Russell Bell

Hey Guys, Thanks for all of your responses, these together with a bunch of conversations i've had with some other steadicam ops have confirmed my suspicions that this shot is just too dangerous and unrealistic to try to accomplish on a steadicam and have it turn out anywhere near what we would hope the shot to be. Unfortunately a hydrascope is too large to fit into the hallway space (there are a couple corners it would have to move around) and the project has to be shot on 35mm so unfortunately I can't shoot it on a smaller video camera or really use the pole cam. right now it looks like this may be a dolly shot with a jib and an amphibian remote head on a fisher dolly (using a riser underslung to keep the bearings of the jib out of the water) or the 'dreaded' cut upon entering the water, which the director isn't too keen on. I also really liked the snorkel idea but considering the safety of the operator and the angle the director wants the other options will probably be what we end up going with. Thanks everyone though for your responses, it's helped me out a lot.

Hey Guys, I'm an AFI cinematography student trying to shoot a super low budget spec commercial. The concept is to follow a swimmer all the way from the change room to underwater in one shot. The director really wants this to be done as a oner and wants to be able to follow the swimmer smoothly the whole distance (so this negates the use of a crane). I'm fairly sure this won't work on a steadicam but steadicam would be perfect for this shot, so i thought I'd ask if anyone can think of a way the shot could be done. As i imagine, it the camera would have to be in the underwater housing the entire time, on the rig in low mode and with some way to release the camera to be handed off to the underwater camera op, using the transition of the camera moving underwater to hide some of the jerkiness of the hand off. But...how in the world can a camera be smoothly removed from a steadicam in low mode mid shot and without having the rig swing dangerously? The underwater rig weighs around 22lbs (already weighted for underwater use) and can be mounted to from the top or bottom. The camera is an arri 35-3c with a 200' mag. The lens is going to be on the wider end (around a 20mm). Any thoughts on how to make the impossible possible would be greatly appreciated. Thanks -Russell