Video shot by my stablizer[2]

[Mikko Wilson]

Operating wise, that wasn't too shabby. But:
your Lock-offs are still moving a little. - But the timing of them is a little better.
Specifically as you walked up the hill on the sidewalk the loclkoff before was good and the movement had dencet pace.

However thgouout the the whole clip, which was very "long winded", your operating almost seemed robotic. - Try and make it a little more fluid, both in movement and speed.

Oh yeah, totally un-realted to operating, but that music was ok for about the first 5 secconds, then it got real old real fast!

So, in general, your operating is ok, but you need to work on the shots themselves to make they more dynamic and interesting, only then can you properly test and demonstrate yoru operating.

- Mikko.

[Terry Thompson]

Leigh,

Watched the video. The lock-off at the end was pretty good. Some of the other ones were OK but not as good as the last one.

I liked the walking along your road to a slow pan, then walking the other way.

Going down the slope by your house was eratic-your camera (shot) would decend and stop and decend and stop. I'ld like to see a real smooth shot as you are decending. It may be steep an therefore hard to do but I had to put my two cents in. (I'm running out of two cents).

Thanks for the video to check out. You have make great strides in you abilities. See what "practise, practise, practise" can do?!

Tery

[Leigh Wanstead]

Thanks Mikko and Terry.

It is quite easy to walk stairs without anything and very difficult for me to get a real smooth shot walking down stairs. I did not dare to practise that as it is very easy to fall and break my bones.

Regards
Leigh

Originally Posted by Terry Thompson

Leigh,

Watched the video. The lock-off at the end was pretty good. Some of the other ones were OK but not as good as the last one.

I liked the walking along your road to a slow pan, then walking the other way.

Going down the slope by your house was eratic-your camera (shot) would decend and stop and decend and stop. I'ld like to see a real smooth shot as you are decending. It may be steep an therefore hard to do but I had to put my two cents in. (I'm running out of two cents).

Thanks for the video to check out. You have make great strides in you abilities. See what "practise, practise, practise" can do?!

Tery

[Mikko Wilson]

You should ALWAYS practice your shot. Without the rig, with it at slow speed, full speed, etc.
If a shot is too riasky to practice, then it shouldn't be attempted at all.

- Mikko

[Terry Thompson]

Leigh,

"It is quite easy to walk stairs without anything and very difficult for me to get a real smooth shot walking down stairs. I did not dare to practise that as it is very easy to fall and break my bones."

I find steps easy-especially going down. Maybe I'm just naturally gifted (yea right) or maybe you have yourself psyched out. Now going up stairs is harder and going down stairs while shooting a person coming down behind you can be a real fun thing. Charles P. has said that many Steadicam operators will do this while walking down backwards and not in Don Juan. WOW! Now there is the time for a real good assistant!

Here is the site where I am at CES 2005. Part of the clip shows me taking the escalator down, then walking down with the Indicam.

What think ye...?

http://www.enoch.com/terry/preview_018.htm

Right click the left window and "Save Target As" then open with Quicktime.

Tery

[Charles Papert]

Stairs are, unfortunately, a staple of Steadicam shots since they net shots that can't be done any other way (outside of a Technocrane, and then only if there's room for it). I personally find nothing less interesting than following someone down stairs (looking at the top of their head) or preceding them (looking up their nose). Either way, I always use a spotter, although this is not necessarily everyone's choice.

[Rob Lohman]

What does a "spotter" do exactly Charles? Is this someone you hire on a job
or does that someone get hired for you?

[Leigh Wanstead]

I made a video yesterday afternoon. It was so hard to get exact focus distance with the subject I set to my lense. I think that I need a focus poller.

Small size around 10mbytes encoded with wmv format
Click here

Full screen size around 133mbytes encoded with wmv format
Click here

Regards
Leigh

[Charles Papert]

Rob:

The spotter is usually either the key grip, the dolly grip or sometimes one of the camera department. They guide the operator around obstacles when backing up, lead them through doors etc. A really good spotter will be almost invisible to the operator except when there is danger of walking into something, in which case they will provide a firm "adjustement" that the operator can respond to. I like a light touch at the bottom of the vest near the hips, because even if they have to give me a quick push to avoid obstacles it won't show up in the frame. The worst thing a spotter can do is get under foot or knock the operator's arms, because that will show up. When running or doing stairs shots, I have the spotter provide a firm hold on the back of the vest so that if I stumble, they can pull me back.

Leigh:

Here are the things that I suggested you practice last time you put up a video:

Holds
Compound angular moves (i.e. pan and tilt)
Acceleration/deceleration
Walking backwards

The only thing that you incorporated into this video is a hold at the end.

Given that your dad is walking home, you could have done the following:

Started on the ground as his feet enter the frame; start walking and eventually tilt up slowly to the back of his head.

Gradually accelerate around the side until you hold him in a profile. Walk for a while holding the profile. Pay attention to the headroom throughout the move, and the "look room" (i.e. give him more space in front of him in the frame rather than behind).

Accelerate so that you are in front of him, backing up. Hold a medium shot for a while. Then decelerate gradually, allowing him to come into a close up. Then accelerate away from him, pulling into a head to toe shot.

After a while, slow down again and let him pass you as you pan with him, eventually falling back into the original shot you had following him.

Now, come alongside him again, but this time go to the opposite side. You'll likely find it easier to operate one side or another--this has to do with which side you fly the rig. Repeat the pulling in front move again.

Have him step off the curb into the street (careful!) and practice keeping the headroom consistent during this move. Then step off the curb behind him, again watching headroom. Play around with variations on this.

If you want to try something really tricky, have him walk across a parking lot or other flat area where there is plenty of maneuvering room, and try to go all the way around him while he walks. This is a tough move and requires a lot of acceleration to get around the front, although it looks on camera that you are going a consistent speed (this is essentially what I did on the last shot on my reel, from "Scrubs", although that required some interesting coordination on both my and Zach Braff's part since we did it in a reasonably narrow hallway).

In other words, you need to vary your practice shots. 10 minutes of following is really only good for building up the stamina (which is good) but it's not particularly valuable for the subtleties of operating, and there's not a lot there to give feedback on.

[Leigh Wanstead]

Hi Charles,

Thanks very much for the instruction.

I forgot most stuff you told me and I think that I need to print the instruction and keep it with me.

Regards
Leigh

[Leigh Wanstead]

Originally Posted by Mikko Wilson

Legh.
Ok. next assignment:
Take another set of photos. but of a person. Again same questions abotu composition. ignore focus, ignore everything else, just where is the person in your frame.

Oh and even smaller image sizes would be better - about 50% of the smaller ones of this set.

- Mikko.

Hi Mikko,

What do you think of this photo?

I shot last Saturday using Panasonic NV-GS400 minidv camera photo mode.

http://www.salenz.com/8/8.jpg

It is me in the photo.

Regards
Leigh

[Mikko Wilson]

Well here's a Thread from the past!

Leigh,
The picture looks good. ..still a little unblanaced, but the content works like that prety well too. Good picture size for posting aswell.

How'd you shoot it? timer?

- Mikko

[Leigh Wanstead]

Originally Posted by Mikko Wilson

Well here's a Thread from the past!

I have a good memory. ;-)

Originally Posted by Mikko Wilson

Leigh,
How'd you shoot it? timer?

- Mikko

NV-GS400 minidv camera allows LCD screen 360 degree. So I just turned around the LCD screen. I mounted the camera on my tripod and composed the frame, focused on the snail and I used remote controller of the gs400 camera to shot the photo while I viewed the LCD screen.

Regards
Leigh

[Terry Thompson]

Leigh,

I thought I was looking at Jackie Chan. How did he get on this web site?
Picture is good but couldn't you shoot a butterfly or something...?

Charles,

Good practice exercises. I don't know how I would do. Lighter set-ups are easier on the back but harder to control when doing complicated moves.

Just because we make the equipment doesn't mean we can also operate it really well. We'll keep on trying though.

Tery

[Leigh Wanstead]

FYI, the video I shot this morning.

http://www.salenz.com/movie/www.sale...oding_600k.wmv
http://www.salenz.com/movie/www.sale...oding_100k.wmv

It is a nice day. ;-)

Regards
Leigh