Steadycam and focusing

[jjb]

I'll probably try to attend a 2 days Steadycam workshop and based on that decide which steadycam to buy - the Pilot sounds very interesting.

As a steadycam novice I have a very basic question concerning focusing. Attached you'll find a picture from the Russian Ark set and I wonder how this guy (Steadycam operator: TILMAN BUETTNER) is handling the focus. Is an assistant doing this work? The movie was shot in 96 minutes in one take and without any cuts whatsoever! TILMAN has to walk 2km with a 33kg Steadycam! I don't think he was able to concentrate on focusing. How is it done with smaller steadycams like the Flyer etc.

 

[ThousandWordPicture]

You can see the assistant with the remote focus device behind the lens there. He'll likely be focusing with a combination of eye balling from the monitor and using his well tuned skill of knowing how far something is from the lens.