should I have my glide cam longer in length, with less added weight, or should have my glide cam shorter in length with more added weight? Also, when using a glide cam how often is your non-glidecam hand touching/correcting the glide cam? any other advice is much appreciated, as I am just getting started using one. Thanks ns
Mar 27 2017 6:24PM
It all depends on the way you balance your stabilizer. I've seen people run it really long and really short and have seen good results from each. However, you have to keep in mind that the more length = more swing, which makes for less desireable footage and a frustrated operator.
I typically run my glidecam about 3-4" extended from the shortest I could go which has given me great results without any major swing.
Imo if you have a 3 second drop time from holding it horizontally to its vertical position and you have a good balance in respect to horizon and pitch then you shouldn't have to worry about extension but keep in my the longer it is the harder it's going to be to get good results. Hope this helps
Mar 27 2017 6:28PM
Also when I'm skiing my other hand is almost always on the glidecam ever so little to correct for wind/bumps and to use for rotation but never enough to mess with balance. Think thumb and forefinger just barely touching the glidecam at all times.
Reason for this was because I use to think that only holding the glidecam in one hand is the way to go due to the floating result I thought I was supposed to get but it ended up just giving me footage that was just bad
Mar 28 2017 1:24PM
The key to gliding and skiing is a mixture of two things; one, proper balance helps a lot, but it doesn't need to be "perfect". Skiing itself is a pretty smooth motion (compared to running/walking) so don't spend hours trying to balance your glidecam perfect.
Two its all about practice, it took me a good 2-3 years to really nail my glidecam work on skis and I went a couple years without filming much skiing on my glidecam and it took me another season to get back into it. You have to grip your glidecam much more than you'd think skiing, especially filming jumps. It's all about driving the rig, you'll eventually start to know exactly where its aiming, I can just cruise at any speed and I know what my shot looks like, but I've been using a glidecam for 7 years. Its all about practice, practice, practice.