Aim for about a second or so here, and you've got a Steadicam that should be quite well set-up. None of this is made easier by the fact that Tiffen doesn't supply the table-top stand with the Merlin2. This is an optional extra, but it's one well worth considering, as it will help you to get set up a lot easier. The good news is, once you're set up, the Merlin should need only minor tweaks in the future to get going again.
Unless you change cameras, or add an accessory. You'd have to be pretty keen on smooth tracking shots to fork out for a Merlin2 though. At that price, it's more than a lot of SLRs that can record p video. What you get for the money, though, is a device which has been made to the highest possible standard.
The Merlin2 is pretty much all metal. The hand grip is plastic, but there's no real disadvantage to that, and metal wouldn't be so comfortable to hold. Certainly, everything feels like it's been made to the highest standards. That said, there are a few little things we didn't totally love. You use this quite a bit too, so it could be a long-term frustration. We also found that the mount for the lower weight was loose. It never once gave us any trouble, but we were surprised by it even so.
It means you can just pull out the mount for the bottom weights, if you give it a good tug. Whether beginner, intermediate or pro, APS-C or full-frame, it's all here in bite-size form.
It's a bit silly to say this, perhaps, but the Merlin misses some of the important features of the bigger Steadicams. Of course, it's a fraction of the price, but it still affects the outcome. One striking omission is the ability to use low mode. For Steadicam, low mode gives you a smooth tracking shot that is close to the ground. Because the Merlin2 can't be inverted, there's no way to get it low to the ground. And if you hold it normally, it's too hard to control if you're trying to operate it hunched over, or with your legs bent.
As there's no vest and arm, you'll also find it a bit harder to keep shots level. On the professional Steadicams, leveling can be fixed, and changed when you need to boom up and down - going up a kerb, for example, requires you boom down, to take out the difference in height - but with the Merlin, your arm sets the height, and it can fluctuate.
Neither of these issues is a big problem, for most types of shoot but we think it's worthy of mention. If you need low mode, do what Garrett Brown did in The Shining, and sit on a trolley, while someone else pushes you around after a child on a tricycle.
The Merlin is certainly an impressive too. Its construction is brilliant, and every component feels like it's been made to last. Operating it can at times be quite frustrating. But this is the story of Steadicam anyway, it takes patience and skill, both of which you'll get in spades once you start to look at some of the results you get. Our shots, in the demo video, you may notice have a sort of rocking motion to them. This is down to a rig that's not completely set up as it should be.
Perhaps we were a little bottom heavy, or perhaps we just don't quite have the knack yet. But, one thing's for sure: the footage in that clip is about ten thousand times better than the stuff we recorded on it to start with. You certainly can get some amazing shots with the Merlin2, and it brings out a whole new way of making videos.
If you're a keen amateur or you're doing wedding videos or corporate work, then the Merlin gives you one more trick in your arsenal that most other operators don't have. That can be useful, and profitable.
The Merlin2 is hard to set up, and can be quite a challenge to operate and support. But none of that matters when you see your first successful, smooth shot. Tiffen says that you can get "professional" results on the Merlin2. That's almost certainly true, but you need to practise, practise, practise to get there. But if you're motivated, you can do some amazing things with the Merlin.
It also teaches you a great deal about the bigger Steadicams, and is a great starting point from which to take your operating further. The camera we used for our test was a Canon EOS 60D fitted with an EF mm fisheye lens that, together, weighed a little less than three pounds. The formula for getting a rough pre-setting balance in the DVD and manual tells us to add four ounces of weight to the bottom spar for each pound of the camera so we added three weights.
But when fine tuning our balance we found we needed slightly less weight so we exchanged one four-ounce bottom weight with a two-ounce finishing weight. For cameras more than 2. To keep the overall weight to a minimum, we extended the lower spar to its maximum position. In total, the Merlin 2 with our camera and counter weights only came in at five pounds and three ounces.
Our last bit of fine tuning was a couple of turns to the threaded guide ring and we were ready to operate. Once we finished balancing the rig, we ran it through our standard Steadicam course used to train beginning professional Steadicam operators to test overall handling and performance.
It includes three setups. The first is the Line Hurdles that consists of a foot string that runs from about three feet off the ground to about five feet stretched tight between C-stands.
A couple walk-over obstacles placed in the path test booming. The second is the Target course that is simply a large cross on a wall with black gaffer tape that we try to maintain in the center of our image area while walking toward and away. The last test setup is a simple stair climb. After two practice runs on the Line Hurdles, we were able to keep the lens perfectly centered on the ascending line even while negotiating the two steps placed in our path. Even though the angle of our control hand changed, the practically friction-free gimbal helped keep us centered and smooth.
A slight breeze came up for our Target test that made it difficult to keep our target perfectly centered. When an assistant shielded the rig from the breeze with a large reflector the Merlin 2 stayed right on target. We were particularly impressed with how little panning drag there was when walking around the rig going from Don Juan camera facing backwards to forward Missionary position camera facing forward.
We had to provide hardly any countering pressure with our guide ring hand. Like with the Target course, a little practice is all it took for the Merlin 2 to give us a graceful and fluid shot with no perceptible influence of the stairs.
With all of our test exercises we found the most important operating technique was using a very light touch on the guide. This is true for all Steadicam designs but even more so for the smaller handheld types like the Merlin 2. It does take some time to get used to training your hands to do their separate jobs without bumping into each other or the Merlin 2, but it can be done with just a little practice. The Merlin 2 is a sophisticated, well-built, precision camera support device that requires more skill and attention to detail on the part of the operator than just about any other type of camera support.
The spring is attached to a pulley, which is connected to a drum by a pair of metal cables. The drum, in turn, is connected by a cable to the opposite end block. In this configuration, the spring pulls the pulley back, which rotates the drum, which pulls the cable attached to the opposite end block.
In this way, the strength of the coiled spring works to move the parallel metal bars opposite the force of the camera's weight. The advantage of this system is that it's easy to adjust the spring strength to match different weight loads. The cable can be moved up and down on the end block. Moving it up rotates the drum, which pulls the pulley in closer, which stretches out the spring.
This increases the pulling force working against the weight force. The articulated arm essentially acts as a shock absorber for the camera sled. When the operator moves, the base of the arm moves as well. But the spring system in the rest of the arm responds to the weight of the sled. Instead of a sharp jolt, the camera shifts its position smoothly.
The arm also frees up the person's hands -- it hangs directly on the vest, so the operator doesn't have to do anything to hold the camera sled up. He or she can concentrate on positioning the camera to get the best shot.
The Steadicam sled is the assembly that actually holds the camera equipment. A Steadicam operator moves the camera by rotating and tilting the sled pole , the central piece of the sled, which connects the various camera components. In the standard configuration, the monitor and battery are attached to the bottom of the sled pole , and the camera is attached to the top. Some Steadicams are reversible, so the cameraman can position the camera on the bottom and the other components on top.
This makes it easier to get low angle shots. In addition to moving with the pole, the camera can be pivoted up or down on its mount called a sleigh , and in some Steadicams, the pole can telescope up and down. This lets the cameraman get high angle shots. Other than holding the camera equipment, the sled's primary job is to provide balance.
It achieves this by increasing the camera system's moment of inertia , or how resistant it is to rotation. This is determined by two factors: how much mass the object has and how far that mass is from the object's axis of rotation.
Increasing mass makes an object harder to rotate, as does increasing the distance between the mass and the axis of rotation a rolled out slab of clay, for example, is harder to rotate than a tight clay ball with the same mass. Increasing the object's moment of inertia makes it harder to shake the camera unintentionally.
One way to increase the moment of inertia would be to add more weight to the camera system, but this would make things harder for the cameraman. Instead, Garrett Brown decided to take the existing components of the camera and spread them out.
This increases the distance between the axis of rotation and the mass of the total camera assembly, making the camera more resistant to rotation. Expanding these components also shifts the camera assembly's center of gravity , or the point where the object's weight is balanced.
When you hold an object precisely at its center of gravity, you can lift the object straight up because the downward pull of gravity is equal in all directions. You can balance a broom on your finger, for example, if you lift it at just the right spot between the bristles and the center of the broomstick. But if you place your finger anywhere else along the broomstick, gravity will pull more on one side than the other, and the broom will fall over.
In an ordinary camera assembly, the center of gravity is inside the camera itself. When you spread out the components, the center of gravity falls between the various pieces of equipment, along the sled pole.
In a Steadicam, the articulated arm's gimbal grips the sled pole just above the center of gravity, in order to keep the camera from tilting in any direction on its own.
The cameraman typically grips the sled pole at a point near the center of gravity, allowing him or her to control the camera more precisely. Balancing the sled components correctly is a precision operation. The camera, monitor and battery have to be positioned just right so that the center of gravity falls near the gimbal.
To make this adjustment easier, sophisticated Steadicams are outfitted with radio-controlled motors that move the various components by minute increments. This makes it easier to balance the sled when the cameraman is getting ready for a shot, but it also allows the cameraman to make adjustments in the middle of a shot. This is an important feature, since the sled balance often changes during operation for example, the weight of the film will shift as it moves through the camera.
For some shots, the cameraman may want to shift the center of gravity away from the gimbal, so that the camera leans in one direction on its own. The balance can be adjusted with a joystick mounted on the sled grip, or remotely, with a radio-control unit. In the next section, we'll see how Steadicam operators put all this technology to work to get remarkably smooth, hand-held shots. Operating a Steadicam is one of the most difficult jobs on a movie set , but perhaps one of the most rewarding.
For a typical Steadicam shot, a camera operator must follow a predetermined path, while simultaneously adjusting the camera and avoiding any obstacles, all the while supporting more than 70 pounds 32 kilograms of camera equipment.
The Ultra 2 model's iso-elastic arm has a camera capacity of up to 70 pounds. The job requires a good deal of physical stamina, technical skill and a good sense of shot composition. The director plans the shot, but the Steadicam operator makes it happen. The best technique for Steadicam operation depends on the nature of the shot. To film a simple conversation between two actors, an operator may try to replicate the even feel of a dolly shot, keeping the camera perfectly level and moving it slowly around the action.
For a "flying sequence" over low ground, the operator might intentionally tilt the camera from side to side, creating a soaring effect. One of the most common uses of the Steadicam is to track actors as they move around obstacles or rough ground.
Typically, the operator will walk ahead of the actors, shooting them from the front as they walk and talk. For this sort of shot, the operator may walk backward through the scene, with the help of other crew members. Or he or she may walk forward, with the camera pointing behind him or her. Or, heck, he or she may hop on a Segway traveling at a good clip, dismount, sprint up a ramp and then do a around the point of interest see the related YouTube video here.
For these shots, and most any other, the director , the crew and the operator will all work together to figure out the best approach.
Many professional Steadicam operators work freelance, renting themselves as well as their equipment out as a complete package. When a scene in a film calls for a Steadicam shot, the filmmakers will select an experienced operator based on his or her past work.
In addition to representing hundreds of Steadicam operators, the SOA holds regular training workshops. Tiffen, the company that manufactures Steadicams, also organizes training sessions. Martin Scorsese, Paul Thomas Anderson and many other directors have used extremely complex Steadicam sequences to establish mood and setting.
0コメント