Thomas English

Thomas English, UK based Steadicam Operator 07970 025 389

JP Gossart was shooting a commercial / viral for the new Polar computer. He kindly asked me to Steadicam for him. These Professional cyclists are often able to hit speeds of 50mph. I can’t run that fast so the only option was to vehicle mount onto a tracking vehicle supplied by Bickers.

The SI2K camera was chosen for this job: which worked well. I was particularly impressed by Pier Hausemer s work pulling focus. There are a few tight shots of the Polar sensors which we must have done on a 50mm lens. JP had control of the remote zoom controller and so was choosing his frame sizes. It is no mean feat getting that sharp with a cameraman hanging off the side of the vehicle at 40 odd miles per hour.

We did not use Gyros for financial reasons. This was fine except for one set of shots where we mounted at the front of the tracking vehicle, in low mode a foot off the ground, and caned it around the track at the maximum speed the bugger could travel at. We must have been doing a consistent 60mph. It became quite tricky to operate bent right over forward pulling loads of G-Force in a front on 60mph wind. It shows in those corner shots they chose with the writing overlay. We did loads of those shots at varying speeds and I have been told there were some great takes but that the wobble shot was chosen intentionally to add dynamism. With hindsight I would have liked to have used gyros on those shots. The rest of the Steadicam work I am very happy with.

Steadicam Vehicle Mount: Polar Commercial from Thomas English on Vimeo.