Premium Members AndySchwartz Posted November 28, 2012 Premium Members Report Share Posted November 28, 2012 hey chris the CG at the back of the post is a very good starting point, it is not the final resting place a lot of the time, and based on what you found sounds like you are about a 1/2 inch up from that. it is definitely not a rule, but more of a techinique that gets you close to where you finally ended up. as opposed to starting with the CG 3 inches behind of, or in front of the post. just always a good starting point. wherever the weights end up sitting that makes the rig spin flat, then so be it. it just depends on the relationship between them. so no worries whatsoever on where that is. congratulations on being persistent and figuring it out and being sucessful, however you did. nice work. there are a lot of methods and techniques involved in everything we do, and ultimately, what is great, is that we all have the opportunity to learn, try, and test them all and finally find things that work for each one of us. no technique is a hard rule, and few are completely wrong, it just depends at the end of your day, what works for you, how you remember shots, camera placement, how to set yourself up so you can balance quickly and so on. the best thing about the steadicam is that it is something that allows for personal style and preference at times, whether with its movement or with the gear itself. it is nice to have the sled pan flat though. man it makes life easier in the rig. cheers a Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christopher Smith Posted November 29, 2012 Author Report Share Posted November 29, 2012 Thanks Andy. I really appreciate how helpful everyone has been on this forum. I feel more comfortable with the rig and it is behaving so much better now that I completely rebalanced it from the ground up. The book was great help with this is well. I used the rig on a gig I had this week and am very happy with the shots considering my limited experience. Here are some shots. Let me know what you think. - Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Members Alan Rencher Posted November 29, 2012 Premium Members Report Share Posted November 29, 2012 Christopher, I've noticed that there are vibrations in the image when you take steps. That might be cause by loose components on your rig. Check everything and make sure it's all tightened down, and fly safe! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christopher Smith Posted November 29, 2012 Author Report Share Posted November 29, 2012 Christopher, I've noticed that there are vibrations in the image when you take steps. That might be cause by loose components on your rig. Check everything and make sure it's all tightened down, and fly safe! Thanks Alan. Someone else pointed that out to me but I couldn't think of what it could be. That makes sense. It is possible the bottom of my sled wasn't tightened down. I'll check that out. I Appreciate you catching that. -Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Members Eric Fletcher S.O.C. Posted November 30, 2012 Premium Members Report Share Posted November 30, 2012 Thanks Andy. I really appreciate how helpful everyone has been on this forum. I feel more comfortable with the rig and it is behaving so much better now that I completely rebalanced it from the ground up. Ummm just a point but NONE of the shots in your video require Dynamic balance. In fact for 99.95% of the work that everyone does you don't need to be dynamically balanced Just sayin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Members Alan Rencher Posted November 30, 2012 Premium Members Report Share Posted November 30, 2012 Thanks Alan. Someone else pointed that out to me but I couldn't think of what it could be. That makes sense. It is possible the bottom of my sled wasn't tightened down. I'll check that out. I Appreciate you catching that. -Chris It could also be cause by flex in something on the top stage. I have this problem when I'm flying a Red One & Red Pro Primes without a proper dove tail. I always have to slide the whole setup off of the back of the sled. The Red production pack has some play, and without an arri bridge plate and 12" dove tail, It'll vibrate. It's only noticeable in the image. If you post some pictures of your setup, maybe we can give you some pointers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Members AndySchwartz Posted November 30, 2012 Premium Members Report Share Posted November 30, 2012 Chris the vibration is most likely coming from the top side of the rig, early in the footage it is pretty harsh and unless something is really banging around on the bottom of the sled, which would be obvious, it is probably coming from the top. I was flying a Sony F900 video camera one day and going down some steps and there was a bit of vibration and it was coming from the camera and the quick release plate it was on, which was on my dovetail. the camera was wobbly side to side, so check all that stuff, matte box, batteries, usually a little camera tape or moleskin will pad any wiggle room on that stuff. as far as the operating, and i know i am no one to be critiquing anyone's footage that much, but i will give you my 2 cent opinion anyways based on my preferences. - the camera seems to be a bit lost without a very clear direction of where it is heading and how it is discovering things. each take sort of has the same feel and kind of wandering about feel. maybe try to pick a start and end frame and keep the camera on a course from point a to point b. and really work to move it through space in a particular manner, is it a fun playful POV, is it slow and observational, and so on. maybe play with different pacing. - horizons are a bit out of whack here and there, and there is a bit of either a tilting (looking) up or down feel. on the playground that works, inside there is a lot of ceiling. wide lens work gets that sometimes. just be aware of that sort of thing, the top and bottom of the frame and the lens height/tilting up down options. sometimes pushing in just a smidge on the lens really helps out. - as eric alluded to, there is not a lot of movement that has any panning or turning, and that space has some interesting architecture, and while it is tempting to fly close to walls to accent them, that also makes a big blue wall appear HUGE in the frame compared to the kids, so maybe trying to play with the steadicam to try and pan/tilt the architecture in the frame. - i always try to start simple, point A to B, fly past this thing, and stop. Move on. Then tilt down and walk around this thing, and stop. Then try some longer walks and moves. Dude. You are just starting out. It is all good. We can all always improve on various things, so good work, keep working at it, find the things you like that you did and do more of that, then try to figure out what it is you did not like, and try to find ways to change and improve on it. Pick and choose your battles work on a few things at a time and then move on. It is hard to work on everything at once with so much going on. As your muscle memory improves in the rig things get easier and more fun and you can really think critically about what you are doing. All good man Cheers a Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christopher Smith Posted November 30, 2012 Author Report Share Posted November 30, 2012 Thanks Andy. I really appreciate how helpful everyone has been on this forum. I feel more comfortable with the rig and it is behaving so much better now that I completely rebalanced it from the ground up. Ummm just a point but NONE of the shots in your video require Dynamic balance. In fact for 99.95% of the work that everyone does you don't need to be dynamically balanced Just sayin Thanks Eric. Dynamic balance was not my only problem but I didn't realize that until I read the book. I completely started over with static balancing. When I originally got the rig, I static balanced it but I was always fighting it from penduluming on me. So, at that point I figured it wasn't balanced correctly and that getting it to dynamic balance would help. Once I read the book and started from scratch and aimed for dynamic balance, I got a more solid static balance and now the rig just floats where it is supposed to and I don't have to fight it to keep it from penduluming. Anyway, it's solid now and that's what matters. Now I just have to tighten everything down to get rid of the vibrations Alan is pointing out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christopher Smith Posted November 30, 2012 Author Report Share Posted November 30, 2012 Chris the vibration is most likely coming from the top side of the rig, early in the footage it is pretty harsh and unless something is really banging around on the bottom of the sled, which would be obvious, it is probably coming from the top. I was flying a Sony F900 video camera one day and going down some steps and there was a bit of vibration and it was coming from the camera and the quick release plate it was on, which was on my dovetail. the camera was wobbly side to side, so check all that stuff, matte box, batteries, usually a little camera tape or moleskin will pad any wiggle room on that stuff. as far as the operating, and i know i am no one to be critiquing anyone's footage that much, but i will give you my 2 cent opinion anyways based on my preferences. - the camera seems to be a bit lost without a very clear direction of where it is heading and how it is discovering things. each take sort of has the same feel and kind of wandering about feel. maybe try to pick a start and end frame and keep the camera on a course from point a to point b. and really work to move it through space in a particular manner, is it a fun playful POV, is it slow and observational, and so on. maybe play with different pacing. - horizons are a bit out of whack here and there, and there is a bit of either a tilting (looking) up or down feel. on the playground that works, inside there is a lot of ceiling. wide lens work gets that sometimes. just be aware of that sort of thing, the top and bottom of the frame and the lens height/tilting up down options. sometimes pushing in just a smidge on the lens really helps out. - as eric alluded to, there is not a lot of movement that has any panning or turning, and that space has some interesting architecture, and while it is tempting to fly close to walls to accent them, that also makes a big blue wall appear HUGE in the frame compared to the kids, so maybe trying to play with the steadicam to try and pan/tilt the architecture in the frame. - i always try to start simple, point A to B, fly past this thing, and stop. Move on. Then tilt down and walk around this thing, and stop. Then try some longer walks and moves. Dude. You are just starting out. It is all good. We can all always improve on various things, so good work, keep working at it, find the things you like that you did and do more of that, then try to figure out what it is you did not like, and try to find ways to change and improve on it. Pick and choose your battles work on a few things at a time and then move on. It is hard to work on everything at once with so much going on. As your muscle memory improves in the rig things get easier and more fun and you can really think critically about what you are doing. All good man Cheers a Thanks again Andy. I'm very thankful for your critique and will keep this stuff in mind. -Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Members JobScholtze Posted December 16, 2012 Premium Members Report Share Posted December 16, 2012 In my world, dynamic balance means everything. Live tv work is a hughe amount of switching to don juan all the time. I haven't read wich system you fly, but not all systems are easy to balance, no matter what book you read. I use my sled for the last 5 years and dynamic balance the thing costs me 10 seconds. Once you get to know your setup, its gets easyer. I use eric's methode daily for the last 5 years. And i do fly 3d setups, film, all video cams you can think off. Just dont get crazy, its just not a big deal at all. If you need help, pm me and i am happy ro show you the easy way. Or use difficult methodes, your call...... Have a great weekend Edit: Just re-read your post title, Forget the i dont know wich sled you have Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Samuel Angus Campbell Posted January 7, 2013 Report Share Posted January 7, 2013 Thanks Andy. I really appreciate how helpful everyone has been on this forum. I feel more comfortable with the rig and it is behaving so much better now that I completely rebalanced it from the ground up. Ummm just a point but NONE of the shots in your video require Dynamic balance. In fact for 99.95% of the work that everyone does you don't need to be dynamically balanced Just sayin Thanks Eric. Dynamic balance was not my only problem but I didn't realize that until I read the book. I completely started over with static balancing. When I originally got the rig, I static balanced it but I was always fighting it from penduluming on me. So, at that point I figured it wasn't balanced correctly and that getting it to dynamic balance would help. Once I read the book and started from scratch and aimed for dynamic balance, I got a more solid static balance and now the rig just floats where it is supposed to and I don't have to fight it to keep it from penduluming. Anyway, it's solid now and that's what matters. Now I just have to tighten everything down to get rid of the vibrations Alan is pointing out. I believe that the pedulum effect is usually caused by too quick a drop time. You may want to experiment with a slightly less bottom heavy rig. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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