Boom, crash.... goes the Arri

keylight

keylight

Veteran
Ouch!

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EDIT: Here's the article this stuff came from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjSxVBW3Vx8

Anyone have any idea what type of stabilizer this was? Or why it failed? I've never seen a steadicam type stabilizer with large... ?rubber bands? in place of the springs.
 
Interesting failure mode. Looks like the gimbal failed when it was levered out away. Would be an interesting system but needed to be balanced to the load because it was constantly trying to get away. The rubber bands (or shock cord) would make it very quiet.
 
So yes, that is the NB stabilizer. And the part that gave out was the rod end, which is part of the adjustment at the socket block (the one you use to adjust left/right body trim so that it floats comfortably in front of you). The components in the socket block had previously been noted by some to be undersized for this amount of payload. While there is generally no need for an arm to be extended out this far during normal body mount operation (and certainly not dancing with no hands, which I have heard described as a "circus trick" within the Steadicam community), it can happen when hard mounting, which in combination with being on a vehicle can result in some major shock and fast vertical displacement, so the arm needs to be built to take that kind of torque.

So, what happened at Cinegear this weekend as seen in the video was a combination of component failure and (what I would personally consider) a certain amount of showboating on the part of the operator who was trying out the rig.

From what I've heard, neither the rig nor the camera suffered much damage in the fall.
 
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Haha, can't escape it no matter how many years are behind me with La Machine! Saw a lot of my Steadibuddies at Cinegear and thereafter and you can be sure this was a hot topic of discussion when it first posted yesterday, since we knew both the maker of that rig and the guy wearing it.
 
Sadly, I think the part that's not going to survive is the company's future.

I hope they get WAY out in front of this and own their mistake... like a mistake has never been owned before.
 
The rod end is actually one of the classic weak links in nearly every arm design, and they have been known to break under load in many varieties of Steadicam arms. Happened to me once, but fortunately the arm just shifted and didn't drop.

This is a good time to remind everyone of a simple mistake that can lead to this sort of thing. If you are using an arm that has the side to side adjustment at the socket block (which they all should), allowing the pitch of the rig to be adjusted from left to right, the proper methodology is to start with both ends dialed in so that the mounting assembly is drawn into the arm. When you mount the rig, you only dial ONE of the ends out to fix the pitch of the rig. If you dial both out at all, you risk putting extra torque on these rod ends which puts you at risk for them snapping.
 
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