Born in London, family moved when I was six to Boston; left there ten years ago to go after higher-end work.

That is probably one of the hardest things to nail on any stabilizer regardless of size. The inertia of the rig invites it to kick out in a complicated way and it takes a lot of finesse to rein it in. The technique that I use is similar to whip pan control, which is similar to the way ABS brakes work; you apply a specific amount of force (always, as minimal as it takes to get the job done) for a very brief period of time, then release, then apply, then release, etc. This all happens very quickly. Like the brake system, you are applying a force to correct a drift then releasing before your own force redirects the system (or causes a skid, here the analogy breaks down!), then as soon as the next moment of control is needed you repeat the cycle.

With this technique it is entirely possible to overcome the forces that are acting on the rig and influencing it negatively. It is something that can only be mastered with a lot of practice and trial and error.

There's an example of this on my reel at 4:40, a walk-and-talk from "Office Space" that required me to make a big swing around the edge of the cubicles; the tricky part is that the body and the rig are making a large arc but the camera needs to be panned at a different rate to follow the actors who are a few steps behind. As soon as I start the swing to the left I am doing the ABS thing to the gimbal to keep the horizon from yawing due to the change in direction, then once both actors start to make the turn I need to apply the pan influence to keep them in frame, while still making the little corrections to the gimbal for the arc. I continue to arc around while everyone settles on their marks, and then a flurry of handwork ensues as I decelerate to a stop and attempt to maintain the frame. I'm not to proud to point out that there is a slight deviation in the framing at this point caused by me over-compensating on the pan, which I fixed by extending my move slightly (this looks better than coming to a stop and then panning to fix the shot).

All this is happening within about 5 seconds. Of course once you get used to operating, this is all done by instinct, but it is important to understand that the subtleties of Steadicam operating are endless, and there's so much more than just aiming and shooting. Mikko's early comment about the importance of designing and thinking throughout a shot is well taken. Outside of the purely mechanical aspects of getting through a hornet's nest like the shot described above without losing horizon, there's an unbelievable amount of choices to be made at every second, not all of which lie inside the operator's head--working with the actors and their physical performance is just as important to get the desired results. The "Goodfellas" shot walking through the Copa is the classic example; every single extra in that kitchen is precisely placed and directed with particular actions that dovetail perfectly with the camera move.

I digress of course--but that's the fun of message boards!

Been doing a lot of practising today. My neck, shoulders and arm are killing me.

I had to put the dovetail on N in the end as I did loads of stuff that was vibrating so I needed that G-Platz to touch my lens. I have uploaded some stuff again. File name Merlin re-balanced, its far from great but I think there is some improvement. First shot has slight vibration, before I put it into N. Second shot also has vibration even with G-platz, but it was at the end of the optical zoom, so on the third shot I put in image stabilizer and it fixed it. It is all standard following shots, but it's good practice for just getting control, I did do so more interesting stuff in the file Merlin6 with the old homeless guys.

link for the files is as always: http://homepage.mac.com/philip.bloom/FileSharing25.html

back home, in the editing suite. Doesnt look as bad as I thought!