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Regular or Goofy?


Mikko Wilson

Do you (normally) operate 'Regular' or 'Goofy'?  

73 members have voted

  1. 1. Do you (normally) operate 'Regular' or 'Goofy'?

    • Regular - I shoot mostly Film
      12
    • Regular - I shoot mostly Video
      17
    • Regular - I shoot both equally
      12
    • Goofy - I shoot mostly Film
      8
    • Goofy - I shoot mostly Video
      17
    • Goofy - I shoot both equally
      6


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My right hand is my dominant hand.  I write with it.  Why I would use my left is a mystery to me.  I have a sneaking suspicion that Garret is left handed and has put one over on all of you "regular" operators.

 

Paul

If you shoot video and are goofy, you can check the vieuwfinder to check iris :P

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Like the right/left-glove in a baseball player...

if you pitch or shoot with the right hand... the glove(to catch) goes in the left hand.

 

For the other hand... on the gimbal goes(put) the hand with more sensibility and on the gimbal-handle goes(put) the hand with more dominant punch.

 

In a right-dominant person:

right hand... more punch, strong.

left hand... more sensibility or SUTILEZA(tuning)

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I am left-handed but in my youth I have developed the ability to write with both hands, even simultaniously and also mirrored with the left hand.

 

That helps me now, I am sure. I´m goofy footed but frequently I have to switch my arm to the other side in order to maintain walking-running speed while shooting over my "wrong" shoulder. something that otherwise can only be done while walking backwards, which I hate when walking fast.

 

On the Hardmounts it can help as well, look at the boat-shoot in the Journals forum and you see a very peculiour way of operating: it is regular mounted but I operate on the goofy side with my hands in regular position.

 

This is because you cannot cross the arm in front of your body as you would normally do when body mounted.

I would have preferred to use my stronger left arm and hand to push and pull the arm and rig in relation to the ever rolling and jumping boat, but that was not possible in this setup.

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  • 1 year later...

Maybe the first question asked in a Steadicam forum...nonetheless, let's argue. One generally (film or video) stands to the left of the camera and has it on one's right side, shoulder, arm...whatever. Why should it be different when it comes to flying?

 

I can do both, but lately I've been going with "goofy" for the most part. It just makes sense that you'd have your softest touch on the gimbal...if you're a lefty...go "regular."

 

However...regardless of the side, and this may be a little off topic, but don't you love the astonished looks you get when you get a gig and a few people have never seen a Steadicam live? Sorry...just came back from one of those...2 night shoots for a videoclip...no wonder there's more and more ops every time...haha.

 

Yecid Jr.

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My right hand is my dominant hand. I write with it. Why I would use my left is a mystery to me. I have a sneaking suspicion that Garret is left handed and has put one over on all of you "regular" operators.

 

Paul

 

I want to say he is a leftie but cannot say for sure. Correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't original steadicam operation a one -hand operation. If Garrett operated with one hand and it was his left...I have to think he used his dominant hand. Just a theory.....would like to know myself.

 

 

 

 

Gordon

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I want to say he is a leftie but cannot say for sure. Correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't original steadicam operation a one -hand operation. If Garrett operated with one hand and it was his left...I have to think he used his dominant hand. Just a theory.....would like to know myself.

 

I believe that a while back someone posted a picture either here or on Steadiforum which showed him with a pen in his right hand, thus proving that he is indeed right handed.

 

I know I'm still a newbie, just learning to fly my first "real" rig now, but the way I see it is that for us righties, operating "regular" makes plenty of sense. When I was playing piano, I always had the problem that although my right hand could push firmer, create louder noises, my left hand was much better at softer, more intricate tones, not just bashing keys. I mean, it kind of makes sense, after all, it's not like the hand on the post would do better with more force on it.

 

So thus, I operate Regular, and I only shoot video.

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When Garrett conceived the original Brown Stabilizer (Steadicam) way back (1972) he started with a unit that was hand carried and the Human arm would take out the undesired movement. As he got more sophisticated with the instrument, the unit started to be so heavy that it had to be supported by an artificial arm (The Steadicam Support Arm). As Garrett was operating with his stronger right arm, and the Monitor was mounted on the regular left side of the camera, it made sense to mount the support arm to support his right operating hand. The only contact with the rig was his right hand on the hand grip. (The left was for balance!!!)

 

As the Steadicam was conceived by most including the inventor as a stunt camera, set up for fast movements, it was stabile enough...

 

The two handed technic did not get invented/get in use until 1980... where the arm was already mounted on the right of your vest with, at that point, no alternate point of attachment.

 

To get more refined and controlled moves, you had to add your 2nd hand for stability. Again, there was no other attachment point, so to accomplish that, you had to put your right hand on the Gimbal handle and the left started to hold the pistol style grip which was eventually replaced with a wrap grip.

 

It was a design induced operating style that was still experimental and was thought that way... as more people and with that more opinions where added... it started to evolve...

 

Same reason that most cars, in the beginning where driven sitting and steering on the right side as coaches used to be driven in royal England, and the drivers had to open the doors on the right for his master...

(If you are looking to further confuse yourself check: http://users.pandora.be/worldstandards/dri...0the%20left.htm )

 

I used to be better at goofy, but when I started and had to borrow rigs, the owners where very hesitant to let me switch as they had to find there "sweet" spot again after I had the rig thrown out of wack...

 

 

Fly safe... on whatever side,

 

 

Erwin "History just sticks to my brain" Landau

 

 

Here Garrett with the first working CP prototype on the set of "Bound for Glory" (1975)

post-45-1149376335_thumb.jpg

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Also, during the evolution to two handed operation, it not only made sense to have the softer hand on the gimbal, it also made sense to have the stronger hand on the arm. In the old days, the arms were not like the ones we have now, they took effort to boom up and down.... oh wait, we still have Glidecam arms, so just try one of those (sorry, couldn't resist).

 

Recently, I was talking to Garrett about the number of goofy foot ops and he gave that wry smile of his and compared it to the bird flu!

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