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Charles King
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STEADICAM INTEGRATION ISSUES:
Q) How do I record sound when the camera is on a Steadicam Pilot?
A) Note that the majority of cameras that currently work with the Pilot don’t have a SMPTE TC jack, so that leaves the following:
1) Use a shotgun microphone that rides on the camera.
2) Use a wireless link to get sound to the camera.
3) Use wireless to get sound to the camera, plus a separate wired recorder as backup.
4) Forget about wireless, record sound on a separate wired recorder, use a clapper/slate in production, and then manually line up everything in post.
The first method is the easiest, but has the worst sound. The second method can be used with either a boom pole shotgun, or a wireless lavaliere mic. Note that most wireless lavaliere mic systems also accept a line input on the wireless transmitter, so if you have something that will act as a microphone preamp (e.g. small mixer or field sound recorder), then you can use a wireless lavaliere mic system with a shotgun mic on a boom pole. Also note that wireless systems can produce noise and/or dropouts in adverse conditions, which leads to the third method above. You may want to have sound also recorded on a wired flash memory field sound recorder as backup. If the wireless audio to the camera has problem spots, you can still use the good spots of wireless audio to manually line up audio from the flash memory field sound recorder. Method #4 has the best sound, but takes the most time in post.
Q) How do I keep focus with a Steadicam?
A) There are at least 4 possibilities:
1) You can try autofocus, but things will probably look bad when you pan.
2) Buy or rent a wireless follow-focus/iris system, and have an assistant cameraman work it, but this is fairly expensive for productions that would normally be associated with the Pilot.
3) Buy or rent a wired follow-focus/iris system, mount the controls on the gimbal, and try to be a one man band...
4) Add more lighting, zoom out, and close down the iris to get more depth of field. Then try to maintain a fairly constant distance from the subject as the steadicam moves.
Q) How does the other crew see the shot?
A) Use a wireless video link. The good news here is that there seems to be some inexpensive wireless video solutions that work fairly well for this, except under adverse conditions. Specifically, it appears you can buy a small transmitter that will broadcast to TVs on unused channels. This includes handheld TVs. So you may not need a receiver for this.
Hope all this info is useful...
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