Merlin Technique; Moves And Results - Steadicam Merlin Setup And Operation Manual

Technique


14. Merlin Technique

Good technique
can make your shots much
easier to get.
Lack of technique
can make them nearly
impossible.
Moves & Results
Watch section 14 in the DVD. It is a 'wordless
workshop' of Steadicam moves, along with the
picture-in-picture results. Play it several times
and compare the physical maneuvers of the
operators with the shots produced. You'll be
surprised at the amount of ground covered, and
the magnitude of the booming moves involved in
these simple-but-elegant shots!
Here are some general tips:
Design
ideas – even bad ideas.
There is no substitute for
planning and rehearsing, or
at least trying to think a bit
ahead. Otherwise you are
just looking and reacting at
random.
Start
the camera moving
with your arms, and move
your body an instant later.
Stop
your body first when ending a move, and
ease the camera to a stop a moment later.
Walk
with your feet along an invisible straight
line – your arms will not have to compensate
side-to-side for the weaving of your body.
Think
ahead about panning. Think ahead about
stopping your pan! (Watch objects at the edge of
the frame to be sure your shot doesn't 'backlash'
and remains still.)
Practice
keeping the edges of walls and
doorways just in frame as you turn corners).
Reach
laterally with your arms to help make
quick framing adjustments instead of panning
– as you might boom instead of just tilting.
And if moving subjects speed up or slow down
unexpectedly, use your arm reach to instantly
vary the speed of the camera – you'll react more
quickly than by accelerating or decelerating your
whole body.
Don't crowd
effect – stay back as much as possible. Vary the
figure-size from an over-the-shoulder or a close-
up 'bust shot' to a so-called 'knee-figure' (mid-
calf to above head), to a full-figure (including
the feet), to a wide shot with your subject small
in the frame, but don't stop on an in-between
framing – it's a convention of movie composition
to not cut subjects at the waist or ankles.
Vary
stabilized tracking shots can still be lifeless, even
boring at times, without some variation – keep
them alive, breathing and unpredictable.
Schedule
how professional operators concentrate their
momentary attention to squeak through all the
simultaneous hazards and opportunities that
make for great Steadicam shots.
shots based on
Since framing is, at times, the least volatile
element, due to the inertia of the Steadicam,
one's attention can cycle between headroom,
level (look at the bubble!) navigating (watch
out for that curb!), and framing, etc. This can be
quite absorbing.
In addition, you must pick the best moment
to look from one element to the next – check
the bubble when your framing is not changing
radically and vice-versa and make sure your
Attention Cycle gets around to Navigation in
time to avoid the alligators! After watching a
Steadicam master at work, calmly lugging a
seventy-pound rig through a diabolical shot, you
may conclude that he or she has really earned
that big salary!
Use
on outside the frame; not only for navigating, but
also to help plan where your shot should go next
and anticipate encounters with actors, extras and
vehicles.
Relax
can sense the direct path of the camera, even if
you are bouncing up and down on stairs or rough
ground. Counter your body motions by, in effect,
booming up and down in the opposite direction.
Practice flying the Steadicam smoothly above
a railing or alongside a banister as you climb
stairs, so you can see in your monitor when
you are successfully isolating the camera from
yourself!
your subjects, except briefly for
subject sizes, speeds, directions. Perfectly
Attention Cycle
your
your peripheral vision to see what's going
your "grip" arm, and let it flex so you
. That's