Camera movements and the FS700?

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dmitrizigany

Veteran
I confess: camera movements are my weak point.
Partly because they don't particularly interest me. Not that I don't appreciate them, but I feel they're more I necessary chore. Maybe this is based on the fact that I'm always a one-man-operation. But I'm also allergic to the kind of footage you see so much of these days, hand held DSLR footage, shot with a rig,where you can tell they try to keep it smooth, but it just don't work very well.
The FS700 seems to be working fairly well hand held with a light lens like the Sony SEL 50mm/1.8. But with heavier lenses like the power zoom 18-200 or the Samyangs, it quickly becomes unwieldy.

One obvious thing to use, is of course a slider, and that's on my list of things to get.
Been looking at the Zacuto FS700 shooter, but coupled with a decent follow focus, those things are ridiculously expensive, and I'm not sure they would do what I need.

What other tips and tricks do you have to achieve camera movement with the FS700 as a one man operator?
 
The biggest trick to hand held/shoulder shooting is a really heavy camera on the shoulder, that was the way Betacams worked so well for ENG for years.

Now that pretty much all cameras weigh less than 30lbs, much less, lenses with IS have tried to replace this, with mixed results, IMHO.

Stedicams have always worked really well, I still use mine a lot, it is now almost 20 years old. Jibs and sliders, dollys etc have always worked. Now there is a new crop of brushless gimbals coming, I have used these for a quite a while in MRs (drones) they are really good. Roller blades are great too, as are skis, wheelchairs and even bikes, all used in smooth controlled manner.

But for most of the time if I just need to shoot hand held I use a wide lens with IS most of the time, I do use my shoulder rig, it is very compact. But I also often "cradle" the camera, I am tall and many times shouldering is just to high, and my knees are not that good any more.

A lot of times just moving very little, like bending your knees, works great it does not take much movement to get the 3D effect. The worst thing is to try to stay still, if the camera is moving use it to change the frame subtly on purpose not just jittering around aimlessly.

Just my nickel...
 
Here’s an example of some dailies that I DP’d for HGTV. They hired us to shoot some stock footage of people using mobile devices for their mobile devices promos. The directive was to keep it hand held and loose and make it feel like POV shots.

http://builtbyugene.com/html_pages/html_movies/movies_hgtvmobiledevices.html

Handheld is easy when shooting super slow motion, but this was to be in 24fps, so it’s a bit harder. With super slow motion, you can move like crazy and it looks good because slow motion smooths a lot out. With 24fps, handheld has to be much more controlled.

I used the 7Q as a monitor on my super light hand held rig. Here’s some tips

1) The rig needs to be as light as possible. Those 25 lbs shoulder rigs with counter weights and crazy rods and handles would never cut it for this type of handheld. You need to be light and mobile. Here’s the rig I made. I used the super light version.

http://www.builtbyugene.com/blog/blog1_rigs.html

2) On the FS700 put your right hand UNDER the camera towards the front. I have my thumb wrapped on the back side of the circle where the rosette is. Kind of cradling a baby, but it’s your FS700

3) You left hand is on the focus ring

4) On the 3rd day of the shoot, I realized that lenses with Image Stabilization works the best. So at that point I switched from primes to my Canon 24-105 f4 IS on a Speed Booster which made it about a 17-75 f2.8. After this project, now when I shoot handheld, I tend to us I.S. lenses instead of primes. I.S. help tremendously.

5) If you are NOT doing a walking move, have your feet planted and move up, down and sideways with your body and camera locked together in unison. This allows for smoother camera moves. If you are just moving your arms up and down without you body moving with your arms, your camera moves will be jerky. Your body, arms and legs need to be one unit.

6) Putting your camera on your shoulder should only be done if the shot is from chest to eye level. Anything below the chest, and it’s very hard to move with a shoulder rig because you are bending down so much. Below chest level, cradle the camera. I think only about 30% of my shots were from the shoulder.

7) Often times, you don't need major movement. Just a little side movement or some up and down helps a ton. Without super slow motion, doing big moves like a circling walk for example can result in a jittery shot. Of course a steadycam helps, but then it's also a completely different aesthetic than true handheld. True handheld looks more immediate while steadycam looks more deliberate.

8) The nice thing about the FS700 is that it's light and you can really throw it around. The reason why hand held is so popular now is because the cameras are so much lighter. Not too long ago, cameras were heavy as hell and you have to be a weight lifter to hold them. I have an Eclair ACL Super 16mm film camera and it's considered a "Light Film Camera" but it's pushing 20 lbs just for the camera itself with no rig. It's just so heavy that it's tough as hell to handhold. That's not the case with new cameras.

Hope that helps a bit.
 
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Great tips Gene and ones I can relate to. I've spent 3 years getting all these crazy jibs, sliders, steadicams and doohicky's for all sorts of shots, but there is a certain simplicity in handheld that is really rewarding once you get your techniques down with the right lens in the equation.
You can almost go too crazy with camera movement and there is a real freedom in dialing it back and thinking out the shots. What purpose does this slider have in the shot? Is it serving the story? Do I really need 14 jib shots? lol. I'm exagerating, but it is liberating to just go bare bones but its also fun to pull out the cinematic tricks and slide and crane and steadicam all over the place :p

I shot a gig yesterday that called for the closing shot to be a steadicam shot. Managed to get the 7Q balanced quite nicely on the Came rig with a bit of frankensteining!
 

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thanks for sharing all your experience! What kind of steadicam is that (and congrats for managing balance!)
 
Don't get me wrong. I LOVE steadycam, sliders and jibs. They definitely have a more cinematic feel than barebones handheld. It's just that this job, the client specially requested a loose, voyeuristic, kind of shaky type feel since it was to convey a mobile device type feel. It's a very popular look these days.

And Kyron, congrats on balancing that steadycam. I also managed to get my 7Q balanced on a Glidecam HD4000. It actually wasn't as hard as I though, but I did have to add quite a few more weights at the bottom. Now I just wish I had the full-suit as the Glidecam is so heavy I can only hold it for about 40 seconds before I start shaking. So only quick steadycam shots, LOL. I do have the Arm support which helps a bit.
 
Kyron:

If you are able to relocate the 7Q back and down so that its mass becomes a natural extension of the camera at the rear, you'll enjoy a more inert rig which should help operating noticeably. Long+low=good.
 
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here's my FS700+GLIDECAM setting for snowing location last weekend....it was extreme weather but my baby wore cute poncho so there was no problem at all :)

usually i put more gear for monitoring but it was blizzard so there was nothing to help me for watching such a thing anyway.
PONCHO.jpg
 
Clermond, it's a Came steadicam. I took a gamble and bought it on a whim not being able to afford an actual brand name steadycam and was pleasantly surprised at the build quality and amount of weight it could take.http://www.came-tv.com/came-2515kg-....html?zenid=9df4bf2c63538c36cc73ebbe8591b668I don't know how you guys fly your fs700's on glidecams! My wrist can't take that much weight at all, even with the arm brace. My hd2000 is relegated to 5dmkIII only. Anything heavier and my footage (but mainly wrist) suffers.
 
thanks for this information! I have become a little careful as I started with a cheap flycam for a GH2 and balancing was a PITA. I was thinking about a Laing P02 which was offered at personal-view.com but afair the price was about more than 1.200 USD (plus customs fee and import tax) With the upcoming brushless gimbals I decided to wait. Do you think the vest will fit to tall people (1.95m / 6ft6) ?
 
I'm 6ft and have no issues. The front lower part of the vest extends up and down to accommodate height of the operator and I don't have mine extended all the way out. The vest is very adjustable so it would probably fit you. Check out the review video on cames website. He's a tallish guy so it might give you a better idea to see it comparatively to his body.
 
Thanks for the detailed responses everyone, keep them coming! :)

Especially good to read about the weight of the Glidecam HD4000 as I had sort of considered one of those.
Having never worked with one of these set-ups with vests and arms, how are those as a one man operator? Can you still rack focus with one hand? I guess there's a pretty long set-up time?

I usually really dislike hand held shots, unless it's supposed to look shaky and hand held. And many solutions to avoid hand held seem very difficult to operate on your own. Especially when working with relatively shallow depth of field.

I guess a slider would be the easiest (and cheapest) way to get started with incorporating some movement?

To ask a slightly different thing, what kind of camera movement do you find yourself using most?
 
every tool has it's own advantage and disadvantage also. Regarding a slider you need more equipment than you are able to carry by yourself and you need some time to install it too. It the same with a jib/crane and steadicam system. Being a still photographer in my former life ;-) I feel most comfortable with a tripod or a sholder rig. Havin just watches all Braking Bad seasons in January I must say I liked the power of these images very much, maybe just because they were mostly static and put the focus on the acting. just my 0,02$ (but nevertheless try to practice more handheld shots. Gene is a good inspiration, thanks mate!)
 
Hey Kyron,

Where did you get that little metal device that you are docking your steadycam onto for balancing? I would like something like that. Glidecam makes a similar dock, but it's really overpriced. Hoping to find a cheaper one.

Thanks.
 
gene_can_sing said:
Hey Kyron,

Where did you get that little metal device that you are docking your steadycam onto for balancing? I would like something like that. Glidecam makes a similar dock, but it's really overpriced. Hoping to find a cheaper one.

Thanks.
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Stedicam rigs come with that balancer/docking kit. At least mine did, 20 or so years ago.

It has the same fitting as the elastic arm, and there is enough room to do the all important spin and drop tests while setting up your rig.

And a more rugged dock with a pin for offloading and temporary storage on set on the other side.

Unless your rig uses the exact ball bearing fitting n the arm it would not work.

It would be pretty easy to make one though, if you are handy.
 
Hmm, so maybe I should get more of the sony e-mount lenses? I have the 50mm/1.8 and it's practically weightless and has OSS... To bad it's so much slower with autofocus and face recognition than the 18-200 power zoom. That would have been a neat feature for hand held otherwise.
The other way to go is metabones + Canon lenses with stabilization, do they have any light weight, fast lenses?
 
dmitrizigany said:
Hmm, so maybe I should get more of the sony e-mount lenses? I have the 50mm/1.8 and it's practically weightless and has OSS... To bad it's so much slower with autofocus and face recognition than the 18-200 power zoom. That would have been a neat feature for hand held otherwise.
The other way to go is metabones + Canon lenses with stabilization, do they have any light weight, fast lenses?
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Hey Dimitri, personally I would get Canon zooms. They are really good, affordable-ish zoom lenses and you might spend a bit more up-front, but the re-sale value on Canons are very good and they work well on a number of different camera systems: Sony, Canon, RED and BMC. If you buy electronic E-Mount lenses, they will only work on Sony cameras.

I use the Canon 24-105 f4 IS with the Speed Booster and it's awesome as it's one stop faster. The 17-55mm f2.8 IS EF-S is also a great lens which works with regular Metabones.
 
CharlesPapert said:
Kyron:

If you are able to relocate the 7Q back and down so that its mass becomes a natural extension of the camera at the rear, you'll enjoy a more inert rig which should help operating noticeably. Long+low=good.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the tip Charles! I'll definitely give that a go on the next setup. Every little bit of balance helps and I'm still learning the ropes.
The current setup gave me a pretty good result, but it was so windy on the shoot day that I couldn't stop a little sway getting in as the sled was getting buffeted from all directions, lol

gene_can_sing said:
Hey Kyron,

Where did you get that little metal device that you are docking your steadycam onto for balancing? I would like something like that. Glidecam makes a similar dock, but it's really overpriced. Hoping to find a cheaper one.

Thanks.
Click to expand...

Olof is right, it came as part of the package. I'm not sure if you can buy it separately, but the docking rod may be a little too skinny for the Glidecam handle.
I'll test out my Glidecam HD2000 and see if it fits okay when I get a chance.

They might ship one individually if you ask. They were pretty good communicators and answered my questions fairly quickly.


I can also vouch for the speedbooster and 24-105 combo. I tend to gravitate toward my 24-70 f2.8 mostly for the shallow depth of field on the speedbooster, but when I need a steady handheld shot, the 24-105 is a perfect lens.
 
gene_can_sing said:
Hey Dimitri, personally I would get Canon zooms.
I use the Canon 24-105 f4 IS with the Speed Booster and it's awesome as it's one stop faster. The 17-55mm f2.8 IS EF-S is also a great lens which works with regular Metabones.
Click to expand...
Yes, unfortunately the price of the meta bones adapters make it almost impossible for me at the moment. I regret not getting my last Samyang as Canon mount and one of the cheap adapters. For the price of the metabones I can get a lens instead. I know it would be better in the long run, but I can't shoot now with just an adapter with no lens that goes in it ;)

and the Sony e mount lenses are so damn light weight! So for hand held they seem quite perfect.
 
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