Michael Nelson

What a great transition from the 'alive' actors to the 'dead' ones. Nice footage!

I'll second lake arrowhead! I went and haven't looked back since!

Congrats! I am a steadi-newbie but I just assisted Andy Montejo a few days ago and he has serial number 6 working strong!

Would getting a Flyer LE and having it for between 1 -3 years then upgrading to bigger as needed be better than initially investing in something along an archer? (perhaps I should reserve this question for a different topic)

I appreciate the kind words. I realize that there will be many "No's" before I get a "Yes" so I just have to work hard and wait until I meet that person. I've been thinking about buying either the FlyerLE or my mentor's older and modified SK. Advise on which to get? I believe the most i'd be putting on any steadicam for a while is a smaller prosumer camera with the biggest being an hpx 500 with anton battery.

Thanks for the tip for the operator handbook. I pulled mine out and have been reading through it again. I got done with my first meeting today and the outcome was less than favorable. To start things off, I clearly outlined my experience in steadicam, my intentions with working on student films, and sited my website to give people a sense of where I'm coming from. When I got to the meeting the first thing the professor did was eye me over, glance at my resume, look at me again, and say, "well, you're kinda young, dont-cha think?" From them on he explained how he usually hires owner operators that are fairly well seasoned to work on the student's films. He didn't like that I rent gear from an owner/ operator and that I have doing most of my bigger work as an AC and not a cam op. He said he's keep my resume and contact info on file for smaller jobs. Makes me want to buy something along the lines of a archer or a clipper! Oh well I suppose, I've got a steadicam assist job tomorrow with the owner/ operator I rent from and then another meeting with a film professor on Wednesday.

I have that right on my shelf...I'll have to crack it open again. Are you referring to a specific page? Thank you very much for this. The information is just the sort of thing I've been looking for. This is also in my list of things to do. I have been working as a 1st AC for smaller production companies in the area and can only hope these lead to bigger things. I've also been trying my hardest to shadow a local DP while he's on bigger shoots to learn that way. Thanks!

Small bit of background: I am 24, I have a bachelor's in film (graduated 1 year ago), I've been working as a cam op/ AC since graduation, attended the lake arrowhead workshop in the spring to fuel my steadicam interest and it caught fire. I know a local DP who will rent their Steadicam SK and all supporting equipment to me when I need it. Last week I made a bunch of cold calls to the local universities stating who I was and that I am interested in working on student films as a way for me to get my on-set steadicam experience up as well and benefiting the students because they get the steadicam look in their films and get to learn to work with day players and budget for their services. Most of the department heads were interested and I've booked times to meet with them next week. I was wondering, what are some key points for me to hit while speaking with them about this deal? I do not wish to make any sort of money on this, I just want the practice and get to a reel going. The one thing I would like to try and get is the cost of the rig's rental covered covered. I can rent the rig for only a couple hundred dollars a day, but I would like to try and get this cost paid for through either the students' films' budget or from somewhere else. What tips can you all provide me for these meetings?