anyone else noticed the amount of photos of girls with grip equipment attached to them by the manu's ? is it just me who thinks its a little bit condescending, as if to say "our gears so great, even the weak little girlies can use it!"

virtually every other photo involving cam gear has a guy, so i guess its nice to see the fairer sex for a change, but i can't be the only one to notice this :)

Condescending or good use of visual communication?

can it be both ? :)

I always look at those and think they're trying to show that:

"Look! My breasts don't get in the way of this rig!"

VZ has one in particular where you can't even see the shoulder mount, it's totally covered up by some woman's chest.

But do I want them to start using models that more resemble me? (6 feet, 250 lbs.)


No. Stick with the pretty ladies.

heh yeah, i'm not complaining from that aspect :D altho it would be nice to see sometimes how the rig would fit those of us who have spent a lot of time and effort toning our beer guts to perfection ;)

at least they don't go down the road of using obviously unaware model types who don't even know what they're wearing (at least the girls appear to be "realistic" people and not off the barbie assembly line most of the time :) )

To be honest, when I see people selling gear that way, I'm less likely to by it. It reeks of that "used car salesman" feeling. It lacks subtlety and is so blatantly sad that I just go away.

Unless of course they're selling stuff for sexy babes, then it's understandable - but they're not, they're selling it for film and video geeks and we're all ugly.

Aaron

????

I'm shallow...

More hot babes, more better.

I was wondering if they are trying to do two things at once.

1. Have something nice to look at (besides the rig).

2. To show the rig is light enough that it can be handled by the fairer sex.

In all my shooting with the Indicam I have only seen one young lady as a steadycam operator and she was Melanie Motiska at the Steadicam booth. She deserves to be there!

Tery

There have been a few well-known Steadicam operators of the female persuasion; the biggest name is Liz Ziegler, who has credits including "Eyes Wide Shut". She's hauled around the big rigs for years, and is best known for her Valkyrie-styled custom vest (small pic of her here (http://www.soc.org/opcam/07_fw9596/mg07_stcamfrc.html)). Others include Janice Arthur, a 20+ year veteran operator; Laurie Hayball, who like Melanie has also "modeled" for Tiffen brochures, and Kelly Hernsdorf who is now married to MK-V owner Howard Smith. All of them have hauled 70 lb+ rigs around--keep that in mind, boys, if you choose to whimper about flying DV stabilizers!

...Liz Ziegler, who has credits including "Eyes Wide Shut". She's hauled around the big rigs for years, and is best known for her Valkyrie-styled custom vest (small pic of her here (http://www.soc.org/opcam/07_fw9596/mg07_stcamfrc.html)).

perhaps that site is down, here's another link in case it's permanently down:

http://www.moonbeach.com/film/Film_LizAward1.jpg

I seem to argue this point with my wife - does sex sell?

I keep pointing to the "Sweedish Bikini Team". Remember the gals in the fur bikinis. OK, most of us do but, what was the product they were selling? It was beer but who's?

And that's the point. We remember the gals in fur bikinis but we don't remember the product makers. Is that good advertising. Not to me. I enjoy a fine figure as much as any male but advertising like that gets me rather mad.

For the record, she is under them impression sex sells and I say it doesn't.

I was ESPECIALLY turned off by several episodes of that show with "the Donald". The idea that the women involved in the show seemed to think it was OK to exploit themselves to win. What have we ended up teaching our daughters?

OK, now I'm mad again.

SMM

I get you Sean.

Unfortunately sex does sell. Which says little for the pedigree of the human race. Fortunately, it can also sabotage, which makes me feel better. Maybe the balance will flip eventually. But when I see an example of what the majority of the human race is like I lose my optimism.

As for the advert discussed, I haven't seen it, but as a woman I can reveal that advertising that has: a) girls in bikinis b) men with beer guts c)men being laddish, all alienate me.

Maybe this new advertising ploy is them realising that they have an untapped market, women do make up 50% of the world's population. And the same advertising ploy certainly worked with cigarettes, something that used to be soley withing the male ranks but is now slightly dominated by women.

I agree with Sean and Aaron. The Swedish bikini team did sell beer, but whose?

I too get offended when a "girlie" (i.e. a model) is thrown in to attempt to pander to male interest. Aaron used the "used car" comparison and I agree, because a used car salesperson will do any and every damn thing they can to get you to buy. They don't care about you or honesty or anything other than getting your money. Using cheesecake to try to get at my money makes my "used car" radar go off, and I start to wonder whether that same "we don't care about anything but getting your money" attitude permeates the company, for example, in terms of engineering or quality control or customer service (i.e. response to "Where is my order and why hasn't it shipped?" phone calls), service after the sale (i.e. honoring the warranty), etc.

There is nothing more indicative of a superior product than a "technical sale" - a factual explanation of how and why their product excels. Using sex, or attacking the competition, or even saying "So-and-so uses our gear, shouldn't you?!" (we all know $ponsorships are why big names endorse things), are signs of not having a product that can stand on its own just based on its own worth.

I'm more amused by the trend than offended. As for halting the trend, well, pretty people have got to eat too. I'm niether more or less likely to buy something advertised in such a fasion. My purchases, like those of most video people, are always research driven. A pretty girl may well get my notice though, and if the product she is sporting turns out to be good, I might very well buy it.
As for the sweedish bikini team, it was budwieser, and I don't even drink.

I think you guys might be missing the big picture here... I've seen our own Charles Pappert in pics with his steadi cam, and I've seen the bikini models with steadi cam rigs- they win ;)

Sorry Charles :)

I have to make a new distinction now. You can have attractive without being overtly sexual. The difference between a nice cashmere sweater and slacks and miniskirt and halter top perhaps?

Oneday all the news anchors are going to be replaced with animated talking heads tailored to their particular markets.

Imagine the exact same news at 11pm in Indiana, same script from one of the big networks, being spoken by an athletic type caucasion male and at the very same instant, the exact same words coming from an attractive black female in Detroit. Maybe I'll get to choose my own anchor from a list, like a video game. Imagine the fun hackers will have with t
at. That's on the way.

In the future, we will all be target marketed from birth to death.

Sean

I think you guys might be missing the big picture here... I've seen our own Charles Pappert in pics with his steadi cam, and I've seen the bikini models with steadi cam rigs- they win ;)

Sorry Charles :)

What a cruel thing for Charles. Hey, how about Charles in a bikini. Ok, forget that but I personally like the look of a real Steadicam operator over the "catch you attention" type.

Tery

Hi Terry,

I visited your website. I noticed that you put a bag as the first item. May I ask what is the point of the bag? A container for extra minidv stuff? Or put some weight to get counter balance?

Just curious

Leigh


What a cruel thing for Charles. Hey, how about Charles in a bikini. Ok, forget that but I personally like the look of a real Steadicam operator over the "catch you attention" type.

Tery

Leigh,

You are the first to see the beginnings of our new website. I hadn't even seen it until you asked your question because we just changed our DNS today and didn't know our web designer had started the "Under Construction" yet.

The back pack is one or our patent pending designs which does two things. First, it carries the whole indicam dual articulated arm system and sled (sometimes the camera as well), and second it acts as the vest system where the front plate etc. attaches.

We thought it would be nice if you could pack everything where you needed it easily and then assemble the stabilizer without any extra parts to leave around. It has worked out very well. I went into NAB wearing only the backpack and within 5 minutes I had a full stabilization system which I wore for 5.5 hours. I was flying a DVX-100A.

I'll be interested to see how the whole website things goes.

By-the-way, I have noticed your skills have improved a great deal from the first clips I saw. Keep it up!

Tery

Hi Terry,

Congratulations

Now you can freely upload your demo video for us to watch, right? Full resolution video as one option for download please ;-)

Regards
Leigh

Leigh,

You are the first to see the beginnings of our new website. I hadn't even seen it until you asked your question because we just changed our DNS today and didn't know our web designer had started the "Under Construction" yet.

The back pack is one or our patent pending designs which does two things. First, it carries the whole indicam dual articulated arm system and sled (sometimes the camera as well), and second it acts as the vest system where the front plate etc. attaches.

We thought it would be nice if you could pack everything where you needed it easily and then assemble the stabilizer without any extra parts to leave around. It has worked out very well. I went into NAB wearing only the backpack and within 5 minutes I had a full stabilization system which I wore for 5.5 hours. I was flying a DVX-100A.

I'll be interested to see how the whole website things goes.

By-the-way, I have noticed your skills have improved a great deal from the first clips I saw. Keep it up!

Tery

We build stabization systems and have someone else do the website. I'm not exactly sure what we will have until I talk with the designer.

Tery

I think you guys might be missing the big picture here... I've seen our own Charles Pappert in pics with his steadi cam, and I've seen the bikini models with steadi cam rigs- they win ;)

Sorry Charles :)
Okay, here's the solution. The only fair thing to do would be to put Charles in a bikini with his Steadicam rig. Just a minute... Excuse me while I go poke out my mind's eye.

Jay

You just had to go THERE, didn't you Jay? hehehe