Equipment Testing : Steadicam

Another piece of equipment me and Adam wanted to try out was the steadicam. A steadicam is much like a dolly – it allows a smooth movement, even over irregular surfaces. Unlike the dolly, the steadicam does not have a track to it which means that it is held by a cameraman who moves it. It could be used to move around a room or to simply follow a character.

We tested the steadicam out to see its effectiveness as well as seeing if it needed to be used in the production of the film opening.

Here is our footage:

The steadicam was quite difficult to use but, it did create a nice, smooth movement when using it. However, in terms of it fitting our opening is a different matter. Personally, I feel like the steadicam would look better in an action film opening to make the audience feel like they are immersed in the action themselves. We want to create an eerie atmosphere with more “still” shots. However, we may consider using the dolly.

Equipment Testing : The Dolly

The dolly is a shooting platform often raised onto a track to create a smooth movement whilst filming. It is like a train track in which you put the tripod onto the trailer and it is pushed along. The dolly creates an even and neat movement; something a cameraman wouldn’t be able to do by holding the camera him/herself.

Since we have a dolly track available at school, we decided to test it out to see if it would be any use of us in our film opening. We took some test footage to see what the dolly can offer as well as how it can be operated.

We thought a sequence and technique we want to portray in our opening is a “through the wall shot”. This is something which we can easily do at our location as well as a technique which can show our filming ability. To show this technique, we set up the camera and dolly going into the computer room. The camera would start outside the room and the dolly would slowly work its way into the room, facing the wall.

Here is our footage:

We were quite pleased with how the footage came out and how easy it was to operate the dolly. Therefore we have decided to use the dolly in our production of the opening. The through the wall shot would create an atmospheric transition in the film against the foggy atmosphere. It will suit the theme and genre perfectly as well as showing our skill in filming techniques.