TurquoiseB wrote: > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, enlightened_dawn11 > <no_re...@...> wrote: > >> great find-- i recognized awhile ago while shooting video that >> it is very hard to duplicate all of the dolly effects used in >> professional cinematography. these guys came up with a cool >> solution. >> > > Just as a couple of hints, Dawn, For dollies, > a borrowed supermarket shopping cart works fine. > And if you're serious about wanting to create > non-shaky video, you can "grow your own" > Steadicam for under $20. > > All it takes is a harness to attach the thing to > your body (an old kid's backpack will do, worn > backwards), a ball joint that allows free movement > to anything attached to it in all directions > (which I found at an electronics/hardware junk > store for $5), and then solder/weld two pieces > of metal to opposite ends of the ball joint. On > one end, you weld an old tripod adapter to hold > the camera. On the other, you place enough weight > to exactly equal the weight of the camera. > > Voila. Instant Steadicam. As you move around, the > ball joint allows the balancing weight to keep > the camera in a steady, upright position, without > "camera shake." > > Or, since you're a gal and possibly don't have > access to tools and all that brilliant (and humble) > Do It Yourself knowledge that guys are born with :-), > you can just buy one of these things pre-made from > a catalog. Steadicams rock, especially when you > figure out how simple the mechanisms are that make > it work (Duh...gravity and inertia), and wonder at > how long it took for someone to figure it out and > turn it into an Oscar-winning invention. In many cases just taking a small tripod folded up which many people have an holding the legs will work as a steadicam. I made the $14 one but using my small tripod that way worked better. I thought I was nuts but then a professional cinematographer put some Canon HV20 24fps footage up on his website and when asked about the steadicam he had used a small tripod as I do.
Shopping carts, kid's wagons, skateboards, wheelchairs (often used by the low budget filmmakers) are all solutions for dolly replacements. That's why I like to rent the z-movies at Hollywood Videos because some are gems and the commentaries and making-ofs expose those tricks. And speaking of low-budget films that Irish film about the two young songwriters which got an Oscar was all shot with $3500 Panasonic HDV cameras. And you wouldn't have known it. In fact the folks that filmed Cloverfield originally used one of those cameras just to create some concept footage but thought the result was good enough that they used it where the much larger Sony F900 and Thomson Viper wouldn't work.
