Hi DVI'ers.

Today I spent eight fantastic hours in the Davinci suite at Laser Pacific in Hollywood color-correcting (oh sorry, "grading"--I'm old school) the pilot for the FX series "Alabama". We shot it in four long days in October and it's heading for network delivery by mid-next week. Very exciting stuff.

The show was created by Tom Lennon and Ben Garant, who are known for "The State", "Viva Variety" and of course "Reno 911". I operated their feature "Balls of Fury" a few years ago and they subsequently invited me to appear on and behind camera as "Steadicam Operator" (talk about typecasting!) on an episode of Reno. When I heard about the concept for this show, Reno meets Battlestar Galactica, I was thrilled. The guys told me they were planning to shoot on an actual vintage submarine for the spaceship (they wanted it dirty and authentic), and while bandying around how we would approach it, I showed them footage I shot on the 1DMKIV and how it can do wonders in low light. That clinched the deal, and I came onboard.

Imagine a crew of 25 plus half as many again cast members crowding onto an actual submarine (The Scorpion, moored next to the Queen Mary in Long Beach) and trying to load gear, run cable, rig lights, etc. The sub had four hatches along its length that required one to essentially slide through--again, imagine doing that all day with gear. It was an epic experience! We used two 1D's equipped with a set of Zeiss CP2's, couple of Canon zooms and the cine-style Focus Optics Ruby 14-24. AC's worked from Panasonic 17" monitors in adjoining rooms, pulling focus via Prestons (no room on the sets for them). Our fourth day was a marathon day exterior in the Arboreteum in Arcadia, CA, standing in for an alien planet.

The fantastic cast included comedy geniuses such as Mindy Sterling, Rob Huebel, Natasha Leggero and much to my delight, a guest appearance by Eddie Izzard as the alien overlord. Tom and Ben were of course in there as well. All dialogue was improvised from their script outline.

Having now seen the final cut, it's got a lot of laughs and I'm very pleased with the look. The 1D held up beautifully, with the spaceship interior very high contrast with lots of saturated colors, but very little noise visible (I shot at ISO 1250 for the interiors).

With any luck you'll be seeing it on the air sometime next year--until that happens, I can't post stills but naturally I'll follow up.

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now on to the announcement:

"Alabama" closes out what has been a very successful year for me of focusing on DP work, which has also included shooting additional 1st unit (aka double-ups) on the ABC series "No Ordinary Family" and shooting six major label music videos. On June of this year I hit the milestone of 25 years of Steadicam operating and thought that would be a appropriate anniversary to close out that portion of my career. So now I am now purely working as a DP, and my big rig is up for sale. It's an exciting change of pace and a fascinating time in the industry to be experiencing it. I'm also looking forward to seeing what the next generation of Steadicam operators will bring, and to setting them challenges on set!

Congrats! Love BALLS OF FURY BTW... Def looking forward to watching it.

Charles,
First off Happy 25th Anniversary and all the best to you in your new chapter of life. I guess you can think of this way, sell your rig, buy a red sports car with the money, no more schlepping all thoses cases, no more back ache, buy a red sports car, no more sweating your butt off on 100 degree days wearing your big rig, buy a red sports car....Hmm I sense a theme here. Best to ya.


O|O
\--/

Well done, Chas, and congrats on your new beginning!

I love Reno 911 cant wait to see what they have next. Glad to see they like the DSLRs

Congrats!
Wait... were you the steadicam op in the Dog the Bounty Hunter (Hawk?) episode of Reno 911??

Guilty as charged...

As you can see, they strapped a gun to my thigh (all of Hawk's "crew" were packing, including the makeup girl character!!)

I was encouraged to improvise along with the guys but I had my hands pretty full operating the damn camera. They did 20 minute takes on that show--not much energy left to even think about participating as a character.

Congrats Charles .. 25yrs on Steadicam wow! .. and you can tell that gal in back she's hired :)

Happy Xmas.

Cheers.

Cast and crew screening of "Alabama" tonight at a theatre on the Fox lot. Watching on a (my estimation) 22 foot screen was epic! I can't believe how well these cameras hold up. 1250 ASA and barely any noise detectable, except for shots that we had to pull up a bit for one reason or another, and then it only looks like a bit of film grain, not objectionable at all. Very happy with how everything came out.

Now we are playing the waiting game to hear if the show gets picked up...

Congrats Charles! Here's to your continued success! :)

If you ever post up your rig for sale here, please link to it. I'm just curious as to what your nimble cam setup entails. Happy Holidays!

Charles,

Congrats on the "anniversary", and congrats on all of the DP work. You've been a huge inspiration to me, and I'm sure countless others like me around the world. And hell, if I can scrounge up the money, I'd pick up your nimblecam in an instant, just for the cred of owning a piece of film production history!

Best of luck, and if you're ever out in my neck of the woods (alternatively Buffalo/Toronto and Philadelphia), let me know!

I'm holding on to the Nimblecam for now. The big rig is about to get posted for sale. I'll include a link here.

Congratulations for the job. Can you imagine diving through those hatches with a Zero dropping out of the sky, firing all its machine guns at you. Your knees would probably never feel hitting the metal as you went through.
Jock Ellis

Big rig is indeed up for sale and listed here, along with a wheelbarrow load of odds and ends (and even some goodies that folks here might like, in the "non-Steadicam" section).

http://web.me.com/chupap/gearsale/splash.html

Charles.


Out of curiosity, do you know Rusty Geller? He was in steadycam when it was less commonplace (my paraphrase). He now lives out here in Western Australia in Hovea, a bushland setting just out of Perth.

His website is here :-

Rusty Geller (http://www.rustygeller.com/)


When I see you guys wrestle those rigs about, my left knee suggests and about 15 joints down, my back says to me sternly - "don't even think about it." I have a great respect for what I define as a unique athletic skill and endurance.

All the best with your new direction. Thanks for your advice thus far and hope for more to come yet when I need it.

Sure do know Rusty. I was around in those days too. In fact I bought my second rig from him, around '92 I think. Saw him a few years ago when he came back to LA for a brief visit. Good guy. If you bump into him, give him my best!

If I run into him, I will surely do that. I have emailed him a link to your website for sale page. It may be that he is also in the selling mode. He brought his steadycam stuff out with him.

Last I heard from him, about two years ago, was he was writing a project set here in the West (of Australia) and he has published a guidebook for Americans in Australia which is on his website.

He also had a nice boat, I guess for diving and underwater vision which I believe is also one of his specialties.

I watched Rusty at work in June 1996 at Dr. Quinn. It was shot offseason because Jane Seymour had baby twins. He arranged a visit for me.

It was a complex continuous shot. Outdoors, he had to pick up the wagon racing in to a halt in front of the doctor's porch, back away from a patient being hauled off and lead backwards ahead of the patient being carried at the run, up onto the porch, in through the entrance, through inside the building to a treatment room.

I recall it was rehearsed a few times, then I think two takes, both being good, then they moved on. I was very impressed.

They also had a horsemaster there. Somebody said he was the Marlboro man but I did not follow the story up as there was so much going on. There was a leatherworker who was plaiting stockwhips while he was on stand-by and a sweet natured horse, which would shove its nose in your armpit and gently chew on the hair on your head.

I watched Rusty at work in June 1996 at Dr. Quinn. It was shot offseason because Jane Seymour had baby twins. He arranged a visit for me.

Who are teenagers now--weird, huh. I know her older daughter Katie.

There was a sweet natured horse, which would shove its nose in your armpit and gently chew on the hair on your head.

Sure that wasn't the dolly grip? Things got a little funny out there on the Paramount Ranch, from what I heard...

"Sure that wasn't the dolly grip?"

Good God, I hope not. I did close my eyes and hold my breath for a few moments when the horse was at my hair in case it snorted in my face but I did not sense any grip, so I think I'm okay.

( Why let the horse chew one's hair? The family had an old Clydesdale cross when I was a kid which used to do the same thing, chew but not snatch the hair out by the roots. This one reached over very gently so I thought it had been trained the same and bent my head forward before I thought about it. For a fair chunk of my childhood, I grew up thinking I was named after the bloody horse after I asked my folks and they said "yes". The horse's name was "Old Bob".).

It was a sort of open day for family of cast and crew to visit, so I guess everyone was on their best behaviour as I did not see anything unusual.

Just came across this thread.

Updates are that "Alabama" came out beautifully but due to "creative differences", it will never see the light of day. Tom and Ben have screened it here and there to enthusiastic audiences, most recently at Comicon. Ah well.

Good news is that another pilot that I shot, "Key & Peele", was picked up by Comedy Central and we start shooting in October. It's a sketch comedy show and should be a hoot to make.

Steadicam-wise, my big rig sold after six months of patience and holding my ground. A young op out of Perth, Australia came out to claim his new baby and I look forward to seeing his results. Really interesting to re-read this thread considering Bob's contributions, in the light of the rig coming to settle in his city of all places!

Nimblecam is still in my possession--I'm about to invest in cine zooms which may require liquidation of that asset also. I put the rig on for some establishing shots for an HBO project that I shot recently and it was an interesting experience. Haven't made up my mind yet if it stays or goes...

Steadicam in Western Australia.


Is this your rig ?

http://www.youtube.com/user/MediaReleaseTV#p/u/3/LPqR-df1DtE

Blake did indeed buy my rig, but that video is his old rig (Glidecam). He came over to pick it up in person and explore LA a bit. Looking forward to seeing a video like this with my setup! He had never tried a PRO arm before using mine--going from the GC to that work of art was a big change, I'm sure!

It's fun to find old threads. This one left off with "Key & Peele" about to begin production of its first season and little did I know how much of an impact it would make! 78 million views of the "Substitute Teacher" sketch on Youtube--Keegan performing with Obama at the Correspondent's Dinner--quite the juggernaut.

Since we wrapped K&P at the beginning of the year, it's been somewhat relentless. Shot a new series for TVLand called "Teachers" that premieres in January. Straight on to season 2 of "Playing House" for USA. And in August I start another new show, "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend" for the CW.

My Steadicam days seem rather far away now...but I'm having fun perched behind the monitors instead!