John don't worry mate, we won't tell anyone ;)

to tell ya the truth i've never used the second input...but its there if ya need it i guess.

Hi John,

I actually got the L5-pro monitor with mine because the L4 wasn't available in PAL, so wouldn't have been able to help, it's a good thing Casey was here :-)

How are you getting on with it anyway?

John.

Yeah...I'd never dealt with a BNC connection before...that kind of threw my world out of sync for awhile. But things are back to normal now. Thanks again, Casey.

John, things are going pretty good. I think I've got a pretty good balance...now I'm just working on technique. I'm noticing I have a proclivity to the left. So, I'm off tomorrow to find a bubble level to put on top of the monitor. If I get any good footage between now and this weekend, I'll post it (no promises).

How about you? Tried any stairs yet?

Hi John, I'm getting on pretty good, It's amazing how much easier the body mounted system is to use over the handheld so I'm really just trying to get as much practice in as I can, I Tried a couple of stair shots, just perfecting the "Ass first" technique :-) I nearly did it a couple of times aswell :-)

Looking forward to checking out some of your footage

John.

John L:

A bubble level is a great choice. I would recommend getting two, and mounting one under the camera mounting platform to the rear so that you can true the one on the monitor to allow for angular discrepancies there.

Be aware that it takes a while to learn to interpret the feedback from a spirit level. It is affected by acceleration, so you can't trust it during turns or lateral moves except when the speed is constant. In other words, if you are sliding sideways and come to a stop, the bubble will "keep going" and eventual level out, even if the camera itself is level the whole time. Most of us use levels (in the higher end rigs they are built in and have an electronic display on the monitor) but there are some high profile operators out there who don't use them at all.

If you have successfully balanced the rig and still find your shots are leaning to one side, you are probably applying too much force with the operating hand. While in the middle of a straightaway, trying releasing your touch to a barely perceptible level; if the camera straightens up, you know it is your input that is causing it to pitch over.

Well, you hit the nail on the head first swing, Charles. I guess I'm concentrating on so many things, I didn't realize that I was applying so much force with the operating hand. I start out with a light touch, but by the end I'm hanging on with both hands like a man dangling over the side of a bridge.

Ah...practice, practice, practice.

Thanks for the tip about getting a second bubble level. I'll do that right away.

John S....so you've actually done an "ass first" stairway shot! The closest I've gotten to that was a "face first" elevator shot...really easy. ;) Actually, as I was leaving my apartment to go down to practice outside my building, I was going down the elevator fully-rigged when it stopped on another floor so someone could get on. When the door opened, this Japanese woman actually stepped back startled...and passed on taking my elevator. I guess these things look a bit intimidating.

Yeah, I'm sure we must look a bit strange to our neighbours, I was running around our underground car park last night and bumped into one of my neighbours, he was like "What the hell is that thing for" Oh well I thought everyone knew what a steadicam was :-) Needless to say he was very impressed when I explained it's purpose.

John.

John L:

Something that I used to do to mentally help with the "deathgrip" syndrome is whenever I caught myself white-knuckling the rig, I would squeeze tighter with the hand that is on the gimbal handle (this may be your left or right hand, don't know which side of the body you work off), which would cause me to loosen my grip on the post. Sort of a little Jedi mind trick I'd play on myself, but it worked.

The other thing that will help keep the grip lighter in both hands is making sure that you are not "muscling" the arm to keep it in position, which has to do with the angle that the rig hangs off your body. In a perfect world, you should be able to let go of the rig with both hands and it should just sit in front of you. If it has a tendency to fall away from the body or to one side, you need to compensate by leaning your body (hips, really) in the opposing direction. I don't think the V8 has an adjustment to compensate for the angle of the arm which would assist in this, so it's up to you to find the appropriate body position. By doing this, you will discover that it takes significantly less force to maintain the position of the arm (gimbal handle hand), and that will help keep the other grip lighter as well.

GlideCam Modification
 

Going back a few posts, Casey didn't recommend snaking the wires up and through the post- we modified our V-20, running a pair of small cables through the center post, but we used cable that was coiled (for video and power) and had an elastic property-you can adjust the length of the post without having to worry about how much (or how little!) cable you have left, and we also have the Vista Post and Low Mode mounts and have no problem with them. We also used rubber grommets so we didn't have to worry about the cables being worn down by the aluminum. I've found that any wires that CAN get caught on something usually do, so anytime you can eliminate them, do it.

I think someone else posted about which GC to get- I don't work for them, but if you are expecting to move up to a V16 or 20 from an 8, just go ahead and get the 16 or 20 (if you can afford it!!!!), even if you have the smaller camera now- the tension in the arm can be adjusted for the weight of a smaller camera. The vest is different between the 8 and 16, but not between the 16 and 20,and if memory serves me correctly, the sled is about the same.

Good to read your posts, Charles. Really helps out.

Glad to hear it Scott...

I did a TV movie in Charlotte about 6 years ago. Nice people down there. I guess there used to be a lot more of that sort of thing until all that type of production went to Canada.

good point scott, our gold rigs have the center cabling coiled in such a manner. keep in mind though that the center post on the v-8 has a much smaller inside diameter than the 16 or 20...so if going the coil route make sure the coil will fit comfortably inside the smaller of the post sections...in this case the base portion of the sled.

Well, I've barely had time to practice with it...too busy...and turns out I'm shooting a film with it this weekend. Aaargh. Pray for me.

Best of luck John, let us know how it goes :-)

John.

Hey John,

How did your shoot go with the V8 at the weekend?

John.

hey so what happened with that training video... I put off getting my v-8 but I feel my purchase is just arounfd the corner now. :)

-Emery