Poll for Professional cam op center

[DucktileMedia]

I've had this in the works and not sure if it is worth the investment. Let's start with the problem. When you have a 2 person operator rig, you need a 2nd person that feels comfortable with a radio control in their hand. For those smaller pros out there that cant afford to have a full time cam op or it just turns out to be too complicated to schedule him in for the day of your shoots. I have on a few occasions offered to have the DP or producer take the controls due to a lack of budget for the cam op or just conflict of scheduling. The problem is that most DP's and producers dont have RC experience. Some have never even operated a varizoom or remote head. As simple as pan/tilt seems, you dont want someone new ruining your shot or spinning the camera in circles confusing your flight. So that part may not be cured by my product but what i want to make is a very professional camera control center that will impress the people you work with. The case would fold open and have a high end joystick and optional control for zoom or follow focus. A larger screen with fold out flags to block light. Now the DP or whoever takes control will only have 1 joystick to focus on in a much simpler setup than a radio with 20 knobs and levers. It also just looks pro! Which we can all admit is a nice thing, especially when you are trying to justify charging thousands a day and convincing people why you are better than kid with the friggin phantom and a gopro!

In reality, the operation is simple for being a cam op but it still takes a little getting used to. The big downside that I see with my idea is that it is frequently nice to stay close to the pilot and you wouldnt be able to walk around this control center if the pilot needed to follow the heli. I'm not gonna lose sleep over this but just curious what some of you think and if it is marketable enough to justify the potential $700-1000 cost it would take to buy all the high end components and assemble them in small quantities.

thanks
Yuri

 

[tombrown1]

I've had this in the works and not sure if it is worth the investment. Let's start with the problem. When you have a 2 person operator rig, you need a 2nd person that feels comfortable with a radio control in their hand. For those smaller pros out there that cant afford to have a full time cam op or it just turns out to be too complicated to schedule him in for the day of your shoots. I have on a few occasions offered to have the DP or producer take the controls due to a lack of budget for the cam op or just conflict of scheduling. The problem is that most DP's and producers dont have RC experience. Some have never even operated a varizoom or remote head. As simple as pan/tilt seems, you dont want someone new ruining your shot or spinning the camera in circles confusing your flight. So that part may not be cured by my product but what i want to make is a very professional camera control center that will impress the people you work with. The case would fold open and have a high end joystick and optional control for zoom or follow focus. A larger screen with fold out flags to block light. Now the DP or whoever takes control will only have 1 joystick to focus on in a much simpler setup than a radio with 20 knobs and levers. It also just looks pro! Which we can all admit is a nice thing, especially when you are trying to justify charging thousands a day and convincing people why you are better than kid with the friggin phantom and a gopro!

In reality, the operation is simple for being a cam op but it still takes a little getting used to. The big downside that I see with my idea is that it is frequently nice to stay close to the pilot and you wouldnt be able to walk around this control center if the pilot needed to follow the heli. I'm not gonna lose sleep over this but just curious what some of you think and if it is marketable enough to justify the potential $700-1000 cost it would take to buy all the high end components and assemble them in small quantities.

thanks
Yuri

Seems like a good idea. As for being close to the pilot, I think it's essential to have a headphone duplex comms system so that distance isn't an issue.

 

[kloner]

the only comm i use is to watch what there filming.....

was hoping you were gonna offer a gimbal operator temp service......

 

[DucktileMedia]

Ha! I should do that. Ok everyone screw the cam op station idea, I'm now going to rent really hot women cam operators. They will all wear Abercrombie and Fitch clothing.

 

[kloner]

I'll take 2 tonight....

 

[Bartman]

been thinking about camera operators lately, it seems a heli operator needs to have a variety of cam operators available with a variety of skill levels, especially so if the heli operator is also trying to act as a production co. not every job will justify the cost of the most professional operator and the less skilled people won't work on the higher end work.

having send that, yuri send me two in plain brown wrappers and i'll take it from there.

 

[DucktileMedia]

You want the brown mama cam op package? Coming right up. I think my idea is a wasted effort but the question does still stand. How do people deal with not having a regular cam op for their tightly scheduled shoots? This weekend I am having the producer try his hand at the cam. If he screws up it's his fault. If the Heli goes down I don't have to worry about selling it.

 

[maxwelltub]

I heard from a source that some of the remote head companies are making gimbal controllers for our industry. Its only a matter of time until they jump on. Companies like terradek and freefly are helping to bridge the gap between film industry and the uav industry, which is based off hobby level components. I would definitely spend the money to get a higher end, purpose built gimbal TX.