stedicam operaters (how much)

reem12

reem12

Veteran
I'll probably be purchasing the stedicam flyer le in a couple of weeks, but i was wondering about how much i could rent myself out for with a package including, stedicam, hpx 170, and 35mm adapter?
 
grinner said:
1,200 per day.
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Maybe, but you definitely have to learn to spell Steadicam first.

I'm not sure where that figure came from. It's a rate that some operators charge, but it's certainly not definitive in any way. Some charge less, others charge more than double. Your rate will have to do with a great many factors. How long have you been operating? What is your skill level? What are your credits? What is your market and the demand for Steadicam in it? Just buying a rig, especially a small one, won't automatically open the door for $1200 (or more) days.

Get as much as you absolutely can. If you can get $1200, excellent. If you can get more, even better. Your market will likely dictate your rate for you. If you want to start with that figure and see what the response is, that would be a good way to find out. I suspect if you're just starting out, you'll find a lot of resistance to it. Be ready to work for much less, even for free if you need to build up a resume and name for yourself. Contact other operators in your area and ask them what they charge. That'll give you a good benchmark by which to set your rate.
 
Afton maybe your not completely understanding that even thoug the post states steadicam operater fees, i'm giving hd cam, 35mm adapter and dp services as well. So if I can get a grand per day for services and equipment I'm a happy camper. To be honest, if all equipment is paid for I'd be happy with $700 a day.
 
You need to spend at least a year (if not more) practicing with your rig. You cannot do any kind of work with a steadicam that is in any way steady without doing the steadicam course and practicing for a long time.

Steadicam is a skill, its like being an artist. Its why steadicam operators are paid so much, you cannot just buy a steadicam and be a steadicam operator.

Dont bank on being paid for a year at least, and once you have been practicing for a year, you can do cheap stuff for students at $200 a day or something.

Ive been doing it a while and ive only just done my first paid job, and im glad i waited, you dont want to give yourself a bad name because you did steadicam jobs when you didnt properly understand how to use it.

Setting up and balencing a steadicam is an art in itself, you need to go on the course to learn how to use a steadicam properly.
 
while I agree confidence and stamina is required, man that can be gained in a weekend without taking it off. I'd not let a year go by without billing out newly purchased gear. That's crazy.
If buying it to bill, get it, un box it, strap it on and run through the backyard till your wife thinks your crazy and your neighbors are certain you are. Then do it again.
I promise the hardest part of the gig is that last shot of the night. You can't sit down. Your muscles will constrict and you'll be down for the count. You are on your feet for the entirity of the shoot, however long that shoot is.
 
It seems like it would be very tough to do well. I thought of buying a steadicam for my equipment package, something basic for like $4,000, but then when I realized how tough those were to operate and how much training is usually required, I just figured that seemed stupid because whoever is that good at using it would have their own gear, so I'd have to pay them for their normal daily rate anyway.

Is there a way to get a lower budget steadicam operator for like $500/day on indie work or no? I mean perhaps there are people who are somewhat skilled but still starting out. I see all of the prices are like $1,200 to $2,500 per day, that's extremely expensive. I know some steadicams cost a ton of money too, but I was just wondering because it doesn't seem like on indie projects it's worth using a steadicam at all if you have to pay that much. There's never enough in the budget for that. I can get an entire crew for $2,500 and make do with jib, dolly, and tripod shots...
 
When I was starting out (and I still am really, but I mean first few months of owning the rig). I would do Indie and student film stuff for free. Its a great way of practicing and getting experience flying different cameras, and whilst your learning, and charging nothing, theres no pressure to pull off an amazing steadicam shot.

Maybe you could find someone in a similar situation, just bought a good steadicam rig and is looking for practice. Failing that, you can always fly me out, im pretty cheap at the moment ;-)
 
Labors of love are the best practice to be had. IMO, if you are not making labors of love from the beginning, you are taking up space in the industry.
I started making littlemovies for fun in 1984. In '90 I started getting paid for it. Today, I still spend most of my time making these labors of love. I don't do it for practice. Honed skill is simply a residual of doing something I truely love. We are all great at what we love.
By that, you simply have to love it. If you don't, there will be far too many people better at than you for you to make a living at it.
 
harp001, I'm a very quick learner. shot a feature the first 2 months of owning a dvx and alot of people thought it was shot by a skilled cinemotographer. I purchased a book for dumies read it a week then shot a feature with no money.

I firmly beleive if your hungry enough, and exibit the same skill in 3 months that someone else who's been doing it for 5 or more years you can get your asking price.

Just take a look at still motion. what this guy has done in two years of shooting is far more advanced then say some people who has had there stedicam for 10 years or more. no schooling for this guy, just determination.
 
grinner said:
Labors of love are the best practice to be had. IMO, if you are not making labors of love from the beginning, you are taking up space in the industry.
I started making littlemovies for fun in 1984. In '90 I started getting paid for it. Today, I still spend most of my time making these labors of love. I don't do it for practice. Honed skill is simply a residual of doing something I truely love. We are all great at what we love.
By that, you simply have to love it. If you don't, there will be far too many people better at than you for you to make a living at it.
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Really well put, man. That's a great point. How can you be better at something than all kinds of people who love it with a passion and will give up so much just to make movies, even if they're not making money on their pet projects? Yeah, you really have to love what you're doing and focus I think first on that passion before you can hopefully, one day, parlay that into profits and making a living at it.
 
reem12 said:
harp001, I'm a very quick learner. shot a feature the first 2 months of owning a dvx and alot of people thought it was shot by a skilled cinemotographer. I purchased a book for dumies read it a week then shot a feature with no money.

I firmly beleive if your hungry enough, and exibit the same skill in 3 months that someone else who's been doing it for 5 or more years you can get your asking price.

Just take a look at still motion. what this guy has done in two years of shooting is far more advanced then say some people who has had there stedicam for 10 years or more. no schooling for this guy, just determination.
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I think most steadicam operators would agree here, that practicing steadicam is more about muscle memory and exercise etc etc. Steadicam uses muscles you never knew you had, and the first week of using the rig, you will be crying to put it down after 10mins. You cant learn that can you?!

Its more about muscle control, the steadicam is not controlled by your arms, its controlled by your back and the rest of your body. Your hands are just there to pan and tilt and boom (where necessary) and to catch the rig if you loose concentration and it flies away. You cant learn control like that, you have to get used to it, it took me months to be able to take my hands off the sled and watch it stay there.


By all means buy a rig and learn it, but steadicam is an art, and it takes real time to develop. Its abit like playing a woodwind instrument like a saxophone or something, you can learn to play it, but it takes real time and practice to develop a good tone with it.
 
Harp I certainly understand where your coming from but again I would ask you to take a look at still motions old work done on a regular glide cam and now their work done on the flyer. I was told that these guys were getting footage like this with little practice, while most people train there whole life and canot acheive what these gus are acheiving.

I've used the merlin and vest system and were acheiving good footage out the box, so Im sure the flyer wouldn't take that much longer if I kept in on day in and day out for about a week or so.
 
the lighter rigs ,only are getting $300 day. when you move up to the heavier rigs flying 30lbs ,double arm rigs big budget shoots ,thats when $1000 a day is more like it . it is the toughest and the hardest job in film.
 
reem12 said:
Harp I certainly understand where your coming from but again I would ask you to take a look at still motions old work done on a regular glide cam and now their work done on the flyer. I was told that these guys were getting footage like this with little practice, while most people train there whole life and canot acheive what these gus are acheiving.

I've used the merlin and vest system and were acheiving good footage out the box, so Im sure the flyer wouldn't take that much longer if I kept in on day in and day out for about a week or so.
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Oh my god, man! I can't wait to hear about you getting burned. If you think you can just buy a rig and practice for a weekend and make 1200 a day after that, you are wrong, my friend. Like Pete says, it takes months of practice. You are way too ambitious. It is good to have ambitions, by all means, but they must be realistic.

Good luck!
 
You are setting yourself up for a huge fall. Don't presume anything when learning steadicam. I've seen guys first hand give themselves serious injury when trying to fly a rig.

I'd recommend you do a workshop first. I think the old adage "walk before you run" is perfect for this thread.

Regardless of what you do fly safe

Rich Steel
Steadicam Owner/Operator
 
we all dive at different paces.
Truth is, I'd not be where I am today if I didn't put myself in over my head situations.

I once took an editing position for a network over the phone after telling them I was experienced on their NLE. It meant moving my family to a state we had never been to before, knowing nobody there on gear I was inexperienced with.
That gave me a full day on a local one to learn it.. after that conversation.
Turned out to be the turning point in my career. I'd still be doing what I was doing before that leap of faith had I not believed in myself enough to take one.
I wound up training their entire staff on that software.
 
reem12 said:
Harp I certainly understand where your coming from but again I would ask you to take a look at still motions old work done on a regular glide cam and now their work done on the flyer. I was told that these guys were getting footage like this with little practice, while most people train there whole life and canot acheive what these gus are acheiving.

I've used the merlin and vest system and were acheiving good footage out the box, so Im sure the flyer wouldn't take that much longer if I kept in on day in and day out for about a week or so.
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I'm with hoarp on this matter. Don't expect that because you can use a merlin and vest that you'll be able to pick up a flyer and go in a matter of a week or so. People go to Steadicam Workshops not even knowing how to balance their rigs properly. Sure static balance is easy to obtain, but what about dynamic balance? You also will need to learn how to conquer windy situations, shooting from the back of a car, and lots of other things expect from Steadicam operators who work in the industry.

In your comment on StillMotion, are you trying to say that a Steadicam operator can't achieve what they achieve using their flyer? Cause that's definitely news to my ears! As a StillMotion subscriber, I've watched most of their content. It's impressive, I agree, but it's not impossible for a professional to achieve the exact same shots or something even better!


Basically, don't think you're a pro because you've used a Merlin!
 
Whoever said the Flyer is not capeable of the same kind of shots that a bigrig can do had his facts wrong. I checked this out with Mike Scott, a well known and very good british operator before I bought my rig, and he said that its the operator behind the steadicam that makes the shot good. Ive done some impressive stuff wiht my flyer, but it has taken a lot of practice and the workshop and various one on one sessions with better operators.

I had used the merlin with arm and vest before I used the flyer, and using the flyer is totaly differnt, for a start its alot heavier, the sled is TOTALY differnt, and it balences in a totaly differnt way.

By all means buy a steadicam rig, practace with it, do the workshop and get good at it over afew years of practice, then go and charge $1200 a day, but do not expect to get your flyer in the mail and be doing hollywood steadi-shots half an hour later - dosn't matter how quick you are at learning, or how good you are with the merlin, its just not the same thing - steadicam is an art and it takes time to master.
 
I just thought of a good analagy to help explain what we all mean here.

A boy racer kid, 16/17 passes his test and buys a battered up old car. Because he has a car, he thinks he can drive it, and he takes it out and crashes it.

Replace car with steadicam and crashing it with crashing it.
 
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