Alex Kolb

Thanks very much to both of you for your experienced testimony. The show was on Friday, 2 hours and it went very well! It was indeed a lot of lateral moves.

Working with a slow drop time was adventageous for my tilts, but I did have one problem. The director ended up changing his mind mid-rehearsal about dutch angles, and I ended up doing a lot of extreme rolls as I crossed through the pit. Unfortunately without the sled aligning itself fast enough, I had to push through a bit with my left hand, and it wasn't always silky smooth.

Is a tilt stage the only course of action for that 2axis type of movement, or do I just need to practice more with horizon rolls?

Cheers

Alex

Thanks for the advice Mr. V! No security baracade, stage is 4 ft high. It's a riverdance concert, so there's nobody in the pit.

I'm not sure about the crowd - should I ask for a security guy to be assigned to me?

I'm calling the tech department today for the camera info.

Hi all,

I got a last minute call today for a live concert broadcast. Unlike most of my work, this isn't a TV-specific show, but rather a concert that's being broadcast.

This means that I'll be in the pit, rather than on-stage like I am with a typical show. I've never operated in this kind of scenario before, and don't have a tilt stage (nor can I get one in the timeframe I'm looking at).

Any tips from someone who's doing this sort of work more often?

Much appreciated,

Alex

I may be wrong here, so please correct me if I am.

My understanding is that lengthening a normal post, if the batteries and monitor stay in constant relation to one another, as you say, will not lose DB.

However, these post movements often come with keeping the monitor in vertical relationship to the topstage for the sake of viewing position, with the batteries being lower, sometimes significantly. This is especially true with superposts.

Just a thought

I for one think that feedback on this forum does more than help operators; it encourages good practices at companies. The folks behind the cinetronic heard a great deal of feedback before their first monitor was ever released, and now they've got two excellent models out there. And changes at MK-V have given european operators more modular options as well, and I can only guess that forum feedback helped bring about these changes.

My limited understanding of the Zephyr Vis that its the same sled apart from a handful of broadcast-friendly features (return monitor, integral tally, etc). Nothing that couldn't be added on easy by an existing Zephyr op, but useful if you're buying a Zephyr for the first time and you know a lot of your work is in video.

From what I've heard of the new Omega, the computer is more precise and faster than before, with lower power consumption (don't quote me on this, though, I'm passing it along second-hand).

The computer is also integrated directly into the rings, which will be the same as the most recent AR.

You'll still need to buy the monitor arm which interfaces with the Omega head, regardless of what rig you're working with, but it will work with other rigs (again, so I've heard).

While it may not be available in LA in time for your shoot, it might be worth keeping in the back of your head for future work, since it won't involve renting an entire Nexus system.

Happy flying!

@Job, the sound guys might say it sounds more like a bassoon!

Eric, I have a great deal of respect for your previous comment regarding companies that stand by their products. Though I'm new to this industry myself, it appears to be a trend that companies pop up offering to fill a supposed product gap, only to abandon their customer support when high end equipment proves capable of serving operators on ALL gigs.

I by no means am trying to make enemies; there are excellent people at Tiffen, and excellent operators using Steadicam brand equipment. But facts remain facts, and I haven't seen a thread about a problem with Pro or XCS that hasn't seen a response on or off the forum within a week, and that goes for many other manufacturers as well.

Chalk it up to newer operators using Tiffen products and making silly mistakes (I've just recently been in that group myself), or chalk it up to glaring quality issues. I don't have the experience to tell anybody why we see the sort of feedback we do, but we see it none the less.

Cheers

Welcome to the world of freelance! With your attitude of getting it right the first time, you'll certainly be an asset to producers you work for.

Much appreciated, guys!

Anything outside the studio I don't number, unless occasionally if we're working with a musician or speaker who's never done TV shows before (they react better to numbers than "steadicam", since some of them only see the steadi for the first time on the shows).

Mike, those photos are really helpful, thanks! That tally/digit thing made my list for my next purchase for sure. No matter how I do the number and tally, though, moving my mic down off the camera will be really helpful.

Thanks again guys, and happy flying.

Hello all,

I just had a local machinist make up a set of new camera numbering cards, and it got me thinking that there has to be a better way to mount it than I'm doing it.

Back when I used notecards and black electrical tape, I would put a loop of tape, sticky side out, around my center post. I'd stick the card on just above the gimbal, and it worked fine. Still, it was rather low, and the talent couldn't always see it.

I would put them right over the lens, but that would block my ambi mic and the tally, so I'm having a hard time thinking where to out it. While I'd love to buy a 2-digit tally/number setup, I can't invest $1k in a tally just now.

Where do all you TV guys put your numbers?

I appreciate the help.

Cheers,

Al

http://www.rtl.nl/xl/#/u/038bd3e4-6b24-4ab9-901b-b6de98fe35fe

I'm impressed that you improvised it! It looked so natural, especially with his hand and your lockoff at the end.

Did anybody else see the nice shot Job did at the end of "When the Woman Smiles" on TVOH?

After his last video went a little too viral, I'll let Mr. S share the link if he likes.

Just wanted to highlight some great work from a member of our community.

The payload is an issue, and you're correct that the X-Games U bracket was purpose-designed for their light cameras. However, there are a variety of compact digital cine cameras that production could rent, as well as some compact video heads depending on the look of the commercial.

The firm I'm working with is renting an AG HCK10E from Panasonic. This particular camera might not suit you if you're going for a cine look, but it's just an example of some of the options out there.

I agree with Mr. Fletcher on this one. I'd also contact Rob Vuona (he's a forum member). I was hired a the DP on a commercial for a goggle company recently, and Mr. V referred me to the guy who designed the follow-camera stabilizers for the X games. It's actually a totally different design than Steadicam, but allows for very smooth shots (relying on the natural smoothness of skis on snow to take care of some of the shakes). If you're working at fast speeds, I'd highly suggest taking that approach. The design doesn't come with the learning curve of Steadicam, meaning that you could hire a normal camera operator with a skiing expertise.

I've had good luck using the viewfinder rails (with the viewfinder removed of course), though I now use those to mount my tally light. Perhaps you've already tied those up as well. Otherwise it's a good place to start.

If the world doesn't end on the 21st, maybe we can all get together on the 23rd and air our steadi forum greivences around a Festivus pole.

Here's my take on it. Yes, we could be easily "tell [the aggressor] to piss off or maybe just ignore him!", but this is supposed to be a professional forum. It's all well and good when people troll through yahoo answers or 4chan, but this forum is designed to be used by professional motion picture and television steadicam operators.

On snowmobiling, Tango or otherwise, is there ever a safe time to do a sitting soft mount?

I think you did an excellent job of keeping it fresh. You stuck to a core group of projects that showed both your skills and showed the professional type of projects you have experience with (all high production value projects, it appears).

The length was great with me. I always try to stay under 4 minutes.

I was under the impression that both switches were in fact run switches, with the pusbutton one being reassignable to do radio return. Try changing the switch position and plugging it in.

I always request an L1500 on live TV if the production will let me go wireless.

It simply is the right tool for the job; it's steadicam friendly, lightweight, robust.

Very excited about the new integrated thing. I saw something about it on the Sony website, and it looks very promising. I like that it keeps the lens-to-battery length short.

Maybe I'll make a deal with them, I'll do Steadi if they give me a P1 instead of the cold-war era ENG camera I'm using now ;)

Thanks very much for the feedback, guys, I'll put a few notes together about what you said and talk to the producer after the holidays.

Hello all,

I'm talking with a local TV station who I work with often about some upcoming basketball broadcasts. Currently I'm booked to be the baseline op, handheld.

I also have done a lot of Steadicam with this network, which lead the producer to ask me if I'd be OK doing that instead. **Before anybody gets nervous, I would get my Steadi rate if I did steadi.**

My only hesitation is that I'm having trouble finding any example of a steadi being used for basketball broadcasts. Sure it's great for the teams coming in and out, but even in that regard, I've never found any use of it.

I thought I'd turn to the experts here and get an opinion. Yes, I feel I could do steadicam and make some use out of it, but I'm not sure how well it would work in a game environment. Obviously the top ESPN producers know more about this stuff than we do at our local level, and if they're having the guys on handheld, I figure there must be a good reason.

I appreciate the feedback.

Cheers,

Alex

Hello all,

I feel guilty posting a second thread in only a day's time, but I've been working on my second demo reel for a few months now, and I'm ready to get it up.

I have a nice 30 second sequence from a film I did that involves 30 seconds of soldiers with assault rifles running though the woods. There's no firing of the weapons, just holding them. I'd love to include the sequence, since it's some of my best work, but I'm concerned that the weapons may turn off producers.

Is this an acceptable sequence to leave in? If it cost me so much as one client, it wouldn't be worth it, but if it's not a big deal, that be great.

My clientele is primarily based in Europe, so I'd appreciate any feedback from operators in that area.

Cheers,

Al