Whether you’re flying one of the fantastic Steadicam range of camera stabilizers – from the smallest Steadicam Merlin to the largest Steadicam Ultra 2 – ¬†or one of the huge range of other manufacturers… or you’ve even taken it upon yourself to build your own cheap steadicam, there are some basic tips you can benefit from immediately.
Steadicam operating is undoubtably a art, with the top¬†practitioners¬†having spent many, many years perfecting their skills. ¬†But with a nudge in the right direction, you can put yourself on a similar course today. ¬†There’s also plenty of pitfalls and bad habits to avoid.
Get hold of a copy of Jerry Holway and Laurie Hayball’s superb book, the Steadicam Operator’s Handbook. ¬†This recently-released tome represents centuries of experience from the top operators in the world. ¬†It is by far the best first investment anyone remotely interested in Steadicam can make. ¬†If you’re about to buy a rig, it will help you chose the right one. ¬†And if you own one – of whatever type – you can immediately take advantage of the huge number of exercises described to start improving your operating straightaway.- Book a workshop. ¬†You can only progress so far on your own – one-to-one instruction from an experienced tutor (it’s been said that it takes as long to learn how to properly teach steadicam operation as it takes to learn how to operate it yourself in the first place) is invaluble in cutting out bad habits early and progressing your techniques. ¬†There are a few courses to chose from, but in the UK the official Tiffen 2 or 3 day workshop is an excellent start at about ¬£700. ¬†
You’ll get to try a whole variety of steadicam rigs right up to the very largest; learn how to properly build, balance and put on the rig. ¬†You’ll be walked through the basic excercises which are designed to get you familiar with working with the rig and how to control its movement through space without introducing inadvertent wobbles. ¬†And you’ll build up to conducting typical shots the average steadicam operator encounters on a daily basis. ¬†The gold standard of courses is the Tiffen 5 day course, held every few months in a rotating schedule taking it all round the world. 
Check your socket block adjustments – if your stabilizer benefits from a vest and arm (unlike the smallest rigs), the connection between the two is absolutely vital to good operating. ¬†The socket block should be set so whilst the operator stands up straight (wearing the rig fully built with camera on) the steadicam sits happily just to one side of the operator without needing the operator’s hands on the rig holding it close into them. ¬†If the rig wants to ‘get away’ from you, the socket block should be angled back so the top of it gets closer to you. ¬†This should balance the rig out. ¬†Don’t try and set this without the weight of the rig on the end of the arm – once that weight is on the rig will settle your vest down on you and affect the socket block angle anyway.- Practise walking around in the rig with your hands behind your back. ¬†The position of the rig relative to you should be controlled almost entirely with the angle of your hips. ¬†Whilst there’s a tremendous temptation in the early stages of developing this skill, when the rig is wobbling all over the place, to grab on with your hands and try and ‘control’ the steadicam, the result is actually that you destroy all that expensive isolation of the camera from your own movements. ¬†In effect,¬†canceling¬†out the ‘steadi’. ¬†Your hands do have an important job to do in operating, but applying constant pressure on the rig to hold it in the same position relative to your body is not it. ¬†Don’t worry about the shot during this¬†exercise, keep the monitor turned off. ¬†The rig will tend to pan around as you walk – don’t worry; what’s actually happening if you take a look is that the camera is actually staying pointed in the same direction, it’s really you that’s moving around it. ¬†The bearings in the gimbal are isolating this movement from the rig.
- Beware of inertia – any stabilizer is effectively a pendulum: heavier at the bottom than the top. ¬†When moving off from a standing stop, the heavier bottom of the rig ‘wants’ to stay where it is, creating a pivoting force around the gimbal which results in the camera tilting down. ¬†Conversely, when stopping from a forward move the heavier bottom ‘wants’ to keep going, and the camera tilts up. ¬†Any acceleration of the rig will produce a similar effect. ¬†Learning to anticipate and compensate for this with your operating hand (the one on the post) is crucial to producing clean shots. ¬†A really good way to practise is to balance your rig extremely bottom heavy which amplifies the effect. ¬†Make lots of stops and starts, both forwards/backwards and left/right. ¬†You’ll gradually develop a muscle memory that will ‘know’ when the rig is off-level and compensate accordingly. ¬†For extreme situations a tighter than usual grip on the post is required momentarily… a quick release is needed though, or your lovely crash stop will be ruined by the shot drifting out of control right at the end.
- Check for wobbles in your camera mounting. ¬†The slightest tiny wobble can be amplified by the rig (or a zoomed-in lens) to produce a really noticeable shake. ¬†Check your rig after building it by picking up the sled by hand and giving it a good shake. ¬†Look for flex in the camera mounting or any cables or other bits coming loose. ¬†If you can’t get the camera bolted down by at least two screws, or you have and there’s still some play, a bit of camera type looped back on itself to make a bit of double sided tape and applied between the steadicam dovetail and the bottom of the camera can make a massive difference. ¬†And don’t get slack and leave a mess of cables all over the rig. ¬†Not only can they move around during the shot and alter your balance more than you might think, they can easily get caught on scenery, lighting stands and so on. ¬†Nasty.
- Record your practice shots, give it some time, and watch them back later on when you’re no longer wearing the rig and you can gauge them a little more objectively. ¬†If you’re trying different configurations or operating techniques, make a note of them on a bit of paper and shoot it as a slate at the top of the take so you know later on what it is you’re watching. ¬†Oh, and whilst we’re on the subject of practice shots:
- Learn what sort of shots work and what don’t. ¬†It can be depressing recording shots of you steadicaming your way around your flat. ¬†They look wobbly and boring. ¬†Okay, you could probably still do with plenty of practise…. but it’s also the case that the best steadicam shots involve a subject, usually an actor, to draw the viewer’s attention. ¬†You can see the effect for yourself: start a shot by moving through an empty space, panning and tilting around, and then get a friend to step into the shot and continue it following them as they move through the rooms. ¬†From the moment your friend enters the frame, the shot is instantly far more interesting, watchable, and any slight wobbles there might be are easily forgiven. ¬†Take a really good look at typical steadicam operation on TV and films – you’d be surprised how often the operating is not 100% perfect, but the content of the shot means you’ve probably never noticed.
Oh, and one more thing: it’s definitely NOT a steadycam…