axel ebermann

Thanks guys.

I thought about the screw solution. But I already bend over so much in life that this might not be the solution

for me :-)

 

That floor lock looks it might be snazzy. Anybody been using it ?

Hey guys,

 

Let's spell out what we already know:

 

The cart is great. The brakes are laughably bad. I am always carrying to sandbags

as 'wheel stoppers' but I feel I am at the point in my life to get over that.

 

Mainly because I get sick and tired of telling people "secure the cart - these things roll away'.

 

Anybody got a genius McGuyver idea ?

 

(no - I will not buy an inovative cart at this point)

I've got a three stage Bright Tangerine Misfit and I am loving it.

Super light weight, just works, has an extra little rail you can get for mounting

your cinetape on top of the matte box.

 

And they even make an easily attachable swing-away arm if you ever want to use the matte box that way.

 

customer support is incredible. whenever I email them I usually get a response within an hour.

While this is definitely an interesting way of using a Movi here are some thoughts:

 

What are the real-world advantages of Larry's setup vs. understandable, but rather pointless excitement over technology and rigs that look

like Darth Vader personally made them in his garage.

 

Pros:

 

- We do not need to carry the Movi rig by hand. Anybody who has ever tried to get eye-level shots with a Movi and who isn't some

Schwarzenegger offspring knows what I am talking about.

- The spring arm of the steadicam will take out the steps

- The rig will have pretty much all the extended qualities of an AR rig.

- There will be some very cool choreographed shots with Movi handovers, most probably in the 10th installment of the 'Bourne Identity'.

 

Cons:

 

- While more pedestrian operators like myself might profit from a gyro stabilized horizon I don't see this a real benefit for somebody of Larry McConkey's skill.

- This will only work with an Epic or smaller camera. Maybe Alexa-M with added cable salad. Can't wait to carry that backpack. Forget about 35mm cameras.

- Yes - we now can boom from walking feet into a portrait. Dramatically the film world has lived pretty well without an abundance of these shots so far.

- Double calibration / setup time: We now not only have to calibrate the steadicam rig, but also the Movi and make sure everything works well together.

Although I am sure there is a learning curve - this still smells like a significant increase in setup / re-rig time. And that is very crucial on set when the AD is crushing

your mojo by yelling at you to speed things up.

- We as steadicam operators are loosing the immediate access / feedback we get from the rick.

- Ideally (or not so ideally for the operator community) there will be somebody else operating the Movi remotely while steadicam operators become Movi mules.

- The latter setup will require an additional person. Not a problem on a Luc Besson film I suppose - but definitely a problem in many other settings.

- Operating / coordination will be more difficult. Experienced steadicam operators initiate a move in which all the elements from walking, booming, panning, tilting etc. go seamlessly together.

Simply because the operator knows what kind of move he is going to do and experience / muscle memory will do the rest. How do you do this with a second camera operator ?

Unless you have plenty of rehearsal time and a camera operator you work with all the time this feels quite challenging.

I had very good results with ART (Active Release Technique)

As far as I understand it it basically gets rid of scar tissue on tendons

that decrease their flexibility, which results in injury and pain.

 

I had a really bad kite surfing accident that obliterated my ankle, which I had never given the time

to properly heal.

 

This guy did magic for me. After years of pain walking I was pretty much pain free within to sessions.

- if you ever happen to be in the NYC area check him out:

 

http://murrayspineandmuscle.com

Axel,

 

Larry McConkey is using the X Gyros on his rig in a similar configuration to what you're mentioning, although he has worked out a beautiful system which replaces the entire battery setup with a rock solid machined aluminum mount that places the gyro exactly where the batteries were. Moving the batteries and inverters off the rig to a backpack and running with an umbilical is very smart though.

 

A few things to consider - AB mounts, especially just off the shelf, have a significant amount of play in them. It's easy enough to make them solid with a few patches of Velcro, but considering the forces you're putting in to the rig via the gyro, you want to be extra sure that however you mount the gyros to the rig is absolutely positively solid. Also of note is the fact that the gyro's optimal orientation on a sled is perfectly flat, and getting that orientation while on the Ultra's tiltable battery mount may require a bit of finesse.

 

The X gyro does simplify the process significantly however, as you guessed. With the previous gyros, getting them at exact 90 degrees to each other, mounting them solidly, and orienting them properly to the sled was a big hassle. Also, as you said, the gyros needed to be hand tested, and I've seen Larry's test jig where he tested a dozen or so gyros to find the pair that matched. The X does alleviate those issues, and I think it's a really spot on product from Kenyon.

 

Now I just need to convince some producer that I need it for a shot so I can rent it and put it on my rig!

 

 

thanks.

 

Yeah I heard that Larry McConkey went 6x6. Very good point with the battery plates and the potential play in them.

I had thought about that and it would not be beneath me to McGyver stabilize that a little bit.

 

However I would be concerned that the entire battery mounting unit is not made to absorb that kind of torque / strain.

Will have to test that.

 

Or I just knock on Larry McConkey's door and ask him for his machine shop hookup :-)

Ha !

 

awesome. thanks a lot for the information.

 

Doesn't the sled get super bottom heavy (or in this particular case top heavy) like that though ?

And who is this mysterious Mr. Tom who really wants to make me another on of those brackets ?

Has anybody used that combination ?

 

I am looking for a gyro solution. But I find that rigging two gyros

takes a little too long (not for me - but for the ferret-on-chrystal-meth production

people).

 

Plus ideally you need to find two gyros that are exactly equally strong. Which is a bit of a journey...

 

My idea would be to pop the 'double gyro' aka Kenyon 6x6 with an anton bauer adapter plate directly on the battery plate of the sled.

And then power gyros and sled via cables from batteries in a backpack.

 

The idea is to no making the sled to bottom heavy but being able to go relatively quickly between

gyro / no gyro while at the same time not making the sled super heavy with all the required batteries.

 

Any thoughts ?

 

Much appreciated.

 

Axel

The Epic always had a latency problem. I did tons of test on this and here is what happens:

 

Epic has a 2-3ms delay. Depending on the monitor you might get another 1-2ms delay and if

you have a VTR guy in between with a whole bunch of processing add another 1-2ms.

 

Which means by the time the signal reaches video village you are between 4-5 ms off. Which is very

visible and annoying as hell.

Always a nuisance to tell the director and clients that "this is a technical issue beyond our control".

 

We had some success delaying the audio signal by the same margin. However if you are on a small set

where you can hear the live audio you are out of luck.

… thanks Jerry.

 

And this is exactly why I am trying to gather some information if it is worth it for me to drop the $$$

on the new level or in other words if the improvement is worth the investment.

 

My biggest grief is that the U2 level basically tends to deviate most when you need it most. Meaning when

you accelerate or decelerate the sled.

 

 

Axel-

 

There is a lot of adjustability of the sensitivity and the damping in the U2 level system (rate and range), so you may adjust your settings to give either a quicker or slower response.

 

Acceleration compensation is an art - it's a combination of the sensors and the software. The U2's sensor is just an accelerometer, but the newer devices like the WHM-BG use gyros as well, and very sophisticated software, so they work a lot better. The key to performance in the new devices is in the quality of the sensors and the ingenuity of the software, which is where the performance really shines.

thanks guys.

 

well - as much as I love and respect garrett - he is selling that stuff so I do not exactly expect him to diss the gear that he is promoting ;-)

 

I have an Ultra2c, which means there is a pretty nifty level on there. But the acceleration compensation is not all that great….

Thanks guys. But I am actually looking for people who have real world experience with that unit.

 

Anybody ?

 

Would be much appreciated.

I was just wondering if there is anybody out there who might want to share their experience with this.

 

Also interested in how you power / mount these modules without creating cable spaghetti.

Plus: How heavy is this thing ? Interesting the with camera gear nobody ever bothers to mention the weight….

 

Thanks

Well knockoff might be the wrong word.

 

All of these are pretty much based on the same brushless gimbals that were originally

intended for camera drones.

Anybody can buy these gimbals and attach them to a bunch of carbon fiber rods.

 

Obviously there are some proprietary things like software controllers etc. but it was clear that

there would be a whole slate of different stabilizers out there.

SOLD

SOLD to the gentleman above

Brand New, never used.

 

more info:

 

http://www.cameraessentials.com/stabilizer_camera_rain_covers.htm

 

New: $ 65, selling for $50 incl. shipping.

 

XCS Ultimate Rain Cover Battery + Sled.

 

 

Brand new. Never used

 

New $170 - selling for $125 plus shipping.

 

More information here:

 

http://www.cameraessentials.com/stabilizer_camera_rain_covers.htm

 

 

I bought this steadicam package from Steadiriders / Michel Rodas.

 

Unfortunately what I received was not quite what was advertised. Pieces of the package were missing. The arm had broken parts, stripped threads and actually was a G70 - not the newer G70x.

 

The seller was very unhelpful in trying to resolve the issue. He promised a partial refund but never made good on his promise and apparently thought that just not responding to me anymore would make the issue go away.

 

I am currently in the process of talking to lawyers to sue Steadiriders for fraud and wire fraud.

 

Future buyers be warned.

Thanks for your reply.

 

No HD. Wow. That is so, so 1990s....

How can I get all the nifty frame overlays and horizon indicators on the screen when feeding an HD signal ? (1080/23.98p).

 

I know I can get them all on feeding an SD composite signal into the 'video in' port on the sled.

 

But I am kind of exclusively living in HD world these days.

 

I know that I can route a HD-SDI signal directly through the HDSDI in on stage and the HDSDI out BNC on the sled.

However that bypasses the distribution amplifiers and with that any readouts - overlays.

 

Any advice would be very much appreciated.

The Movi.

 

Not a day passes on set that I don't have somebody come up to me and say that magic word.

The word smells of absolute freedom. The camera glides through the air with the touch of a button.

Or as a PA put it to me "we can shoot these things now without having to train people like steadicam

operators".

 

 

It is quite incredible how excited people get about technical gadgetry, without ever thinking about the implications

of it.

 

First: I am not a Movi hater. If you don't embrace technical change in this profession you will be under the bus

real quick-like.

 

 

Now lets examine the movie on a real set:

 

- Reliability:

 

The last thing you ever want on a set are consumer electronics. Because if they fail you it messes with

your zen and costs production a boatload of money.

Well - those brushless gimbals and all the electronics that make it work basically come from RC toys.

And they are finicky little bastards and will fail you once in a while.

Actually quite regularly. And then they are very difficult and time consuming to trouble shoot.

 

I just shot a film for Red Bull in the Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia - aka The Middle Of Nowhere. And we had

an octocopter for overhead shots.

Exact same technology.

Failed spectacularly on the first day. Cast and crew watching the desperate pilot trying to fix the gimbal.

This guy is very good by the way. Has a masters degree in electronic engineering.

He could not get it to work that day. We lost a lot of time that day and he spend all night rewiring and

reprogramming everything.

 

Did we get amazing shots after that ? Yep. Absolutely. But it was hardly a 'push one button'

solution.

 

- Cost and skill

 

Lets face it: Experienced people cost more money. Rightfully so. What nobody every mentions is that you

really need three people to run a movie. A pilot, a cameraman and an AC to pull focus. All of them need some wireless

video link to work.

And all of them have to be in tune with each other or they will blow every second shot.

All the footage I have seen so far was from very experience helicopter crews that have been doing this stuff for

years.

 

- Equipment limitations

 

Right now, because of weight limitations you can just - but barely - put an Epic with a Super Speed Lens and a side handle battery on

this thing. Filters, more motors or other lenses are completely out of question. The rig dictates what gear I can use. Not all that great.

 

Lens changes take quite a while. The system has to be completely re-calibrated and rebalanced. You have quite a few batteries running at

the same time that can not be upgraded / combined because of weight limitations. Which means you have to change batteries all the time or you run out of batteries all the time.

Anything over 15 minutes right now you need to change batteries.

 

Also: You will have to carry this thing. With your arms aka shoulders. That is a different beast than having a steadicam on a vest

that distributes the weight over the entire torso.

Test: Take an Epic, stretch out your arms and hold it. Over and over again during the course of a day. Now praise the Movi again :-)

 

And last but not least:

 

Where does the bounce go ?

 

There is a reason the promo video was mainly shot on roller skates. Other than that a spring arm will come in handy (steadicam anybody ?)

or you will see the steps.

 

 

 

Generally I think there will be some really, really awesome shots in the next Bourne franchise movie pulled off by very good operators.

There will be a lot of crappy stuff or somewhat good stuff on indie sets where nobody really gets paid and time so time doesn't matter all that much.

 

I think as it is right now the use of the Movi will be very limited on the professional sets that are a steadicam operator's bread and butter.

 

However if somebody could please make some little platform that is integrated into my top stage that automatically keeps my camera

horizon leveled at all time I'll take it.

 

Feel free to steal the idea. Unless Jerry is already working on it.

Oh my god this is so out of my league but I REALLY want to go.

Potentially on a location scout in Germany in mid-july.

 

maybe I get lucky ? crossing fingers.

Maybe not exactly a steadicam accessory - but then again - we are all not flying shoeboxes after all do we ? :-)

 

 

 

Looking to buy a digital bartech system. I already have a motor (DM-2).

So I need:

 

 

- transmitter

- receiver

 

and potentially:

 

- d-tap power cable

- cable receiver > motor

 

Anybody wants to sell one please shoot me a mail at

axel (a) framesquad.net

 

cheers

 

axel