Balls of Fury

[Charles Papert]

Hi folks,

Thought you might be interested in the trailer for "Balls of Fury", a movie I operated this summer. It's pretty amusing. Of interest here would be the "Matrix"-type sequence that appears in the second half of the trailer where the camera rotates around the two frozen characters; we shot these in "poor-man's mo-co" style, where the actors themselves froze, I spun around them with the rig, and then they unfroze on my cue as I came to a stop. The CGI ping-pong balls helped sell the illusion. The move was sped up about 3x from the look of it. It was exhilarating to shoot!

The camera on this was the Panavision Genesis. I had posted some pictures of the setup both in the prep and on set (the high-school gym location is also seen in the trailer, with the ping-pong playing nun and Patton Oswald)

[Michele Coser]

That's great Charles. Tanx for sharing with us.

[Charles King]

Havn't seen the clip yet CP but I was looking at the pics and saw that you have the battry base from Steadirig. How does it handle? Looks very well designed. Also, the gensis camera looks nice. I saw one at IBC2006. BTW, who was your remote focus guy? Also, what happened to your Klassen vest? I thought you had one.

Okay, correction. I just looked at your other pics and noticed you did have your Klassen vest. So you have two. I know there is a reason but please indulge me

[Patrick Moore]

Cool looking movie, excellent work. Man that sled looks heavy, how much does it weigh?
I think I saw that same trailer at the theatre the other day.

[Charles Papert]

The Steadyrig is nice. That one is the prototype, I've been consulting for Hugo and the production version should emerge shortly with refinements such as protective skid plates for the batteries and the ability to be set on the ground (i.e. PRO1 functionality). I like the ability to be able to migrate the batteries around--I can send the fore battery way forward if I use an LCD monitor, which helps redistribute the weight.

The rig with this camera is actually on the "lighter" side, I would guess 62 lbs total. That's because the Genesis has it's ridiculous 15lb deck remoted. I flew a Panavision LWII this weekend and had to crank up the arm a few turns.

My Klassen vest was at the shop being updated when the prep pix were taken, it was my first time pullling the PRO vest out in a few years. I miss it in some ways. Like most of us I keep it around in case I get caught in a scrape--literally and figuratively--i.e. a shot that would require the tighter clearance of the front-mount. Also I want to be able to eventually sell the rig as a complete package and the Klassen is a bit tricky as it would only fit a certain percentage of ops.

[Patrick Moore]

WOW 62 lbs, I'm impressed maybe someday I'll get to fly something like that. Now I understand why pro's have that safety breakaway strap, that much weight could drown a small guy like me. Thanks for your response, I know guys like you are usually busy and it's nice to actually hear how the pro's do it.
Thanks again

[Charles Papert]

Flying a full-size rig is probably something that everyone who has spent time with lighter rigs (either Glidecams/Flyer/etc. or their own homebuilds) should try. While the weight seems daunting, of course all components are beefed up so the torque that one experiences with light rigs when you weight them down to the max is not an issue. The added inertia of the bigger rig makes it seem virtually like a fluid head to operate--the "squirrelly" nature of lighter rigs is replaced by a smooth, slow, controlled feeling when panning and tilting. The nice thing is that the skillset is exactly the same. Anyone who gets good with a 20lb rig will be just as good or better with a 70lb rig, once they get down the body mechanics of moving with that extra weight on their body and negotiating the physical size of the system. You learn quite quickly that keeping the rig close to the body is very important from a fatigue factor, and bringing it around your body from one side to the other requires momentarily pushing it quite far away to avoid hitting your head or legs. Consider that 35mm and full-size HD cameras can be anywhere from 2.5 to 4 feet long in this equation!

By the way, the breakaway quick release is largely a thing of the past; marketing it as a safety item means it needs to be OSHA approved and that's a whole ball of wax to get involved in, so many current vests do not have the quick release any more. Very few guys I know had ever pulled theirs historically anyway.

[Jake Danilchik]

Charles,

I want to add my appreciation of your time contributing here.   It is very helpful to have your insight being only second to "in person" instruction from a seasoned professional such as yourself.  Basically that is a segway to my question, if a homebuilder wanted to take a steadicam workshop can you recommend a particular one.   Specifically, in my instance, I am in Seattle but am not against flying to LA.  There are many times when the process of building a steadicam from scratch is frustrating due to questions as to how a highly tuned professional rig operates.  I started this journey much the same way as when I decided to race cars (years ago).  Build a car or buy a readymade race car.   I reasoned if you know the physics involved ( a necessity to build a good race car or a good steadicam rig ) and the ergonomics of it all, it should make me a better operator from experiencing the building process.  Now that I have an operational steadicam rig I am still questioning whether my ability to build is the limiting factor to the quality of my shots when maybe all I need (besides hundreds of hours of practice )  is some guidance and operational instruction to narrow down what the causes are.     However, I am a bit cynical about workshops because after a couple years of amateur racing experience I decided to take a Skip Barber race driving school only to find the finely tuned car that I was supposed to get had many mechanical problems throughout (not so many mechanical issues that I could demand a refund but enough to hinder my experience.)  I was able to learn a lot regardless, but what I also learned was that it is important to really research the school carefully before just assuming that you are getting your moneys worth.   Basically, you my cyber friend, are our only connection to the world of professional steadicam operators ( maybe there are others but I don't know about them) .  As is very apparent from watching your reel we are so lucky that our connection to the professional steadicam world is so very very talented.    Kudos, keep up the great work, and when things aren't busy we really appreciate you stopping in to share what you are up to.   It is inspiring to see someone that started out making their own rig and is doing such great work in the "big leagues."

cheers,

Jake

[Patrick Moore]

Thanks again Charles, great info!

[Charles Papert]

Cheers Jake, thank you for the nice words.

Peter Abraham's Flyer workshops are quite popular, I've known Peter for years and he is a good teacher.

If you are looking for a more "serious" i.e. larger rig, more comprehensive (and a lot more expensive!) workshop, there are 6-day workshops in Pennsylvania a couple of times a year that Garrett Brown co-teaches with Jerry Holway. This is the "classic" workshop form that most of us (including me) learned at.

A well-taught workshop is worth it's weight in gold. Many "aha" moments will result. It's really much more about learning the skill than the gear--certainly you may find issue with the particulars of any given rig, especially the less expensive ones (I am on record saying that the Flyer is the best rig for 1/3" cameras but I do have quibbles with some of the aspects of the sled itself). And frankly, I have seen workshop gear not always in the best working order, but it generally doesn't impact the overall experience that much.

[Alan Dague-Greene]

I've taken two of Peter's Flyer workshops. Usually a couple of the attendees buy rigs, so the workshops are outfitted with brand new equipment. But I know that can't always be the case.

Charles, something just occurred to me with your comment about the length of some cameras. It seems like ops who make use of Don Juan are in the minority. Could it be due to the length of the cameras, causing difficulty when making your way around to the other side while keeping the sled close to you? Although my DJ form is generally terrible, I much prefer it to walking backwards (could be because I rarely have someone spotting me).

I saw some BTS footage of Jim McConkey shooting Before Sunset (the second one), and from the looks of it, he was shooting those lengthy leading shots all walking backwards. I don't recall seeing a single switch in that movie, so the reason for walking backwards in that situation escapes me.

Thanks for your insight.

[Jake Danilchik]

Thanks !

[Charles Papert]

The reason that most of us avoid DJ like the plague is not so much the side switches (which are relatively rare anyway), it's that it just feels funky to be walking one way, aiming another, looking sideways at the monitor and with the function of the gimbal hand all turned around. I know my personal accuracy drops by probably 50% or more when I go to DJ depending on the shot. The stairs shot in "American History X" was really my worst nightmare, in that it combined not one but two side switches, DJ, running AND stairs, a whole potpourri of unpleasantry! At least it wasn't low-mode...

The longer cameras do make side switches more difficult for sure, as do cables as used on HD shows (I'm doing a Genesis job at the moment, the HD-SDI cable is knocking out a certain amount of precision). But as I said, in real life you run into it fairly infrequently compared to how much you do it at a workshop. Some operators will literally never go into DJ, they find ways to climb stairs  and run backwards, bless 'em.

[Charles King]

Thank you for these wonderful anecdote CP. Hearing from experience operators like yourself gives us mere mortal incentives to do better

[Charles Papert]

Thought you chaps might like this pic that the set still photographer took the other day. It's a nice look at the Genesis in profile on the rig.

Thankfully Andy Richter is a decent golfer so he didn't end up nailing me in the (ahem)'s with the golf ball.