PaulEdwards

Hi Guys, Following the BSC show last week, we were lucky enough to get Howard in for a demo of the AR on Harry Potter yesterday. It was the first time I'd seen it in action (was due to go to the show but my daughter was born a few weeks early.......my life's now like been on constant day shoots followed by night shoots!). A shot was set up in the courtyard set involving the camera moving from ground level through mid and head height along with 360's, steps, parallel tracks, whip pan etc. etc. It's an amazing piece of kit and I found it fascinating to watch the execution of the shot. After Howard had finished I had a while before my next setup so I was able to try the rig on (my Ultra vest and Howard's PRO arm). The camera was an Arri LT and although we didn't do any weighing, the weight of the camera/sled combination seemed similar to my rig setup for that day(Ultra/Arri LT). For anyone who hasn't tried the AR, it's easy to simulate how it feels. Just assume the camera on the end of your sled is free to rotate along the lens axis so that it stays level wherever you place your post in space. Also assume your monitor also rotates to stay level for constant viewing. Sounds easy but as I found out, there is a learning curve. When the post is in a 'conventional' position, the AR feels very similar to a 'normal' sled and you can pan, tilt, whip etc. but when the camera is lower down (say with the post horizontal), the tilt in the frame is executed by what was your pan! Also when going from low mode to high mode, it is very tempting to boom up on the arm but soon you realise that you don't need to and you let the post rotation elevate the lens. When you are performing low/high moves, the most awkward thing to get used to is to allow enough clearance between yourself/the arm and the sled . On these kind of moves, because the post is swinging around, you also need to get used to moving your operating hand around a lot more than normal. All in all this is a fascinating advance in the world of steadicam and I must admit although I only tried it briefly, I was impressed and pleasantly surprised with the overall weight and also the lack of noise in the whole mechanism. Paul

Stefan, I guess that your problem is more serious but there is a reset procedure for the PDL which I got from Greg, which might just help. 1. Turn off all power 2. Press and hold down the ?UP? button 3. Continue holding the ?UP? button and power up the unit. Make sure that a video signal is present on power up. 4. Continue holding the ?UP? button for 15 seconds 5. The unit is now reset to the factory settings NB. For the resetting to work, there must be a video signal present on power up. Good luck. Paul

Jake, The Ultra sled will also give you 30 to 31 volts when fresh off the charger. I've got one of James Bartell's excellent ICBM meters built in to my rig and I expect to this reading if the battery is fully charged. I?m surprised that the SRlll had a problem as the acceptable input voltages, as stated in the manual, are 20 ? 32v. With the 435 it?s 20.6-35v (1-130fps) and 24-35v (130-150fps). It might be that the problem lies elseware. Hope this helps. Paul

Hi Danny, Have you had a look at the National Film School course at Beaconsfield? I originally did that course and I don't think I could have had a better experience. Feel free to e-mail me if you have any questions. Cheers, Paul

Hi Benjamin, You are right to question the difference in terms of Physics between a back and front mounted vest. The attachment point of the arm is irrelevant. Rigidity and contact area , however, is very important. If you want to search back, there's a lengthy set of postings on the subject from Jan 2004, but the analogy in the pic. below might help. You are the truck (toes are front wheels; heels are back wheels; the arm is the ladder; weight M2 is the sled/camera; M1 is your weight). As you can see from the pic. the attachment point of the ladder (arm) ie. if it attaches to the back or front, does not change any of the forces. Hope this helps. Paul

Brad, Could you elaborate on the new vest's design. Is it a more rigid version of the Tiffen front mount? Has the socket block position been moved? Thanks, Paul

I got fed up with producing showreels which were out of date as soon as you'd made them and so recently decided to go the 'on-line' route. I opted for Quicktime 6 ie. the MP4 format, which seems to play OK on both PC and Mac. The compression still leaves you with about 3.5 Mb / min for a reasonable size frame. I decided to break my reel up into clips of between 30 secs and a couple of minutes with a preview page for each, with info. on the length of clip and the download size. Hopefully this lets people go for the clip(s) they want to see and also they can estimate how long the download will take and stops them getting too frustrated waiting. The site is at www.steadicam-op.com Regards Paul

Joe, ACF-50 seems to be OK everywhere except on (natural) rubber. Because it's such a good lubricant, I'm not worried about getting it into any already lubricated areas. Paul

Hi Joe, ACF-50 is far superior to WD-40 (hence the price!). It does the penetrating/lubricating thing but also stops corrosion on contact and forms a non-oily protective barrier. Here is the blurb from the sellers..... "ACF-50 is a state-of-the-art anti-corrosion/lubricating compound that has been specially designed for aviation and aerospace use. It is a clean, clear, non-toxic, ultra-thin fluid compound which leaves a non-greasy atmospheric barrier to protect metal surfaces. ACF-50 will kill corrosion cells on contact and completely remove the moisture from the metal surface. It actively penetrates into seams, lap joints and even beneath rivet heads, expelling moisture and saline solutions (salt water). ACF-50 can be used on all types of plastics, paints and seals without fear of damage. ACF-50, with a dielectric rating of almost 40KV, can be used to great effect on all your electrical connections too. No matter how hot, cold, humid, or salt-laden your atmosphere is, ACF-50 will perform. It will remain effective for up to two years." I guess the 'young actress' in North Wales must have been Morven Mercer? Cheers Paul

On a related point, I've just had to replace the spin balance male stud on an old Master docking bracket (the stud onto which you drop the gimbal handle for dynamic balancing). Actually the stud was fine but it was the bolt which fixes it to the docking bracket which was bending over. I suspect that the fixing might had worked slightly loose at some point; putting greater bending stress on the bolt. Anyway, worth checking for those with that type of bracket. Might just save a mighty embassasing crashing sound from the corner of the set! Paul

Tom, Search back on the forum a few weeks for "ACF-50" . There was a short discussion about this aerosol penetrating lubricant, all round corrosion-arrestor and surface protector. There are a couple of links there for further information. Paul

Stephen, You can get 75 Ohm lightweight (2.5mm diameter) cable from RS in the UK at http://rswww.com Just search for "RG179". The BNC ends are their product code 295-7481. Paul

Thanks for the comments guys. If anyone in the UK is interested in getting hold of a can of ACF-50, I got mine from... http://www.jaws-motorcycles.co.uk/ They posted it straight away and were happy for me to send a cheque once it had arrived. It cost just over £15 inc. postage. Paul

Thanks Karlo!

Brett, Thanks for the kind words; glad you liked the film! I remember doing the shots you mentioned. The two shots of Simon coming out of his house to go to the shop (before and after the zombies had taken over) were actually done on the very first shoot day, very early on a Sunday morning in North London. We were deparately trying to get the shots in the can before the neighbourhood woke up! The sequence where Simon rescues his friends armed with a cricket bat was shot a few days later and was tricky because of the need to hide all the "zombie hits" by maintaining the correct angle relative to Simon. The whip pan to the car at the end was two shots with a transition mid-pan. If you liked the film, it's worth getting a copy of the DVD as it's got some great extras with it. Regards, Paul

Toby, As the method of transition is a cross dissolve, you will probably be able to get away with a slight discrepancy between the outgoing and incoming shots but the aim obviously is to get it as spot-on as possible. I think your biggest friend for the shot could possibly be your monitor's frame lines and cross hair. Keeping the cross hair right in the middle of the actor's torso whilst setting your top frame line (or marking your monitor) to be just resting on the top of the actor's head while framed for correct headroom, will help you with two of the critical things you need to concentrate on. You might find that the speed comes more naturally than you'd expect and I'd agree that walking forwards is much more preferable if you get the choice. As Michael suggested, try to get marks down so that you can keep a constant distance throughout. Hope it's a nice still day (ie zero wind) for you! Best of luck, Paul

Just done a search on the forum for comments regarding using ACF-50. Unfortunately I think the comments I'm looking for were lost when we were hacked. I remember Peter Abraham and Larry writing in and I'm sure there were others who were impressed with ACF-50. Having spent two days on or near a Dublin beach, I have decided to try it out on my arm and my main question was whether I should be worried about getting the stuff into the bearings and how it might react with the grease already in there. Is it safe to spray it everywhere including on the plastic coated spring cables? There aren't any 'do-not' warnings on the can which I find reassuring and disconcerting! Any comments appreciated, Paul

I've just had to fit another plastic 'waist band' for my ultra vest as the original one has cracked badly. The crack started at the bottom of the band where it is clamped by the vest spar and seems to be caused by the pivoting force created by the back straps. The straps are great for stability but they tend to pull up on the waist band causing stress points where the band is clamped at the front. Has anyone out there had a similar problem and found a neat solution? Maybe a more rigid type of plastic is needed or some kind of metal reinforcing at the bottom of the band? Paul

Rob, Love the picture of your rig! Is that an IP5/7 you've got tucked in at the front? Was wondering what battery system you are using and whether it was parallel or series ie 12 or 24 volt. Paul

Chad, Don't be put off by thinking there will be a learning curve in using the tilting head because there really isn't; it's a very useful tool. You mention the everday uses as opposed to the superpost shot I described, which is a fair question because you don't really want to be carrying around something on the rig which you're not using! I would say that there are a handful of shots which I couldn't have done without the tilting head (eg. the Hitchikers shot), the rest of the time it is there to help make things easier. I don't use the tilt feature for every shot but maybe four or five times a day, fast pans, low mode etc. It's also very useful in tight spaces to be able to keep the camera where it is and swing the sled by 20 degrees either way. You really feel a great freedom no longer having the sled's position in space defined by where you're placing the camera. In my original post I mentioned the pros and cons of a tilting stage. The only negative thing I can think of which effects some situations (heavier cameras) is that you might end up with a longer sled length because you can't now slide the gimbal up as close to the bottom of the camera as you might be used to. This really is a minor point and can be got round in some situations by relocating your docking ring below the gimbal. This will allow you to slide the gimbal right up to the bottom of the tilting stage without having to make room for the docking/undocking procedure. Regards, Paul

Hi Howard, Nice to hear from you. Thanks, would love to try out the AR. Things are a little chaotic for a week or so but if it?s OK I?ll call you after that and see if you're around and a demo is possible. As far as the gyro question goes......do you think that the extra 'lock' you've experienced with the gyro further from the gimbal could be due to an antler type effect ie. the weight alone of the gyro (without having to spin) giving you the extra stability? This would make sense, as the weight of gyros is pretty significant and placing that weight at such a distance from the gimbal will act as an antler does. I suppose what I?m saying then is that the gyro actually has two effects; 1. Its dead weight effect which works in roll and tilt and not pan (if gyro mounted over the post). 2. The gyroscopic effect which is independent of gyro to gimbal distance, because the gyro effect acts as a force resisting angular movement only. Best wishes Paul

Just completed a shot on the upcoming "Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy" which I thought might be worth posting about. It was a very tricky setup with lots of extras and sets of puppeteers/aliens which we shot for 6 solid hours. I cant give any details because of the "non disclosure thing" but it was a low mode/superpost running shot with lots of aliens involved then a step-on to a dolly and up to eye height, then a short track. The thing that occured to me after it was all over (very fast shot...under a minute) was...how would I have done this without a tilting stage! There were some fast pans involved and trying to do them with a six foot post leaning over to get the angle would have been a nightmare for dynamic balance (I know, I tried it just to see how it felt!). Instead, I just set the tilt for the shot so that the pans were with the post vertical....bliss by comparison! I'm not saying that the tilting stage is a panacea but I hope these comments are useful to anyone considering the benefits/drawbacks of a tilting stage, whether integral to a sled or not. Paul

I've been reading the Alien Revolution thread with interest and decided to pop over to Howard's site to read up on his new gimbal when I stumbled upon a piece of information on the gyro page which has always bugged me ie. "The more leverage the gyros have (length of post to gimbal) the more effective the stabilisation." Has anyone out there got the definitive answer as to whether this is true or not? The thing I can't get my head around is that if distance is a factor, then reducing the gymbal/gyro distance to zero (ie. imagine a gimbal with the gyros mounted inside) would make the gyro effect zero. This doesn't sound right because the gyros work fine when you hold them in your hands and try to rotate them about their own axis. Paul

Frederic, I would also say always use a harness. It's not worth risking your life and you never know when that freek gust of wind (or similar) is going to come out of the blue! The clip-on / clip-off regime should be well rehearsed. My harness tether always has enough slack to let me start the move but not enough to get me too close to the edge. This gives enough time for the counter balance guy to get on board before you reach the edge and need to be free. If you're interested, I've got three crane shots on the web site (www.steadicam-op.com) - under 'showreel'. The 'Love Actually' one is a straight forward step off, using the last police escort bike to try to hide the step off point. Clip 1 of 'The Actors' is an interior crane shot using a pan to hide the step off and there's also the 'Auf Wiedersehen Pet' shot, which was arkward as I had to move round the platform during the shot; something I find very unsettling and try to avoid. Safety first......don't let them try to rush you. Don't think that the clip-off procedure will delay things, in effect it all happens as you're starting the move to the step off and you can be oblivious to it unless you are suddenly prevented from stepping off...in which case it might have just saved an accident. Paul

Hi Phil, Thanks for taking the time to check out the site. The video was optimised with a thing called Media Cleaner, which a friend did for me. As you suggest, it's always a trade-off between quality and download time but I'm now really happy to have the option of being able to point someone to the web site instead of being under pressure to get a reel to them asap. I see what you mean about Russian Ark. I think my DOP's attitude was, "it could have been an edit point, therefore it must have been", which is very unfair to Alexander Sukorov, Tilman Buttner and everyone else involved. Paul