Rich Steel

Worked with Steve last year. Did you get one of his $2 dollar bills fom him? Really nice man.

Thank you to everyone who replied. Just waiting for a job comfirmation to justify the expense. Regards Rich

Hello Folks, Can anyone tell me if you can achieve dynamic balance with the flyer? Is there enough adjustments on the unit to help achieve DB. Just curious as I was looking at buying one as more often than not I'm shooting with the HVX200 and I'm sick of humping the damn thing into a weight cage just to fly on my Master system. I've downloaded the manual from tiffen but the instructions look very similiar to the old SK system, which I owned many years ago and I know I couldn't achieve DB with that so thats why I'm asking if this newer model has more functionality/adjustment. Thanks in advance Rich Steel Steadicam Owner/Operator www.steadicams.com

Shot a music Video a few weeks back on an SR3 Advance with Cooke S4 85mm Lens Arri LCS and an Arri Video Tap. It's pissing down with rain, It's dark, the DOP has placed a 4k right behind the talent about 100 yards down the street and around 15ft in the air, I'm preceeding the Talent by about 3-4ft, I'm maxed out on height to lose the 4k and the Sharpy is working a T stop of 1.3......We do a couple of rehersals and I'm not happy. I've got a 12" arm post to try and help but I'm still not getting the shot the sharpy is losing focus all over the shot and my talent is bouncing in and out of frame. Oh! and it's 3am in the morning. Now, I ask the DOP if we can shift the 4K as this seems to be the problem, he gets a bit arsy and shifts it. This resolves the height issue. Phew, but we're still on T1.3 and the Talent just isn't listening to us as we tell him he needs to keep a constant pace. After 4 takes I'm not convinced we've got it in the bag so we go on the sticks. My question is: Was this the right thing to do or should I have given it some more time? Thoughts and Comments?

Someone has way too much time on there hands........

The Shining, a heart warming comedy: http://www.ps260.com/molly/SHINING%20FINAL.mov Regards Rich Steel Steadicam Owner/Operator www.steadicams.com

For some reason I don't have permissions to post in the for sale section so I'll post here instead, Sorry. (removed by admin)

Hi Folks, Just uploaded a recent project I shot for a client. Using the Sony Z1 (PAL) and was graded in post. Apologies for the size of the file (65Mb) but the quicktime codec retains the image quality really well. Almost forgot to say that the movie is presented in a seriously SUPERWIDE aspect, so when I was framing shots I had to remind myself the director was only interested in 1/3 of the image. Not overly impressed with the grading but thats the feel the director wanted. Anyways, go to the the link below and click on the recent projects page. Comments and feedback always welcome. www.steadicams.com I'm the one in the red jacket.......doing my cameo appearance. One last thing, the movie was shown on a giant 60ft wide screen and took over 36 hours to render the grading.

This movie cropped up on this forum a couple of years back. I think I recall someone mentioning that the rig was a dummy and made of fibreglass.

I Believe Howard is in China at the moment. So perhaps can't pick up his emails. As for customer support, don't start flaming the guy just cause he's missed your email. I'm sure he'll have a perfectly good reason why he hasn't responded. Regards Rich Steel

Hi 4mat, The class has been and gone I'm afraid. As for work, I tend to get most from DOP's and Directors I've worked with in the past so it's all down to getting in the loop, so to speak. I still want to get into features but I rather like the lifestyle I've carved out for myself up here so I'm not willing to move 'dan saf'. That I think kinda Kiboshes any chance of getting into features as there's not much getting shot up here. It's a bit of a cottage industry up north and unless you want to do football (which I don't) week in and out during the football season then there's not really much getting shot on the rig. Work wise for myself is the ocassional TV Advert, some corporate and every once in a while I get a call for Drama work. Not fantastically busy but making a living and enjoying life. By the way, the video you shot in Manchester is pretty trick. Did you use Twixtor or something to get that "time slice" feel at the start of the subway sequence?

This is the first time he's done one at the Film Festival. You never know he may well be invited back for next year. Can't really say. It's up to the festival organisers. Cheers Rich

Hi Folks, Got a phone call from John Ward last week wondering if I could help out in his Masterclass at the Film Festival here in Edinburgh. My thanks to Howard at MK-V for putting my name forward. John is one of those "Old School" Gents who's seen it all and done it all and found helping him very inspirational. It smacked home, just how much time you have to put into this profession to truly become a Master. I've been doing steadicam for just over 6 years now but doesn't even come close to the time John has been in the business (over 40 years) boy and man. Although he's hung up his steadicam spurs he's still a pro-active cinematographer and still working with the best of the best of the best. I can only hope that my future career as an operator is as long and as prestijious as Johns, although being based in Scotland somewhat lessens my chances I think. Regards Rich

I've seen something similiar done on an exhibition stand and it was a complete failure. They had a pipe with holes where the smoke came out. You couldn't really see the projection with your eyes never mind a camera. After seeing the exhibition stand I'd recomend you try and contain it, like Mitch says....sandwich the steam/smoke/dry ice between 2 pieces of glass and I think that will work AOK. Good luck either way...you'll need it.

If the new productions are willing to pay the "GOING" rate this should be a wake-up call for you to not under sell your services as an operator.

I'm selling off my Master Series Broadcast system. Go to my website for more info and images: www.steadicams.com I want to use the money as a deposit for Howards New System. So dig deep guys.

Hi Howard, What about us Brits? When will you be back home?

Firstly, Apologies for the length of this posting. Below is an excerpt of an email I sent to a Production Company based in London. I believe the MD actually read it, looks like I won't be working for them again......No great loss really but damned it made me feel better. Hi Liz, Just thought I'd give you all the details and circumstances in writing so that's there's no questions to why I had to fly direct to Paris from Edinburgh and don't understand why your refusing to reimburse all moneys due. Firstly, I receive the tickets on the thursday before the job. When opening the tickets I realised that the flights are from Heathrow and not Edinburgh. I contact you in turn and explain the problem. You said you'd get back to me, which you did on the Friday by leaving a message on my answer phone. I picked up the message around 1730hrs which explained that Paul Hutton was willing to give me an additional £60 travel expenses to get me to London Heathrow. I then called Paul and explained that I couldn't even get a train for that price never mind a flight. He then went on to give ME a hard time for being booked for the job quote "what the hell are we doing booking camera op's based in scotland for" he then said that I was down on the crew list therefor I needed to get out to France, regardless. I proceeded to search and find the cheapest flight for travel and found that the departure time booked on my original ticket was way to early in the morning for me getting a connecting flight from Edinburgh to Heathrow. After some searching I found a suitable flight on the web and called Blitz around 1840hrs on the Friday to confirm that spending this kind of money on a flight was OK. I spoke with a chap called Steve (I only now wish I wrote his last name down) and he confirmed that it would be AOK to go ahead with the booking. Now, at this point I could quite easily drop Blitz in the shit but no I proceeded to book a flight on my credit card to get me out to France for the Monday to do YOUR JOB. Now, you tell me: (A) Why your refusing to pay the flight costs? (B) Is Paul Hutton really that much of a wanker and does he dick people about like this as "the norm" © Should I forward this email to Rob Oliver and get his thoughts on this shambolic mess? (D) Your telling me your not making enough profit on a job for IBM that your refusing to pay an additional £170+ ? (E) Why the fuck I should be out of pocket for doing a job for you? I've consistently demonstrated loyalty and commitment to the highest standards and professional integrity and excellence in all my working years, pity Blitz and more specifically Paul Hutton can't do the same. Rich Steel Steadicam Owner/Operator PS: You can shove any further work I would have expected from Blitz up Paul Hutton's arse to give him a taste of being fucked over for once, what a c--t. Sorry a c--t's a useful thing.

Hi Folks, Below is a list of what you get. I've had it for around 6 months now but have used it twice. I'm sticking with my CRT for the moment until I can afford a TB6. For sale: Teletest OZL-1702 7" LCD Monitor. Teletest Steadicam Master Mounting Bracket. Teletest Sun Hood for LCD. Teletest Breakout Cable for Steadicam Master Rig (4 Pin Lemo to 4pin XLR+BNC). Teletest Battery Mount for Panasonic DVX100a Batteries. The above cost me over £1300 (GBP). I'm asking for £925 (GBP) or very nearest offer.

Hey Rob, Can you tell me how you made the velbond mount. I've bought a teletest but as previously mentioned, the bracket they make just ain't good enough so I've never really used it on the rig. But if you could share your tooling experience I'll try and make one to. I've got some down time so just trying to fill my days up! Cheers

Never start charging a half day rate it doesn't help you or the business and I don't know about over the pond in the US but in the UK I'm being asked this more and more now......."What's your travel day rate?" Rich "charity starts at home" Steel

I own the PAL version and agree with most of the comments said so far, except the comment: "The things I complain above are small details and can be avoided with ease." Why should we as a purchaser avoid things with ease. I agree, the monitor is a great unit for the price but like most things related to steadicam there always has to be a compromise, fix or work around. Hell, lets face it, the job wouldn't be half as interesting if we didn't have to figure out problems to other peoples products, technology, shots, directors, talent, etc...All I'm saying is that the unit could be 100x better if the things mentioned on this forum take heed. But here's my penny's worth anyway: LIKES: The Casing is a Marvel, Feels bomb proof and very sturdy. (Haven't dropped it yet but won't worry to much if I do). Good Switch Layout on Front Panel and Rear. Expansion is always a good thing in my book so top marks for the rear panel Layout. Contrast, brightness & Colour Buttons are perfect. Please don't change these. Nothing worse than having oversized buttons that get bumped or nudged by accident and whack's out all your settings. DISLIKES: The Steadicam Mount is way way to springy and lacks the integrity we operators are used to. The Sun Visor is a real pain in the ass to add and remove. Viewing Angle sucks in daylight. Cost. Over all not a bad product. I'd give it a (3) out of (5) scoring. I Still use my old CRT if working outdoors as the LCD just doesn't cut the cheese I'm afraid. As for the Steadicam mount comment, here's my justification, I've ran with the mount and it's very disorientating when your monitor is bouncing around on it's mount. The first couple of takes shot when running, I had to ask for replays because I was very aware of the movement (it's that bad) I thought there was a problem somewhere else until I actual Jumped up and down on the spot and seen the movement while not concentrating on the talent and shot.

Hi folks, Thanks for the varied and interesting replies. I realise this is a STEADICAM forum but I think some of you guys got the wrong end of the stick. My header did mention "OFF TOPIC" and I have no intention of using the VP's on the rig. My original post was really to find out if (A) the purchase price was realistic and (B) was there an inherent problem I was unaware of due to the low cost of the units, seeing as they're brand new. All the same, many thanks for the insight and can't wait to get my grubby little hands on em'

When you say breathe a little....what do you class as a little? Are they similiar to Broadcast cine zooms because they breathe a hell of a lot....it's almost like a small zoom

Hello Fellow Operators, I've just won 2 Arri Variable Prime Lens (VP2 & VP3) off ebay at what I think is a fantastically low price. They are brand new, never been used, no scratches, dust or fungus and were sold by a reputable arri agent. I've bought them for $10K (US) each and well I've spoken with Arri in LA and they sell them for around $30K (US) each. Does anyone know of any inherent problems with the Lenses other than they are bloody heavy pieces of glass. I believe there's no such thing as a free lunch but this feel like the deal of the century. Anyone and everyones thoughts please