XiaoSu Han

We have fixed it with the help of a page out of the service manual! thanks!

Hi, we have a problem with our Tiffen Archer 2 Steadicam, the top stage is quite lose and has a lot of wobble. Its the connection between the post and the stage and in the top stage itself as well. Has anyone done self-service on an Archer2 and knows if thats even possible to fix? Thanks and all the best, IMG_1607.MOV

Ideally based in Europe.

Looking to possibiliy buy a Maxima MX30. Any sellers at the moment? thanks,

Thanks a lot Charles for elaborating further and taking time to do so. I just thought that it was a bit unfair to let it stand there with just one sentence and no reason for why, that way it's really hard to improve upon ourselves. Upon your elaboration I can now see more clearly what the weaknesses of the said shot are and we'll see how the director and the editor are going to work with it. I can see how it seems "empty" to some extent, and probably the performance doesn't help here as well. I hope that in the finished movie, due to the fact that the scene before that is quite a heavy dialogue scene, it would have it's place there as explained and executed. I am not looking for excuses, but I guess you know the downfalls of low-budget productions better than I do. Probably in the end the need for a steadicam shot in the otherwise rather static movie overcame us and we opted for visual exposure a bit too much. I guess in the end also our inexperience contributed in not pulling the plug earlier to maybe come up with another shot, but hey, I hope we will know better the next time. I think that the lenghty discussion here also pushed me towards a rather sensitive side and maybe out of respect and shame for the low wage I couldn't press the operator towards more what we wanted. But that definitely is our mistake and we'll improve upon that. After all, I am thankful for the criticism here, especially in an elaborate form, it really helps. I am going to come back after release of the movie and maybe we can take a fresh look at things then. Cheers, Xax

It's really unfortunate that you have to view the clip out of context. I can only try to explain what's before that plus the motivations of the shot of course, but other than that I can't do much. So before this shot the actress spends the night with her ex-boyfriend, who meets her on the street and convinces her to have sex with him, he promises her oh-so-many things from the sky and dumps her right after that - again. So that shot is supposed to show her back. Supposed to have 1/3 of the frame filled with the back of her head instead of the background (which was lacking of course). We wanted to be in her head, not interested in her surroundings at all. We wanted to be a bit confused with her. At the end of the shot she went through the circle and came back again, is at the beginning again, meets another decisive man. Which I think we've achieved after all. This definitely is a low-budget steadicam shot. Otherwise we wouldn't have lost half of our crowd after 5 takes. Otherwise the first 5 takes would've been usable. Otherwise I wouldn't give in until we've got a technically perfect shot. Otherwise I would've built the bar on a stage and lit it perfectly. I can keep this going all night. This is low budget and it will fit into the story and conceive what we wanted. We've had a couple wilder movements before this take but they didn't seem to work after all, so we agreed on a simpler take on things. A shot like this would never be "wow look at that 2 minute one-take", but I think that it certainly fits into the story like we planned it to be and thus I think I've reached my goal as a DP. And as everybody has a one-line-wisdom to share, here's mine: a steadicam shot doesn't make a movie, how it's implemented does Sorry Charles, but I think that "Even though we are viewing it out of context and we know nothing about the character, I personally can't imagine that shot will add much to the storytelling of the film." contradicts itself and is a bit unfair to say. Here's a reel of the movie and it tells a bit more of the story than that one shot. Maybe it helps to understand how it might fit in. http://www.stilfabrik.at/footage/summertimereel.mov PS: I can't believe that in a real name forum someone like Ricardo would post something like this. - I would be ashamed.

http://vimeo.com/5661382 on vimeo as well, password is steadi

Here's the result: http://www.stilfabrik.at/summertime/steadicam.mov - either click the link or save as Brendon Sumner from Brooklyn came out to help us on this and I think we've got the best out of our budget despite the occasional soft spot and boom shadow. PS: I added some music because I don't have the sound for that yet- I know I am using copyrighted music, but I hope that's ok for those purposes.

Hi guys, thanks so much for your help and replies. Through this discussion I've once again learned a bit more about the psychology and sociology of this job. I tried to stick through the discussion as I've run into too many dead ends in the past in discussions and tried to learn from it and formulate arguments better and actually come to a conclusion which is good for all parties included. I am definitely going to come back here and ask for someone as soon as I've got a proper paid job to offer. For this, I've found two operators in the area willing to do it, and I am interviewing them regarding their equipment and experience and next weekend I am going to post the shot as soon as it has been shot. I hope that it's going to be good enough to be worthwhile showing here :) If anyone needs help with a RED or DPing, operating whatever, let me know, I am willing to give a favor first, then ask for one in the future :). If I am going to be in LA one day, I'll definitely call! Thanks again everybody, cheers, Xax

I definitely understand where you guys stand and what you need for that to continue. I also didn't ask for a seasoned pro to come out here and do this. I just thought that maybe someone with a Flyer LE RED edition or Actioncam rig or anything similar to that, Glidecam V-25 etc. who just got the rig used for cheap and wants to start out in the business may need some material anyways and so on. I do understand and expected, but find it a little unfair for the people to react that harsh. Everyone has his reasons, but "I wouldn't do it for xxx reason" is better for me than "I hope you find nobody". I bet this site is full of established people, but I do hope that there are newbies out there as well. And to those I tried to appeal. Maybe I should just include a full disclaimer the next time. No hard feelings.

It's funny how people have really gotten this up the wrong throat, seems that the industry isn't in too good a shape after all. I have not valued anything over anything else. I just asked a colleague over here for a favor. I don't know anybody here, and like that, it's hard to get to know people. I now agree that favors are only among friends. Now it's not a favor anymore, it's a very very fair trade. It's very ignorant and unfair not to acknowledge the offer I've made, but keep on bashing my initial posting instead which I think I have withdrawn with the offer made. "Pay peanuts and get monkeys." - I absolutely don't agree with that on a general basis, in the steadicam world maybe, but not entirely in the filmmaking world. For that I've worked with too many great people, maybe you remember some free favors in your career as well, and maybe those people would be insulted if you would call them monkeys. If your passage about me offering work is about the posting I made offering our equipment, I am offering my operating for free as said. I am offering 3000 USD worth of equipment, and in a money-ridden world, that equals two days of an operator incl. his steadicam kit as I've understood. Why is that a wrong equation? As for 1500 USD someone can rent a fully working RED kit, I can expect for 1500 USD to get an operator that's worth his money including the praised skill and creativity, right? I am the DP of this project, I was HIRED AS WELL. Now as I was hired and try to be as professional and skilled and creative as possible. And thus we've planned this steadicam shot. As written before, I am going the extra mile to get this shot. Sorry, but your arguments contradict themselves. As I've understood, for 1500 USD I can rent an operator with TALENT and EQUIPMENT. I definitely can't rent a client, why would I want to, but I can rent TALENT. I can rent EQUIPMENT. I totally agree that equipment is secondary. But I don't understand why you can't rent talent. Thanks for the people who understood what I am trying to do.

Hi Sydney, studying for a year at AFI costs over 60K USD. Is that throwaway money? Can I turn that into a profit? I've invested 40 grand in gear because that's how I think it will work for me. I've shot a project in Hong Kong, a feature film in London, one in NYC now and another in London later this year with my partner DOP and we're looking for two more this year, we're shooting all those projects on the camera we've invested in. That for me is worth the same as film school, and it costs the same. At the end, I might sell the stuff and at least for the RED ONE body I am getting almost the whole amount back. We have a very low serial number and thus are in line for an early EPIC, and people are going to want that. Also, equipment like an ARRI FF4 or a mattebox does not lose value too much too soon. Lenses? Bargain, will sell for more than bought. So I invested 40 grand not to make profit out of the camera package, we don't even rent it out. It's our door into small projects, networking and building our reel. At the time we've had this camera for a year, we will have shot 4 features on it as DOPs. That, for me, is more worth than the first year of film school to me. Additionally, I will make 30 grand back selling the equipment. That's for sure. Oh yeah, the projects it gave us, we almost broke even on the investment already. So no, I didn't blow the money, I invested it although I am not out for profit. Not yet.

good luck :P

The funny thing is, in the past we could never find an operator so we scratched our money together and bought a knockoff-item. We know that it definitely isn't the same and you get what you pay for, but it was our only chance to do certain shots which wouldn't have been possible without the "steadycam". I also don't want to insult anyone as I know that it takes a lifetime to be a good operator, but I just wanted to show you guys what we've did with our knockoff item, one of us operating: http://dedicated13.nessus.at/colormediumlanmov.mov http://dedicated13.nessus.at/concretegarden.mov I know that it's really bad steadycam work on a professional level, but it improved the production value anyways. Now we're at a point where we've got a heavier camera and want to do more complicated moves, we are definitely looking for a pro to do it. We could do it, but out of respect for the craft we don't. As said, we don't have cash, but are willing to do something extraordinary to make that shot in this movie happen. Cheers, Xax

Hey, now that's a good idea. So I'll offer the following kit up as an exchange: RED ONE incl. all the accessories, 4 batteries, etc. etc. Cooke S2 Lens Set in BNCR mount, RED has BNCR mount. Ronford F4 Fluid Head incl. Tripod FF-4 Follow Focus Redrock Mattebox incl. all kinds of filters So that's a complete camera kit, it goes for about 1500 USD a day at local rental houses. I am offering you a weekend with our kit, the only condition is that we operate. Obviously you operate your steadicam as well, so we operate our camera. So if you've got a production and are looking to shoot on a weekend and strike a deal, here it is. We don't shoot on weekends, so that's good. Also, we're here for a few days after the shoot completes, so there's some time as well. So the deal is, you come down to Brooklyn, fly us that one shot, we'll hire ourselves to your project for free, for one weekend. That's at least 3000 USD worth of gear plus 2 days worth of operator rates. I am 100% serious. I am willing to go the extra mile to make this shot happen, sure, we can get a pushcart, wheelchair whatever, but I want the Steadicam for this shot. You are asking for assets? We don't have cash, so here's our asset. Anyone?