Tropical Blackbird In Action

[Mark Ahrens]

Impressive how you do the whole house in one take. I assume you walk thru and get a plan of the path and the moves you'll make.

Do you ever get to the house and it's not staged?
Ever have clients get picky on the music?

[Paul Wags]

Hi Mark

How do I shoot in one go?
I don't know, just turn up, walk through, turn on all the lights and stuff and then off I go.
That last one was not stage, just had to hide a few things, sent the people outside then shot it first go, so it's very quick. Then the photo guy moved in to do his thing .There was one room where I reversed in as the tenants did not what certain things in the room shot.

So far no one has complained about the music tracks.:-)

Got two display home lined up next so be good to see how they come out. Will be shooting them in more detail though.

I'm sure as I do more and more others will copy what I am doing, but by that time I will be way out in front with my technique. The thing is Mark people want to see the nuts and bolts of a property in a nice way, there are not interested in how creative and technical the artistic shooter is or their sensitive editing. KISS

[Noa Put]

You got that nicely balanced, as long as I move forward it's no problem but if I move sideways my blackbird tends to loose it's balance and tilts sidesways slightly. I have been using my blackbird for over a year now and use it on almost every paid job, the only thing I wish could be done better is controlled tilts but that's very difficult to achieve and I think a limitation of the way it's designed.

[Charles Papert]

Every stabilizer of this type is prone to the issue as you described, Noa (losing horizon when moving sideways). It's not a design issue as much as part of the finesse of the operator. The solution is to apply the small amount of counter-force to the gimbal when you accelerate sideways (i.e. the opposite side from the direction you are moving). It has to be the right amount of force and for the right amount of time or it will influence the rig unduly. Horizon control is a significant part of the skill of operating and it can take a long time to get really good at this (more like months/years than minutes/hours!)

I'm wondering considering your concern with tilts if you are working too bottom-heavy. Make sure your drop time isn't faster than 2 seconds. This can affect your side-to-side issue as well.

[Noa Put]

Thx for the tip Charles, I will try to see if I can avoid the sideways tilting by applying a bit of counter force. The droptime on my blackbird is not faster then 2 seconds but I think one problem might also be that I use a 550d and a 14mm lens and that combined with the blackbird is a very light set-up (I just need one small disc as counterbalance wheight on the ends of the horizontal tube) . Is it not so that if I would use a much heavier camera and a full set of wheights to counterbalance that it would be easier to keep it balanced and to operate?

[Paul Wags]

Yes gimble control is half of it, fingers only there to guide ever so lightly and always think ahead for your next continuous move.

On the 60D I have started to use the LCD flipped out so you can hold it down lower and look down into it as having to hold it up out in front of you. Its a great little camera, except for moire and compression banding.
Make sure the gimble friction is set completely off so its 100% completely smooth..
Not good for outside though like that in the wind, in the wind make it more bottom heavy and you need to be more aggressive with the gimble.
With tilting just try gimble rocking instead of moving the whole thing.
I find every time I do one now I learn a little bit more.

Noa you go any clips online?

[Noa Put]

Mr Greb from cmr was so nice to contact me when he saw my post here, he also said my blackbird set up was very light which causes relatively low moments of inertia and requires more finesse (or delicate touch)*to control. He suggests to add some weight (like a zoom recorder) which will make it easier to “fly”. (Just want to say that Mr Greb gives awesome support)

My problem is I have a bad back and my current set up is light enough and allows me to use it for an extended period of time. I will have to see if adding accessories to add weight is something I can carry long enough but unfortunately, it’s my back that will dictate what can be allowed. :)
Like I said, moving forward and following a subject is no problem but the steadicam is very sensitive to touch due to the very light wheight. I do fly without any friction to the gimbal, did use friction in the beginning as it really helps during a movement but it can also cause unwanted small movements if you are holding it still. Now I”m comfortable enough using it without friction and getting good results, but I have to watch out for side movements, if I execute them slow enough I can stay level but like running around a person and keep focus on their face the steadicam quickly starts to drift sideways. Here also Mr Greb suggested to put the control fingers up on the gimbal extender to get more leverage, will try that to see if it will help.

Also in regard to the controlled tilts, what I meant with the “design issue" charles was referring to is something like this: Steadishots.org : Steadicam Shot by Jacques Jouffret from Flightplan
The camera starts off horizontal, then goes down the stairs and the camera tilts up and once she is down the camera goes to horizontal again. I thought this is only possible on a steadicam like the pilot and not a blackbird due to it’s design, at least not as controlled as in the example I gave?

Noa you go any clips online?

Non work related that I can show but I do have a short clip which containes about 50% blackbird shots when I just got the steadicam, I was testing it in an old building together with a home made slider. Just that you know, the steadicam shots that go backwards are actually reversed in post, I was moving forwards each time :)

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