Charles Papert
November 16th, 2007, 08:32 PM
While it certainly can't hurt to practice Tai Chi or work on one's posture, the handheld stabilizers are somewhat less affected by this sort of thing than the full-size rigs. A handheld system doesn't "know" about the position of one's spine or hips, only that which is reflected through the operator's arms, whereas the the body-mount systems will be reflect lower-body influence more directly. It certainly is useful to learn how to walk smoothly when operating a handheld rig, but that should be part of the vocabulary of every person who operates a camera because this is directly related to the success of their handheld work. Certainly, the less jarring that is delivered from the lower torso, the less invasion into the stability of the handheld stabilizer from both arms. For most this will be more easily seen in the guide hand that is operating the rig itself; erratic motion will translate via the fingers into an overly active and jerky frame in the angular (pan, tilt, roll) axes. In Sam's case (my apologies Sam, your thread got hijacked because of my silly video over at steadishots) the support hand is the one that is seeing more influence from the body because it is that one that is responsible for isolating the spatial axes (forward/backward, sideways, up and down motion).
Having studied the video of Sam at work, it remains a mystery to me why he has experienced such a degree of bobbing as his form seems fine. Sam, it's been a while since you first posted--have you found the issue diminishing over time, as I suspected it would? Very often with Steadicam, the body "learns" how to reduce negative influences on the rig in a way that is hard to define or quantify. Watching an experienced Steadicam operator, most people think that the rig simply does all the work for you because they make it look so "easy"--in other words, the operator appears relatively relaxed with no wasted effort or extraneous movement. Some operators who are quite good do however have somewhat questionable posture--they've learned how to accomodate this in their operating so it doesn't screw up the shot, but they are likely to pay the price in wear-and-tear on the body down the road. Chris Fawcett's treatise on Steadicam posture (http://steadivision.com/steadipos.htm) has some great images that demonstrate do's and don'ts. Mostly these are aimed at full-size rig operators but I regularly hear from those flying smaller rigs complaining of sore backs etc. and I feel sure that much of this comes via the same issue. I am relieved to say that at the last Cinegear, Chris gave me an assessment of my operating posture and had only minor suggestions--dodged that bullet!
Having studied the video of Sam at work, it remains a mystery to me why he has experienced such a degree of bobbing as his form seems fine. Sam, it's been a while since you first posted--have you found the issue diminishing over time, as I suspected it would? Very often with Steadicam, the body "learns" how to reduce negative influences on the rig in a way that is hard to define or quantify. Watching an experienced Steadicam operator, most people think that the rig simply does all the work for you because they make it look so "easy"--in other words, the operator appears relatively relaxed with no wasted effort or extraneous movement. Some operators who are quite good do however have somewhat questionable posture--they've learned how to accomodate this in their operating so it doesn't screw up the shot, but they are likely to pay the price in wear-and-tear on the body down the road. Chris Fawcett's treatise on Steadicam posture (http://steadivision.com/steadipos.htm) has some great images that demonstrate do's and don'ts. Mostly these are aimed at full-size rig operators but I regularly hear from those flying smaller rigs complaining of sore backs etc. and I feel sure that much of this comes via the same issue. I am relieved to say that at the last Cinegear, Chris gave me an assessment of my operating posture and had only minor suggestions--dodged that bullet!