Steadicam Workshop with Charles Papert in Sonoma, CA. - December 11th & 12th, 2009

[Vito DeFilippo]

I'm completely green with envy...

[Trevor Meeks]

a few images from the workshop this weekend: MobileMe Gallery

thank you all for joining us this weekend! Charles and i are highly considering hosting an intermediate workshop next fall in Sonoma - more details should become available within the next 6 months or so as we get closer to putting something together.

I really enjoyed meeting everyone and it was great hanging out with Charles. It seems that a good time was had by all, and I'm glad I could help make that happen!

Practice up! Stay current, and keep learning. Perhaps we'll see you at next year's intermediate workshop for some new and exciting learning opportunities (and better weather!)

[Charles King]

Great size workshop. Well done guys. Love the pics. Oh yeah, who was it that were making notes? Very serious stuff. ;)

[Trevor Meeks]

The guy taking notes is William Santana from Miami, FL. Great dude, and a better student than most of us in my opinion - he picked up on flying his Pilot/EX1 rig extremely quickly, not to mention those awesome drawings and notes! Impressive to say the least.

7 people was a nice size (we had 8 but one guy dropped out at the last minute) - I think it was certainly better than having 10, and yet there were enough of us to keep things interesting and switch out rolls in different exercises that Charles set up!

[Charles King]

Great to see you had other systems, like the GC. Glad to see you all had fun.

[Paul Kellett]

On one of the shots, one of the monitors has a green dot in the middle, what is that for ?

Paul.

[Scott E. Brown]

Originally Posted by Paul Kellett

On one of the shots, one of the monitors has a green dot in the middle, what is that for ?

Paul.

There was an exercise where you walk/run and try to your camera centered on a X on the wall. So those that couldn't change their cameras display to a X put a small tape dot to use for keeping on the X.

[Charles King]

Originally Posted by Paul Kellett

On one of the shots, one of the monitors has a green dot in the middle, what is that for ?

Paul.

I do not see any green dot on any of the monitors in the pics. Maybe a reflection...

[Trevor Meeks]

Originally Posted by Charles King

I do not see any green dot on any of the monitors in the pics. Maybe a reflection...

Charles, as Scott pointed out in his post above yours, we had an exercise that involved keeping an "x" on the wall centered while moving forward and backward.

You can see a green tape mark on my SmallHD monitor in this image: http://gallery.me.com/meeksdigital/1...12607619790001

[Charles King]

Oopppss! Just took a second look and noticed it. Sorry. Missed it.

[Paul Kellett]

Originally Posted by Scott E. Brown

There was an exercise where you walk/run and try to your camera centered on a X on the wall. So those that couldn't change their cameras display to a X put a small tape dot to use for keeping on the X.

Thanks for the explanation, i'll be doing those excercises myself soon.

Cheers, Paul.

[Trevor Meeks]

Originally Posted by Charles King

Oopppss! Just took a second look and noticed it. Sorry. Missed it.

Haha no worries man!

Originally Posted by Paul Kellett

Thanks for the explanation, i'll be doing those excercises myself soon.

Cheers, Paul.

It's way more challenging than you might think! Learning the proper footwork is just part of the process, then aiming the camera, while keeping the horizon level etc. etc. and doing the exercise at different speeds, as well as from a stationary position.

[Paul Kellett]

Originally Posted by Trevor Meeks

It's way more challenging than you might think! Learning the proper footwork is just part of the process, then aiming the camera, while keeping the horizon level etc. etc. and doing the exercise at different speeds, as well as from a stationary position.

Yeah i bet, i've just got myself a Pilot, i'll be doing a Tiffen workshop in March but until then i'll be left to my own devices.
I've just finished reading the steadicam operators handbook, wow what a book, so that's what i'll probably learn from for the next few months. Unless there's a knowledgable practice partner within traveling distance of Bristol,UK would be willing to give me some guidance.

Paul.

[Sean Seah]

Woah! Looks like a really awesome course. I noticed the Blackbird on a Pilot Arm by Rich! Looks pretty cool.

Hi Trevor, the Small HD interface to the FLyer LE looks very sexy. Did you have to get extra parts for the mounting? My Pilot monitor is not in the best state so I'm looking at an upgrade. If you have close up photos of the monitor I'll would be grateful. Thanks!

[Trevor Meeks]

Originally Posted by Sean Seah

Woah! Looks like a really awesome course. I noticed the Blackbird on a Pilot Arm by Rich! Looks pretty cool.

Hi Trevor, the Small HD interface to the FLyer LE looks very sexy. Did you have to get extra parts for the mounting? My Pilot monitor is not in the best state so I'm looking at an upgrade. If you have close up photos of the monitor I'll would be grateful. Thanks!

Hi Sean,

My rig is actually a Glidecam X-22, not a Flyer. It was a pain in the @ss to run the component cable down through the center post, but I got that and power which feed nicely to my EX1 now. I'm working on a custom D-Tap breakout box right now which I hope to mount between the docking collar and the stage - if everything goes as planned it will house a 4-jack d-tap connector so I can add other components (wireless FF, etc.) in the future.

Mounting the DP1 to the X22 uses a simple U-Bracket, which you can make out of aluminum pretty easily. It holds the monitor by its center of gravity, so tilting the monitor up and down does not affect balance drastically, if at all. Charles did comment on the DP1 and he noted that it's the biggest, perhaps most ridiculously sized monitor that he's ever seen on a stabilizer (not in a bad way, just amused!) but I gotta say - I personally think it's sized quite appropriately for this medium-sized rig, plus it never hurts to have a nice clear HD picture!! I'll try and post some photos soonish.

Any other questions, feel free to let me know. I'm no pro by any means, but Charles really inspired me to drop the fear of customization when it comes to this stuff and actually start working on components to make my rig work better for me :)