Eventvideo, Paul van Dyk shot with Canon XH-A1

Here is another eventvideo i produced for a customer.

Its an eventvideo from Oslo, Norway with the Dj Paul Van Dyk.
As usual i use a Canon XH-A1 with a Tiffen Steadystick to shot, and i also use a Ianiro Divino cameralight to light some of the scenes, and this time i had a buddy running a microphone boom with a Sennheiser mkh 416 microphone with a Rycote full windshield kit and one sennheiser g2 wireless lavalier mic, into my Sounddevices 302 eng mixer.
The video is edited in Premiere.

The trick for getting the best low light pictures with the A1 is definitely running all manual controls, shooting in 25f, with the shutter all the way down to 1/25 and running the iris wheel manually.

YouTube - Under The Sun presents Paul Van Dyk - 27.09.2008 - Oslo, Norway

[Jason Magbanua]

Will watch the video later but WOOOOOW! Paul Van Dyk! Nice. I like his stuff.

A couple of weeks ago, David Morales played here for a wedding.

[Noa Put]

Originally Posted by Vegard Paulsen

As usual i use a Canon XH-A1 with a Tiffen Steadystick to shot

Finally! a steady stick user :) Vegard, can I ask you if you are satisfied with the camera support? I mean is it easy to use and doesn't it get in the way if you detach it but keep it connected to your belt?

[Vegard Paulsen]

Originally Posted by Noa Put

Finally! a steady stick user :) Vegard, can I ask you if you are satisfied with the camera support? I mean is it easy to use and doesn't it get in the way if you detach it but keep it connected to your belt?

I am satisfied with the steadystick.
It give me alot of stable shots when the alternative would be shaky handheld.

One of the most inportant things with it, is the abillity to take some of the weights of my hands when i run around with the camera for 8 hours at the event.

I lost the original screw for the cameramount some time ago, and was promised a new one by the guys at tiffen, but i guess they forgot it.
I bought a regular screw at a hardware shop but i have some trouble with spacing between the camera and the plate. I solved that with using small pieces of paper between.

The belt that comes with the tiffen steadystick is not the best to use because it will not fit in a regular pair of jeans.
Instead i use a normal belt for my jeans and hook the support up to it.
The result is a much more comfortable steadystick and rock solid support!

[Noa Put]

Thx vegard for your answer, I've been looking for these kind of support systems for some time but every one has it's advantage and disadvantages and if I see a good one it costs almost as much as my camera :)
btw, liked your video, must be quite though working under these circumstances like the low light and so much people that bump in to you. never had anyone spilling beer over you or bump against your camera when you are filming? Do you also use you a extra wideangle or fisheye because you don't have that much room between all those partypeople?
I do quite a lot of events as well but they are mainly company events but nothing performances like you did, wouldn't mind doing one though :)

[Larry Vaughn]

Where do you set the mic pots on your xh-a1 when using the 302? There seems to be some discussion and controversy about this.

[Dave Blackhurst]

Noa -
Having used the steady stick myself, I'd give it an endorsement, with some qualifications.

First, the included belt is designed to be put on OVER your regular street clothes, and so you can position it higher or lower on waist/hips as is most comfortable for you - but it needs to be fairly snug.

Second, it's hard to beat in the bang for the buck department. Solid build, nearly indestructable, and does the job it's intended for. It's quite good for events where you need to be mobile, but want steady shots. It basically makes you into a mobile tripod.

It's NOT a steadycam in the sense of eliminating movement while you're moving around, in fact the "stick", being inflexible, transmits quite a lot of bounce from your body movement when walking, although if you do the "steadycam glide", you can reduce that problem - or if you release the height adjust knob before moving it can help too. I found that I added a stretch camera strap to the upright shaft, and used the quick disconnect to utilize the "shoulder mount" feature of the design - the shaft would stay pretty well positioned by the camera strap, where it otherwise would have been able to swing around. The strap also seemed to help with overall control of the rig.

All that said, I think the DV Rig that a lot of people here use is a more elegant solution, particularly the sprung upright to reduce the aforementioned bounce problem... wouldn't mind owning one someday!

BUT, again for the $ involved, the Steady Stick is relatively compact and versatile solution. I've ended up cobbling up something pretty similar for my smaller cams, with a more effective shoulder mount, a monopod and a belt support, but the multipoint camera support idea works pretty well (shoulder, waist, hand) to take out the jigglies. And for an off the shelf solution, the SS is worth it.

[Stephen J. Williams]

Who's Paul Van Dyk??? No just kidding, killer video for killer music. Where's the unrated version though? I know you must have captured some stuff that isn't suitable for youtube:-)