Shooting a Steadicam oner!!😎
This was a coordination between the director, DP, actors and myself to get the framing, timing and blocking down for the shot. Frame will change if they want a light out of the shot. The actor holds the tray lower to lessen the boom range. And I have to time my movements perfectly to keep up with when the main character turns his head to the girl.
All the hours practicing with my weight plate had paid off as I finally had to overcome a heavy camera build. I used a gold mount battery eliminator so that I can power the camera through my sled, further reducing weight on the top stage. What I did not account for was how power hungry the Panavision was, so it burned through almost all of my batteries. Next time, I'll have to stock up on some batteries for the bottom stage.
Some more things to train on:
-Getting used to heavy camera builds on low mode
-Orbiting movements on low mode
-Pacing the boom up and down to track a hand
-Mirroring the sensor to avoid ACs flipping monitors when in low mode
-Power management through the sled for power-hungry cameras
Practicing with my new Steadicam!! 😎🎥
Recently upgraded to a real Tiffen Steadicam, from my previous knock-off, hoping to take this more seriously! I've been reading the Steadicam Handbook, endlessly watching steadi BTS and now locking in more practice on a real rig. The knock off stabilizer helped jumpstart my interest and fundamentals of a steadicam, but now I've got some bad habits to unlearn and more practice to catch up to. But I'm excited to finally incorporate this specialty as a tool of creative movement in calculated storytelling; that's what makes it all worth it (besides how cool it is)
Shout-out the Steadicam community who have been so welcoming the past few months! Hope to work with y'all again soon.
#steadicam #tiffen #zephyr #cameraoperator #steadicamoperator
