Silver vs gold workshop for a beginner

[Yngve Bugge Drangsholt]

Good day, evening and everything in between! 

I currently work as a camera operator and AC based in Norway, but I’ve always had a dream of doing steadicam operating one day. 

Experience wise, I’m pretty much starting from scratch. 
The closest I’ve been to steadicam operating is a bit of gimbal work- and running around with a knock-off glidecam (the handheld kind) when I was younger.
 

I am looking to attend a steadicam workshop, and saw that there is both a gold and a silver workshop coming up later this year. The question is, which do i choose?

Seeing as i have little to no experience, should i go with a silver workshop first, then perhaps step up to a gold workshop later? Or could I in theory go straight for the gold one, and be just as fine? Would you recommend me getting at least some experience with a steadicam before attending, or could I rock up as a complete beginner? 

The silver workshop is being held in the UK and the gold one in Sweden. Being based in Norway, I would have to fly in either way, and the Gold workshop includes accommodation/food, so the price difference wouldn't be too massive. 

 

Thanks

-Yngve

[Severin Schwarz]

Hey Yngeve,

At first i would have said that it is up to how badly you want to pursue a career in steadicam, because of the cost difference between the workshops.

But since you said that it wouldnt make a big difference cost wise for you, I personally would advise you to take the gold workshop because its just more bang for your buck. Its five days, so more supervised time in the rig and you get to play with cooler stuff. As for your concern about the entry level i would say its the same. The gold workshop syllabus also includes setup, balancing and operating basics, so you should be fine. Plus its also suitable for experienced operators so you can meet other Ops an make connections.

And if you want to prepare yourself you can find great resources on operating and balancing online, or get the Steadicam Operators Handbook.

So i would say go for it, if you can afford it and you want to pursue a career in steadicam. 

I hope this was helpfull in some way 

Cheers 

Sev

[Yngve Bugge Drangsholt]

Thank you so much for the input, Severin, that is very helpful!

I have wanted to pursue this as a career for a long while now. I've read through most of the handbook and watched countless hours of videos on the subject over the years, so i'm very keen to get started!

After crunching the numbers some more (and noticing that the silver workshop included a refundable VAT charge, and the gold workshop didn't), the cost difference would be a little larger than I first thought. Silver would be around 1700 EUR and the gold would be around 3500 EUR, transportation and accommodation taken into account, so i'll have to take that into consideration. 

It will definitely be an invest either way, but perhaps it could be beneficial to take a silver workshop and put the difference into a down payment on a first rig? It's at least good to know that the entry level will be somewhat similar!

 

Thanks again, Sev!