where you have a much more constrained higherarchy (am I wrong?) but in the UK the lines of who is calling the shots often completely melt away. You tunrned up as the steadicam operator and before you know it your directing the talent, deciding on shots and shifting lights (although I always take reverence to the dp before I ask for a shift of a light), then you start having to take over as AD as well ..... and things slowly but surely descend into chaos. Chaos that over runs for 20 hours and ends in the rain on an 85mm lens at 3am with a DP that is too stoned to want to move a light. KBS kick bollock shove .... UK promo s under 25 grand Erwin, When you say he wanted to prove production by sinking you... do you mean he was trying to make you look bad? .... wow, Shooting in america is quite cut throat sometimes ? Another point to your point richard, pulling sharps on an 85mm lens on a walking face open to 1.3 is very very tricky and I could not do it. Your depth of field is approx half of an inch... its the equivilant of being at f2 on a 300mm lens at 11ft... maybe you should have called Eric and his focus puller over from the states and they could have done a marvelous job and talked about how fantastic they are at the behest of any contructive and helpful conversation which is what this forum is so good for. The thing is... it s a promo... in and out of focus... yeah! Although I got slightly burnt on a promo I DP ed by not giving my puller enough stop (at 1.3 for 15hours on s35 gate) and the editor really struggled for usable shots. Pulling focus at 1.3 on steadicam is a mistake (whether s16 or 35) and should only be done in emergencies. My lowest stop on a KBS promo now is T2.8, unless it s an emergency or getting to the end of the night, raining and someone else is operating.

I found the wevi thing to be a bit big and cumbersome for film jobs. If the picture does drop out you have absolutely nothing! freeze frame... at least with UHF you can still see where the eyeline is. At present it only comes with v-locks. I would be tempted if I did a lot of run and gun TV work where I could not look after wireless and it fits nicely onto the back of very lightweight cameras or I was shooting really high end comercials all the time and the clients/post boys demanded a perfect picture. Useless for promo s. The thing is it only costs 2800 dollars and it works well so you may as well have it in your arsenal for when you need it but it s definately not an all encompassing solution.

The SR3 is a s16 camera That sounds nice for synch format, is it a drama? what is it? I Want to see how that ends up being cut together.

I bet I can guess who the Dp was! No... thats tricky... been there (but it was a howling wind as well) and I reckon it was the same guy. 85mm is a long lens 3 to 4 feet away, they where almost certainly looking for some promo style framing coming in and out of focus, you probably delivered what they where after anyway by the time you went on sticks. Don t worry about it, it was 3am and raining. After a long day, people forget their manners to tell you when they are happy or not and you get the same grunt whether you nailed it or they wanted something different. Did you try bringing the camera lower and framing the light directly behind the talents head? getting all the nice flares as you mess up.

personally I would give the remote to my focus puller... I find onboard recorder s a bit of a pain to think about just before a shot. I fail miserably ... I am sure that it could work well though. but could you not also take the remote apart and cut the IR led and pop it on a long cable and gaffer that to the IR led of the DVR.

1/4 s ! I did not realise/feel it was that long but could have been. I think we had this thread ages ago now. I did the job on it and it was fine as well as a lot lighter. Prep. day.....

Panavision have got the tiniest tiniest miranda that goes in the side of the camera and give s an ntsc SD signal. It is as big as a box of matches, hardly absorbs any power. It s great. It s very old. It s down sides are the screen splits on whip pans and there is a tiny tiny delay, both are very forgivable considering the benifits. I did a feature on it and I loved it. It was in panavision london last

I find those scrappy shoots very very fustrating, I never "feel" I have nailed a shot, but you know what. It s their fault for wanting to do a reality type rubbish show. Just relax and shoot shoot shoot... It s what they want... peasants I much prefer to do an intense 3 minute shot after another. funny though, I can handle solid steadicam music video s for 20 hours no problem with 2 minute take after another relentlessly but I really really feel the pain when doing a straight 50 minute live concert. My mind wanders because of my percieved lack of technical challenge/finesse and as my mind wanders the pain goblins waltz in as I start to hate the director and I have no control just to put the camera down for a glass of water... We are built for different things. Those that society needs more are more attractive to the opposite sex, breed more and define the next generation of steadicam operators.

Certainly is a nice setup for this weight range. At first it seems expensive but remember your costs over time as you start to use bigger camera s. This lite sled could carry anything given the right batteries at the bottom. So you get a 35mm shoot on an aaton... just get a bigger arm and use the onboard. I can t remember but maybe it can even do 24v! but not sure.... In that case carry a 535B or moviecam compact. you can also upgrade a lite bit by bit to a fully fledged AR/nexus

I use that 3M velcro (where both sides are the same) talked about in previous posts on the forum, possibly in last years archives. I find it even too strong would almost rather use an allen key and not feel like I am pulling like a maniac.

really sorry to hear about that Matt, I hope you get better quickly and efficiently. After the perscribed time, start doing pilates and lots of it as well as balance ball excercises. It sounds like your core strengh was fairly under par but nothing that a few months won t sort out. Don t worry, things seem to be quitening down UK side anyway. Sit back, relax but don t do a Gazza and get pissed/take drugs continuously. Take up Tai Chi... U can do that with torn muscles ? Good luck and stay off them stilts.

I have an evolution base at the moment with a 3a gimble and various other bastardised parts (3a topstage, chroizel tilter etc etc) so I do not have a nexus as such. What I would be very interested in the world of nexus's is the top/bottom electronics boxes .. because its all AR and D20 ready (dual HD SDI cables as well as a host of other AR cables) it gives loads of spare capacity if you like doing ad hoc weird stuff with your rig such as putting ringlight ballasts at the bottom of your sled, sticking flash mags at the bottom of your sled, sending component signals down maybe? from weirdo camera setups, running 3D setups with two monitors at the bottom or even a colourmix and wear your own green/red glasses and operating in full 3D all be it monochrome. It s also got volts setable at anything between 4v and 24v (I think) for running archos's etc. Tally light cables... etc etc Gosh... I want one... better do some work instead of being on holiday all the time!

I, like yourself Eric, would prefer to operate with a 2inch post gimble. It seems to give more control. Tiffen have seemed to have gone narrow on their new Ultra V2. Why would that be? So when it comes to 2inch gimbles, MK-V rocks! I also like the way you can use it on 1.5inch posts as well as 2inch posts.. upgrading bit by bit.

yeah.. I am just about to upgrade to the 4 stage post and v2 gimble... very excited... its a fantastic gimble...

rumour has it that Ben has been selling audio products, He may well be moving to the U.S. soon! Don t know if immigration knows about his history of bad debts. **** correction - he s not going states side ****

will it be able to decode a PAL signal? sure it s mapped to NTSC/US frequencies but if you transmit a PAL signal through a US mapped modulus and recieve it with this will it work? It only mentions NTSC on the side but manufacturers often portend to the mapping there not signal.

agreed the US often delays/thwarts radio tech. , take the digital mobile network used everywhere else in the world, you guys still have "cell" phones.. In england we are advancing pretty quickly towards digital TV. One solution when everything gets sold off/used up channel wise is to use the European mapped canatrans in the US and the US mapped canatrans in the Europe (i.e. use the Ntsc model in Pal land and the Pal model in ntsc land) since the frequencies are different you ll have less interference from the pesky firemen trying to save someones life. So we will be fine to use modulus's here for ages.. so long as the DTi don t catch us and put us in shackles.

I think the MK-v stand is 11.150. pop by and have a look at the AR and let me know about what bars are on the menu that evening.

I will be around for the whole period. Be nice to state an evening bar that serves food now that people can simply pitch up to every night. Howard off course will have the AR on demo on the MK-v stand, feel free to drop by there to inform on your drinking alter ego s intentions. I will be loitering around the Mk-v stand and would love to meet loads of the faces to the names!

"As a long time gyro owner, I think Mishka has it about right. When we mount the gyros on the steadicam, we work against their stabilizing force to pan and tilt the camera. This makes operating with the gyros a challenge and a compromise." Sure, but is that not the whole point of mounting a gyro? make the rig stiffer against the wind. I don t feel this is a lack of design integration by any means. Possibly I am being pedantic but gyro s make the rig stiffer hence stabilizing it further just like making the rig longer. Needing much more definate forces to operate the rig but also on the other hand these operator forces can be a lot more clumsy because the gyro is doing a lot more stabilizing. I do find I operate with a full grip when with gyros. For ages I just put one gyro on the top of the camera sideways before I had the proper brackets. The extra weight up top also made me lenghen the bottom of the sled giving extra inertia against the wind. When conditions require gyro s I often find the compromises or challenges of using the gyros become the least of my problems compared to hanging on on the side of the truck or keeping it together in the howling wind and driving rain. Another gyro myth I would be keen to debunk is putting one gyro upright to keep horizon and alowing you to pan freely and quickly making you "look the the best operator in the world" ... I had heard this tens of times before I got gyros and seems to work in theory but in practise I am begining to believe all the purporters of this rumour are full of it and have simply never actually tried it as it just does not work making operating incredibly clumsy.... am I wrong? you just seem to be edging on the side of the gyro and it s rubbish. The other thing is I have KS6 's and putting 2 of them onto the sled makes a big difference in weight! Sure it s only another 6kg s but often that s a good 6kg s you don t want. I would overall say avoid gyro s and invest in wind sheilds described in other posts. Gyro s do have good uses on vehicle mounts when hard mounted or in situation s with high high winds too high for people to hold up big boards or nets, both of these situations should be avoided by newbies and certainly don t warrant their investment as there are many toys you should probably buy first.

I really appreciate your post Mishka, however you seem to leave more questions than answers . ?The Steadicam is not initially designed to work with Gyro.? .... why not? What design features negate the use of gyros ?The problem is the Gyro can?t be used correctly on existing Steadicam post.? ..... why not? Whats wrong with the range of post clamps or in my case MK-V cage brackets ?It needs modified post and different balancing approach.? .... really? I just balance with the gyro s turned off and then turn them on, tweaking the balance as the mag moves through based on what slow feeling I get. Is this any different to operating with a longer camera or antlers? ?The common mistake of using Gyros is ?let the gyro stabilize? usually ends with disturbing the gyros till the system is erratic or constantly unbalanced and Difficulties in ?steering? the camera.?..... I don t understand your point at all.... I just operate as normal just possibly with a full grip seeing as it is a howling wind and I am intending to let the gyro do the stabilizing. ?The reason is: all the rigs attached with additional gyros are basically working against Gyroscopic stabilization mechanics and principle.?..... How? ?* Tilt up down feature can be done without tilting the post.?..... wow! How do you do that? ?* The system can be motorized or fully manual.? ..... Really? What on earth are you on about? ?* The overall system will be the same weight as existing Steadicam.?..... what by not using any batteries on the sled and powering your whole sled/camera from a battery belt and cable s ?The sound problem is a minor problem.? ..... I would love to see you try and explain that whilst doing a daily on a feature with a crew you don t know I am very interested in using my gyros, I think maybe with hindsight I may be missing some very clever point s you are making in your post, did you translate it using a computer based translator? Does that explain ?* The system can be motorized or fully manual.? as in ?The gyros can have the power kept on them or unplugged just before the shot? I promise I am not trying to be difficult, just am very interested in anything anyone has to say about using gyros and would love to get to the bottom of your post. What gyros are you using Mishka? Are you using those 12v Israeli gyros? What ever happened to that company? They just disapeared or got way too many military contracts to be able to serve civilian customers as is often the way with specialists like this. Regards Thomas Oh and Marque, If you are worried about wind, buy some antlers.

That is very very tidy operating on the part of Mr. David Eastwood. Very tidy indeed. Also that cable guy, wow.... tucking the looped cable and pulling it back from under Jacko.... gosh.... They rehearse that do they?