Pedro Guimaraes SOC

Don't have to.....I've done it a few times. Not the only one either, I share the dubious honor with Dave Isern and Phillip Martinez. Dual red beamsplitter, phew! Just about unusable, we ended up hardmounted most of the time. what can I say, I young, dumb and eager. Yet I still love 3D.

Hi guys, I'm relatively a new steadi-operator, been operating for little over a year on rented/borrowed gear. Recently purchased my whole kit and went straight to work (thankfully). Most of my work so far has been for a handful of repeat solid clients(well paid). I've been dealing with them for so long that we just mainly work out a deal on the phone and then I just invoice them. But now that I have my own rig, am out in the jungle searching for work. Since my recent purchase pretty much cleaned up my bank account, I've accepted a low paying indie movie (red) for the next 2 weeks. Literally have to pay my rent! Luckily I was able to buy my rig in cash so I don't have any loan payments to make. Also have some things lined up so I don't plan on making this a frequent occurrence, life too short and my gear too expensive to work for peanuts. They just called at the right time. So I feel like I want them to sign some sort of business/deal memo before we start. Something that set out terms of the service....3-day week (no pro-rating), cancellation terms (within 24hrs/24-48hrs etc), The rate, overtime, damage info....etc... Would any of you be willing to email me what you have production sign if anything before you start a job? What are some things to MAKE sure to be included in such a document? Usually their deal memo is covering their ass, I wanted them to sign something to cover mine ass and address my concerns. I guess since this is the first low budget job I've ever taken I'm understandably worried. Especially when they said payment will be made at the end of shooting...usually I'm used to getting paid on a weekly basis so...just looking to be professional and do my part and get some stuff in writing because talk is cheap and doesn't hold up in court :) but contracts usually do. Thanks in advance for any help,

Yes very cool...... you can watch behind the scenes here...shot on RED, you can see the steadicam on harmounted on a camera truck for the chase sequence and operating in the red square. I think the first shot of the hallway arches is dolly then steadicam....if not this guy kicks ass. http://www.slashfilm.com/2010/05/27/exclusive-making-of-carl-erik-rinschs-the-gift/ here is the short letterboxed wihtout the phillips bs....

Respectfully Alfeo, wearing glasses while you operate makes 100% no sense. I don't know who instructed you to do this but I can assure you it's not normal practice or helpful in any way. Besides impairing your vision for safe movement on set and giving you a headache.....operating with the glasses you are seeing the combined version of both eyes and if anything, it actually makes it so you can't see your parallax (see if your exceeding max values by getting to close to objects) and makes it hard to see if you are committing any edge violations. 80% of my current work comes working in 3D. 95% of my current steadicam income has come from operating in 3D. I have to date flown 7 different 3D rigs on my steadicam. I have also served as stereographer on 6 productions and assistant stereographer n countless others. So I am talking from experience here. Someone, usually the stereographer is monitoring both eyes during shooting. It's his job to worry about the 3D. Your job as stedicam operator is to listen to the stereographer and the Dp's instructions and focus on the most important task at hand....getting the frame they want and delivering smooth shots. Just like in 2D. Furthermore, since a large portion of steadicam operating involves being close to a subject, your IO distance will generally be very small....in the range of 1/2" to 1.5" at this stereobase it is acceptable for you the operator to operate from a single eye view since parallax will not be extreme and there is little chance of you occluding objects on a single camera . Regarding parallel setups, it's much the same situation. let's take you example of 2 REDS. I have also flown this setup. 2 reds will give you a 6" IO. At this distance NOTHING should be closer to the camera than say maybe 20ft. At this distance the camera are parallel and are not converged. Anything closer will result in too much parallax and be unusable. So at the operational distance this IO dictates the parallax values in the scene will effectively be very similar to my previous example. Therefore it is not a problem to monitor one eye while operating. If you were having occluded objects in one camera, my guess is that you were just to close for the IO you had. It's the stereographers job to keep an eye on this and alert you to correct your framing on the next take. Once again, concentrate on operating let the stereographer monitor both eyes and worry about the 3D. Usually we use the transvideo SBL 3D on the steadicam. This lets the stereographer adjust and align the cameras before the shot. Then the op can switch to a single eye for the take, or you can leave it in anaglyph or multiplexed full color mode and monitor both eyes while you operate (with no glasses of course). Although this is misleading many times. naturally different people work differently and there are many ways to slice a tomato....so YMMV. Again don't worry about looking at both eyes since a large percentage of the time we never converge while shooting anyway. We shoot parallel and converge in post production. So as an operator all you want to do is keep things from the edge of the frame. Keep things a bit looser, no haircuts this will give the sterographer in post production the most freedom to adjust convergence. Maybe it's time I make a 3D steadicam post on the general forum? where would be the best place to do that? I do have lots of photos of productions and knowledge I have no problem sharing with the community.

this should be a useful link to many ..... well more for AC's since this is more their headache than the operator. Preston PDF with 3D calibration instructions, http://www.prestoncinema.com/Manuals/3D%20Rig%20Calibration.pdf Cool picture Alfeo, but just to clarify for those looking at that pic that might get the wrong idea..... The operator will never have to wear 3D glasses especially while operating (recipe for disaster). The only person on set that needs to see a 3D image is the "stereographer"(like a 3D DOP). Even then, most of the experienced stereographers are really only looking at the parallax values we see on the multiplexed image on a 3D monitor. Most of the time the experienced stereographer won't need to use 3D glasses. On set 3D monitoring is more for video village people, Directors, producers, clients (on commercials) etc... The operator usually is looking at a single camera view only. There are some considerations you must take care about with framing etc....but that's a whole another topic on 3D operating.

Thank for the informative and fun day. Was great to try out the Cinerover, the 8Ball rickshaw and Ron's transporter (forgot the name) all right after one another. Gave me some good insights into the benefits and differences with each. here some cell phone pics.... Everyone checking out the rigs.... The CineRover Jessica Trying out my rig on the 8 Ball rickshaw Thanks you to the organizers and vendors that came out.

I also wished I could of met him, I'm still laughing after watching the videos and reading the links....RIP knowing you still inspiring new operators like myself and making us laugh very hard! :D

I shoot alot of 3D so I should chime in here, Both C-motion and Preston have 3D modes in their software to sync up and calibrate FIZ, IO and convergence. Also to calibrate each lens to each other which is extremely important. I think they are still working on "mapping" functionality. Which is to match lenses to each other that might have focus scales be off fro each other. Would fix what a simple calibration could not. also, as Alfeo described currently to achieve 3D FIZ control we need to use 2 MDR's (preston) or 2 Camin's (c-motion) I know for that c-motion is working on a "3D camin" basically a camin with 6 inputs. Not sure if it will have 8 to include IO and conv. as well. This would cut down the amount of cabling and stuff we need to place on 3D rigs right now. I also know that Element Technica is developing thier own Transmitter/reciver/hand controller. Like the new c-motion the transmiter was also incorporate ALL the inputs into a single box. I saw some initial prototypes while visiting the other day. Looks like they have it together and soon it might just be one of the best systems out there for controlling 2 cameras/lenses in a 3D configuration. So since all this stuff will end up being so specialized for 3D use, I don't think steadicam operators should worry about purchasing them. It will most likely be a function(built into the rig) or responsibility of the rig provider. Hopefully soon this will all get alot more integrated. The "SCREEN PLANE" 3D rigs have most of the FIZ/IO electronics actually built into the aluminum frame of the rig. Thier small rig should be very steadycam friendly....especially since it tilts....like having a U2 tilt stage. THe rig is mounted on a yoke....pretty cool. If anyone ever has any questions related to 3D let me know, This is me prep'in a 3D rig with red cameras and a c-motion control system on a Z-Head. You can see both the c-motion Camin's on the bottom left of the picture. Velcro'd to the mirror box with florescent tape labels...

Great timing, even though I've been operating(rented rigs) for the last year, I just purchased my rig this sat... would be great to meet/talk to other ops and get some practice in my new rig. Still trying to get the vest to fit just right... Funny enough, most of my steadicam work has been in 3D, maybe for the next one I can arrange to bring a 3D rig (p+s freestyle/2 ex3's) for people to try out. (I have some pull with some of the 3D companies I work with) See you on weds! Thanks for organizing this!

Intrested in used g70 arm. email me with info, m3pedro at hotmail.com