Sanjay Sami

Hi, I was the Key Grip on The Darjeeling Limited. For the shot of the itinerary we had a few problems, the biggest one being the space available, and the second being Wes's insistence on shooting this shot while the train was moving which made life more difficult. I had an overhead track rigged to the ceiling of the train, with an underslung dolly and a Weaver Steadman on it with the camera pointing straight down. I then attached a pushbar to the dolly (which was riding above Jason Shwartzman's head) and brought it down to rest in front of Jasons shoulder so that as he walked forward he would push the camera at exactly the speed he was walking at, and he hold the itinerary right under the camera at the right distance and his feet would always be in shot. I dont have a picture of the shot being taken , but I have pictures of the rig being used for other shots. http://www.thegripworks.com/projects/proje...arjeeling2.html Hope that helps Sanjay Sami www.thegripworks.com thegripworks@yahoo.com

Hi, I may be a bit late replying to this. I hope not. The move could be great, but you have not explained what the steadicam needs to do after the step off. This may allow us to suggest a safer way to do the shot. A couple of questions: 1. If the camera is looking straight down, the steadicam op. is going to struggle to hold the frame. 2. How do you plan to keep the track out of shot if the track distance is so much greater than the arm? 3. Absolute no, to a steadicam operator getting off backwards off a moving crane. There are complicated issues when you allow a step off a crane. The arm is counterbalanced. At 30 feet arm length you are looking at a payload to ballast ratio of atleast 1:5. If someone stumbles, trips , f#$@'s up - you will have dead people on set as the ballast comes crashing down with a half tonne (atleast) and the crane does a back flip. The step off and securing is going to require some choreography and at least 2 static seconds on the ground. I have done this kind of move successfully several times, and I have more white hair on my head because of it every single time. As darryl recommends, a big truck based crane would be ideal. But that will be dictated by terrain. As far as location cranes go, my reccomendation will have to be the Giraffe Long Ranger from Filmair. It is the only one that will get you the length and stability that you need. Forget about the steel, hand built crane. A steel 30 foot crane will be so heavy that pushing it at 10 MPH and then stopping it and controlling the arm will be a serious task. Lastly, and in my opinion most important. Get the best Key Grip money can get you to pull off this shot safely. Things can go horribly wrong very quickly. Having said all of that , with the right people and the right tools, the shot can look fabulous. Good luck and be safe!! Tell us what you decide

You will certainly find scaff clamps in Delhi. My regards to Marcus. Have a great shoot. Call if you need help with anything.

Hi Alex, There are several ways to do a really fast move. 2 people pushing is not at all a problem, as long as you have a system going. On the movie "The Darjeeling Limited" I had several dolly moves that ranged from 250ft to 310 ft. Most of them were really fast, flat out moves tracking with actors chasing cars, taxis and trains. We had a Fisher 10 with 3 people on board - DoP, Focus Puller and Director. I was pushing along with one of my best boy grips. It worked great. We needed 4 people to stop the dolly though. 2 of them were on "parachutes" - ropes tied from the dolly to speed rail handles. take a look http://www.thegripworks.com/projects/project-darjeeling.html If you want to go a lot faster than you can run there are ways to do that as well. If you dont have access to motordrive track, or a captive track dolly , you can use a regular dolly on track, remote head and focus, and rope the dolly through pulleys to have a mechanical disadvantage (more speed for less distance) Run the rope to a Quad / ATV and use it to accelerate the dolly. Mark a spot to stop the Quad so you dont pull the dolly off track. Use a bungee decellerator or a cable fan descender to stop the dolly depending on the weight of the dolly. Hope that helps Regards Sanjay Sami Key Grip

Welcome to India, You will find very little worthwhile equipment in Delhi. Mumbai is the biggest centre for the film business. Hyderabad and Chennai have big rental houses as well. Warwick is correct about the fisher and chapman dollies. This is primarily due to the fact that government import laws do not allow equipment to be brought in on long term lease. I bring fisher and chapman dollies to india on a project basis . I own the new panther classic dollies and lots of other grip equipment. You can take a look on my website www.thegripworks.com Regards Sanjay Sami Key Grip The Grip Works

I think Warwick was offering well intentioned advice. Maybe you should quit being a hobbyist and become a pro. That way you can buy real equipment, shoot with real film and get paid to do it rather that think about using 50$ camera heads. (Get the Oconnor 2575C) ;) Sanjay Sami Key Grip

Hi Dan Standard curved track (45 degrees a piece) will give you a circle with an Outer Diameter of 20 feet. A tight circle (90 degrees a peice) will give you a circle with an Outer Diameter of 14 feet. Some companies (Filmair in North America & South Africa / Panther & GFM in Europe - and maybe Solid Grip Systems as well Onno?) make a very tight circle which will give you a 9ft 6inch circle. You will certainly need articulated skate channels for such a tight circle , such as those made by Portaglide or fishers new wheels. Hope that helps . Sanjay Sami Key Grip www.thegripworks.com

Hi Dan, I would seriously advise against using a telescoping riser on a slider (or any riser for that matter). The slider is likely to get damaged by the leverage generated from the weight riding that high above the carriage. Having said that I would not really recommend rigging the slider on the bazooka either. It is likely that you will damage the slider with the weight cantilevered at one end on a moving car. In my opinion Victors method is the safe way to go. If you use Ronford Bakers sliders they come with speedrail adaptors that make a rig like that very quick to adjust. Take a look at the way I have rigged a slider for this shot. It was for a car chase sequence and I had to track the camera under a moving truck and out the other side - http://www.thegripworks.com/rigging.html Hope that helps Regards Sanjay Sami Key Grip www.thegripworks.com