First Steadicam Shoot

[Tomas Szklarski]

So my first shoot was this past Saturday, I would have posted earlier but have been swamped with editing work (which I hate doing).

Let me start off by saying I took the SOA workshop in October in Penn. It was fantastic, definitly worth the money, good food, but not enough for my matabilsm. Anyway, so fast forward five months and here I was preparing for my first Steadicam Shoot. There were a couple problems going into it. First off, I haven't been in a rig since the workshop, and now I was going to do a shoot. I don't own a rig of my own so I had to borrow from a Steadicam Operator in my area. The weeks before the shoot he was traveling the US doing work, so I couldn't practice with his rig. I was basically going cold into this shoot. I was a little nervous about that.

The Second problem was that I was in charge of everything on this shoot. Something I don't like doing. The shoot was for a highschool dance company I work for every year. I am in charge of creating an opening video that is shown in the theater before the show starts. Then I am in charge of making an intermission show for the Television coverage and an outakes video of tech week which will be shown in the DVD of the show. So on top of not being too confident in my steadicam ability, I have to deal with everything else that is going on for the day of the shoot.

The third problem that arose on the day of the shoot was the lighting guy didn't show up till 15 minutes before we were supposed to start. That really ticked me off!!! So becuase of this, we didn't start for another hour. Everyone in the company and the dance directors were freaking out because of the late start. Not a fun time when a bunch of girls are irritated!!!!

All in all the shoot went alright, I was surprised at how well the footage looked for not having touched a rig for five months and not having time to practice. It wasn't top notch, but it was good with all things considering. A lot of the stuff I wasn't allowed a second take because of time or the girls and guy couldn't hold the pose anymore. Doing the shoot I have realized I still need to work on my hand grip, still grabbing too hard at times. I am standing up straight, which is something I wasn't doing at the workshop. I had a blast and am happy with the results and I just wanted to share my experience with everyone.

[Tomas Szklarski]

here is a pic

[AndySchwartz]

hey tom

 

cool deal. congratulations.

 

think of problems as challenges. i did my first real shoot with my rig last april, under the pressure of a hyperactive/critical producer another DP with 15 years experience, i was slightly nervous. things went well though, as yours did. but yeah, it was not ideal. but it often is never ideal on shoots i find. at least in documentaries.

 

i think even now after having done a bit more work over the past year, I still get a little squirmish having to run the rig, and i get to practice all the time. less though than in the past, i even have a new gig this weekend for 3 days in NYC with a new producer and everything. so fingers crossed.

 

 

with experience and practice, comes skill, and then comes more confidence,

 

i hope.

 

take care

andy