Would using a star filter for cinematography be too weird?

[Brian Drysdale]

You hold a gimbal with two hands, while the Steadicam holds the weight with the arm and is controlled by one arm, so you can turn the camera towards the rear operated by the other hand, as you move forwards, looking to the rear at the monitor. It's called the Don Juan position.

Use an ordinary small pick up truck instead, I surprised you can't get licensed Quads for use on the roads I've used one in central Dublin.

[Paul R Johnson]

Ryan - why do you just not go and try things, instead of talking about them in advance. When I think up ideas, I use my science background to predict troubles, then think up ways to solve them, then go and do it. I never ask on the forums in advance. There's no learning that way - you cannot be certain the advice is solid, so forums are kind of starting points, guidelines but rarely definitive answers - same with youtube videos.

The most interesting shots I find come from strange solutions. I stuck a go pro onto a Rode boom pole and got amazing high angle shots with it. The weight and inertia smoothed out the movements and with the wide angle a bit of cropping centred things in the edit. You can also do really fast sweeps, and produce great usable shots. I tried it with a small handicam that had a side viewfinder that could tilt down, and that worked really good too. I tied a rope around the handle of one of my full size cameras and attached it to an over weighted jib that just took the weight but let me move the camera just with one hand - a kind of hand-held effect that wobbled a bit rather than the super smooth result on the jib itself. No way could I have held the camera for that amount of time, but you can improvise.

You need to practice. Then practice more and more till it's second nature. If you have to be a one man band, you MUST be totally comfy with your equipment and how it best responds. Some of your questions just make us smack our foreheads with their obviousness.

You talk about barrel distortion, for example - if this bothers you, zoom in a bit, and move away and learn to control and manage it. You KNOW how to solve these things, so why make them problems? Have you ever tried to control a camera that has right and left swapped, as in facing one way and shooting the other. Try it and see!

[Pete Cofrancesco]

I think the source of these endless Ryan type questions is that in order to make his own movies for virtually free he does the jobs that require no capital investment like writer or director and brings in his friends who own their own equipment. Unfortunately, you get someone trying to direct others without working knowledge.

In regards to the steadicam, I think myself included are referring to the hand held variety. Most budget oriented projects such as these aren’t going to use the vest and spring loaded arm. At this level the opinions are between a mechanical or motorized gimbal.

[Paul R Johnson]

I just wondered if some of those Chinese offers might do him, at least till he gets more competent. They're very low down the quality ladder compared to real ones, but for his kind of shooting could work out better value than a cheap gimbal - that doesn't struggle with heavier DSLR and lenses.

This kind of thing
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/3289...5-54b96904d2a5

[Ryan Elder]

Well the thing about going out and practice, is I don't have the equipment, other people do like a DP, etc. So I feel I have to try to know what is what, before bringing the DP on and shooting it. That is why I haven't practiced near as much, cause I don't have the equipment, that I can just pull out whenever.

[Paul R Johnson]

Oh sorry Ryan, I thought you had the kit yourself? My confusion.

I just bought a spare Audio Technical's 815 mic that came up on Ebay for £40. I rather like these, but they're a bit long. If you ever want to borrow it, I'll happily loan it to you and stick it in the post. Practice some narrower angle booming.

[Ryan Elder]

Oh thanks. Sorry for not being clear. All the sound equipment I talked about before I have. I just don't have the video equipment, such as gimbals, dollies, longer lenses, etc. I can rent them but I the rental stores are often booked up, so it's difficult to get a lot of practice in before other people want to shoot.

[Josh Bass]

Can't you just rent from lensrentals.com or a similar place that ships to your location? Maybe that's only a US thing.

Otherwise you might have to just bite the bullet and rent locally when you don't actually have a project at all...just whenever the gear becomes available. Keep a running list of all the many, many things you are curious about whether a piece of gear can do, rent it when it's available, run tests, take notes, keep it in mind for next time you have a project.

Especially with one man band stuff you kinda have to have a handle on the gear. Or refuse to take work without a budget for a separate DP (that may seem contrary to what I advised early, but a two man crew is different from you only directing---you'd still be hands on just not literally doing everything yourself...and you'd have to someone experienced to bounce ideas off of on set).

[Ryan Elder]

Well it does cost a lot of to have stuff ship just for a rental, so I thought I would just get a gimbal or dolly operator, but want to know which I would need for a particular shoot. If getting someone who has it is the better way to go. I have storyboards that are not shots I have seen in other movies, and shots I just came up with myself. But what equipment is needed for those shots, I am not sure. So I would like to know before getting a person who has the equipment to come on board to operate it. But, how do you know what equipment is needed for what shots in the first place then?

[Brian Drysdale]

It's not unusual to have a meeting about a production before the shoot, where all these issues are discussed with the DP or other camera people.

[Ryan Elder]

Yeah I can do that. Is it normal for a DP to know a lot about the equipment that moves the camera though? I thought they mostly were specialized in lighting and lenses, and cameras mostly.

[Brian Drysdale]

The DP should be aware of the possibilities and many will have either used equipment or worked on productions that have. If they don't have the information, they will contact someone ho does.

[Paul R Johnson]

If the DP doesn't know about what keeps the cameras off the floor, then they're rubbish. I cannot think of any camera people I know who don't have this kind of knowledge - after all, it's what they do? I'd guess that there are less camera people skilled in lighting than in grip kit.

[Josh Bass]

When I think “DP” or “cinematographer” I think of someone who’s knowledgeable in every area related to the camera side of the visuals...this includes lighting (there is some crossover between DP’s and gaffer’s duties depending on the individual relationships), camera gear, lenses, anything that can move the camera (dollies/gimbals/etc) and back in the day film stocks and their various qualities (nowadays that would mostly be different cameras and their various image characteristics and picture profiles). Some even know a fair amount about the color correction/grading process.

THAT’s what you should be looking for in a “DP” / cinematographer/camera person/whatever. If they call themselves that and dont know about all the various types of gear that can move the cam, then kick them to the curb, girl, and find a DP who does.

[Ryan Elder]

Okay thanks. Another thing I can do if all else fails is to get a shot kind of similar to what I want but with a slider, instead of a gimbal, trying to make the gimbal too level with a long lens.

The shot will not look exactly like what I want but maybe I could just have it be different with a slider. As long as people don't say, hey you did that shot all wrong and should have used a dolly and long track, etc.