Sanjay Sami

Picture of the insert car I am shooting with right now. We have 2 cameras rigged on vibration isolators, being operated.

I had no idea you could buy a new Elemack dolly !! I am amazed. I last saw one 17 years ago.

Hey Rob, didn't have time to get into details of the rig, (I was playing truant from my set), but it looked really different from any of the other heads. It would not work mounted sideways, because the roll axis is not a true 360 degree roll. It runs on what Ilooks like the guide rails from the Ronford slider, but curved on the roll axis., but it gives you only about 120 degrees of roll. It is huge and seems very rigid. It also seems adjustable (in the same way as a lambda head) to compress it to exactly the dimensions of the camera. On a separate note, I start on my 1st 3d film in March, and I am not looking forward to it. The cameras look like car crashes, with all the wiring hanging all over the place. :blink:

3-D ? Can the Libra handle 3D ? I was shooting at studio Bablesberg in Berlin a few days ago, and they were shooting 3 Musketeers in 3D on the next stage, It was on a techno 30 but with a new stabilised head I've never seen before. It comfortably took the weight of the 2 Alexa cameras on the Pace 3D rig. The head was substantially lighter than a flight head or a G3. But worked great. The guy who built it was the tech .

Hey Rob, I made a bracket for it but never had to use it. I'll try and dig up some pictures. It was a Mitchell to mitchell 90 degree plate for a push through a window. Hope we are talking about the same thing.

Not as specific as you may like, but perhaps something you can begin with. Took these pics of a hybrid riser. http://www.steadicamforum.com/index.php?showtopic=11961

That looks like a really well made setup.

Freezing my ass off in Berlin doing car chase sequence. Look forward to 20 frigid night shoots in november. Who schedules night shoots in November in germany ?? Sadistic AD's who know the nights are going to be real long !!

Actually Dave, I was refering to the 2 identical sets of track wheels on the Hustler 4. Rob - I heard about the dragon grips track from steve caddie who was one of my assistant grips on The darjeeling limited and then saw it on your website and realised that Dragon grips was you and Michelletti.

Rob I suspect that the 2 sets of track wheels is so that you can go Chinese (sideways) without needing a complicated speedwheel rig. On the Fisher 10 (if you use the big trackwheels) when you crab the wheels to setup to go sideways, you have one track wheel in and one out. They dont line up to track . Maybe this is Chapmans solution to that problem. You still need wider guage track or 2 sets of track ( or a PeeWee ;) )

Rob, try emailing Darryl Humber - dollygrippery@gmail.com - he may have an answer for you. I use the Fisher10 and now Hybrid mostly, but he is an expert on the Hustler 4.

So that contraption will live on the dolly ? I thought you'd have to take the outer wheel off and replace it with the track wheels, which seemed more of a pain than skates. Post some pictures once you make them. Maybe I'll order a set from you ;)

Never saw those before Rob. Looks like more of a pain in the ass than its worth. Why not use trays with speedwheels (skateboard wheels) ? Fisher makes a great set of these.

Could not do Slumdog unfortunately. But I did meet Telfer when he was in Bombay. Hectic shoot by all accounts.

Hey Rob, Good to find you in cyberspace. on a movie in Berlin right now. Here till december. Dying to come back to beautiful Cape Town. Hopefully sometime soon. Hope things are well with you ? By the looks of it they are :D

Rob Fischer ? Cape Town ? Were you Guys best boy about 12 years ago?

Considering you are listed as the manager of the company, its hardly surprising that you had that chance. <_<

Incidently, freeze spray is basically dust off with a straw connecting the nozzle to the bottom of the can, so that rather than spraying the vapour collected at the top, it sprays the liquified gas.

You can also use Freeze Spray. If you dont have freeze spray you can invert a can of dust off and spray the propellant (as long as it does not spray on the coated lens elements) and use that as a freeze spray.

Get the Lambda 3 Axis. It will make your life very easy.

BTW, the steadicam operator on "Salt" is Scott Sakamoto, a truly phenomenal operator.

The double net is used as a wind break for the steadicam. It is preferable to use net rather than a solid for 2 reasons. The first is that the grips can clearly see through the net what the operator is doing, so their coordination will be better. The second, and more important, is that the net diffuses the wind rather than blocking it. Blocking the wind with a solid, would create turbulence around and under the frame, which will create unpredictable wind action on the rig. This is the most important reason for using nets rather than solids.

These are really good points. For about 12 years I used rockclimbing harnesses from Petzl and other brands, and often the pain in the ass factor of undoing webbing through buckles saw me skipping the harness altogether. Then in 1992 someone gave me a SALA harness with quick releases all around, and have been using SALA products ever since ... they are really good and comfy. I think its great that you are buying your son a harness .

Good call Brad. I completely forgot about it. I just looked it up to see who the operator was. It was Henry Tirl. Done some amazing work. There are some Steadicam / Camera operators who fly way below the horizon, who do some spectacular work. Another one , who I've worked with on 3 movies is Klemens Becker. Phenomenal operator.

Love the Copacabana shot in Goodfellas, also love the corridor shot in Raising Cain . The opening of Bonfire of the Vanities also is spectacular. All of these are examples of the sublime steadicam work of Larry McConkey.