Rollerblades, Glidecam and some nice cars.

those are incredibly smooth glidecam shots. most looked like dolly shots and a few small crane sections as well. were you on like a glidecam HD without vest and held it up real hight to get the small crane vibe? what glidecam models did you use? did you stabalize in post a bit? very clean and complimentary looking shots for a one day try out as you say.

david
 
Hey thanks David! Sorry about the late response I'm not used to replies on this forum lol. That's exactly what I did, it just took a bit of tweaking to be able to hold it up high but still control what the camera was looking at. The rollerblades definitely helped to smooth out the footage in the absence of a vest. But I did not do any stabilization in post, it was all just with the HD-4000. Thanks again!
 
Thanks Tim! I don't know what tips I can offer as I'm very new to it. The rollerblades are sort of cheating because they really take out any inertia that's present when you're physically walking and therefore keeps the rig very level and smooth for the most part which allows you to concentrate on the shot and any manipulation of the rig you're looking to do. I guess that's why people pay the big bucks and get the vest when using rollerblades doesn't exactly scream "professionalism" lol.
 
to make it even more professional, I do recommend you to use Polarizer filter to prevent your reflection on those shinny cars. I can see you......
other than that, I am impressed with your skill in flying the stabilizer!!
 
Its great! Frankly speaking, when you have a huge crew and given a larger budget... get the high end gear. Until then, use your $50 pair of blades and keep producing "professional" looking footage. I'm debating whether to dust off my old blades and and try out some takes.
 
Hey thanks guys! After watching this a few more times, I do wish I had of used a polarizer to avoid seeing me in there. I will keep that in mind for any future shoots. For this kind of stuff the blades are great and you get a good workout from it. It brings back that fun aspect that can go missing when you start shooting as "work". Thanks again for the support everyone!
 
do mention that you were shooting overcranked to help smooth things out ;)

60fps does indeed help make an already smooth shot look that much smoother. nice work!
 
Very good call. The overcranking definitely helped a lot to smooth things out. I don't have the control yet to move that slowly and still get such smooth results in 23.98. I wish Canon had a camera that could shoot at 60FPS in 1080P.
 
Nice work and ingenious solution. I have the HD4000 and I bought the steadicam arm and vest and it works great. The rolerblades are a really nice solution for sure but I think you'd run up against it's limits if you were to do very slow movements. That's where I think the vest shines the most... when you have to do subtle movement and also change orientation during the shot. So hard to do that handheld. I did like the freedom of the handheld and as long as I was moving pretty fast it was great, but slow movement... especially don juan style is a real trick... Did you have a hard time with the reverse tracking shots? Those were always so tough when I was handholding...

Now though that I have the vest I've shot for 3 hours without a break and it's not that bad... except for one series of muscles in the back that just gets worked to death..... But the footage turns out really great...
 
DOF, yeah I saw some of Vinny's stuff a while back and loved it. He stages his stuff really well, encompassing as many guys in one shot as possible which is awesome. I didn't know he was pro though. Before I picked up the Glidecam, I was just doing handheld while on rollerblades which gave me a nice base and then correcting any additional shake in post with Smoothcam or Warp Stabilizer. I do miss having the control over manual focus that I had while just using the camera and rollerblades but until I can splurge on some sort of wireless focus controller, I gotta work around it.

Justyn, thanks! You're right, the slower you go, the more difficult it becomes but I actually found it more difficult on foot. With the blades it just lets you coast and then it's easier to keep the Glidecam level for longer. There were some reverse tracking shots I had a problem with but luckily since everything was stationary, I could just do shots going forward and reverse them in post. The shot at the end where the two cars emerging from behind the supra was done while sitting in the trunk of my brother's car lol. I really want to pick up the vest, but I may be looking at a new camera in the next little bit and may have to look into the X-10 instead so I don't want to splurge on it just yet. I've used it once and noticed the same back muscled destruction. At least with handheld it just gives me one knarly bicep.
 
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