How Steadicam change Camera Coverage

Steadicam is a camera stable system invented in 1972. The inventor of this system is Garrett Brown. After few years of testing, the Steadicam is finally introduced to the public in 1975. Once the Steadicam is introduced, it has brought a revolution in the film and television industry. The most famous film clip done in Steadicam is the hotel scene in the horror film “Shinning”. The scene is following the kid riding the bike showing off the entire hotel.

Steadicam has built-in three parts, which are Arm vest, spring arm, and Steadicam gimbal itself. Base on those designs, Steadicam has isolated the camera from the operator’s movement, this move allows the operator to achieve a smooth shot even when the operator is moving over an irregular surface.

Steadicam works under physical principle. The key principle is the gravity force and balance. Before getting to know why Steadicam is stead, we have to know why the camera is shaking when handheld.

Everything has a central gravity point. In a camera system, the center gravity point is the balance point of the point that achieves both vertical and horizontal balance, shown in the picture above. At this point, the camera will stay in balance. But if there is any force from any direction. The camera will move around the center gravity point. That is how the shaking happens.

Steadicam establish all 3 gravity point(redpoint in the picture) into a vertical line to ensure the center gravity remain together towards the ground. Under this set up the system will remain stable unless there is a force acting on any parts of the Steadicam.

Furthermore, Steadicam has to include a universal joint gimbal with 3 rollers. This universal joint also respond to the pan, till, rotation of the Steadicam. Each roller is responded to one of the three functions. The biggest one responds on till movement. The one hide in the handle is responded on rotation. The middle is responded on the 360 rotation on the horizontal level.

.

The spring arm is also an important part of the Steadicam system. The main purpose of spring is to eliminate the Z-axis(up and down) movement while the operator is moving. The spring is built in a pair of flexible quadrilateral. Basic on the physical principle, force 1 is equal to force 2. The force will counteract each other. The weight of Steadicam will transfer to the operator’s arm vest. When the operator is moving around, both springs will move up and down together. During the movement of the spring arm, the shaking creates by the operator’s action on the Z-axis will reduce. The Steadicam will be smooth and stable.

To operating a Steadicam Operator a Steadicam needs special training. Unlike any other way of camera operating, Steadicam has its unique footsteps to learn. The footsteps are aimed at the stable of the operator while he is moving. The operator needs to bend their knees and touch the ground with the heel first to reduce the shaking on Z-axis. The footsteps also help the operator to walk carefully without crashing the bottom of the Steadicam. This footstep involves forward, backward, turn around, left/right side follow,360 degrees rotation, and high-speed movement. It is a very complex footsteps system. According to my friend who is a Steadicam operator, “once the footstep is learned, the operator has full control of the Steadicam”. Just like he said I research on some Steadicam tutorial, their very first classes are base on the footsteps.

Balance of the Steadicam is the most important part before getting to film any of the clips. First of all, the operator needs to find the center gravity point on the camera and mount them with Steadicam. Later on, the operator needs to balance the entire Steadicam. After all, rotate the Steadicam, if the Steadicam remains perpendicular to the ground, that means it is fully balanced and ready to do the work.

Since the introduction of the Steadicam. Steadicam has developed into different types. Even the gimbals we used the most nowadays are the evolution of it. The following pictures are showing the development history of the Steadicam.

The first product type in 1975, this product can’t do 360 rotation.

Movcam

This type is the comment type used most nowadays. W are able to identify that it has followed the design language from the very first design of Steadicam.

Arri trinity

Arri trinity is the newest generation of the Steadicam introduces in 2014. It has included an electrical gimbals head at top of the Steadicam. It allows the operator to film from bottom to top in one shot.

Since the Steadicam introduced it has become an industrial revolution. A lot of filmmakers staring using it in their production. Later on, it becomes a time-saving product compare with the dolly. The production crew is keen on using it, they no longer need to carry the heavy dolly track around. A Steadicam is way lighter than the camera dolly. Steadicam are easy to set up compare with a dolly, specifically in the back of the country.

However, I found something different in China. My friend who operates Steadicam told me that the crew in China likes to use the dolly over Steadicam. This is because the crews pay low labor rates in Grip, the price is around 500rmb a day (this price is higher than the average day rate(368rmb) base on the document provided by the Chinese government in 2019, the lowest day rate is 97.5rmb per day). Following what he said I done some ask some equipment rental company. I found out the answer. If a crew needs to use Steadicam they need to pay at least 5500RMB/day. This includes 1 operator, 1 assistant, and equipment rental. However, if the crew only using dolly the price will be quite different, the crew only needs to pay around 3000-4000RMB per day. The final price depends on the choice of the group. Normally, 3500 RMB are able to cover a camera operator, 3 assistants,s and dolly tracks rental. Under this price difference, most of the crew will choose dolly over Steadicam. My friend told me that the Steadicam can’t save time like the crew in Australia. The industry in China doesn’t have that strong process like Australia has.

This week is the last week of class. We watched some clips in a film and some behind the scene relate to it. It is interesting to know how the director plans the shot before the filming. During the talking of the director, we are able to identify how he thinks about the scene and what he is planning to do. The most interesting part is how he plans the lady actor to engage with the kid. Director also thinks about how the lady feels when she acting the scenes. He also plans out the entire moving action for the actors and the emotion happens while actors are moving. The way he thinks about this engaging part is a greater example that brings me some new ideas on the coming film I am going to make. Also during the watching, I get a better understanding of how the main production crew communicates with each other. Base on their discussion both parties will bring out the idea they think and they will put them together to see if the ideas work for the scene. Their communication is efficient and accurate.

In further research on the behind the scene. I found that different director has different of communication ways. Some of them will tell the crew what is happening in detail. Some of the directors won’t. There will be some chances that DP and the director will have arguments about camera coverage. It is hard to come by 2 different minds together. however, most of the filmmakers are able to find out a  solution to solve the issue in a short time that both parties are happy with.

The classes this week are the last week of the classes this semester. Thanks for the teaching from Mr.Robin.  I learn a lot this semester.

During the classes this week Robin talked with me about my research project base on the presentation in week9. My research is about Steadicam. I mainly focus on the operating requirement of the Steadicam, time-saving, and the cost of using Steadicam. Base on it I have the chance to visit a Steadicam operator and get lots of information about the operating.

Robin has talked to me about the interest in getting to know labor costs in China affect production. We talked about this part in the class. I went to 5 different rental company ask for the price of renting Steadicam. Base on the low labor in China, using a dolly track is cheaper than a Steadicam. A Steadicam needs a least 5500 RMB for a day shot. But the dolly with 4 assistants and a cinemaphotographer cost about 3000-3700 RMB. This opinion has included a dolly track, Russian arm. Both plans haven’t involved camera hire. In my opinion what costs this is that the assistants in china can only get about 400 RMB a day for work in the production crew. This type of work is most grip work rather than creative work. So that base on a high population the price of labor has decreased to a level around 400-600 a day. But most of the main creation crew are able to get more than this price.

I went back to China in March 2020. From that on I have been work in a few different film crew. I also have experience work in the Australian production crew. It is different to work in a different place around the world. The way people do things is different, for example, the best boy in China will climb up the stand by hand to adjust the angle of the par lights rather than climb with a ladder. At the very start, it was hard to get used to how things are done in the crew. But after few times of experience, I am getting well on it

During the class this week, we talked about the movement of the camera. we watched a few examples of different camera movements. Those movements include pan, till, rotation and tracking.

We watched a few clips base on the camera movement. There is one clip that has impressed me the most. The clip is about a scene in the train station, everyone has frozen the camera was moving on Steadicam and film the one take. When we first watched this clip. This clip wasn’t that difficult to film. Base on the technology today it is very easy to achieve by high frame rate camera with robot arm and track. However in further discussion on this clip. I realize that it was filmed far before now. It still the generation of the film. There wasn’t a machine can achieve a high frame rate like that. The film was filmed at a normal frame rate of 25fps. what the clip has done to achieve the clip is that they design the position and post for each actor, and ask them to freeze during the shots.  After all the camera moves through the station and film the freeze actors to fake a high frame rate slow motion.

In nowadays, this skill has already become a money-saving method. There was a chance I watched a commercial. The crew only spend 1/4 of the total budget on the project. If they hire a slow-motion robot arm the budget will far beyond the calculation. The commercial films with a high frame rate camera(frame rate around 100p). An editor has added speed control of the footage. Even they used speed to control the actor still needs to freeze while they have done with their action. If they move while others are acting the result of this commercial won’t be that great.

link：

https://www.xinpianchang.com/a11052372?from=search_post

we did the presentation of our research project this week. it is quite interesting that Johnny’s topic is about fake one-shots. he brings out 2 examples in the fake one shot. which is the film 1917 and the film kingsman.

The film 1917 is filming in a long shot. it has lots of hidden cuts in the film. That cuts production crew design is hard to find out. Director used the edge of something or the back of someone as the cutting point. The frame connect different clip are strongly similar so there won’t be any dispersion on the cuts. The audience will feel the film is filmed one take. It is quite hard for the production crew to control an overall set if they get the film done in one take. By reading the article about 1917, I discover that most audiences are immersed in the film so they didn’t notice the cuts in the film. The hidden cuts of 1917 successfully cheat the audience base on the editing.

The other example is a fighting scene in kingsman. This scene happens in a church. It is an action scene with lots fighting in it.  The entire shots are done in the handle camera. The camera is shaking by purpose all time. In this scene, the hidden cuts are base on the simulation of color and shapes. The shaking of the camera helps the film cheat on the audience. Also, the rhythm of this part is fast, it has offered less chance for the audience to discover the hidden cuts in the middle of the clip.

It is hard to achieve success a long take. Every element involve can affect the result of the film. The entire scene needs to be plan far before the shots. The key of hidden cuts is shape and color continuity in 2 clips.

During the class this week, we talk about the actor’s performance. this is quite an important part of filmmaking.  The acting of the actor can easily affect the result of the production. It is one of the key elements that can adjust the overall quality of the film.

We had an example in the classes. If an actor doesn’t know how to drive but we need the driving scene what can we do. there are 2 different solutions under this requirement.

on one hand, we can ask the actor to learn the how-to drive before the production. If he is good at learning he will get the skill very quickly and achieve the driving test. However, the learning process may take longer than we expect or the actor can’t pass the driving test. so that the entire production crew will need to stop and wait for the actor to achieve the goal of driving. this method can only suit long-term production.

on the other hand, we are able to hire a trailer that can carry our prop car and the actor. This type of car has a platform that can carry lighting and camera gear around the car. By hiring this trailer the production crew can easily solve the issue. It safer that the driver acting and driving at the same time. It also brings efficiency to the crew, the production crew is fine for shooting any time on their plan.  Also, the actor can focus on acting rather than drive and act at the same time.

In further research, the new led technology allows people to film their driving scene inside the studio. The production crew is creating huge led walls and lighting to fake the driving scene. With the change of the lighting and the footage play on the led screens. Production crews no longer need to go on the road risk their life for the car shots.

At the start of this week, we focus on exercise 4. we group together and discuss how the script should be created and what type of shots.

In Thursday’s class, we looked at some work on exercise 3 from other classes. Unluckily there isn’t anyone done exercise 3 in my class. The work from other classes is great. When we looking at it I found some issues in one of the clips. The problem is about a letter, this issue is caused by the overall environment setting. The letter wasn’t showing on the first shot, but it shot a close-up in the next shot. This issue reminds me of the importance of set design. The details always need to be aware of during film making.

Later on, we continue our study about the depth of field. The key point of depth field is the distance between lens and subject, Aperture, and focal length. Any change of those elements is able to affect how the shot looks on the screen. For example, a long focal length is able to create a narrow depth of field, but the long focal length will compress the scene. Everything in the shots will get close to each other. Distance is also a key element of creating depth of field. The longer distance between the lens and subject the great depth of field, the shorter the distance between the lens and the subject the narrow depth of field. However, if the distance is short but using a small aperture the shots will have a sharp depth of field.  During my cinema photographer life, I always know the key point of creating a narrow depth of field by my experience, but never had the chance to put them together and deep into the key elements. I believe after the learning this week my skill of camera operating will develop into the next stage.

This clip is chosen from Falcon&winter soldier. It is a conversation between Falcon’s group and Selby about the super-soldier serum.

link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XtuMy39N5G9zPdkRib9_K2rEcC505hIB/view?usp=sharing

There are 4 main characters in the clip. These relationships are showing by the screenshot of the floor plan. This clip has set the camera in 5 positions.

Camera A is a wide shot with a small focal length. The purpose of this shot is mainly to create an environment overview for the audience. At the same time, the audience can understand what kind of the situation with the acting of character.

Camera B and Camera D is a set base on 180-degree rules, Baron and Shelby is the main character bargain in this scene. Camera B and Camera D are both mid-shot with midden focal length. They are focus on a character most of the time during acting, but they also responsible for some close-up shots and panning of the camera.For example :duration 00:47-00:51&1:08-1:13, camera D is panning with character’s action. The framing of the camera D always keeps the character Baron on the left side of the screen, camera B‘s framing always keeps Shelby on the right side of the screen. Base on the framing, the position has created eye contact between both characters. By setting this eye line, the audience will feel continuity while they watching the show. Otherwise, if the breaking of eye contact may create chaos for the audience.

Camera C is a mid closeup shot on Falcon, this camera is a response to the reflection of Falcon. The framing of this camera Keeps Falcon on the left side. This framing implies that Falcon & Baron are at the same party during this conversation scene.

Camera E is a mid-close-up shot with a long focal length. This shot is a response to the reaction of the winter soldier. However, there isn’t much reaction during the conversation. During the scene, we can identify that winter soldiers are on the right-hand side of the frame. The position of the character remains the same during the entire conversation, just the direction of the camera has changed. What causes this is because Baron said to Selby that he is going to give winter soldiers as part of the trade. So that the framing changes to the right-hand side to respond to the development of the story.

Acting is one of the key elements that make the scene attractive. Without good acting this scene will be boring, the audience will be lost their patient in just a few seconds. This scene involves the movement of the character and the face reaction of the character. Their reaction and movement are related to the development of conversation, each action has its purpose.

The Screen direction of this scene is followed by the movement of the camera and the actor’s action. In the shots between 00:35-00:36, we seeing a lookup movement of Shelby and there is the reaction from Falcon. These two shots also create eye contact between Falcon and Shelby. The continuity is developer base on eye contact.

This week we start to learn the preparation of film making. During the classes, we focus on the floor plan, storyboard, editing storyboard, and shooting list. We also mention how to mark up the script and did some exercise on it. The key point of marking script is letting staff members understand which actor should appeal on location or what is happening during this part. These are the most powerful communication tools in filmmaking. By understanding how to mark up the script I believe it can develop a stronger efficiency during the filming in the future. We also get into groups to discuss a class exercise. This exercise is about marking a movie clip provide. There are different opinions between my group members, one person thinks it has used 4 shots, the other person thinks it has used 6 shots. What happened in this clip is that the footage has been edit in post-production. The camera films from 4 different angles in the scene. The editor has edit 4 footage with the editing method and brings them to the screen. This method is the same method we used during the editing of exercise 2 when we during the film and editing of the script.
we also mention screen direction. This is one of the key elements in filmmaking. It is the smoothness in a set of shots. The audience will feel chaos if the screen direction isn’t smooth. Screen direction always achieve by a set of shots with continuity editing or the smoothness can be achieved by moving, pan, and till camera. During the class, we also found a clip that breaks 180-degree rules. That clip has provided enough information before the breaking of the rules. It doesn’t affect any screen direction or causes chaos to the audience during the film. This is a good example of breaking 180-degree rules.

In the first class of week 4, we had discussed how to shot a conversation interesting. In order to work out the answer, we watched some clips and analyst them the key to an interesting conversation is the acting performance of the actors. If actors are able to achieve very high-quality acting, the conversation will be attractive. On the other hand movement of the camera and editing can also add interest to the conversation scenes. For example: adding some close-up shots base on the development of the conversation or pan and till the camera with actors’ action. Base on the shot catch during production the editors will able to edit the clips more attractive rather than a basic camera cutting. In the shot, the acting performance is the key point of creating attractive scenes but it also needs camera operating technic to bring it to a new level.

On Thursday we had the chance to look at some shot exercise clip base on the script provided by last Thursday. In the exercise, we need to choose a script and film it with 4 camera angles. I did the filming of script 2c. Mr. Robin has given me some advice about directing. First of all the conversation after characters meet each other should be face to face, in this way the shots will be attractive than now. The timing of the script can be improved and some cuts can be editing better. They’re an issue with the repeating of conversation, It has been fixed before the writing of reflection. over all the clips are fine and it really brings me a chance to memorize about filming technic after a few months of holiday.  In the rest of the classes, we also had the chance to look at some other exercise, everyone has done a great job.