Hey everyone! Just want to say how great this forum is, its been really helpful and motivated me to post a few comments and questions. I shoot wth an xl1s and picked up the glidecam 4000. I haven't gotten the forearm support brace and I imagine it would lessen some of the weight, but its definitely heavy with the xl1 on it right now. Considering the xl1 dosen't have a flipout lcd screen, the additional weight of the 5' monitor and battery at the base doesn't help. While the glidecam is really great in getting smooth walking/paced running shots, the system becomes too heavy to hold steady after a short while, in NYC, thats about a block! Anyway, I've been thinking about getting a crane. and Glidecam's got one called the camcrane 200-anybody ever use it before? I've looked into a few of these dv cranes and I'm getting more interested in the skycrane everyone seems to be talking about-and does anyone know anything about the cobra crane? Thanks, Chris

nice work
 

hi there-
in reponse to your post, I've been around the cobracrane and it was really nice. as far as the sky crane goes, i have zip experience with it. if you are in los angeles, you can meet up with me for a couple of hours and use my megacrane. i'm totally in love with it and to beat it can hold lots of weight, above and beyond the xl1 already heavy body, which is why i got it. i plan on shooting 5 shorts and a micro-budget feature (starting in july through september of next year, everything is spaced out and totally exploiting the sets and setups of the other other projects), so the crane will be a life saver because most days I don't have a asst. There's just no budget to justify. Let me know if you are and would like to check it out. Take care.

Christian Calson
Nebunule Films

crane
 

Hey Christian and DV net info, thanks for getting back to me so soon. I wish I could drop by and hang but its about 3000 miles to California. Anyway, I called up Bob Jones, the inventor of Skycrane, and the guy was really helpful. We put together an affordable package that I don't think I can beat. Check it out- like Christian said-Cranes are awesome

If you want a really great explaination of a "Dutch" angle, go to the 5 C's of cinematography, pg. 47-48.

Some basics are:
1.) That it must be a deliberate tilt.
2.) Tilt from bottom left to upper right is active and forceful.
3.) A tilt from bottom right to upper left is weak and static.
4.) They are best when shot from a low angle

I suggest that you read these 2 pages, there full of details on the "Dutch" angle.

Bruce