The Missing

[Stephen Murphy]

Will,

 

Caught some of the BTS on "The Missing" DVD today. Any particular reason you had your antlers underslung on the sled, even in high-mode?

Very nice work by the way. Looks like they worked you hard!

[WillArnot]

Hiya Stephen,

I put the antlers on the bottom for a couple of reasons. The shot called for med. close-ups of the riders on horseback. Primarily, the antlers were there to add bottom weight and therefore lower the gimbal and thus gain a few inches in lens height. As we know, the further the camera gets from the gimbal the quicker you start to see the effects of a gust of wind or any other anomalies. Imagine if you are on the deck of a sailboat that is pitching and rolling on rough water. Now imagine if you are at the top of the mast in the same conditions....the pitching and rolling would be 10x greater.

 

So the antlers gave a nice 'stiffening' feel to this hi lens height situation. Gyros would have also done the trick but since I was getting very close to the horses I decided to just remain 'quiet' so as not to spook them with our 3 principle actors riding.

 

This was a Super Post set up as well, but I decided to keep the post almost fully collapsed ( 42 inches), and use the antlers to pull the gimbal down rather than lengthening the post. This was for two reasons. The main being that it was somewhat of a long lens, 65mm or 85mm i forget, so I wanted to retain as much rigidity as possible. Normally I wouldn't worry so much since I have Greg Bubb's bomber 2" post so long lens work is consistently far more solid than on any other rig out there that I've flown, but the terrain throughout the picture was consistently very challenging, so it was often hard to walk smoothly. And because of the horse factor I knew I was going to have to hustle, while also being prepared to change direction suddenly since the horses weren't always predictable.

 

For 3 reasons the antlers were the best choice. Being much lower profile than lengthening out the bottom of the sled, I bought valuable room to manuever my feet. Using the Super Post stretched out would have been too cumbersome given the awkward terrain and the speed I potentially needed to move at. Secondly, the mass down below gained me valuable inches above to be able to get to riders' eye level. I also had a 12" arm post to help achieve this. Thirdly, it gave me just enough added stability to control the close-up well. I used the longest riser on the antlers, 8 inches? I should point out for those who don't have the visual, that I oriented the antlers in a front-to-back direction in line with the sled, rather than the normal perpendicular set-up which would have immediatly hit my knees of course.

 

I love Antlers, they are a great item to have in one's quiver. They don't have as strong an effect as gyros, but they definately help alot, and they are silent of course, and way easier to pop on and off. I'm a big fan of simple but effective. Thanks Brant and Jerry for developing this tool. (Pardon if i'm missing someone out)

 

And yes. That was a brutal job. Remote locations, protected Indian land (limited ATV use) and very little time or resources to haul in the big gear ie cranes and dolly track etc. Hence tons of steadicam. Not to mention the altitude was always at least 7000ft and regularly around 9500ft (2900 m). One day I had to walk the rig almost a mile to get it out of a valley that we had worked our way into over the course of the afternoon. And to boot, the final climb out involved a 200ft scramble up a steep slope that alot of people had to use their hands to climb up. Ron Howard came up and shook my hand when he saw me cresting the top wearing the rig. It was the slope that Tommy Lee Jones gets thrown down in the movie. This was the job that pushed me to get Walter's vest. I spent all my per-diem sitting in the spas of Santa Fe on the weekends. Had I not, the wheels would have definately fallen off the wagon.

 

Will

 

ps - and thanks for the nod. Always nice to be noticed. Cheers mate.

[Lawrence Karman]

Will, nice technical explanation regarding the Antlers. I've got one and never considered using it that way. Very useful info. Thanks. And good work on The Missing. Russell told me what a tough time it was.

[Stephen Murphy]

Thanks Will, great post.

I personnally think that antlers are one of the best pieces of kit you can have; great value for money relative to their low cost: i use them a lot on outdoor stuff.

Did you need to have your XCS sled modified much to use them underslung? or did you just mount a spare dovetail to the sled yourself?

 

P.s good luck in the triathlon:)

[Marc Abernathy]

wil thanks for your post. your explanation was very good info to have. i appreciate you posting your tips and tricks.. thats why i love this #$%^ site!! :)

[fosteralex]

Hi Will,

 

Do you have any pictures of this setup? I've done a couple of jobs with horses (always interesting) but never had to get the lens hight up to that of the talent.

 

Cheers,

 

 

Alex

[WillArnot]

Hey Stephen,

I finally got a picture together of the bracket I use on the bottom of my Ultimate sled for a dovetail for the antlers. It eliminates needing to screw a dovetail to a mounting plate (ie. 2 plates).

 

Check out this page. It's worth it!

 

http://homepage.mac.com/willglide/PhotoAlbum2.html

 

Will

[JobScholtze]

Man, i DO like that photo of Kate Mos on your Site :P

[Stephen Murphy]

Hey Stephen,

    I finally got a picture together of the bracket I use on the bottom of my Ultimate sled for a dovetail for the antlers.

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Thanks Will: Clever idea, i might try something like that myself for my Paglok mounts. nice site: u going to add any more photos?

[Alec Jarnagin SOC]

Will,

 

Very cool. Did Greg make that for you? The gold color is his style. I bought an extra one of his gyro mounting plates without the spud (the part that doubles the price) to use as a blank AB template for various reasons. Good tid bit to add to the kit.