Kareem La Vaullee

Hi Chris, hope you are doing great, If I understand it right and with the help of your great HF video in mind (now I know for sure you have super powers) I think the problem comes from the fact that the attachment point of the arm is too far away from your body on your side, if it were closer the arm wouldn't be able to bend the wrong way, what do you think ? K.

Thanks guys ! Nice to receive wishes from north and south of Europe ! Hope will see you guys at the IBC in september. Cheers, K.

This sentence may be adequate for many posters on this forum but not my friend Chris. He was talking about the HANDSFREE modified Segways, these are the ones that costs $20K. With the new leaning standard Segway it looks like some users have developed handsfree techniques, but I don't think it will work out with a Steadicam : (Upcoming Chinese Olympics Segway counter-terrorism forces driving with their knees while they are going through drills as they prepare to crush any dissent terror threat) K from in the middle.

Hi, I have two 3A vests I will be selling soon, send me a PM with your e-mail address if you're interested. K.

Happy birthday my friend, hope you are well and that I will see you soon. K.

Yes it is, just like the Red Bull energy drink (even if I have several cans hidden all over my gear's cases...) But in France we have much better things than that overrated Lisigav (or worse, depends on your way of seeing life...) K.

Link to above video's file in slightly better quality here (32MB file) Company's website : http://www.equipoisinc.com/ K.

Hi Jean-Marc, I said : "not absolutely sure but I think..." I am not backstabbing you in any way, it's just that I have been reading a Stanley Kubrick's biography and you and John Ward were mentioned in the "Full Metal Jacket" shooting part and from what I remember it said that you replaced John Ward a few days because he got sick, I will try to find back the book and check again, if my memory is right you will have to deal with the book's author and not me, as I don't know better. By the way, how would I perfectly know that you did 90 per cent of that movie ?, No "innuendos" here... K.

I have no problems with grips and I never said that being a grip is a shame, the thing is that I don't think that Steadicam Operators are a part of the grip crew but are part of the camera crew and it should stay like that as it has always been, but I have been told that I was wrong many times lately and it sounds like some grips with the help of rental companies want to take over the Steadicam business, at least here in France. The goal is demeaning our job to continue the fall of our rates, it's now very usual here to be "offered" less than what a Focus Puller is paid. But back on Chris's proposition, what about not talking only about monitors but also about what we are framing with them ?, and to help that a Steadicam Aesthetics section could help. K.

I finally did find that video and asked to Afton to kindly put it in his great SteadiShots website, you can watch it now following this link. I spoke to Valentin and told him about Afton's website and that that music video he did is now available there, I also asked for some more details about the shooting so he told me that the camera speed was 21 frames per second to add a little more speed, the shooting lasted two days and each portions of the video was entirely done in two ways, first preceding in Don Juan the singer running, then following the singer running, he also told me that it was one of the most physically challenging shooting he did to date. Camera and Rig details are already on the shot's page. Let us hear your comments, I hope that Valentin is going to find the time to come here. I also did some searching to find this amazing video and here it is. (I suggest that you mute your computer, you are warned...) Cheers. K.

"General Discussion" is for the things that "doesn't apply to the other discussion forums." as stated in that section subtitle, there is a "General Discussion" section on every Internet forums and most of the time it's were all the lazy persons post because they don't want to think for a second were their question Topic should be created. As a moderator here Eric you should know it better. and "Journals" is for posting your thoughts and stories about our everyday life on sets. So yes, an "Aesthetics" section should be part of SteadicamForum, as we are Camera operators and not just a different breed of grips. The first problem we have here now is simple, it's just like if we wanted to talk about music but most people coming on this forum don't know what a violin is. But that's a common thing on Internet forums, newbies go to forums to get answers to their questions and they post new ones (most of the time without doing a search to see if that question wasn't already asked a thousand times) The second problem we have is that some seasoned operators come here not to ask or answer questions but to desperately have some fun, you know, internet is the place to have fun, so to make it happen they use some of their local jokes here forgetting that it's an international forum and that even if knowing what is the recurrent trendy joke of west Hollywood when you live in Europe can be interesting, after one year of that same joke coming again and again and killing the possibility of all serious discussions, it can become slightly irritating to say the least. K.

I was told already a few times and the last time was just two days ago at Panavision by their staff that the conventional path to become a Steadicam Operator should be the grip department... Well, that's too bad that in 2008 people in the industry still don't care at all about what is our work. Kareem "camera grip" La Vaullée.

Hi, Maybe some Mac users colleagues here were aware of this offer last year as it was a great bargain. A group of independent developers of Mac softwares united to offer a bundle of Applications, this year 14, that are sold separately at 498 USD and available here for only 49 USD. For example Pixelmator that is a young but extremely promising photoshop-like App costs 59 USD alone. If you already own or are not interested by one or more of the softwares that are in this year's bundle you can offer the license to someone who could enjoy it. Plus 25% of your buying is donated to the charity of your choice. Have a look to the different Apps and enjoy before it's too late, it ends at the end of the day. It's here : MacHeist Cheers, K.

Hi Jens, I met Juan briefly during the IBC in Amsterdam and he seemed to be a very nice and intelligent person. What you may not know is that in Europe we have more and more guys trying to work as "Steadicam Operators", and some of them I heard that in the US you call them "low ballers". For example in my country there is a guy offering himself to the productions for 150 Euros a day. (220 USD) That includes : him, a complete Master Series rig, a Bartech Focus system and a Titan wireless video system. And that's not the price for students' films, no, small budgets yes, but big enough ones to pay the crew, big trucks full of rented equipment, expensive locations with lots of paid extras and a good catering. (and young actors but ones who already have "a name") In fact on a movie he was "working" on he had to be replaced after a few days because he was too tired to continue (you know, being a Steadicam operator is not always that fun and that easy... and HDV with a mini35 is sooo heavy...) naturally the production had to search for someone else. They asked to all the young operators in the business if they were willing to work for the same price, hopefully nobody said yes, then they had absolutely no problem having to pay cash 1 100 Euros a day (1 620 USD) two different operators to fill in each for a few days. (that is still lower than the average price) But after those few days the low baller felt better and resumed with the production at his "150 Euros a day with complete equipment" price. Now imagine that you see this guy on SteadicamForum.com posting messages acting like a respectable professional... As it is something I have to endure I frankly understand Juan. If that low baller would have posted to say that he his selling his gear and that would mean the eventuality that he is giving up his work of destroying our profession I would be the first one to say : Woohoo !!! Now I don't know if that Luis is really a low baller, I hope he is not, but from what I have seen... Friendly Yours K. Edit : Why did you delete your "KINDERGARTEN !!!" message I was replying to ?

The main operator was John Ward (IMDb's contact page), not absolutely sure but I think Jean-Marc Bringuier did only a few days. Anyway you can get the contact info for Jean-Marc Bringuier on the SOA website or try to contact him thru the forum. K.

I saw a Generation 1 PRO Donkey Box that required to slide the camera plate in. Strange when you see that the original Donkey Box patent's illustration from George Paddock and Chris Haarhoff looks exactly like my Generation 2 Donkey Box. K.

Hi, Sorry for the delay but try here : http://www.welovemacs.com/ They have everything to rebuild any Mac K.

Well, you know why : Again thanks Chris, You're the man. K.

The Balloon used by the BBC is called "Cinébulle" and is made by a french guy, here's his website : http://www.cleyet-marrel.com/ I met another guy making a Balloon based camera flying system but this one is remotely controlled, anyway also beautiful results, check it here : http://www.soulcam.fr/ K.

<your caption here> <your caption here> Kareem "I do not hate camera assistants, I do not hate camera assistants, I do not..." La Vaullée

Hi Rick, Try Frezzi : http://www.frezzi.com/ the mail to contact -> support@frezzi.com The cable is $95 ea. K.

Hey ! Happy birthday Chris ! Next time I promise that you will walk a bit less when I will bring you to a restaurant. Shame on me I made you walk that long after what you did for 2 days in Paris : Chasing poor tourists with you rig up the Sacré Coeur de Montmartre's stairs ! So come back to Paris, I miss you ! (was looking for you on Skype a few times these days but maybe you're busy away from your computer) K. PS : by the way, why you didn't tell me about that picture of Alessandro and me in your Gallery ? :

Thanks a lot to you Charles and the others who made it possible, it was wonderful to see. 2 years ago I was having a long talk with Jacques Monge and that day it was the 10th "anniversary" of Ted's death. Jacques was a very good friend of Ted, while talking about Ted he took his wallet out of his pocket and opened it to show me pictures, pictures of Ted he keeps with him every day, one of the pictures is the tree on which Ted's car crashed... On Jacques' "model 5 designed by Ted" sled there is a piece of black cloth tied to the center post as a reminder... I was helping Jacques' son, the fantastic Valentin Monge, on a shooting 12 years ago when he told me about Ted's death. Well, what to say... never met him but spent days reading and rereading his Steadicamp class outline and I had enormous laughs when I had the chance to read his "Manual of Style" for the first time (and many other times too...) We need more inspiring people like he is still many years after his departure in our very hard art/technique/business... K.

I like your approach, really ! The hard way, always the hard way... K. PS : Happy birthday Erwin !

The quality of some postings on this forum is getting worse and worse, so please... "Motion Picture Camera Stabilization Specialists' Forum" Does it ring a bell ? I heard there is a "friendly" Forum for the stupid jokes, LOLing everywhere, links to idiotic videos, inaccurate informations and amateur gear... If you want you can also go to MySpace... K.