Danny O'Neill

Morning, afternoon and evening peoples of the world. Forgive me if this is in the wrong category but it seems to be the best one. Tl;dr I am looking to do more freelance work but have no idea where to start or post my services here in the UK. Any tips are greatly appreciated. Now, for the long version. I'm Danny and for the past 12 years I have been happily making wedding films as mintyslippers.com and life has been great. Lots of work, nice regular income. The problem is that the recent banking crisis, brexit and the fact that the number of people actually getting married is falling by around 4% since 1972 means weddings alone cannot support me and my family filming weddings alone. So it's time to start doing something else with my skills and to stop putting all my eggs into one big wedding basket. Prior to filming weddings I was an IT manager but I've been out of the game so long there is no way I could go back. So, I think it best to stay in the video/camera world and put my new skills to good use. But, I haven't got a clue where to begin. What websites are good for finding work? The freelance and camera op world is very different to the corportate 9-5 job. There doesn't seem to be any call for camera ops on indeed or the like and unlike many I didnt study film and media in college and then grow down that path. I literally fell into weddings and did an OK job at it. On occasion I have worked for other media companies as a freelancer. They seem to like that my years of experience mean I can crack on and I'm used to getting things right the first time. I operate my own little Steadicam Pilot so nothing major. My passion is to be behind the camera, flying my little Steadicam, calling the shots and not so much in the edit. I am fully aware that in the great big world of camera and steadi ops I am very much at the bottom of the food chain having never worked on TV or movies and while that would be great, I know things need to start somewhere. But where, So. Where do I begin? What is the going rate? I have googled for a few sites but as with most things I know a lot of them will be garbage and not worth my time. Again, thanks for any help. Sorry if it's in the wrong forum and please with your replies follow Wheatons law ;)

Hi Delaney, Im sure you will be very happy. Im flying a pilot which has the same arm and vest and its pretty good. You might want to sort out that all velcro vest to buckles. There is a pretty good article here http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/stabilizers-ste...ps-buckles.html I too would also like to thank Charles whos advice is always spot on.

Pilot for me. We fly Sony FX1's and I typically get my focus by getting as close to the subject as I plan to in the shot and focus for that. I then keep it as wide as I can and do my move. While im further away the focus isnt as sharp as it could be its hardly noticeable. If I were to focus the other way around then you will really notice it when I get closer. If I plan to shoot with the subject centered, the light is good and Im doing a slow move then I might try the auto focus as there pretty good on the FX1 but normally I cant keep the bride or groom in the centre so auto focus would be no good. I try to control light with the iris as Gain grain is never a good thing in video. ND filters too, if you close the iris too much you can get the light shearing off the blades and gives a funny effect. We also use shutter speed sometimes if were going for a particularly fast, dynamic effect. Now, flying a 5D is a whole new ballgame. We dont do it ourselves but I know plenty who do. the problem being that your generally going to get a lot shallower DoF so as you know keeping your focus is harder. You guys normally have your follow focus to sort all that out. so for a 5D keep a fixed distance or wide lenses is a must. I know Stillmotion.ca use a lot of 5D's. From what ive seen the steadicam shots are normally quite wide shots. They then use the 5D shoulder mount with a rack focus for those closer, really shallow shots. Even with a wide shot on the FX1 I find myself constantly changing my focal length. Sure, no where near as pro as you guys and many other wedding videographers look at me like Im crazy (as its a lot of work) but its what I like. I know you film guys soft spots are a no no. But in the documentry/wedding world a bit of focus hunting isnt a bad thing. New styles.

The 5DMKII and Stedicam is quite popular in the wedding video market. www.stillmotion.ca have shot quite a few weddings with nearly all 5DMKII. Mixture of shoulder mount, Stedicam Pilot and Flyer.

The 5DMKII and Stedicam is quite popular in the wedding video market. www.stillmotion.ca have shot quite a few weddings with nearly all 5DMKII. Mixture of shoulder mount, Stedicam Pilot and Flyer.

Hi William, have a read of this forum. http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/stabilizers-ste...-started-q.html There is a section on AA Battery questions and this should you help you out.

Posted at 6:18am, who the hell works at 6:18am! Nothing on the Calumet site yet so have asked for details.

OK, firstly, I am a million miles away from you guys as our 'set' is a wedding. I didnt expect those types of names to come from the pros in the industry. I would have thought they all knew what a steadicam is. Now in my world, the world of weddings I expect those comments, especially as no one has ever seen a Steadicam at a wedding plus I wear a walkie with headset. My most frequent comment is that I look like Im from the special forces. We did a wedding a week ago where it was all police officers. My fav so far is a bride commenting how fascinated people were by my 'Transformer' get up.

Met up with James Elias from Tiffen UK today who instantly knew my gimble was out of balance, must have been the way I was walking :lol: Left it with him for an hour or so and when I cam back it was all done. Nothing as severe as shimming, just some special screws on the side needed setting. Got home, all setup and now have perfect balance and perfect dynamic balance. It was like Aladdin's cave. There just moving in but there were merlins and ultras all over the place. And even those damn expensive merlin weights just knocking about :P

Thanks all, have contacted Tiffen Europe yesterday to see if there is anything they can do and am awaiting a response. Not sure if the UK office does repairs or is just an office. Hoping we can get this sorted soon as I have yet to even fly the thing :)

Anything I could do myself?

Thanks Brian, I take it the only answer is to contact tiffen and arrange them to look at it. Do they tweak or do they tend to replace the entire gimble?

Hi, just upgrades from my glidecam to a Pilot and the thing is great. However I am having a little trouble with my balance and Im not sure what it is. I thought I was pretty good at balance. I have everything in static balance, the cameras CG is marked and in the right place. All is well. But I turn the rig 90 degrees and then the camera is no longer balanced, it tilts to the left. rotate another 90 degrees and now the lens is pointing up or down. Rotate again and its still off. Back to the start and its all in balance. Any ideas what can cause this? Why would it go off balance from a simple 90 degree rotation? The gimble appears fine, looks smooth and rotates on the same axis. Dynamic balance is actually ok as it rotates, but when it stops its when its all off. Thanks

Im feeling out of breath for the poor focus puller who had to run, pull focus, zoom, focus and stay out of the way. I bet after that move he went off stage and chugged down another pint of nails. Must be what he eats to fuel those balls of steel.

I think its just the interpretation of what you say which has caused some friction. I think the fact is anyone who buys a steadicam of any level are generally not just hobbists and is planning on making money from it. We all have to start somewhere and the newbies forum is a great place of us to be dumb with the other forums for you guys to talk about your mahoosive rigs. I still have a smooth shooter. Didnt fancy spending $10,000 on something I may not get on with or be able to use so I got it as it was cheap. Used it, got some good results and am now looking to upgrade. But the tips I picked up here were mostly still valid. A month or 2 and ill get my Pilot. After that maybe a flyer, who knows.

The book is absolutely amazing, loving it. Its even answering questions I didnt think of asking. The bit I do love is about the muscles you use and what to keep in trim. Always wondered what I needed to work on down the gym to build the strength and now I know.

In terms of steadicam I am a total noob and will never work on feature films (im a wedding videographer, I can hear you spit at my feet in disgust already ;) ). Im very much here to read and digest, if somone asks a question I may respond with my own experience in the hope it may help them someway. While I would love to become a professional Op there are already a lot of fine ops out there, why do I need to do that? Now wedding videos are a different subject, theres a lot of crap, especially in the UK and I feel I can improve that though my Steadicam and Glidetrack... I digress. For all those wanting to ask questions I can strongly recommend the forums over at DVinfo - http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/stabilizers-steadicam-etc/ The steadicam forums do really seem like the place for the seasoned big boys, more of a social thing really. To all, the fact people dont search or search, get a thousand results so go down the easy path of asking again is just the way of the interwebs. Im a bit of a forum whore and no matter where you go any public forum will always have people asking questions to which someone will flame "Search!!!!". Its frustrating, just ignore them. Thankfully this place has a newbies forum so many of you can simply ignore it (thank you for not though). Maybe subforums for specific rigs can help. I for example will spend all my days in the pilot forum and never even bother posting in others (just looking). The problem of people asking before searching will always exist, no matter how many times you remind people of the search feature. You can spend your life letting it drive you crazy, or accept it and work past it. To all, I thank you, honestly I really do. To me you guys are like A list celebs and seeing you here is like talking to Tom Cruise (bad example but you get my drift).

Hi Jay, where abouts in the UK did you get your Pilot from? Or did you import. If you imported what import duty did they slap in it?

Hi, quick question. Later this year I plan on buying a Steadicam Pilot to go with our FX1's. Will I need any addtional cables or adapters to use the Sony FX1 with the Pilots monitor. The literature I can find on the pilot just says it comes with an RCA cable but doesnt say what each end of the connectors is (can only assume its RCA to RCA. Also, will the pilot (with the IDX battery kit) power the FX1 and if so will it need any adapters. Thanks

I too am a steadi newbie working in the events videography sector, nothing as formal as TV or film. There is little to nothing in the way of free training. The best you can do is read through the forums and you find a vid of somone demonstrating their steadicam skills, then the pro's give it their opinion and views on how to improve. Quite useful as I see lots that I am doing and then get the advice how to improve. Formal, paid training is the only way to really get anywhere I think and practice. There are a few DVD's on ebay but there people charging for a knockoff DVD (read their feedback!). I think with something like this if your the type of person who can see your flaws then read the forums, post your work so far and accept the advice. If you dont easily see your own flaws then you may need a class where somone will tell you. For me its the wife as my very first try yeilded some wonkey work. Everything had a tilt on it and as it turns out I was holding things too tight.

Ive only had my Glidecam for a few days but have been playing with it non stop. I found when moving around its best to have steadyshot off as it trys to correct you and you end up over compensating for it. This leads to your guiding hand trying to guide the camera and the image stabalizer. HOwever I found if your standing still trying to get a steady and almost tripod like shot then i turn it on and its much more stable as im not trying to do any corrections, just standing and breathing. I have assigned one of the hotkeys on my FX1 to be steadyshot on and off. If your learning like me then learn with it off. If you learn with it on you will end up getting used to compensating for the stabilizer.

Hi, rather new to the whole Steadicam thing, had my glidecam and smooth shooter for just a couple of days now but I have that floaty wobble going on. I know things will improve with time and practice but I want to make sure there isnt also a balance/weight reason which could prevent me from reaching nivana. I have tried being bottom heavy but found when turning the inertia tends to make the rig lean. And if its light it has a drunken wobble. Also, whats the rules for the counter weights, ive read having them out towards the edge of the sled improves panning stability but whats the downside? Is there an advantage to having them near the centre post? Ive been looking for like a top 10 tips but seems that workshops are the only way to get some expert advice.