Peter Hoare

Hi,

I have had my Flyer for about two months and I have had a fair bit of practice, both gliding around my house and working for free on the set of music videos, short films and a low budget feature film.

Up until about 20mins ago I hadn't really given much though to dynamic balance. I knew what it was and how to adjust it, but it never really occurred to me to play with it on my rig. Ive got quite a heavy load on it at the moment, right on the recommended limit. I span it round to check the dynamic balance and it was all over the place. To compensate for this I dropped the batteries down and moved the camera back. I span it again and by some freak of nature, it was totally straight. No waving or drunken spinning.

I havn't had the chance (and wont for afew days) to have a proper go with the rig in this new configuration but my question is, will it make a noticeable difference? Will it be easier to keep a level horizon and make a significant impact on my operation?

I have had nothing but good comments from anyone that I have worked for and my rushes look pretty good, so if this makes me better than I will be very pleased :-)

Thanks for any advice,

Pete.

Hi,

Im not sure if this has been posted but it seemed too good to miss. Some website did a music video promo shot with two cameras mounted on one steadicam, both pointing in differnt directions. Strange setup.

Here is the video and then the making of, showing Jim Ball handling this bizarre looking contraption.

Lumifi Your Life

Making of

The red post handle on the Flyer is a bit small for me. Has anyone found a good way of adding something to it that will make its radius bigger? Rubber, hard foam or something?

Yeah If there is one thing I would change about the Flyer its the diameter of the center post. It just looks too weedy.

Maybe you could put some of that foam pipe insulation on it :-D

Dont forget these that I made too:

transmitter

dolly

The PT head was used on a fairly high low budget film, if that makes sense. The FF really will work fine for any kind of film, just as long as its not too noisy...

Garrett Brown did stuff like this until he invented steadicam, and he became a steadicam operator, so it seems like a logical path :lol:

Hi,

Here is a quick update for all of those that offered me help regarding the 35mm system without the follow focus.

Well, as predicted focus was an issue. WalkieTalkie shots were fine, as keeping a consistent distance was easy, the problem was with studio shots moving around the actors, its just impossible to keep it in focus. I did some thinking and I came up with a rather run and gun, but elegant solution.

I took a standard RC servo and attached a 0.8mod spur gear to it. I then quickly knocked up an electronic servo controller and bodged it to the battery pack and put a long bit of wire in. The end result is a motor that mounts to the rods and meshes with the gear ring on the lens and it can be controlled by turning a knob on a box. There is a 3m bit of very thin, very flexible wire joining the two, which I can cope with.

What I am going to do is get the puller to do his marks on the manual follow focus, then they can pull the lens to those marks using the remote system. The whole thing took about an hour to make and cost me nothing. I know its not exactly professional, but it works and its better than the puller constantly trying to pull focus whilst im operating. The noise of the servo isn't actually a problem, cant hear it on the audio track...

video

The same thing happened to me, I had my rig and I practice whenever I can. I cant keep my rig set up and ready to go, so practicing meant putting it together and putting it away again, so I cant do it as much as I like.

About a month after I started, I got a phone call from a fairly low budget film (bout half mil) that said they were interested in getting me to do some stuff for them. They were particularly keen to use me, as I owned the same 35mm adapter they were using, so I was useful in more than one way. The first time I spoke to the director, producer and DOPs I stressed, time and time again, that I was new to this, and it was straight lines only, no stairs, only very gentle corners, no funny stuff just simple lines. They said OK.

I got there on the first day and having mentioned this a few more times, the director asked me what he wanted. I was slightly out of my comfort zone, but I gave it a go. We were shooting on location in a fairly small flat. The camera was big and clumsy, big matte-box, weighed a fair amount, there were 30 people in the flat, and we were using two 2k Blondes and there was a massive soft box behind me that was slowly setting fire to my head. The shot was basically moving around the actors (a couple talking) It was just some wallpaper to cut to as a segway between shots, and as an acceptable way of crossing the line. I told them I wasnt really up to this but i did it anyway and the director loved it, to my surprise. I saw the rushes and I was quite pleased with myself.

The next day, we were on a massive wasteland in coventry, doing a bit of walkie-talkie. This was much more my kind of thing, and the director was ecstatic, after watching the rushes, the horizon and framing was consistent and my starts and stops were actualy not bad. I had to do a switch from missionary to reverse missionary, and that was pretty transparent.

By this time the director loved me, he was working in more and more shots for me to do, and since the first two days, I have done rotating round the talent in a big circle, down corridors and round corners, some studio stuff, and I even did some running down an alley way. Im half way through the film, got another two weeks to do.

The whole point of saying all that is basically to say make sure the producers or whoever you are dealing with knows full well that you are new to it and you can only do basic stuff. Do it for free, this way theres no pressure, if you arn't ready and it looks shite, you haven't ripped them off.

Im a beginner, I have still only had the rig afew months, my skills are basic, ive done no official training, I have just taken words of advice, watched the SK video and had a few minuets of expert tips from Robin at Tiffen and Mike Scott. Despite that, I have through a combination of luck and practice landed this film gig which is fantastic experience, and I can see the improvements already with my shots.

Hope this helps you,

Pete.

Seems pretty good, what rig are you using?

When I had my meeting with the bank manager about becoming a steadicam operator, they suprisingly gave me the cash with no questions asked. I have a business bank account with them and another business, and they seem to trust me which is great, but I took my laptop with photos and videos of steadicams at work to show them what it was I was buying. i also printed off emails that I had sent and received with Robin at Tiffen and James Blackburn who inspired me to start out in the first place. Since I already did video work and they could see that I was serious about it, they had no problems with lending me the cash.

How much are you asking to borrow? I bought the flyer system which I thought was good for my first system.

Hi,

I got my steadicam just over a month ago, and by some complete coincidence I was asked to do some steadicaming on a low budget film. I said ok, but im not very good yet. They didnt seem to worry about the fact that im a complete novice and got me down to shoot for them.

so far I have done some walkie-talkie shots in the reverse missionary position. As I mentioned in the other post in the follow focus section, focus was an issue but was actualy not as bad as we thought. Used a 24mm lens at F5 focus set at about 7 feet and it was sharp all the way.

The director is really happy, which makes me very happy. It was blowing a gale but I got the gaffa to hold the parcel shelf up from the car to block the wind, which did the job and the end result was quite good, horizon was consistent framing was pretty still and my stop at the end was smooth with no flying up to the sky. The director was so pleased he revised the schedule to build more steadicam stuff in and he wants me for more films he is working on :-D

Heres a photo:

Should be on the IMDB listing soon :-)

Hi James,

Im typing to you from the set of my first film :-)

I had a play with the movie tube at broadcast live, and as far as I remember there are two different types, but both of them are the same case, one of them just has some electronics inside it. I cant find how much it weighs online, but I reckon it would be about 3kg, as its a cast aluminum case with a solid glass prism. Plus the lens, probably about 4.5kg. An HVX is 2kg which would leave you 500g for the rest of it before you max the system out.... Check the official weights but it will probably be over...

This shoot im on now is shooting with an hvx200 on an SGpro 35mm rig with wireless video (no FF though :angry: ) and the arm sections are very nearly adjust to their strongest.

The movietube uses that whacky angled camera thing which will screw about with the balance but you would have to experiment

Hi,

Im a new operator and I had one of my first freebee experience only jobs for a short film.

I was asked to this rather unorthodox shot looking up at the celling. I trimmed so the camera naturally looked upwards but I found it very hard to operate properly, as the angle of the centre post kept knocking into my gimbal hand. I tried various positions but eventually ended up walking backwards to avoid anything hitting anything.

The ultra has the tippy top stage but my Flyer obviously dosn't so any help would be good. Is this the kind of shot that is done often?

Its James Elias's fault, He (probably) set the flyer at broadcast live up that I used and then bought, ive never tried it any other way, ive only operated the merlin with arm n' vest standard.

Mm, what camera do you see video from on the monitor?

Oh.

I fly goofy then. I did have the arm on the right side but as I am right handed, I thought it made sense to use my right hand to control the gimbal, and my real arm kept banging into the steadicam arm, so I moved it and I was much better with it on the left...

Are there any real problems with this?

Its not green but I am pretty sure its not HD....

Could someone clarify what goofy and standard is? I know they are foot positions in snowboarding and skateboarding, but I cant seem to make the link to steadicam myself :lol: :blink:

Just sent the cheque off for the May workshop, cant wait :lol:

Hi Imran, I met you at broadcast live a few times (I was the one that kept trying the flyer out)

Thing is, I cant refuse the opportunity to work with a big cast and crew and director etc etc, I think its too valuable as experience to turn down. They know that I am new and fairly inexperienced, they arn't paying me and I did my best to get them a remote focus which they turned down. The ball is in their court, if it looks crap because its out of focus, they can hardly blame me...?

I think it depends on weather you are planning to dry hire the pilot or hire it with you, and sell yourself as an operator.

I have just done something similar, and bought the Flyer system with the intention of renting myself out as an operator with the flyer + other gear. I have given myself a year to practice and take either very low or unpaid jobs. After this year, I hope to be good enough to do basic stuff for small productions, corporate stuff, weddings and low budget films. I give myself about 3-4 years to pay it back fully, and I hope that this is achivable...

Unfortunately, what with insurance and shipping from LA, the production have decided not to take Russ up on his offer. Looks like we are going to have to go with the 'mostly out of focus' option. :angry:

Hi,

I have knocked up this cable out of 4pin XLR connectors.

Unfortunately the production are no longer paying for the remote follow focus so not only will the shots be out of focus, I will have this cable hanging about too. Humph,

Hi Jim,

Its a nice 20 year old 3ch focus system. The receiver has a Dsub input and Russ has included a 4 pin XLR cable, so I have now ordered some XLR connectors from RS and I will knock myself a power splitter tomorrow and will do it this way.

I would love to own a bartech one day, so at least i will know how to power it when it first arrives :-D

Thanks for the input,

Pete.

Hi

I have one of my first steadicam jobs next week (experience only, no cash involved) and Russel McElhatton has kindly agreed to lend me his old follow focus unit, only problem is I cant work out a way to power the receiver...

My steadicam sled has a 2 pin Lemo connector on it, but I use this to power my video transmitter. The receiver has a male Lemo connector which would plug into the sled with no problems, but the transmitter is plugged in there so I will need some kind of splitter... Is there a pre-made splitter for this kind of connector?

Alternatively if someone could tell me the name of the plug (someone mentioned Lemo 2B?) I could buy the connectors and make my own splitter up...

Any help would be great.

Thanks,

Pete.

Hi,

Looks like Russ McElhatton is going to help me out. He has very kindly agreed to fedex one of his follow focus units from LA all the way to England for me to use for this film, and I am very grateful. Just have to get the production to agree to pay for the shipping and hopefully my focus problem will be sorted.

Thanks very much to Russ McElhatton for helping me out.

Im not sure if I could phone up someone I dont know and ask them to lend me something free of charge! I vaguely know Mike Scott, you recon he could help?