Fabian Alexander Aust

well.. yes, just what the title says: what do you former or current master operators dislike about the rig? from the perspective of everyday real-life usage... thank you guys so much!

So, I'd offer this option as a strategy: why not contact a Steadicam operator somewhere nearby, and ask to come assist him for a day (for free), and as compensation, he show you the ropes? Let you wear the rig and see if you "catch the bug".

that sounds like a great idea!

I know that there is a 5 day workshop comming up in Denmark, Copenhagen.

And I Think that it Will be Mr. Holway who will be the main teacher, along with some other fine steadicam operators.

You can try to contact the Danish dealer, JPM Hofmann - www.hofmann.dk

They are the ones who are setting up the workshop.

 

Thomas

that sounds good too!

thanks guys!

please ignore my last post it was an attempt to edit another post going awry...

i see all those points. i really understand that. however, i have spent some time in the biz and i'm a late bloomer in what i do now anyway, so i really gotta hurry, no matter what professional route i may choose to focus on. it's not that i would never ever do a DSLR job! i just don't want to be limited to that, because my rig can't fly anything else. and as a matter of fact, even the most underbudgeted projects are shot on RED here, so it is in a way a must to be able to fly that thing. that's simply the big consideration in my head.

i know that what i'm writing here may annoy some people, but i just can't help it, that's what i'm feeling and i believe one of the most important things in our biz is to love what you do.

some may think i'm not an open minded gyu, but in fact i am, very much. your posts definitely affect me and make me think... that's EXACTLY why i posted this thread! but you won't hear me recap politically correct statements that i've read somewhere, knowing they will bring me respect of the community or something like that. i'm just telling what's on my mind, straight. and if someone shows me that i'm totally wrong, by giving convincing arguments, i'll be the very first to bow and change my mind and accept all that...

that's what a rental person told me. they have a lot of RED ONEs, some upgraded to MX sensor, and they also have Alexas already. seemed to me like that guy knew what he was talking about... if it's not correct, i'd be extremely happy to be educated on this, since neither the RED or Arri digital homepages are telling a lot about sensor technology

i appreciate your direct words. of yyourse i need the workshop and i want it. sorry i didn't make that more clear...

i've read a LOT on this forum... and pretty much everywhere on the net where one can find steadicam information.

i've registered my email with the steadicam workshop folks so hopefully it won't be long until i can attend one of the big courses. apart from that, i've been searching the gdmn web desperately for alternative (non-tiffen) workshops in germany, but i couldn't find anything yet. i realise this is a very imortant.

however, attending a 5 day WS is a costly thing so you could also put that into the "investment" category. now, how do you decide to engage in the steadicam profession BEFORE that workshop? what's the decision-making process to subscribe to a WS in the first place?? correct, it's FEELING that this could be the right kind of job for a person. evaluating all the information, experiences from other filmbiz jobs and finishing it with a good deal of scepticism here and there but some creativity and optimism also. i honestly believe i have proceeded on that route quite a bit already.

now, i definitely want to buy used unless i see a lot of convincing reasons against it. but on this forum, it seems that most people are quite happy with their used gear and, judging from photos in the MP section, people are looking very well after their equipment. what i wanted to express is: i see master series rigs here and they are much cheaper than the modern rigs, i'm talking all used here. i don't know, but i GUESS on a 5 day WS they won't bring old master series rigs would they? i rather think they will try to make you dig their new rigs so they can sell them. that's normal, hey. it would be very interesting to hear opinions about old vs new rigs.

budget. as i've mentioned before, i do not have any budget. i'm a normal person, struggling through everyday live with film jobs and i never started putting money aside on a regular basis. why should i? i DO know that steadicam is expensive. i DO know that you always get what you pay for, you don't have to be a genius to know that, it applies to everything. but i also know that i don't want to fly HDV cameras or DSLRs. i just don't want to. so this thread is a step in my personal process of deciding if steadicam operator is a future for me or not. please... don't criticize me because i'm not willing to start small. but i can't help it. i just don't want to. because i also know what kind of projects shoot HDV cameras or DSLRs. and i don't want to make participating in those projects the foundation of my carreer, even if that's just for a couple of years. and if, in the end, i come to realize that steadicam operator on the level i'm talking about will never be reality for me, i got some other options for my future and i will be very happy with them just as well.

i do not have any budget ;)

Hi folks,

I'd like to get into the steadicam business and i've figured that it would be a clever move to build a rig that can easily fly a RED ONE, since a lot of jobs in my area and in those genres i'm interested in (commercials, music videos, tv-features, low budget features) are shot on the RED and it's getting more and more and honestly, i think RED is the future; at least for a couple of years to come. ARRI's Alexa has the same sensor as the RED ONE MX but costs double rental rates, SI2K is a rarity here and doesn't seem to attract a lot of DPs, other digital cinema cameras virtually don't exist here.

I guess it's pretty normal that lets say a MB-14 matte box gets replaced with a clamp-on without too much objection from the camera crew. I also guess that people understand they can't have their master zoom on my steady rig. And i guess most people won't object replacing the RED harddrive with my own 16GB CF cards as they give the same performance fps-wise and are only restricted capacity-wise. So what i need to satisfy most productions here is to fly a RED with CF card instead of harddrive, powered from the sled, with at most 2.8 kg lenses (lightweight zooms, RED primes, master primes etc), a clamp-on matte box, a RED lcd, follow focus and video transmitter, basically.

Now i'm pretty open for everything that can satisfy those needs, but in general, i would love to own a cinema products/tiffen rig simply because of the advantage the name gives you and the pro-look on the set. I think i'd also prefer a used, older but bigger/more professional rig over the latest rig brandnew. basically. but, i'm open to all you guys views on these topics.

So in a nutshell, i would love to hear you guys suggestions on what to buy, given the factors above. I'm in germany, so while i understand that it may be standard procedure to buy, resell, buy etc, it's a little bit more complicated for me since the german steadicam marketplace is small and dealing with people in the US is just so much more hustle. Also, i do not have any budget, no number i can give you guys. I'm open to hear suggestions that make sense, and if i see something that makes sense to me and that solution is like 30.000 EUR that just tells me how much i gotta make to make my move.

Many thanks in advance for all your help guys!

well... just resetted things to normal. RED on EFP. but zeiss superspeeds. rental guy says 14kg is ok, and i think we'll manage to stay below that.

Hi Fabian,

 

never flew Xinetix gear.

 

Talking about you setup. It will be FAR above 9kgs. Body, brick and lens will weigh 7kgs. alone. Not talking about baseplate, cables, wireless video, focus, monitor. I guess you come closer and faster towards 12kgs. than you might wish. Take the PRO!

thanks so far guys. thing has been settled by budget... the producer won't let me rent more than the EFP budgetwise. we may even change our strategy completely and shoot a DSLR on an old SK... man then it'd be just the other way round, MB 14 all the way, everything heavy i can attach there with some use... which is not much in that case

I regularly work with the Red Cam on an EFP (blue spring arm). Fortunately, I've never had a Red configuration over 32 pounds. This is easier to achieve if you can shoot with CF cards rather than the hard drive. But the Red can easily go over 35 pounds with Red primes, the hard drive and a few other accessories. And you'd really be in a bind if the EFP had an original red spring arm (which has a lower capacity than the later blue spring version). Most of the time I'm working with Red set ups in the 26 pound range and this has worked quite well on the EFP.

since i can't power the camera from the sled i'm getting rather heavy here. we will be able to shoot CF cards however. which is a good matte box choice if i want to use ND/IR combo filters, a polarizer and maybe a star filter?

i want to shoot optimo rouges... maybe the red zooms if the producer won't allow me the optimos... however, it will be at least 9kg without mattebox and filters, fully stripped down like this:

red body

rouge zoom

bridge plate

2x 18" steel rods (don't know if i can get lighter rods)

lcd + arm + cable

2x top mount

top handle

2x 12" steel rods

universal mount

quick plate

brick

maybe i can avoid the 12" rods and lose the bridge plate if i attach everything from to 18", from the top. but i'm not sur if that really works out.

the job is a music video, so i don't need the most perfect shots, but flawless workflow and very short setup and ready-to-shoot-times...

 

 

Don´t let Garrett hear this :-) I remember him saying all shots must be perfect in your attitude.

while that is definitely true... i'm just human, not a robot

Markus, ever worked with the xinetix people/equipment?

hello folks. i have a steadi shoot coming up and i might rent an EFP rig. can anybody share some experiences flying that with a RED setup of ~12 - 13,5 kg? how does the arm perform with that kind of load? there is also a GPI Pro rig available around here, but a bit more expensive; maybe it's worth the extra money? the job is a music video, so i don't need the most perfect shots, but flawless workflow and very short setup and ready-to-shoot-times... thanks for all input!

To upgrade from a Pilot to a Flyer you should sell the pilot and use the money as a down payment on the Flyer. Different arm, vest, sled, etc... everything's different.

so tiffen do that? and if they do, can you get an ok deal?

cool, that makes a lot of sense

great to see you guys feedback so quickly! i was actually thinking that the 19lbs limit means 19lbs on top, going straight on the camera mounting platform so to speak. so that's wrong?

hey guys. was great just to read around here so far, now this is my first post here... thing is, i want to fly two setups that are quite different: 1. a very, very simple GH1 setup with pretty much... nothing except camera and lens. this is usually around 1kg or even less, like 900 grams or so. 2. a jvc hd100 setup, for now with stock lens and nikons, but in the future, i'm planning to add a hocus focus (pretty soon), a mini35, a matte box and (hopefully, if budget allows...) a nano flash. this final setup will probably be around 8kg, given that i can power everything from the sled battery. let's say 9,5 kg in case i need a seperate idx battery and additional power stuff on top. now of course i'd like to have one rig that covers all that, weight-range-wise. i'm definitely leaning towards the real steadicam stuff, however the flyer seems to go from 2kg minimum and i've read a couple of times that the steadicam arms perfrom somewhat better close to their weight limit... so i've been looking for alternatives to the flyer and also, i'm tryin to understand upgrade options from pilot to flyer. but i'm not really getting the big picture here. ok i'd be very thankful for any input on all this!