Last minute changes to my steadi job.... going segway... advice needed.

legrevedotcom

legrevedotcom

Veteran
Im doing a job tomorow morning at six am and just a couple of hours ago the director calls me up and said they got hold of a segway and want me to use it for the job. The trick is... Ive never steadied on a segway and ive only ever tried one for like 5 minutes of fun.

Now, are there anything I need to prepare myself for or be aware of?

Ill be flying the FS100 with master prime on a Tiffen Pilot with no focus assist as the sun comes up.

Thanks in advance
 
Can you do the shot without it? Or can you get a hold of the segway today?

Just seems a little silly to throw you on something you've never used before and expect it to turn out great. Seems like a "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" sorta thing.

I don't know though, maybe there's not that much to it...hopefully someone with some experience can chime in.
 
I know that experienced people can do a great job using a Segway as a amera platform, but that takes practice - as a newbie, you're far more likely to crash or fall off, hurting yourself and/or your gear. Just say no.
 
Are you sure they got hold of one of the handsfree Segways? Those are rare and expensive beasts, and I've seen people occasionally suggest operating on a traditional Segway (which is a recipe for disaster!).

I tried one out at NAB, and it's a really different experience. It took me a while to just get used to being on the thing, and I'd certainly want some time practicing with it before using it on a shoot. Also, since you're using a Pilot, you can't hard mount to the Segway, so you don't even get the added endurance bonus of not having to wear the rig (though with a rig as light as the Pilot, talking about needing endurance is almost laughable!).
 
Thanks for your insights guys... That Karsten video is famous over here :) He's probably the best steadicammer we have in Denmark.

I'll have a talk with them, since I already expected it to be damn hard to use right from the get go. I don't want to crash my gear right now, so better not play with fire, even though it would be great fun to be able to do this hehe.

Thanks.
 
Friendly update.... Took a few trial runs. I got pretty comfortable with it and can now confirm thats ita doable to one hand the segway and pilot if youre stupid enough and the director is ok with a little tilting :-D the version they have is the one with the handle so my arm got a bit in the way but it works.
 
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