Inspirational Steadicam work

[CharlesPapert]

Dave Chameides has put up a couple of reels of his work this week and I think there are a lot of people here who would enjoy them. I met Dave in the mid 90's when I was teaching Steadicam at the Malibu workshops, we became close friends and later roommates when I moved to LA and he got me my first few jobs there, including American History X and covering him on "ER". He's one of the best in the business, a true "operator's operator".

https://vimeo.com/202703024

If you really want your mind blown, check out his "One'rs" reel below. Dave is one of the few operators who understood how to tweak every element of a shot and guide the viewer's eye to precisely the right place to pull off shots these complex and lengthy without dead spots in the pacing.

https://vimeo.com/202779076

For many, gimbals are now the preferred technology for flying a camera through space but the principles of shot design remain the same. Looking forward to hearing your impressions and if you have questions, I'm sure I can shoehorn Dave to respond.

 

[Grug]

Such good stuff! Thanks for sharing it Charles. I was a bit young to properly appreciate the ER phenomenon when it happened, but the quality of the choreography, and how immersive it all is, is just breathtaking.

Gimbals are a wonderful tech, but until they can do something about the godawful robotic-looking pans, and the image drift that gives the game away, I'll continue to prefer steadicam for its greater precision - when you take the human element out of it, you're having to put an awful lot of faith in a tool.

 

[markfpv]

Wow. Indeed. Thanks for sharing/posting. Quite humbling - and inspirational in its precision. Mind totally blown with the one'rs reel and haven't even started on your first link.

 

[Run&Gun]

The quote from Bob Crone at the end sums it up, "The irony of what we do is that if we do it well, no one will ever know that we did anything at all."

His horizons are amazing. Dead level and he is flat hauling the mail on some of those moves.

I've taken the workshop twice and it makes me appreciate the good guys even more every time I have strapped a vest on and flown the rig. I wish I would have tried to start in earnest early in my career instead of waiting almost 20 years.

Guys like Dave, Charles, Garret, Larry, Buzz... Amazing.

 

[fboonzaier]

Thanks for posting....amazing work!

 

[Eric Coughlin]

One really inspirational Steadicam video is Steadicam is So Hot, starring Charles Papert. I don't think I've seen it posted on DVXuser before.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gS9XfEs0e4

And the Art of Steadicam, of course. Some of Dave Chameides' shots are in there.

https://vimeo.com/60974401

And speaking of one-takes, Charles, feel free to check out the five minute one-take Steadicam short film I did which I recently posted in the C-series forum: Kiss Tape


How often are you seeing gimbals on bigger sets these days? Seems whenever I watch behind-the-scenes for Hollywood movies it's still always Steadicam. I see gimbals on some high end music videos.

 

[rob norton]

Amazing! I love any of those steadicam shots where the talent is running really fast.

In the oner's video at 1:03-1:05 you can clearly see the rig in the reflection of the oven door. Maybe the guy with the radio was supposed to run through sooner? Do you think production was aware and let it slide or it went genuinely unnoticed?

 

[CharlesPapert]

In the oner's video at 1:03-1:05 you can clearly see the rig in the reflection of the oven door. Maybe the guy with the radio was supposed to run through sooner? Do you think production was aware and let it slide or it went genuinely unnoticed?

Poor Dave has had to answer to that for 17 odd years now...! His explanation on steadishots.org: "At the bottom of the stairs was the first hurdle as I had to get in front of Brad and Allison without seeing myself in the glass on the freezer. I worked out the little arm grab thing with Allison so that they would slow down and I could use their bodies to hide the reflection. As I recall this was one of the few takes where the timing was off so if you look close you can see me in there."

In this day and age, a little VFX cleanup would likely be called for (since that's an "easy" fix). Not so much back then.

"ER" and "West Wing" were exceptional challenging (and very rewarding) to work on as an operator. "ER" in particular was set up so that the director worked out the shots primarily with the operator while the DP focused on lighting. "West Wing" was not terribly different. While both one'rs seen on this reel were notably lengthy and complicated, nearly every day on those shows involved shots that were elaborate by most other standards. By the time I came on "ER" they had 5 years under their belt and everything was dialed in beautifully for those long shots, from lighting to background to the principal cast. I followed Dave on "West Wing" in the first season (Dave did eps. 1-8, I did 9-12) and there was still a bit of growing pains to be had.

As far as managing things like reflections, flares and other "bogies" in the shot, it was far more challenging as a Steadicam operator back then than it is now, at least as far as film vs digital. The video taps were still in transition from black and white to color, and not quite as sensitive as 500 speed film stock, so you couldn't rely on anyone to catch any issues in the monitors. We used to walk the set obsessively while it was being lit, patrolling for and solving issues before we had to suit up. Tough on focus pullers too.

 

[emretufekci]

This is such fantastic work and a direct reflection of what I think of we are missing with new operators on Movi's. The brushless gimbal has definitely made it a lot easier to create shots like these to the novice filmmakers, but they lack the fundamentals of "guiding the viewer's eye to precisely the right place to pull off shots these complex and lengthy without dead spots in the pacing" as Charles stated.

Its very hard to teach the step by step process of how to best motivate, block and execute a shot without interfering with the story. There is nothing wrong with Gimbals, in fact they are a fantastic extension of the moving camera but require the same training and discipline of steadicam when it compares to composing and operating. I look back at my younger days as a steadicam op and the really really bad work I did but as we know experience is something you get right after when you could have used it the most.

So my unsolicited advice to the young filmmakers is to watch videos like this and analyze them to death. There is so much there, so well done it will really help your careers.

Thanks for posting Charles.

 

[CharlesPapert]

One really inspirational Steadicam video is Steadicam is So Hot, starring Charles Papert. I don't think I've seen it posted on DVXuser before.[/url]

Ha, oh boy. When I made that thing it was basically an inside joke to be shown as a one-off at a ceremony but it seems to have stood the test of time!

And speaking of one-takes, Charles, feel free to check out the five minute one-take Steadicam short film I did which I recently posted in the C-series forum: Kiss Tape

How often are you seeing gimbals on bigger sets these days? Seems whenever I watch behind-the-scenes for Hollywood movies it's still always Steadicam. I see gimbals on some high end music videos.

Gimbals are being used a certain amount, look at Straight out of Compton for instance. They are not really being used as a replacement for Steadicam, more like their own beast. And yes, commercials and music videos have highly embraced them. I myself haven't called for one on any of my shoots yet, honestly I'm not a fan of the current generation but they will improve and I think eventually hybridize with Steadicam.

Nice job with your short! I recently shot an 11 minute one'r short film and it was a lot of fun working with my regular Steadicam operator and the director on shot design and flow and all of the good stuff I used to do! My operator is 29 and has always felt like he missed out on the "golden era" of long Steadicam shots, so he had a blast. On my recommendation he used a lightweight practice rig for rehearsals before and on the day, then he switched over to a full-size rig for the actual takes: