Most dangerous steadicam shot you have done ?

[Twojay Dhillon]

Not just one shot, but an entire commercial in NY! The commercial used a lot of stage jam and the stuff was ridiculously slippery. We pretty much slathered an entire block in Bushwick in the stuff. A lot of my shots were fast moving and I was sliding about. Shockingly, I didn't go down (more than a few extras did), and I was tiptoe'ing about the entire shoot.

 

Here's a link to a pretty whiny article written about the spot, along with a bunch of pics, one of which shows my heightened interest in the cops shutting down the shoot ^_^ : http://bushwickdaily...-bogart-street/

 

And here's the spot: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKU00S9XAV8

[Sanjay Sami]

For a tv show, asked to hang off the running boards of a jeep wrangler driving down a public road, hold on with one hand and operate with the other to shoot the driver(actor) with a 50mm. They promised it would be a quick shot, and I wouldn't have to hold it for long. Needless to say, I offered numerous alternate solutions and explained why this wouldn't work for "their needs".

 

Glad you made it !

They would have slapped a door mount on in 2 minutes while the paramedics were loading you into the ambulance.

You should've asked the DP to hand hold it :-)

[GrantCulwell]

A 10 minute Don Juan shot preceding an Amazonian native down a jungle trail crossing 3 pirana-infested creeks as he grew increasingly pessimistic about shooting something for his dinner.

 

FMS, that was fun.

 

 

Chris, was this the one where you lost your tooth.

[Peter Jensen]

I was operating Steadicam on a scene with several dozen archers jumping off their horses and firing arrows. The director told them to aim over the "right shoulder of the Steadicam guy". The stunt coordinator said this was a safe shot because the archers were skilled stunt men. Being hit by an arrow was bad, but if I survived I would always be known for the rest of my life as the Steadicam operator who was dumb enough to do a stunt like that. So I didn't do the shot and they moved a dolly in but the stunt coordinator thought that would be dangerous because a stray arrow could ricochet off the dolly into the extras and we ended up shooting imaginary arrows that would somehow be digitally animated.

[chris fawcett]

Chris, was this the one where you lost your tooth.

Same movie, but I knocked my tooth out in the gold-mine shot.

[Jon Beattie]

I was shooting a dock in various interesting neighborhoods of Brooklyn. Small crew run and gun with a young director not from NYC.

 

Shooting for a few days a bad pattern kept forming. We'd discuss and plan a shot and then while rolling without fail the director would change things up or ask to keep going and going.

 

Following talent across intersections, into stores, suddenly down the stairs of a subway etc. Numerous times I had let our visiting director know we can't just go into traffic or into a bodega without making a plan and maybe talking to the store owner quickly first.

 

Well one day we are shooting exterior b roll/ pov shots of "the neighborhood" just stealing shots of people going about their day on the blvd. A minute into a take just shooting some people on the sidewalk. Director asks me to pan over to some gentleman sitting infront of a building. I'm pretty locked into shooting and hear "we ain't bout that" coming from the direction I was asked to pan to. Director asks for it again so like a good soldier I pan over and continue down the sidewalk.

 

The gentleman sitting getup and rush me in an instant. A guy I can only assume who's nickname is tiny has now grabbed the camera pushed it into me and is yelling in harmony at me with his buddies. For a split second I thought to pretend not to speak English. Then I just throw my arms up say "I'm sorry" in a submissive you win tone. They didn't want to hear anything from me continued to aggressively come after me with threads of violence.

 

The director tried jumping inbetween to talk. Didn't do much but buy me a second. Being strapped into the rig I quickly turned around and got the hell out of dodge.

 

When we got back around the corner I let the director know that's why you need a plan and need to know a little something about where your working.

 

Thankfully no one was hurt but who knows how close we may have been.

 

Recently I've been watching an hob series about combat photographers. In it they talk about the disconnect between the photographer and their surroundings. We sometimes think the camera is this shield or cloak of impenetrability. It's not.

 

 

[Brian Freesh]

Ultimately not so dangerous, but Jon's story reminds me of this video:

 

The sequence from 1:20-2:20 was cut from two ~12 minute steadicam shots. Everything was improvised, and we just started rolling. On Skid Row.

 

They actually planned for us to get stuff thrown at us! And of course no one told me, or that the "ext: street" location we'd be shooting at was not permitted and was, well, Skid Row.

 

It turned out that the 'residents' were totally cool with us shooting, though we didn't get a lot of them in the video, which was the whole point of going there. When the patrol car showed up and yelled at us to stop shooting I did stop, but the director sent Tyler into the street and told me to shoot him. This was around the time of all those videos of people recording the police in action and the police getting violent on the videographer, so I was not excited about recording them. Since the situation was decidedly different than those videos I went ahead and turned the camera on them (obviously).

 

Ultimately the police driving away in that shot is them leaving right after I started recording them. As there were so many of us it probably wasn't worth it to them to try to shut us down, on the assumption we'd be gone soon. On the other hand, if we hadn't left shortly after, who knows how many bored officers there were nearby (as there is a station right there). I was wearing my Flyer and was fully prepared to bolt in whatever direction put the director and Tyler between me and the police. :)

[Eric Fletcher S.O.C.]

Ultimately not so dangerous, but Jon's story reminds me of this video:

 

So it wasn't really dangerous....

[Kris Torch Wilson]

I wasn't operating steadi but the lesson is the same. standing on the skids of a copter hand held shooting the pilot through the front window. Pilot was really fighting to keep us balanced. We were about 50 feet off the deck. After we set down, we both agreed that was about the stupidest thing either of us had ever done.

 

With regards to firearms: I'm pretty well versed in the handling and use of firearms. I refused to do a shot that required the firearm to be pointed in my direction, until I had inspected it. The prop master was clearly offended. I explained that it had nothing to do with him, but with my own "paranoia" and that any offense or delay was clearly on my shoulders. It was unloaded. We did the shot several times, but that gun was always in my eye line. The next time, before we shot, the prop master presented the weapon to me before it went on the set. I thanked him for his courtesy and all went well.

 

If you are not comfortable handling a firearm but are uncomfortable with one on set, politely ask the prop master or armorer to show you that it's unloaded and safe. If you play to his/her "expertise" no feelings should be hurt.

 

Take responsibility for your own safety. As you get a little older, you will come to appreciate the fact that you are not invincible.

[Sanjay Sami]

A few years ago, I had to do a scene where 2 guys with assault rifles shoot several rounds inside a closed room, killing security guards (appropriately squibbed) I had lexan sheets between me and the guns, but got rained on with hot shell casings that were bouncing off the ceiling, and more than a few, found their way down my collar. I had blisters then, and scars now.

I was better prepared for take 2.

[Sanjay Sami]

In another incident, I refused to do a shot off the front of a quad, racing down a very steep cobbled stone path in Balat, Istanbul. I offered to rig the Libra 3, but the Director insisted on steadicam. So they hired a Turkish steadicam operator to do it. The operator agreed to do the shot, and after the fist take at half speed, on the first day at full speed, his arm snapped when the quad came off the slope onto flat ground. The arm shot off in one direction like a bullet, his batteries flew in another direction as the bottom of the sled crashed against the quad, but the operator, with superhuman strength, held onto the sled with his operating hand, and saved his sled and the Millenium XL. His hand was severely pinched and bleeding from getting pinched in the yoke, but was otherwise unhurt.

I then rigged the Libra 3, and we got the shot without much drama.

[Adam Brown]

...his arm snapped when the quad came off the slope onto flat ground.

 

That took me more time than it should have to realize that it wasn't his actual arm, but the arm on his rig. You should've seen my horrified face!

[Janice Arthur]

Hi all;

 

Here is a strange one I'll throw out from Mr. Papert a long while back.

 

Vest and rig on, grabbed something from craft service and was choking with no way to speak and no way to tell anyone.

 

Now he's in the vest and can't be helped quickly either.

 

Charles if you want to add to the details but we all heard it at the time and it did the 'hummm' when have I done the same thing?

 

Have a great new year!

 

Janice

[brett.mayfield]

This could have been dangerous for the camera, not so much for me, except for the way the shot started.

 

We were shooting a teaser for the release of an album using lasers. The director wanted the red laser to pass just under the lens, and I obliged, but as the laser tech was initiating the laser he put it on full spectrum and the laser shot a hole the size of a sharpie through a wooden partition over my shoulder. I stepped away and waited for him to recalibrate the laser and then we started the shot for real. Upon inspecting the hole, i could see a dark spot in the brick wall about ten feet behind the wooden partition.

 

http://vimeo.com/53043513

Edited January 29, 2013 by brett.mayfield

[Erwin Landau]

Which one do you want?

 

In no particular order...

- Somersault backwards over a headstone with gear because the AD exchanged my spotter and didn't tell me about it...

- Seeing a chimpanzee that I just padded a second ago go apeshit and almost rip a wheel off an SUV...

- Working with a pissed Longhorn caught in a convenient store isle at 2am...

- Getting hit in the back by the rearview mirror of an MTA bus while shooting in the middle of Sunset boulevard during rush hour...

- Running around a corner and down some surprise stairs were even the Actor, Director and my spotter went down around me...

- Getting hit by a shotgun blank, point blank into the chest during a SWAT raid in a movie by the same stunt coordinator that swore a minute ago nobody would aim at me...

- Getting blocked my way back to one by a huge black dude with bullet hole wounds and a Desert Eagle in the front of his pans, telling me that I am walking on his street...

- Running down a ravine with a rig loaded with a 435, getting faster and running out of room, very quickly, to stop...

- Running into one of Snoop Dogs Bodyguards that does not know that you belong to the crew...

- Being pushed in a make believe rickshaw (Ball-buster cart) by a grip that just slipped on cow shit and loses the grip of the cart, pushing me with a trajectory off the curb while preceding a not so calm any more bull in Downtown LA...

- Telling a choleric Actor/Director that you would not come back tomorrow, because you didn't like his directing and how he treaded his crew...

- Getting extremely hot pans and back shooting the close up of the 2 protagonists while there is a auto bomb going off behind me in Venice...

- Standing in a lock off in a very painful and nerve pinching position for 30 plus minutes for an interview (of a well known Director in his living room)... trying to dock... not feeling your legs... there was some damage to the Camera and the Matt box and some bend battery rods on my rig and some dents in the mahogany flooring... and i had a very nice view of the very detailed stacko on the ceiling...

- Getting hit by a skater on Venice beach full force while wearing the rig (the PA responsible for crowed control was sleeping) and getting my left hand pinched in the Gimbal joke... my blood made great and very accurate camera marks running down the center post...

- Getting talked into flying an unconverted studio mode Panavision G2 off of a make believe quad... just to hear your PRO arm snap during rehearsals... and later your shoulder as you are trying to catch the falling rig...

- Running after some actors flying a BL2 with Gyros under a parked Airplane on the tarmac and putting a gash into the kerosene filled wing...

- Getting hired for a day call on a movie and realizing that you are the only person actually staying dressed in that soft porn movie... wait, that was more embarrassing... Always ask for the script... I'll stop before I really go there...

 

You get older, but not necessarily smarter with age... but at least (hopefully) more cautious...

 

As always... fly safe... and just say NO!

 

 

Erwin