Technique of operating without footsteps

[RonBaldwin]

I don't know what the fack Eric is talkng about...the toe test we did involved a bowling ball, a white russian, Hanzel Und Gretyl's album "Fukken Uber Death Party" (classic Vas and Kaiser Von Loopy), black nail polish, three ping pong balls, a pregnancy test, and a mail order pinky toe.

 

Let's just say that Pedro was not involved in this one -- strictly 2d...and his questionable estrogen levels would throw off phase 2 of the test

 

rb

[Kevin Andrews SOC]

I would venture to say 3A style arms transfer footsteps pretty well. I've owned a few versions and they only get nice towards the heavy end.

 

The arm I tried a few weeks ago didn't transfer any movement. It rhymed with pro. :huh: oops.

 

I think they have a coin operated toe tester in the back at Jumbo's. Dean, let's not do any photo sharing brother. ;)

[Dean Smollar]

Janice, thanks for the advice. I'll start working on that this weekend.

 

Andrew, I deleted my copy to prevent the temptation of posting it. At least, I think I did...

[Charles Papert]

I know for a fact that over a period of maybe 10 years, my once well-hidden footsteps started showing up again in slow-moving shots. Same arm (PRO) and no mechanical explanation for this. My footwork never quite recovered from a broken ankle along the way. All I can draw from this is that having the right gear makes it a lot easier to achieve but footwork is critical, along with guiding the arm in as linear a direction as possible.

 

I like a lot of the advice that Andrew relayed. I don't agree that one should walk the same with the rig on as without, especially on slow moving shots.

[David M. Aronson]

I think they have a coin operated toe tester in the back at Jumbo's. Dean, let's not do any photo sharing brother. ;)

It got moved up front next to the slot machines and flan slip and slide.

 

I've noticed that with my rig with my arm with my operating, the heavier and more inert the sled is, the less the footsteps show up. Any test of how well an arm performs should hopefully take this into consideration.

[Kevin Andrews SOC]

 

 

Andrew, I deleted my copy to prevent the temptation of posting it. At least, I think I did...

 

 

Appreciate it Don! :P

[Matteo Cosorich]

I know for a fact that over a period of maybe 10 years, my once well-hidden footsteps started showing up again in slow-moving shots. Same arm (PRO) and no mechanical explanation for this.

 

Was the vest the same?

[Charles Papert]

I had switched to the Klassen somewhere in that period. But occasionally I would switch back (kept the PRO vest around for that reason) and I don't recall a major difference in that regard. It had more to do with body isolation I think, with body movements translating through the arm holding the gimbal handle. This was happening on a pretty subtle level, I should add, not like big honking judders in the frame. More like having objects move close by the lens, where you can see the parallax shift during footsteps, or slight surges in speed. In my salad days I felt like I had gotten on top of this but subsequently it got away from me. C'est la vie.

[Larry McConkey]

I am with Andrew Ansnick on this one - do exactly as he says and you can make the Steadicam look as smooth and stable as a dolly, regardless of the equipment. Do anything else and I don't believe it is possible when moving very slowly and there is nothing to distract from the move (like following or preceding an actor, especially if they fill a good portion of the frame. It can't be done without the hard work he detailed so carefully - there are no shortcuts. If you are making faster moves, the arm (whatever the type) and the inertia of the sled will do most of the work. I have spent many hours doing what Andrew described, and I only did that difficult training because it is sometimes necessary, and nothing else in my experience will make the Steadicam move through space without any noticeable deviations in direction, height and/or speed. It becomes a question of "what is good enough" like so many things...

[Thomas English]

Thank you for your input Larry and Andrew. I also believe it is impossible to achieve micro slow tracking shots with a normal gait. There is simply a moment where gravity makes you fall into the next step.

 

I am intrigued by Andrew Ansnick's comment on landing toe first. I have always landed heel first and rolled the foot. Is there any science to tell us which technique is better? Failing that.... What does Larry McConkey do?

[Benjamin Treplin]

During my second workshop I learned that there seem to be two different philosophies about how to do slow Steadicam moves. One as mentioned is to walk in a way that the socket block moves in a straight line. The other method is also a dance technique. Think of a ballerina that floats over the stage by making tiny fast steps on the toes. It was Geoffrey Haley who showed our group a shot we should do. Towards the end of the 30 sec or so shot he slowed down by making shorter but faster steps till he landed into a lock off. He said the reason for doing so is to work with a step frequency that is better compensated by the arm. It takes as much time to practice as the other method. Does it work for every slow shot? No, but for certain shots it does work very well for me.

[Michael Muehlemann]

Well first of all im sorry for bringing this old topic back to life ;) just want to share my recent experience.

 

I fly an actioncam Rig to let u know. which is a very decent nice arm so far and the rest is quite in the good mid range.

 

I struggled with footsteps for two years now, tried other arms, G70X / PRO or the Exovest, etc. Nothing helped at the end. And i thought for myself: for fuck sakes other OPs are able to hide them with their non PRO gear too so why shouldnt i be able to do it?

 

I have the pleasure that Erwin Landau is close to my place so i asked him for a private workshop day to look at my footstep issue and weak spots in general.

 

Two years trying like hell to remove it with 18.000$ gear didnt work. I have them removed now for 140$ lol

 

I now operate in 5 Fingers "Barefoot" shoes. Erwin told ne that day to do it barefoot. And it was way better. After i learned again how to walk "softly" barefoot now with the shoes my steps are gone. Finally!!! and slow moves are getting better aswell. It felt like i made a big jump because of the right shoes (for me) with my operating.

 

I also have a better balance now, better feeling on stairs. but it needs practice too. Specially before starting with the rig with those shoes. But thats a training/muscle thing in your feet. The muscles became weak with regular shoes you need to train them again.

 

Last now as i said this worked beautiful for me!! And i wont go back anytime. i love it. Who ever wanna give it a try do it slowly :)

[Davide Airoldi]

Hello to all...
in my opinion it would be appropriate to create a precise procedure to establish the validity of the "toe test" of an arm from 1 to 10.
It may be useful to determine accurate and repeatable conditions as: acceleration, speed, weight of the sled, subject distance and the zoom value.

I think this could help manufacturers improve their products and operators to have a objective ranking of arms.


Thanks for the attention

[chris fawcett]

That's hard perhaps to tie down to exact numbers, but here's a rough comparison to get you started.

 

All the best,

 

Chris

 

The Toe Test

[Geoff Owen]

Interesting Chris,

the test did prove that the boys could count backwards from Three. As you said this test isn't really very conclusive of the arms performance. From what I saw the Tiffen arm performed slightly better. Much of the movement can be put down to the natural response of the spring. Although these arms are great they still have a natural float position depending on how they are trimmed for weight, I notice that both cameras are not identical and so the load on the arms aren't the same amount. Do the guys get to the high point, up on their tip toes at the same speed, etc. do they have different size feet which would dictate how far they raise the socket block, etc etc. Both guys are dramatically different in height.

As a better test if both operators were standing on a mechanical platform that jumped them up and down at the same speed and the same vertical distance, that would take that speed/rate of movement out of the equation. Perhaps a platform like this may be able to vary this speed/rate, it would be interesting to see how these arms perform at different rates of movement. Ultimately the only way to make an accurate conclusion is to take the human out of the equation for a start.

Another variation of this test is to grab hold of the elbow of the arm and giggle it up and down, Again a mechanical device could be rigged to do this with a set amount of lift up and down as well control the rate of oscillation.

That's my two cents worth.

Happy giggling.

Geoff Owen