I have always loved me some steadicam shots. Especially some of the great one takes that come to mind, such as the Goodfellas scene. They add a look and aesthetic that screams high production. I have DPed a few shorts where we used a steadicam and it looked terrific. For my latest contract we were looking to showcase these million dollar houses with a quick two minute piece going through a tour. Unfortunately we were on a micro budget that needed high production (were looking to enter a market and wanted to show what we are capable of to validate the price were asking for). Below is a quick edit I put together of a compilation of all the steadicam shots. The client’s edit is far different.

Crowdis House Tour from Garrett O’Brien on Vimeo.

I knew that shooting steadicam would be key to get the look we needed. So I called in a few favors and was able to get a rig for the shoot (Thanks John, I owe you one!) but with no operator. So I took it upon myself to fly with the 7d. Of course the day we were shooting it was incredibly hot and humid! Which makes for one cranky steadicam operator. Luckily I had my gaffer guru bud Silvio there to AC and grip for me. Thanks again Sil!

totally posing

For those of you who have used a steadicam/glidecam you know how vital it is to balance the weight on your rig. With the steadicam I actually had to add weight to the top base under the camera. I believe it was a solid 15 or 20 pounds.

Balancing the weight with the compass looking thingy

There is an AMAZING feature that is exclusive on the 7d. If you’re in live view mode hit the info button a couple of times and eventually a compass looking thing will appear. The official term of that feature is a “Dual Axis Electronic Level”. I like compass looking thing better. What this feature does is it displays both the roll and pitch in very tiny increments so you can get the camera perfectly centered. If you are working with a steadicam op who is unfamiliar with the camera it’s a great way to become their best friend.

Compass looking thingy, aka Dual Axis Electronic Level

I wanted to go as wide as possible to show as much to the viewer and of course it makes it easier to get steadier looking shots. My super wide angle lens of choice for 7d is the Tokina 11-16mm. It’s a great lens, sharp (not Zeiss sharp but pretty close) and everything past 2 feet in focal length is in focus. Which is huge when flying and not having a focus puller. I also bumped up the iso to 640 in order to open up the depth of field some.

taking all day to balance the weight

But there’s a problem having so much information in focus, and its something we all know to well. Aliasing. My “solution” to this problem is to keep the cuts fast paced and intercut with b-roll footage with shallow DOF in the edit for the client. Because after all the DOF is what makes me people go so gaga for these cameras. What I might try for next time is to get one of the zeiss softnar filters. You can read more in depth about it on Phil’s site. Basically they maintain sharpness while reducing aliasing and moire. Magic? Wouldn’t doubt it.

interesting

I also wanted nice and slow movements to give the house an epic beauty type of feel. At first I tried to make these slow movements optically, by, errr walking slow.  After watching a few clips in playback I wasn’t happy with it so I shot everything over again in 60p with 1/120 shutter. In post I conformed it to 24p to get silky slow-mo. That was definitely the way to go. Everything is cooler in slow motion anyways right?

steady steadicam

Anywho. I’m fairly happy with the results. There are some definite wobbles where the horizon starts to float. With it being slo-mo, loads of b-roll and some creative editing it gives it a bit of a dreamy fill. Ok, I’m just making excuses now.

trying my best not to destroy the house

A properly done steadicam shot can just add loads of production value. Now I understand why steadicam operators are so cranky, those things can wear you out!

Thanks for all the great photos Silvio!