Eric Coughlin
Veteran
Music video I DPed for the Christian band MercyMe. Shot with two Arri Amiras and Arri Ultra Primes. There are a few shots at the guy's house which someone else filmed with I believe a C100.
I've listened to their music before so I was excited to work with a band I liked. Video has close to a million views now.
For this shoot I bought a Kessler K-Pod with a Seven Jib and a bumpy 16 ft. ProAim dolly track (which I returned) for dolly/jib shots. I call up B&H to return the dolly which I believe was special order and didn't typically allow returns, and I wanted them to pay for return shipping since I described the dolly as defective since its design resulted in bumps where the tracks meet. The customer service lady then said, "Well if it's designed to be bumpy then it's not actually a defective product, is it, as it's performing as it was designed to." One of the dumber conversations I've had but I eventually got my RMA to return it. I bought the Kessler K-pod used with various accessories from Facebook Marketplace, including the tube track, so I'll probably plan to use that in the future until I get another good set of rigid track to use.
Steadicam Zephyr for Steadicam. Dana Dolly for b-cam. Audio for the beginning was a Shoeps CMC 641 and Sanken CS-3e plugged straight into camera boomed above the talent. Don't know which feed they used. They didn't hire an audio guy so I managed that.
I'm about to buy a DJI RS2 to go with the C70; I see there's a jib kit for that so that should pair well with the jib for a cheapish remote head option. The jib can handle the Amira without issue, but I'd need a more expensive remote head to get remote action going.
Seven Jib isn't the best, but it does certainly setup easy, so a big plus there, and as said it handles the Amira weight fine with no issues. Wish it had a pan lock and more tension options. Since the head isn't self leveling when the jib was swung to the left or right it resulted in the camera going off-axis which shows in the final footage. I wanted a Technocrane or Chapman pneumatic jib for this, naively thinking I could get one for $3k which was within budget, but found they cost more like $10k per day with the crew to manage it. Some day. Another option was to pay out of pocket to hire a basic jib operator with like a Jimmy Jib or Cammate jib. I opted to buy my own setup for around $3k and go that route with me using it. Worked okay. Not perfectly smooth but gave more variety than if it had all been Steadicam. Client wasn't paying for a jib so I was just throwing it in because I felt it would improve the project.
I've listened to their music before so I was excited to work with a band I liked. Video has close to a million views now.
For this shoot I bought a Kessler K-Pod with a Seven Jib and a bumpy 16 ft. ProAim dolly track (which I returned) for dolly/jib shots. I call up B&H to return the dolly which I believe was special order and didn't typically allow returns, and I wanted them to pay for return shipping since I described the dolly as defective since its design resulted in bumps where the tracks meet. The customer service lady then said, "Well if it's designed to be bumpy then it's not actually a defective product, is it, as it's performing as it was designed to." One of the dumber conversations I've had but I eventually got my RMA to return it. I bought the Kessler K-pod used with various accessories from Facebook Marketplace, including the tube track, so I'll probably plan to use that in the future until I get another good set of rigid track to use.
Steadicam Zephyr for Steadicam. Dana Dolly for b-cam. Audio for the beginning was a Shoeps CMC 641 and Sanken CS-3e plugged straight into camera boomed above the talent. Don't know which feed they used. They didn't hire an audio guy so I managed that.
I'm about to buy a DJI RS2 to go with the C70; I see there's a jib kit for that so that should pair well with the jib for a cheapish remote head option. The jib can handle the Amira without issue, but I'd need a more expensive remote head to get remote action going.
Seven Jib isn't the best, but it does certainly setup easy, so a big plus there, and as said it handles the Amira weight fine with no issues. Wish it had a pan lock and more tension options. Since the head isn't self leveling when the jib was swung to the left or right it resulted in the camera going off-axis which shows in the final footage. I wanted a Technocrane or Chapman pneumatic jib for this, naively thinking I could get one for $3k which was within budget, but found they cost more like $10k per day with the crew to manage it. Some day. Another option was to pay out of pocket to hire a basic jib operator with like a Jimmy Jib or Cammate jib. I opted to buy my own setup for around $3k and go that route with me using it. Worked okay. Not perfectly smooth but gave more variety than if it had all been Steadicam. Client wasn't paying for a jib so I was just throwing it in because I felt it would improve the project.
Last edited:
