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Electronic level/horizon indicator


DavidMcGill

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Hi Sarah,

It's sounding good to me. The single power to the control box/sensor is a definate. The power loop through might be nice but far from a necessity.

Also try to make it all as compact as possible. There is already a heap of stuff hanging off that top stage when running a follow-focus etc.

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Hi Sarah,

It's sounding good to me. The single power to the control box/sensor is a definate. The power loop through might be nice but far from a necessity.

Also try to make it all as compact as possible. There is already a heap of stuff hanging off that top stage when running a follow-focus etc.

 

It should be pretty small -- I'll have to do the prototyping first (the first one may be a little bigger for practical reasons). If the case is being milled from billet, I should be able to use some weight saving techniques that are normally used on satellite chassis designs to keep the mass down without compromising strength.

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Pardon me if I am mistaken, but you are pretty new to camera/steadicam? Not discounting your skills at all, but it might help you with your design if you get together with a few ops and at least see what we are used to looking at and how it will have to perform. The benchmark is obviously the xcs electronic level, many here also use and like the one in the transcideo monitors.

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The benchmark is obviously the XCS with the display on the monitor, but I am thinking that Sarah is talking about a row of LED's that can be placed just above or below the monitor similar to the Tiffen ultrabright but with the sensor seperate so can be placed just under the camera. This would be a good option for those of us who want to view in HD and who don't have an existing level in the monitor.

It is a good idea for her to hook up with some Steadicam ops to see how the rig moves and how it is configured but I think she's on the right track.

Just my thoughts.

Shep.

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Full disclosure: I am new to Steadicam, yes. Pretty serious about it too, but no one here should fear for their jobs!

 

I have a rather nontrivial day job that I'm not looking to leave any time soon. I've been a staff scientist (federal contractor) at NASA Ames for the last 6 years, but I have quite a varied background. Before that, I did a PhD at Cambridge in deep space electronics, before that I was a contractor doing a mixture of software and electronic design, going back to the mid 1980s. Somewhere in there, late 80s, I built and ran a commercial music recording studio and also co-ran a PA hire business. For several years I was a sound engineer/music producer/session musician for a living. My first involvement with video was before that, 1984 onwards, when I worked for Acorn Computers in the UK on some of the first ever interactive video projects, years before the term multimedia was coined, and then as a freelancer I ran the main software team on the UK government funded Interactive Video in Schools project. This involved all sorts of things, including doing some really early computer generated 2D lip sync animated characters for the BBC. Throughout my career I've always been torn between art and what pays, flipping back and forth a few times. I've been close to doing stills photography for a living more than once -- I was certainly good enough, but financially it never made sense. My whole life I've always done *something* artistic alongside what paid -- photography, graphic design, music, sculpture. My interest in film and video is pretty much an inevitable extension of that, though strictly speaking Super-8, particularly stop motion animation, actually came before any of that, when as a child I managed to pry my father's Super-8 camera from him. For the last few years I've been getting increasingly interested in video, digital cinema really, learning as much as I can, basically putting myself through some kind of unofficial film school, making a variety of shorts and learning to do pretty much everything I could myself through the whole chain from writing through final mastering. It's not that I actually intend doing everything myself, far from it, but I've always found that the best way to understand something is to work it myself, because that way, if someone comes along better than me, I know them when I see them, and I know how to communicate what I want.

 

As for why I am interested in Steadicam... That's a slightly more complicated story. I've done stills photography most of my life, and put the work and study into it that was necessary to get good at it. But, once I hit that point, I was disappointed. The art world around fine art photography isn't a nice place to be. I got a couple of things in galleries, but soon realized that while it was a perfectly legitimate artistic outlet, it wasn't going to work for me. I'd likely never make any money at it, but that wasn't really the issue -- more specifically, I just found the art world horribly backstabby and unpleasant to be around, so I didn't get much in the way of nonmonetary return on my investment of time and soul either.

 

Then, I discovered cinematography. Here was something that gave me an outlet for the artistic need to make images, but more importantly, it gave me a reason to make them, in a format that's far more widely accepted and acceptable than fine art black & white prints. But, cinematography was so much more. The 4th dimension -- time, movement. The first real artistic challenge I'd had in years -- the kind of challenge that I'd think about waking up in the middle of the night and not be able to sleep for. Some skills transferred more or less immediately -- there was a lot I didn't need to relearn, but moving the camera was a real discovery process for me. From my background, I find it easy to compose a locked off shot, but going beyond that has been quite a journey. I made a point of watching a lot of movies critically, taking apart what was going on and trying to pry the grammar from the sentence structure of the shots that were flying past the screen. I'd always loved Kubrick's movies -- it was rewatching The Shining and poring over its making-of material that gave me the revelation that the missing piece for me was Steadicam. Dollys, jibs, cranes just weren't what was going on inside my head, but there, looking at Garrett Brown's incredible Steadicam work, right there, was exactly what I was looking for. I think Garrett Brown referred to it as penetrating space, but that doesn't do it justice, for me anyway. If I relate it to my influences from the masters of the stills world (forgive me, that's still my visual language), I was seeing the precision of composition, exposure, lighting, depth of field that reminded me of Ansel Adams. But, critically, I was seeing more -- real heart, depth, something that I found in the likes of Cartier Bresson, Helmut Newton, Edward Weston. To start with, I was pretty much floored -- I had no idea how Kubrick and Brown had pulled it off. It just seemed like magic. But, watching the movie over and over again, piecing it together, it started to make sense.

 

So why learn Steadicam? Same reason I learned electronic design, music, programming, stills photography, mechanical engineering, etc.: I'm one of those tortured artist types who basically *have* to create stuff or they start going not so quietly crazy. Because I don't know if I can. Because it's hard. Because the results could be amazing if I could pull it off. Maybe I see a bit of a kindred spirit in Garrett Brown. Because sometimes you have to leap off a cliff to see what happens next. Because no one can tell me I can't. I don't know, maybe it just seemed like a good idea at the time. ;-)

 

As for my intentions around making Steadicam-related gadgets, I suppose it's an extension of the same kind of drive to create things, and partly because I'd want them myself. I'd not really given any thought to selling this kind of gear, though I'd consider it if there is interest. My original intention was (still is) to build my own wireless follow focus because I know I can do it relatively straightforwardly without having to drop a large amount of money (that I don't have!) on a commercial system -- I have most of the parts necessary sitting in a cardboard box on my kitchen table, so I'll weigh in to that once it all arrives. I have some more ideas about wireless FF devices that I've never seen anyone build, but I think I'd rather build something and see if it works before getting people too excited.

 

Anyway, enough of the rambling. Have a great weekend all, and please know that I am extremely grateful for being allowed to interact here.

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Peter, I know we are not talking about on screen graphics, but wouldn't it be nice if this had similar dampening or angle adjustment like the one we all like best? I was just suggesting that she see some of the ones we use so she has a reference point to start from.

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Keep it simple Sarah. Little box that takes power and keeps sensor that lives on the bottom of the sled and tiny fly cable that winds its way out to the LED s. Do horizontal only. See if you can take a peek at an XCS in your area and I am certain someone will oblige but most importantly don't stress it if you get it wrong the first time.

 

Where are you based?

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Sarah is talking about a far more advanced bubble than we have available to us today. Using the gyro-stabilizer systems from RC helicopters. Whilst what Sarah's implementation isn't Rocket Science the technology certainly is; albeit consumer grade. I think its definitely worth she has a play. This is essentially the same technology Jacques is using in his Virtual Horizon 2 at Transvideo. Personally I think this is an exciting field of development in Steadicam.

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I agree, and do keep it simple Sarah.

The other reason I was thinking of running the display through a BNC was that I can also see this being used for other purposes. I'm also a jib operator and when doing music some directors like the Dutch tilt. I'd love to know when the camera is level rather then just by eye and this device would be perfect for that.

Its something I've been thinking about for a while now, I'm just not a rocket scientist to build it myself.

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Sarah is talking about a far more advanced bubble than we have available to us today.

 

 

Wellllllll, there is one that does exist already and it's coming out with the new Cinetronics monitor

 

Just sayin

 

Yeah, thats exciting. Chris on the Cinetronics, Jacques is doing it on the Virtual Horizon 2 at Transvideo and Sarah on the LED Widget.

 

I'll buy the first that is waterproof so I don't need to put a raincover on it.

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Sarah is talking about a far more advanced bubble than we have available to us today.

 

 

Wellllllll, there is one that does exist already and it's coming out with the new Cinetronics monitor

 

Just sayin

 

Yeah, thats exciting. Chris on the Cinetronics, Jacques is doing it on the Virtual Horizon 2 at Transvideo and Sarah on the LED Widget.

 

I'll buy the first that is waterproof so I don't need to put a raincover on it.

 

the cinetronics will also drive a led bar and when used with a cinetronics monitor will not introduce a paging delay (3+ frames) like other hd levels

 

and yes, it is waterproof

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Whatever Eric! One thing that Greg's will do that Chis could only dream of implementing is a verticle "Jumbos" mode designed for properly mounting poles. It is AM approved. Greg has the forsight to consider the finer things in life...his also comes with an aft-mounted bottle opener and baby oil dispenser yet still retains a small size that will fit through doorways!

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