If you’re new to handling a camera, you’re probably trying to make your footage as stable as possible. Electronic image stabilization, gimbals, whatever. In high-end cinema, however, things are a little different, oddly enough. Since budget is rarely an obstacle, productions often try to give the image a bit of grittiness, a “hand-held look,” to make it seem less artificial. A fresh approach to this is the newly announced ZeeGee cradle. Hand-held shooting seems to be the easiest way to go. Just shoulder the camera and off you go, right? You’ve achieved the hand-held look you want, drawing the viewer into your story. Well, not so fast. First, the more high-end a particular production becomes, the more high-end (and potentially bigger) the camera package becomes, and thus the bulk around it. That’s not exactly comfortable.. Image credit: ZeeGee Second, the hand-held look is often just a very stylized version of actual hand-held shooting. The goal ZeeGee is trying to achieve here is to make the footage look hand-held, but without overly weird shake and with a lot more freedom in terms of camera movement. It also takes the strain off the back, at least a little bit. ZeeGee – The new hand-held look? This new device was developed by former camera operator (now DP) Charles Papert and recently launched via Cinema Devices (known for the Ergorig for example). It is a sort of universal device, purely mechanical, but quite effective and cleverly designed. It can be attached to almost anything,...
Published By: CineD - Monday, 3 May, 2021