Daniel Mimura

I've had to do lots of that human tripod stuff (handheld and steadicam), and it's what a lot of hacks want these days (or that motion is gonna make that lame boring corporate shoot look more interesting, etc...etc...)... I haven't done the tennis ball thing (which I'm definitely gonna try now, thank, Stuart)...but often I'll put it on a tripod with it intentionally out of balance...and operate with a couple fingers on the handle instead of my whole hand so it kind of moves around, and I'll sort of shift my weight around or dance my fingers around a little bit so it'll get out of balance a bit and I'll have to correct it. It gives them that look they want (eye roll), but without killing yourself. Depending on the situation, it gives them that look *better* than a long take on a 50mm handheld b/c you will begin to lose control several minutes in, and then the look becomes the look of the person behind the camera struggling, which takes you out of the story, which is the opposite effect they're usually going for in the first place. Another thing, get in the habit of just pulling it off your shoulder right after cut and hand it off. You shouldn't even have to really look, or have to ask. The good AC's understand this and are quick on it, but a lot of lesser experienced AC's aren't. Get that established at the very beginning, if they aren't doing it automatically This is a huge thing on something that's several days long, all handheld...it's a compound effect. It's a big the also b/c at the end of the take, you're tired...and the act of taking it off your shoulder means putting the weight further away from you where leverage is against you so that's where you're more likely to strain something. Even thou a top handle is more weight, I always have it for better handoffs.

As an operator, I hate when a director grabs the camera and blocks it and then hands it over for the take. I can learn the beats by watching video village or being over the director's shoulder, but my body doesn't get the rehearsals everyone else has had by the point you're doing the take. Even the blocking is telling me I can walk backwards 4 steps before I hit the door...etc...it's all motor memory. Directors/DP's need to be able to articulate what they want. The inability to do this is often why a lot of directors will grab the camera and do it themselves (or attempt to do it themselves as is often the case.)

I second a mafer or cardellini on a c-stand with a sandbag. Steadicam is balanced and stored on a c-stand....so the same sort of things makes the most sense for other rigs. I have a Jerry Hill Gorelock for my steadicam...unless someone made an expensive quick locking dock (which makes sense in correlation of the expense of the camera &/or lenses), this might be the safest solution. I'm always ill at ease seeing fig rigs leaning against a wall or just on the ground. Things on the ground are just asking to get dusty, dirty, stepped on/tripped on...having stingers dragged across...etc...

Ha ha! Peter Andrews/Steven Soderberg could probably have that argument like when Gollum talks to himself in the 1st LOTR movie.

Remote follow focus operated by the AC/focus puller. It's expensive and (relatively) heavy, as well as needing power, which is not provided on lightweight cheap steadicam rigs, requiring you to add even more weight (a v-mount or Anton-Bauer battery---smaller batteries generally don't have the amperage to pull the motors). There are cheaper follow focus units in the past year or two like the red rocks micro...I messed around with a friend's, and it pulled an SLR lens fine, but I doubt it would work on a cinema lens. (I live in Seattle, which is the northern most major city in the USA...it gets cold and you need a torquey motor to pull a cinema lens b/c the lubricants inside stiffen. Maybe it's not a problem in Johannesberg! I use a Bartech Focus Device (aka BFD), which is available from most rental houses.

Also, is it a PV mount? That wouldn't do you any good unless you wanted to always rent Panavision glass. Unless it's a quick conversion back to a PL mount...

I just knock it b/c they're being cheap b/c they're using inferior ballasts. Surefire doesn't skimp on this. Lightpanels doesn't skimp on this but cheap (quality) LED's like rotolights do (as the power drains, they don't shut off, so they just start flickering) Cadillacs aren't cheap cars, but they have cheap LED's in their brake lights. BMW's aren't cheap either, but they use good ballasts, I've never seen BMW LED's flicker (bikes or cars). This isn't just for photographic reasons...the flicker is very irritating to me. As LED's take off more and more, it's going to effect movie photography---things you can't control like a cityscape shot of rush hour...you see dozens of flickery LED brake lights now.

Ha! Yeah... I clicked on this thread b/c I was curious...why would a Mag Light flicker? I didn't know they made LED mag lights. There ya go! The only LED flashlights I know that don't flicker are some (maybe all?) of the Surefires. The Surefire St Minimus headlamp blows my mind...it has a dimmer and *still* doesn't flicker! I haven't done a high speed test or a fast shutter test, but my eyes are extremely sensitive to flicker (there are two AC's I work with who's headlamps drive me crazy---just seeing them out of the corner of my eye, I think I'm going to have a seizure, I can't understand how they can even stand it)...and that's the only one I know who's ballast doesn't begin to flicker when dimmed. I have used it on camera at 23.98fps/180º and it won't flicker. It's a shame that mag light has gone the cheap route with the LED's...they used to be a good quality company.

Wow...that much KY and Vaseline... I can just see the filmmakers buying it at the grocery store. "this is for a Louis Vuitton commercial? Yeah, right."

Holy cr-p! They're still around? I bought my Frezzolini Frezzi-Flex from them when I was in college in the early 90's. I taught a film/video class to middle schoolers back then and the owner's son was in the class. Norm Bleicher was the owner. I ran into him a couple years later and he was getting out, but that's definitely the same company, with the same address, so I guess it meant *he* was getting out, not that his partner was carrying on. Some people's complaint against the company was, "it was okay, if you were prepared to deal with salesmen". I didn't feel a hard sell type of thing, but who was I to know, I was inexperienced with film equipment at the time...I was in college and needed a good but cheap 16mm camera and they were great. When I last talked to Norm, it was probably the mid-90's, and since they're still around, I'd think that says something.