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Alien is a great go-to when talking about effective handheld work, but it really uses about every technique you can think of, brilliantly, I might add. I recently read Derek Vanlint's ASC magazine article about shooting the film and he mentioned they were offered a Panaglide, but refused because he and Ridley wanted to be the sole operators and couldn't learn the rig in time. Upon watching it the other night for the billionth time, I noticed I never gave much thought to one of the first shots. In the opening sequence, when the Nostromo receives its special order, and the camera is giving us an ominous tour of the ship's interior, it's all dolly work, of course, until the final slow push through the white hallway, settling on the door that opens to reveal the cryopods, before we push all the way to the threshold of that room. Was the camera underslung on some rig? Maybe a crane? the crane seems hard to fathom with the cramped four wall sets

I am planning to shoot a choreographed dance scene on a rooftop and am seeking any tips for shooting in an uncontrolled environment with a standard Canon 5D or 7D. Should i avoid harsh lighting and shoot after sunrise or before sunset? What budget lights or gels would assist? Also with dynamic shots can i still achieve nice sweeping pans left-right following the dancer without a steady cam apparatus? Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance!

Hello there, i´ve just been to "Take This Waltz" and am still wondering how they made this minor, very subtle camera shaking, which is present all trough the film. It doesnt look handheld at all, its not a 2D shaking added in postproduction, which is what i thought first, it rather looks like stable steadicam shots with a fixed framing - but i can´t imagine that they operate a whole movie with so many dialogues that way. Any way it helps a lot to make a digitally shot and screened film to look more organic. To get the same effect: Did you try to add a a slight image shaking to digitally shot material in post, like the natural image unsteadiness film has? Thanks, Jonas