Daniel Stilling DFF

Pics???? :D

I can only second here what is beeing said about Klassen harness.

I got one not too long ago, before starting on "Wildfire", and it is by far the best investment I have done gearwise.

I had several questions after I got it and they were answered promptly, and Walter deals with you as you were his only client, extreme costumer service.

Do yourself a favor and get one of those!!!!

Daniel

Well,

I'm on a show now where they have a Preston in the rental package from Panavision, so it's getting used with my rig. The Preston transmitter batteries keep dying. the 9V Bartech solution was listed as a disavantage, I strongly disagree with that. Just steal a couple from sound and you are good for a few days.

Then, the other day the DP wanted to do an Iris pull. He had to run asside me, and the AC, as they had a cable from the transmitter, to a smaller iris unit.

Well, the cable malfunctioned and the iris went crazy on a couple of takes, really anoying. Solution was for the 2nd AC to operate the iris from the main controller, where the AC was pulling focus allready...

Then again, a Preston privatelly owned is probably better kept and malfunctions less than one rented by Panavision, but that goes to show you that a Mercedes can have electrical problems too!!

And spending sooo much more money, so AC's only have to push a button to calibratte??

Just my 20.000,00

Dan

All right, so it is time to say bye-bye to my old and trusty IIIa arm, and give it a new home, where it will be put to work:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...item=7529519501

Daniel

Ooops, just now I realized, it's not the whole rig, it's just the arm!! :D

Hey all,

Just wanted to celebrate a litlle here...

Just got back from a long meeting with the people at contract services, and after a long journey, I'm getting in the union!!

3 years in the country, aquired more than the days I needed, and on monday I'm going to the 600 to sign some paperwork (just a litlle more), paying the initiation fee and then I can work on the good shows!!

After not beeing able to work on a bunch of union shows that were offered to me, I'll finally be able to do them!!

I'm really happy, after all it has been almost a year to get my days accepted, and now it's reality!!

Take care all, :D :lol: :)

Dan

Hey all,

So I finally got to upgrade to the Klassen vest, so I'm selling my old and trusty customized III vest on ebay:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...7516927886&rd=1

Once again, let the bidding wars start!!!

Dan

Hey all,

I just put my back up focus motor for sale on ebay. Let the bidding wars beggin!!!!! :D

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...AMESE%3AIT&rd=1

Daniel

osterone...

Hey man, you're nuts!! haha great!

Just give me the coordinates and I'll be droping whatever you want!! as long as it's "safe"!!!

Have a blast, maybe I'll do a few fly by's!!

Dan

Well, seeing the off-road posts from Ron, BJ & co. (it looks like a lot of fun!!) I was wondering if the Steadi-aviators would be up for some flying together.

I know that there are quite a few pilots in this comunity, and I was hoping we could gather a bunch of planes and do a fly-in somewhere, have brunch or something like that, and have some fun flying! :D

Well, let me know, let's go flying!!!!

Daniel

In february I was shooting single white female 2 in downtown LA, in front of a building, and immediatelly behind it, another shoot was going on. It was a japanese comercial with Keifer Suterland, where they where going in the 24 style. They had a chopper with 6 "soldiers", siting on the outside, 3 on each side, flying in circles, about 50 feet in the air, dangerously close to the building, making the turns steeper and steeper. I could almost hear the director scream "faster, faster!!" as they allways do...

Normal flying is very safe. Flying for a shoot is some of the most dangerous things you can do...

Daniel

jumping down from a desk to a chair to the floor

Be carefull!! That doesn't sound very safe!

Don't ever try to please the director/DP and do something that's unsafe. You put in risk yourself, your gear, and productions gear, thus you might make a producer angry at you for putting production in jeopardy (what if the camera was dammaged?) not wanting to hire you again...

Just my .02

Daniel

Hey Leigh,

Like everybody else said: Take a workshop. But not before learning framing techniques. Research the internet, I'm sure you'll find. Study all that, then aply it on the field (without the rig) After those things are mastered (It won't happen in a short time) then go open arms to the workshop.

But from seeing your footage (lovelly dog BTW) there are too many basic things (before even thinking Steadicam) missing from your camera operation. Research on headroom, looking space, and yes, create a scene, do it over and over so it gets purpose.

Good luck,

Daniel

My .02 are a litlle different.

The workshop is incredibly important, but before you do that IMHO I believe that you should be a good camera operator before deciding on becoming a Steadicam Operator and doing the workshop. All you learn about framing and everything around it should be 2nd nature before you put the rig on because, believe me, your brain (and body) will be swamped with new information and techniques, so it's very important to be a good regular camera operator to start with.

After some time doing that, you probably worked some and were able to save money to go to the workshop. DO IT!!

Believe me, Steadicam = expensive. 2K is not much compared to the valuable information and networking you get.

Good luck, and be patient...

Daniel

I'm on the last week of a 4 week HD feature in Philly, and I've had to deal with the cable pain as well.

In the past I've convinced DP's to have an HDSDI cable hooked on for rehersals, to then be happy with the downconverted transmited signal for the takes. But not on this one.

On top of that he wanted the sound cables as well.

IMO, I can see the video cable, even though it should be enough with HD signal for rehersals, but I can live with 1 thin cable.

But sound?? The time you save in post to not have to sync it is not worth the diminished Steadicam capabilities.

Besides the fact that we roll at the same time as the 2nd unit, and they're very close and noisy, there are planes and trains allways sounding, so the sound will have to be redone anyway.

And the added cable wrangler doesn't help with sound either, especially when he is in the way of the spotter and the boom guy and the AC...

Call me old fashioned, but I'm all for NO CABLES. The gain you have with the cables is not worth the Pain they cause.

Daniel

Hey all,

I just want to show my support for Dave in this matter.

I've felt this wholle AR uprising very sketchy in the way it has been handled, as I put in my first post in this thread.

I think it's totally valid for Dave to express his regret over a treatment from an individual with ties to MKV and the AR, no matter what those ties are. I have not seen any disclaimer stating different, and with the intensity of the posting here about this piece of equipment, it's hard to believe that the relationship between Eric and Howard is solelly manifacturer/costumer.

It would be nice to know what those ties really are, so we know what everybody stands for.

Well,

As Dave, I wasn't invited to see it either.

After the big hype last year at CineGear, I was a bit discouraged myself.

But that was OK, if it wasn't ready, it wasn't ready.

But now I find myself with a litlle bad taste in my mouth after seeig this (in my opinion) very well done free advertisement campaign, going straight to the target buyers, Steadicam operators.

If you wanna select 30 prospective buyers, show them the product, and have them sign a NDA, that's great, but then don't go on a board, saying that you have this incredible gizmo, some people were alowed to see it, but not all, and when someone "slips"it in, it gets mentioned again and again and even a link to his message is posted, encouraging everybody to read it, but no,no, we're not allowed to know about it??

That is pure hype beeing done.

As most of you know, I represent Baer Bel gear here in the US, but I'm not here posting all the advancements Markus makes, It's just not right. (well, I guess I just did!!)

But this is my point: Either have a piece of equipment for sale, show it, promote it, make it available and sell it, or don't have a piece of equipment for sale, do your beta testing, get the bugs worked out, don't tell anybody until you're ready to make it public. Keep it between you and your beta testers.

nuff said

Daniel Stilling

Michael, you're right on the money!! I agree with you...

Hey guys,

Well, I'm sorry if I haven't got his sense of humor. I really apologize. I think it's funny first time, but when the same joke goes on and on, it gets old and that's what I was tired about.

Daniel

Dear gnespolo

Why are you constantly nagging on Dave?? I don't get it, and I'm tired of you constantly criticising his webpages. He's a Steadicam op. and not a web designer... :(

Daniel

Hey Michael,

I kinda liked the movie, but that's not the point of what I wanna coment.

It was great you bringing up the aspect of violence versus sex/language for ratings.

I've allways found it absurd the amount of violence that children and young people are exposed to without the parents even having a 2nd thought. But a pair of breasts?? oh no!! my god!!!

Once I was shooting in a house, we had a big painting on the wall with some stylized nude girls in it. The mom would come home with her litlle boy, about 7-8 years old, covering his eyes, and running to the bedroom in terror and disgust. In the boys bedroom she would turn on the playstation with Grand theft auto, so the kid could have some fun... What kind of a world do we live in??? Sex is bad, violence is good???

ARRRGGHHHH

Daniel :blink:

Since most of us are right handed it strikes me that you'd want to be doing the precision work with the right hand.

Well, if you think about a musician playing a guitar, the case is the same. You're right handed, but the precision work is your left hand on the frets, making the chords, running the fingers on a solo and so on. Your right hand "just" picks the strings...

So there must be something in our brains that can make it happen B)

Daniel"yeah, I was a rock star" Stilling

Hi Erwin,

I can only say I completelly agree with you. It was done, technically amazing and now let's move on...

The thing is that Steadicam is suposed to be a tool to enhance the story, and not the other way around.

I think I got a call for that feature, and I graciously declined...

I have done a bunch of long things, but the shorter takes work better. There's nothing like a well cut movie...

Just my .02

Daniel

Hey,

Any aerial shooting beeing helicopter or airplane should be approached with extreme caution, specialy if the pilot is not used to it. Producers/directors tend to push a lot (as we all well know ;))

When shooting in Costa rica, the director hired a smal single engine to shoot aerials of the house we were shooting in, and had the pilot doing slow flight and extreme banks at very low altitude, wich was extremely dangerous.

In aviation, there is a saying:

I know bold pilots and old pilots, but I don't know any old bold pilots...

Helicopters can be even more dangerous because of their greater flexibility, so if ever shooting from one of them, keep safety in first, second and third place. Everything else comes after that...

Daniel

Busted!!

Don't tell the rental house!! :o)

Actually it just happened that all the lenses had different sizes (what a joy!!), and the 75 couldn't be suported.

On all the other lenses the motor mount could be mounted in a way that it was exactly underneath the suport mount, hence supporting the lenses very well, except the 75.

I guess you could have something machined for that, as the arri suport didn't fit on my rods, but how often do you fly Hawks??

I ellected to go like this, and never had any trouble...

Daniel