Thomas English

Yeah, These external motion tracks are always going to be much more accurate. There is a cheap way to do this if your a little handy with 3d studio max. Build some antlers, (as rob said) and put ping pong balls on either end as well as the middle. as well as ping pong ball at the bottom of your sled. Get as many mini DV camera s as you can, do not use any lens converters and be aware as to what their widest lens is. (you may have to use their 35mm equivilant, found on the net, or calculate the lens by using reference marks through 3dmax) Position The camera s at different heights and locations around the set, and carefully measure their point, height and angle. A good way to monitor this would be to have a meter rule in the middle of the set as a reference image. Have all these camera s on when doing your shot. Posibly use one of those synch clapper boards. In 3dmax, position each virtual camera at the same lens in the same position on your virtual set. Then overlay each camera s video sequence (if need be tweak your virtual camera s lens and position by usinng your reference image with meter rule), and track your points from each camera plane automatically and tweak it manually. This will give you a very accurate motion track of your sled. The more cameras you do this accross the more accurate it will be. Be sure to cover as many angles and altitudes as possible. If you do want to splash out, instead of ping pong balls, use Infa red Led s (a coupla quid from radio shack/maplins) and use sony dv camera s with Infared night vision. This will be even more accurate because it would be a point source rather than a relativly large ping pong ball. This will be cheaper and more accurate but a lot more work!

That s cool, Im going to try that. I have always muscled my way through that. In fact I feel I am often muscling the arm around, Ill tighten it up next week and see if that makes me more zen.

Something to also watch.... Often the topstage is simply glued into the post on carbon fibre. Back when I was more of an idiot than I was now, I had not realised that loosening off the gimbal would make the 2ndstage of my post come out easier, so I was using a lot of twisting force on the topstage to get anything done, eventually The glue came loose and I was able to simply rotate my topstage within my post! good job I never had any low mode to do! Now I make sure that my docking collar is over a section on the glued in central bit. For that extra grip.

why would the DV camera (tracking camera) need prime lenses? I reckon a pdx10 with a superwide lens would be perfect, or even a microDV camera! You need not get too stressed about having progressive scan either, interlaced does work fine with boujou. Progressive better but interlaced is fine. email ed bolton on e.bolton*at*2d3.com and ask him questions. He s sound. Check that you can use 2 or 3 camera s to create a track in boujou directly, otherwise you would need to create 3 tracks and then model them through 3dstudio/maya to create your camera track.

I, likewise have a progear, frictionless head. I have never locked my one off for a shot.... In what circumstances do you do this? Thomas

even If you only had one DV camera on the top of of your sled alongside your big camera, It would still be better because you could put a super wide lens on it (giving it lots more data). And it would have deep DOF. Which you would nt want on your shoot camera. I am going to be super interested in how your gig turns out.

to give your average track between 2 or 3 tracks, make your sled (3d model of dimensions) stretchy!

Got back from my first week on the job, got there , and despite the 20 phone calls I had made to Arri and the producers there were only top/steadimags for the 435 and not the 535B ! I catogorically refused to fly the 535B without the AKS, told them my arm would nt take it... although I suspect it could ve (being a progear with 4 x heavy springs). So the mags/top turned up the next day. Wow! its so quick to change the top! I got to speed with that straight away to alleviate the AC s load and so I could be more self sufficient. So its a great gig, Im essentially doing the steadicam (on both cameras) and shooting pickups and timelapses (435) ... I am really glad I fell into this gig. I have so far managed to avoid the super stressed producer and have not signed anything. I did not realise how noisy the 435 was for synch, so a lot of it is on the 535B. But its a feature, so its like one scene in the morning and one in the afternoon after the crane or something. Im finding it absolutely fine.... although i broke one of my home made battery modules (mk-v) on the first 535B day, with the weight combination it meant I had to carry 3 Nicads and go up and down this hill about 20 times.... really painful... but I have it nailed now. Thanks for all your help! Thomas

Peter, you have me worried! Are there any examples of this having happened to people? like the rod end bearing incidents (socket block plague of 2004).

Thanks Jim I am doing my best to loose my antennae!

The Boujou software I was on about would be similar to what Howard was comenting on " There is also a software programe that can track from the rushes and then you can use this information to dive a motion control system." as I know framestore and the like have bought boujou plugins. What is very interesting is the two lipstick camera s 12 in apart on top of the camera. This, if used in conjunction with boujou would give a much more accurate motion track! even positioning a third lipstick to the bottom of the sled would be incredible. If you wanted to, simply use 3 DV cameras (preferably progressive scan) instead. And create an average track through 3d max/maya before exporting to mocom, maybe even by mapping the three tracks to a 3D model of your sleds dimensions, and positioning your camera track at exactly where the film plane was balanced up on your sled. Software that gives a motion track from the rushes, (using white balls or not) plots the relative speed of movement of points across the frame, thus estimating how far they are from u and each other. Camera point A being the equivilant of left hand eye and camera point B being the equivilant to the right hand eye, building up a 3D image of the environment and thus the movement. similar to one eye d people driving, building up a 3d image of the environment by the movement of the environment. The great tip with using these softwares is a long track into the start position and then keep the motion going after the end position (cut) to give the software as much environment data to work on. Howard, I think thats incredible being able to frame up on a live composite! wow! wicked

yeah 0208 863 5666 or + 44 208 863 5666 brian@beesengco.co.uk Is the EFP the same weight range as the provid? In that case I would agree that the EFP is a vastly superior arm. They do have a mind of their own etc etc but I still love my provid arm, although I do hardly use it now.... Thomas "saving for a pro" english

My research on the subject, whilst with a slightly different aim led me to Boujou Bullet by 2d3 Coincidentally I knew from ages ago a couple of friends that worked there so I dropped by and had a look at some of the demo s and it worked well. Basically it takes points in the image and nodal/track matches them up ... Creating a 3D tracking chart of hundreds of 3D points. If you were compositing you would then match up your environment to this mass of objects in 3D space. If you were doing your shoot. Mark up your green screen with lots of white balls . Even Have some hanging. Do your motion track. And export from Bullet your track something you can import into mocom. Dunno how well it would work.... Im sure they would let you do a test, they re based in oxford http://www.2d3.com/jsp/products/product-ov...w.jsp?product=7 Let me know how it gets along

As another note Dave, I think your probably right a IIIa arm would be a good choice, but If you were starting out I would still recomend the Pro-vid. In my experience it works so well for the weight range for your student/lowbudget jobs. The nature of these jobs often being incredibly disorganised and very long days, often all in the rig (once on they want every shot on steadicam, they love the novelty), When your muscles are still developing and your balance etc I would not recomend humping around a needless weight cage. Its very light and carries DSR570 s Digibetas sr2 s and sr3 s very well. I dunno, In the end, starting out, u get what u can get....

Matt: please don't needlessly quip, your ruining very interesting threads. Your getting your first rig soon and you may be doing your first paid job over the next year, in the meantime do not be rude to other members of the forum. Will and Paul of the AR contigeant: I always understood in my head the main pricipal of steadicam to be that any movement implied on the camera would move the whole camera vertically through its horizontal planes, rather than tilting the camera. So a move of one inch would translate to a direct shift of the whole image of one inch... i.e. not making a difference to an object 10ft away. When operating the AR, when you have the camera at right angles (90' ) any panning turns to tilting. Does this make it quite difficult to operate at this angle smoothly? I could imagine slow running shots to be fairly difficult not to jog the tilt ....... Is this one of the areas where a lot of practise to will be needed?

yeah this problem as mr pixel said is due to underspacing... as in : On the photo jason marked the joint above the damaged bearing there is a plastic washer or spacer. You ll notice there is also a bit of space as well. This is where the twisting starts and happens accross the whole arms bearings and this is where Brian modifies. Like you jason, Its the same bearing that went on mine. exactly the same! Speak to brian and he ll explain to you his mod, its simple but i don t want to go around giving away brian s hardwork/discovery away because its not my place to. Im sure it won t cost much at all. Since the mod I used my arm 3 to 4 days a week on jobs and randomn days practise and its been absolutley no problem. Its quite clear the twisting accross the arm is not there anymore. He does work on steadicam arms (as well as loads of other film engineering) for people all over the world, I know that gnespolo has had stuff done by him. I vouch for him as an incredibly honest and good engineer. It would be no problem to post him your arm from anywere, let him sort it out and send it back. Im in there quite often. He s really sorted me out over time so I only have good things to say about him. He does a lot of work on mk-v stuff and we know how well thats all engineered. I think he also does a mod. so that you can use regular socket blocks and gimbals, Which is what I have. klassen + provid + mk-vsled (as well as another arm) P.S. I still love the pro-vid arm, I got it out for the first time in ages on a DVX100+PStechniks + Anamorphic lenses and ...... I still love it

Thanks Stephen, Yup, I reckon I got the wrong contract, I m sure they would have happily let me sign it though. Who knows, but i find feature producers to be quite... sly. This is the first contract I sign in so far as being a steadicam op. So do some people do 5 or days solid on 435 s? for weeks at a time? I ll just see how 4 days goes in my klassen. They have a 535 as A camera and a 435 as B camera, Originally it was going to be a IIIc as B camera, (i.e. it was all going to be on the 535). Ill have to put some research into the differences between the 535 and 535B as Im not sure what I am getting. Is it a big problem being on the 535 ? I see its about 7lbs heavier .... Is that down to the different viewfinder system? I reckon ive got the 535 Once again thankyou very much for the advice, I look forward to this bout of work and getting paid! (still reeling from how much cash I managed to get through in Thailand). Thomas

yo jason! Provids a wicked arm, I love it. However there is a problem with the plastic washers on the hinges for the bones. Basically they are not designed big enough and there is a strong twisting force accross all the bearings. Check your bearings (real ball bearings) on the bones! u may well have found a couple of them a broken! this is very comon on provids!!!!!! stop using the arm NOW! If the problem just got better its even possible all the little balls have fallen out and your rubbing metal against metal! Brian Busbee... The Scotty (star treck) of steadicam hase developed a fix and a modification for this twisting problem. He does nt charge the earth and is quick. He spent weeks getting the new bearings for me because nobody would supply the "special issue" bearings" but now he can get them immediately. DO NOT USE THE ARM IF THE BEARINGS HAVE GONE! His modification eliminates the twisting (re occuring damage) and makes the arm smoother as well...... call him on 0208 863 5666 PS sorry for not replying earlier!

I am just looking at the contract they are trying to make me sign for a feature and it says: The filming week shall be a 6 day week where the Producer may nominate such 6 days as in any week but the Crew Member shall not be required to work more than 7 consecutive days without receiving the next consecutive day off. Its on a 435 and a 535..... I can t do a 6 day week with one day off on cameras like these! Im only booked now for 4 days (solid) but theres loads more days coming over the month. It means they can ask me to do 7days, one off, 7days on........! and i can t refuse without being in breach of contract. I am sure I could do 14days straight on a 535 if it was 2 shots in the morning and a little in the afternoon... but if its anything like the shoots I am used too (promo s and s16 features) I am buggered... I ve presently deleted that bit and sent the contract back. (also for the reason that they could insist I do other days at short notice when I am booked on something else) Whats procedure with contracts like this? .... i start shooting tuesday Help!

still not seen an FBX. Got a software upgrade on my Marrel , I absolutely love it... everything is so changeable from Battery monitor position to bubble damping... love it. don t know how i managed without it. Thomas

I have a progear arm! and through tracking and mischief i found a few people around that had had them. I bought it because everyone said they had been pleased with the performance of their ones.... And I am chuffed with my one... works well, nice only to use one arm whatever I do.. I don t know about only having 2 cannisters. I think you ll only regret not getting the 4 cannister one when the jobs come in. If I raise enough money over the next few months for a GPI-pro arm ill be selling my one. email me if interested. Good luck with your choices Thomas

yo joe need to order some of those nice blue J bracket s from your baerbell shop. yeah tiffen ultrabright is way to pricy for me... i could get a secondhand TB6 or something at that price. not looked at the panasonic HD8in .. sounds interesting, although im not sure if i want an HD monitor because then ill have to have a cable (my transmitter only does SD)- feeble excuse, of course i want HD and the panasonic! 7in! well yes, this is what i use! and its embarrasing when the director can see a light shining down the lens and u cant because it overscans so much. Its soft, real soft! everything looks constantly out of focus. But its what ive used for 2 years succesfully and now it only costs 485 dollars... whats that 50 pence with bush s present deal.

Under UK vat laws, u can claim back any VAT on working assets for the last three years, when u become vat registered. i.e. pay the VAT now, when u finally become VAT registered u get all that old vat back. remember, turning over 60odd grand is just a guide line for becoming VAT registered! u can register for vat at any income, so long as u register for 6 months or something (minimum term) . I might be selling a pro-vid arm soon, all modified to fit in regular steadicam vest s and sleds. Its a great ISO elastic arm. Ive done many jobs on sr3 's and digibeta s. Ive chosen to use that over a master arm sometimes because a master arm is too springy on light setups buy that for 2500, spend 1400 on an old mk3 vest, leaves 4 grand to put a sled together............. might sell my mk3 vest as well... gotta love that klassen! im raising money to buy a pro arm! u see

sorry thats the blackbird not the hummingbird! but they re all black now apparently

After looking at them carefully, they all have their disadvantages/advantages. Weight, ability to fit HD in the future, ease of menu s etc etc , as said before this dicission needs to be made carefully this is the Raindbow SB, cinemonitor IIISB and the Hummingbird. All wicked monitors. I personally might get the Rainbow SB (900 NIT), It seems to have a good price, a very good field of view and very easy and quick menu s. I also suspect due to its weight it might fit well on the Alien Revolution when I get one. Howard? I am not bothered about the weight as i dynamically balance using batteries (front and rear mounted) for other people the dicision could be very different, The Cinemonitor has a very comprehensive menu and the Hummingbird has great hotkeys. What I didnt know is that these monitors achieve their brightness by having sort of "fluorescent tubes" behind the screens lighting them up! I wonder what will happen when they start using lumileds!!!!!!!! bright!