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Another naive question by me, please forgive me in advance.
What’s the best way to obtain a steady handheld shot (without using a steadycam, i mean) ? A gimbal, image stabilization digital effects in post production or…?
While watching 1917 I realized at the very beginning of the movie (when the two soldiers stand up and walk through the camp) that even a relatively (compared to the rest of the movie) simple scene like that should have been a bit tricky, because of the terrain and the path the two characters follow: it’s very irregular and uneven, with many obstacles and the way is getting narrower and narrower as the two men walk , then there’s the trench entrance etc etc. And to follow the scene you had to shoot it walking backwards. Still the camera is very steady and to notice an almost imperceptible sign of movement due to the terrain and camera operator steps I had to watch the scene twice and focus on motionless objects (I mean, something you don’t usually do while watching movies, it’s almost invisible). Was it complicated as it looks to me to obtain such a steady shooting on such a terrain?
This particular shot grabbed my attention because I’m planning to shoot a quite similar situation (a following shot of two characters walking on a country gravel road) and I’m afraid it will look like the scene is happening during an earthquake due to camera shaking while walking on that terrain, ah ah!
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The easy answer is to shoot wide using a 6K camera and use motion tracking in post and crop to roughly 4K.
But you will still need to have the camera fairly steady and there are all sorts of ways to achieve this and YouTube is full of DIY hacks to getting a steady shot.
The Rolls Royce answer is the have a crane on tracks parallel to the scene. Another is to use a drone, as they usually have an automatic tracking and steady-shot AI algorithm built-in. The downside to a drone is the smaller ones cannot carry a film camera and use something like a GoPro set to Rec709 and have a very limited dynamic range.
I will have to disagree a bit and say that today the least elaborate and yet best method for following actors outside of a steadicam is a gimbal. It yields great results especially when combined with post production image stabilization – shoot a little wider as intended as the post stabilizer will crop into the footage a few percentages. You will still have to “ninja walk”.
When you steady a shot that has extreme sideways movement in post it can produce a very strange effect because it is not adjusting the foreground in relation to the background. You might just as well suggest the shot be made in AI rather than the real world.
Walking backwards on a flat gravel road should not be a problem for someone who is proficient using a hand held camera. Counter to what might seem logical, a heavier camera may well help you as it tends to ground the shot. Yes, you can use a stabilizing system, of which there are many efficient variations. The shot you mention was made using a stabilized camera rigged to the top of a pole that was being carried by two grips. The slight parallax movement of the characters to the background was a problem and was minimized by the way the grips walked, a kind of Groucho Marx step as is used by any hand-held camera operator. As far as I am aware, though some of the blends between shots were massaged in post none of the film was stabilized that way.
Thanks to you all for taking the time to answer to my silly question and for your useful inputs!
The easy answer is to shoot wide using a 6K camera and use motion tracking in post and crop to roughly 4K. But you will still need to have the camera fairly steady and there are all sorts of ways to achieve this and YouTube is full of DIY hacks to getting a steady shot…
I will have to disagree a bit and say that today the least elaborate and yet best method for following actors outside of a steadicam is a gimbal. It yields great results especially when combined with post production image stabilization – shoot a little wider as intended as the post stabilizer will crop into the footage a few percentages. You will still have to “ninja walk”.
Summing up, since I don’t have a 6k camera I’ll try not to use the post production stabilization to avoid the cropping from 4k .
My wife thinks I walk like a gorilla with no knees, actually, but I’ll do my best to refine my ninja skills, ah ah!
When you steady a shot that has extreme sideways movement in post it can produce a very strange effect because it is not adjusting the foreground in relation to the background. You might just as well suggest the shot be made in AI rather than the real world. Walking backwards on a flat gravel road should not be a problem for someone who is proficient using a hand held camera. Counter to what might seem logical, a heavier camera may well help you as it tends to ground the shot. Yes, you can use a stabilizing system, of which there are many efficient variations.
Thanks Roger, you’re amazing!
I tried some tips I found around the web and a cheap and maybe unusual one that seems to work fine (at least for me) to reduce handheld shaking is using my tripod as a gimbal, with weights to make it heavier. I’m doing some tests, somehow I’ll find a solution. Or insert an earthquake in the story, ah ah!
The shot you mention was made using a stabilized camera rigged to the top of a pole that was being carried by two grips. The slight parallax movement of the characters to the background was a problem and was minimized by the way the grips walked, a kind of Groucho Marx step as is used by any hand-held camera operator. As far as I am aware, though some of the blends between shots were massaged in post none of the film was stabilized that way.
Thanks for the explanation! What you achieved with this movie is incredible…
Summing up, since I don’t have a 6k camera I’ll try not to use the post production stabilization to avoid the cropping from 4k .
Just to be clear, you don’t need post stabilizer with a gimbal, it just makes things ultra smooth instead of smooth.
The frugal tripod stabilizer hack will help reduce shake but especially micro jitter, which is the bigger evil anyways imo.
Summing up, since I don’t have a 6k li camera I’ll try not to use the post production stabilization to avoid the cropping from 4k .
Just to be clear, you don’t need post stabilizer with a gimbal, it just makes things ultra smooth instead of smooth. The frugal tripod stabilizer hack will help reduce shake but especially micro jitter, which is the bigger evil anyways imo.
Thanks!
You all have helped me a lot with this issue.
I think I’m making some progresses, it seems I found my personal way to use the tripod (more like a shoulder rig than a gimbal) and I’m beginning to understand the Groucho walk that Roger suggested. Next step is going on location and do some test, I really want this scene to work and I’d like to solve all the problems in pre production…
Whether you put the tripod over your shoulder or hold it in front of you like a stabilizer, find the center of gravity. You can do this by balancing the whole thing on the side of your hand. Once you found it, hold it there (if using like a stabilizer) or have that be the point resting on your shoulder. You may need to attach counter weights depending on the weight of your camera setup.
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