Leaderboard

Keep your pockets empty and sound engineer happy!

Consider trimming your headroom for going down the stairs and whether you're leading or following down the stairs, trim accordingly. That way you don't have to hold the tilt, the rig will hold it for you and you can focus more on your framing and horizon. Even if your shot starts at the top of the stairs and ends past the bottom, holding headroom for a few seconds before heading down the stairs and then going into that preset trim, is going to be a lot easier than holding the tilt as you're walking down the stairs.

There you go: https://steadicamlessons.com

This is my personal technique for making whip pans. I’m sharing here in hopes that it might help a newer operator who is looking to improve their whip pans during this quarantine.

Grab some friends and go do some tests, outside, indoors, through halls of an office building, etc. Try Missionary, Don Juan, Goofy Foot, plain vanilla, ambush, stationary, close, far, low, high, ZZ Top, flyby, whatever you can think of . . .and you will start seeing where you are getting the shots that you want. Have fun doing this, and you may discover some trick that will come back when you need it later. Remember that YOU are the one getting the shot. What you are told by even the most expert operator here is ADVICE, not DIRECTIVE. Everyone has their preferences, and if yours turn out to be exactly like those of Lisa or Jerry, that is merely coincidence. And the only way to know what your preferences are is to drill, and drill, then drill again.