Thomas English, UK based Freelance Steadicam Owner/Operator 07970 025 389 .
Here is just some of the work I do for Burberry. It is intercut with some stills work by Mario Testino and some “Making off” footage of bags being manufactured and catwalk. All the beauty accessories shots are done by myself on Steadicam for Jeremy Valender.
For reasons of obvious aesthetics we use fairly long focal lengths. Generally the widest we go is 100mm (35mm equivalent) and often up to 200mm (35mm equiv.). This is difficult on Steadicam but very rewarding.
Thomas English, UK based Freelance Steadicam Owner/Operator 07970 025 389 .
Shooting on some of Dan Bronks’s (DoP) favourite lenses, the Panavision Primo Anamorphics proved to be interesting. The little buggers are so big! Some of them larger than the camera. They are amazing though; opening up to T1.9. The problem is the size and weight requires 19mm bars and lens supports for Steadicam. Which unfortunately means carrying the entire baseplate unless in low-mode.
I have since come up with a solution. I now have special Steadicam dovetail plates to put 19mm bars on. This is useful for these lenses as well as for ringlights and whatnot.
Thomas English, UK based Freelance Steadicam Owner/Operator 07970 025 389 .
I was the Steadicam Operator last year on this feature film; 4321. I also did Noel Clarke’s previous film “Kidulthood”. The DoP was Franco Pezzino and I had worked for him before on music videos including a James Blunt one. It was a fun shoot. A few running shots as you would expect from this kind of movie. I couldn’t think of a better theme for a film: 4 hot girls robbing criminals; but I am sure plenty of people would disagree.
Thomas English, UK based Freelance Steadicam Owner/Operator 07970 025 389 .
Another solid all day Steadicam promo for Dave Miller DoP. A little rest at the end for the body rig. I am frequently asked on Steadicam jobs to make it less “Steady”. They want something smoother than handheld but they don’t want nailed shots Steadicam can deliver. They want energy injected into the shot. It’s crazy really having to unlearn everything you’ve learnt but I think its important not to get too wrapped up in your craft and go for it!
I am credited on this on as Tommy English. I always know its a Dave Miller job because I get a call from production asking to speak to Tommy English. I heard once that Gypsies have like 7 names; Their business name, their family name, their close friends name etc etc. That way they would always know why someone that turned up to the travelling site was looking for them by the name they were asking for.
I have only just managed to get a copy of this commercial we shot years ago. It actually never aired because of the polonium 235 incident where a Russian dissident was killed with a sprinkling of radioactive sushi. Apparently this spot was too similar to these sushi murdering activities. Anyhow, an awesome commercial directed by Dom Bridges and lit by Barry Ackroyd.
I was lucky to use Howard Smiths own AR rig that had a hack on the brain enabling us to spin the camera. It is crazy difficult trying to operate with a camera upside down! I practised for a week and sort of got there. I invented all sorts of psychological trickery to try and do it. It worked.
I camera operated for the world renowned Joe Dyer DoP extraordinaire and my good buddies Barney Steel and Mike Sharpe from The Found Collective. These guys are geniuses at integrating VFX and SFX. They know their software inside out and often come back to in-camera effects to save on render times. Its such a pleasure working with directors that truly understand and are truly, well… insanely experimental.
They and Joe allowed me to test out my new shift and tilty wobbly LensBaby lens on this job and it was so loved I used it all day! I did do a little Steadicam at the start but really on this one… I was a Lensbaby operator. I would say that my little Lensbaby honey was probably the best money I ever spent.
Its not the easiest thing to get the hang off. I wasn’t just using it as a shift and tilt lens but also as a means of moving the image across the film plane in pulses and shakes. I spent the whole weekend before practising with the thing trying to get different types of wobble, smears, chromatic aberations and flares. But really, the Lens baby, was a resounding success.
OK… It is heavy but not unmanageably so. With two RED cameras on there and two zoom lenses it maxes out my Steadicam G70 arm. This makes a total rig weight of 90lbs (41kg) including my vest and arm. The young lady I loiter with these days does not weigh much more. Essentially this rig is fine for well worked out and choreographed shots we do on drama; but with two REDs inside it the rig becomes no good for the kind of run and gun documentary style shooting we are becoming used to in music videos.
I am pleased with my results testing wise. I only tested it vis a vis operating on Steadicam. Only minor rig tweaks were needed to get it onto my MK-V sled. So as an Operator I would require a normal amount of time to set up once the camera is built. Powering the cameras was simple enough and I only bothered viewing one feed. I really do not see the point in seeing both feeds as a Steadicam Operator as I do not wish my vision to be impaired by any funny glasses.
The only things missing in my tests were the mirror shroud and a genlock box. Neither of these are big deals. I can use this rig like any other Steadicam setup and that includes low-mode as I demonstrate towards the end. I have two super16 zooms (2k) in there but there is not that much in it between them and two Optimo Rouges 16mm-42mm to shoot 4k or even; two Tokina 11mm to 16mm to shoot 3k. . I am confident now to go out and shoot with it.
So this is the lightweight 3D mirror rig, enabling 2 cameras for stereoscopic production, from P+S Technik called the “Freestyle 3D Rig” developed by Philippe Bordelais. Its great for Steadicam! It turned up on a Satchler Artemis sled which worked well. I promptly placed it on my MK-V sled which coincidentally was pretty much balanced immediately, once tweaked it flew great. Later on it was tried on a Steadicam Ultra 2 and was fine. Its very easy to get into static balance.
Its great to fly. The interocular and convergence can be changed on the fly using a C-Motion. Pretty much most popular cameras can be used in there with most lenses and lens control systems. Certainly the SI-2K is perfect because it is so lightweight. I want to put two RED cameras in there as soon as possible. In this video we had two EX3’s. Its a strong solid robust system.
When you change to interocular, the two cameras move thus negating any changes in balance. With the EX3’s I did not notice any changes in balance when changing the convergence.
I will know as soon as someone in the UK purchases one of these so feel free to contact me to find out.
07970 025 389 or email me at studio at thomasenglish.co.uk
More information about the rig can be found on the P+S Technik site on: pstechnik.de
Thomas English, UK based Steadicam Operator 07970 025 389
Whilst not a Steadicam job. A few months ago I was asked to operate on a promo for Bonobo. The orginal idea was to come up with some kind of hot head that would constantly turn with no remorse for framing. The choreography was going to have to happen to the frame rather than the frame to the action. This seemed all well and good and I considered doing it on my jimmy jib remote head or choosing one of the number of Motion Control options.
Budget was an issue and I knew I could produce this remorseless moving frame using a geared head. Importantly I knew that I could subvert that remorselessness if needed because things were not working. I also felt better hitting marks for nice tilts if I was not using a cheap remote head. So I voted for using an Arri mk2 geared head. I love operating the wheels, I rigged an apple mac metronome on head phones so I knew I would have exactly the same marks at exactly the same musical keyframes. This promo went very well. As we were running out of time I did have to subvert the timing a little.
Here. I am Operating Steadicam in super low mode with 8 inch actors! You see here I was asked by Malcolm Hadley to shoot 8 inch actors as though they were 6 ft humans.
So to get the camera this low to the ground I have to go into what is called super low mode. As you can see I have had to fully extend the entire sled which is an MK-V 4 stage post. Using this technique I can literally get the camera to fly within an inch of the ground.
Operating like this with miniatures is definitely testing. With such small people, so close to the lens any movement on the lens is immediately noticed. Booming the camera up by half an inch is the equivalent of booming up by a foot on a real person and they would look the same as they take up the same amount of room in frame. On a normal human; an inch wrong on headroom can be an ugly shot, now that inch on a mini human must translate to a millimeter. So its precision operating all the way! Every single
This was a promo directed by Susan Ayton for a new BBC series called “Corridors of Power” The puppeteer was Geoff Felix.
