Geared Head Perfect Circle

Dear CML'ers,

Is possible make a perfect circle with a geared head?

Once I exercised for 6 hour with a geared head and my circle is really bad.

A great operator can do this?

Cheers,

Adriano S. Barbuto
DP
Sao Paulo / Brazil

Hi,

>is possible make a perfect circle with a geared head?

Sure. Just wind a perfect sine wave on each of the axes and offset one 90 degrees from the other!

Ahem. Possible, difficult, not generally very useful?

Phil Rhodes
Video camera/edit
London

Lessesjous figures - does anyone recall what the term really for those figures made by driving x and y axes with sine waves on a scope?

Making a circle with a geared head is just like drawing one on an etch-asketch...except the geared head is heavier to turn upside down to erase

Mark H. Weingartner
NY

Mark H. Weingartner wrote :

>lessesjous figures - does anyone recall what the term really for those >figures made by driving x and y axes with sine waves on a scope?

Lissajou...

http://www.physics.brown.edu/physics/demopages/Demo/waves/

demo/3a8020.htm

Jeff "remembers the Nagra SLO resolver as his intro to Lissajou" Kreines

>>is possible make a perfect circle with a geared head?

Yes.

Why?

Daniel Villeneuve, c.s.c.
Directeur-Photo/Director of Photography
MontrÃ©al, Canada
demo Ã / at : http://dvdp.ca

Perhaps more commonly used for strong angular moves.

I always thought of the fluid head for "round" moves although with patience and will I am sure one can find round with a gear head. If it is more of a frustration then a challenge then its not the right tool for that work for you.

I love the slashing diagonal moves one can achieve with a gear head and for me it is better for holding head room during extended takes.

David Campbell
op/steadicam

>making a circle with a geared head is just like drawing one on an etch->asketch...except the geared head is heavier to turn upside down to >erase

An operator in training I knew many years ago made a gear head practice tool with an etch-A-sketch. He made a 8X10 inch wooden base about 4 inches tall for it and mounted it vertically at the back of the square. He inserted two wooden axles through the front and left side with empty spools of thread on the axles to serve as pulleys. He found little wheels with handles about 3 inches in diameter for the ends of the axles, perfect miniature gear head wheels with a handle on the circumference.

Connected the spools to the knobs of the etch-a-sketch with strong rubber bands and voila : a coffee table geared head. Painted black with a Panavision sticker it was pretty cool.

Sincerely,

Ed Colman, President Â SuperDailies, Inc.
Cinematographer Supervised Video Dailies

>An operator in training I knew many years ago made a gear head >practice tool with an etch-A-sketch.

Neat post, Ed:

I had an idea like that for a training tool, but my plans were too convoluted and Rube Goldberg, so I never pursued it.

I started thinking a little less gear and pulley and a little more high-tech, realizing that a bare bones computer mouse has 2 axis wheels inside it similar to an Etch a Sketch and a Gear Head. It wouldn't take too much to do a little Rube Goldberg-ing to a computer mouse and set up a little gear head simulator to move around the cursor on your computer monitor.

Someone more clever than I could probably even write a simple little program so that instead of moving around the cursor, the geared head mouse could change your field of view in a "viewfinder" window and let you follow a little roving target. That would make a neat little practice tool, wouldn't it?

Ideas, I got a million of 'em... but since I don't have any venture capital money backing me up, or a staff of brilliant programmers and machinists, I'll wait for one of you out there to create the geared head mouse and practice program. I'll be one of the first customers, if you sell it cheap enough.

Sean Murray, soc
camera operator/gaffer
Burbank, CA / Pittsburgh, PA

Sean Murray wrote :

>Ideas, I got a million of 'em... but since I don't have any venture capital >money backing me up, or a staff of brilliant programmers and >machinists,

Be careful! It gets very expensive very quickly...

Jeff "has the latter two, but no venture capital" Kreines

There is a nifty looking contraption on Ron Dexter's website:

http://www.rondexter.com/professional/operation/

practice_gear_head.htm

I don't really have much "building" experience so I haven't got around to try making one yet -- maybe I'll need to have a chat to some of my industrial design student friends...

Cheers,

Kim Sargenius
Cinematographer
Sydney

I remember someone once telling me that they learnt how to use a geared head by hiring one for a few days - he got a focus pulling friend over and another friend with a remote controlled car and they practised following the car as it was randomly driven around - that always seemed like a fun way to learn to me!

On the subject of which way round it should be - I think the same goes for Jimmy Jib operating - I worked on a childrenâ€™s TV show for a few months and during the down time the Jimmy Jib operator let me practise - I couldn't get the hang of it - until I found the button that switched the controls round the other way - he had it so that up was up, down was down, left was left and right was right - which would seem the logical way round but if you think of it like you are moving a tripod up actually makes the camera go down, down makes the camera go up, left makes it go right etc etc

When I got home I tried switching my fiancÃ©es playstation controls round the other way and found that I was actually quite good after all (I was hopeless with it before!)

Anna Carrington
Camera Assistant
(And massive burnout 3 fan!)
UK

Anna Carrington wrote :

>When I got home I tried switching my fiancÃ©es playstation controls

A very young fiancÃ©e, eh?

Jeff Kreines

Only a couple of years : I'm the film nut, he's the games nut! â€“

I'm figuring that the two industries will be very closely linked in a few years time!

Anna Carrington
Camera Assistant
UK

Anna Carrington wrote :

>I'm the film nut, he's the games nut! - I'm figuring that the two industries >will be very closely linked in a few years time!

Blame George Lucas for that one....

Jeff Kreines

>I'm the film nut, he's the games nut! - I'm figuring that the two industries >will be very closely linked in a few years > > > time!

> Blame George Lucas for that one....

I seem to recall a playstation stat that says that their main demographic extends from 18 to 30. This was unheard of 10 years ago where it was about 15 -18. Times have changed.

Nick Paton
Director of Photography
High Def./Standard Def./Film
Aaton XTR Prod owner operator
Brisbane, Australia
www.npdop.com

Nick Paton wrote :

>I seem to recall a playstation stat that says that their main >demographic extends from 18 to 30. This was unheard of 10 years ago >where it was about 15 -18. Times have changed.

Those 18-year olds have aged physically, but perhaps not mentally?

Jeff Kreines

A clever Dp with a flair for building stuff could make a rig that allowed you to use geared head wheels on an etch a sketch. DP's everywhere could practice the wheels on the cheap and in the privacy of their own home, car or office, even on vacation.

Makes a great stocking stuffer.

Ben Weinstein
Inventor of the geared head style wheels etch a sketch

>I heard who people that training to operate gear head putting a laser >pen in camera and try to write your own name on a wall.

I've heard that too, but only once have I had to do it. I shot a close up of someone spray painting a word on the wall of a tunnel (at night!) and I had to follow the action, in close-up, on an ArriHead.

I'd never done that before. I've not done it since. I still believe it is best to get your practice following objects you'll actually be asked to follow, like people, cars, animals, etc. Once you get that stuff down you can do anything.

>a clever Dp with a flair for building stuff could make a rig >that allowed you to use geared head wheels on an etch a >sketch.

It's better than nothing, but having just played with an Etch-a-Sketch (Hotel W puts them in every room) I don't see much of a comparison. When you turn the wheels on an Etch-a-Sketch you move a little cursor around, which is different from having to move an entire frame around competently.

I'm pretty good on a gear head. I sucked on the Etch-a-Sketch.

Art Adams, DP [film|hidef|video]
Mountain View, California
San Francisco Bay Area - "Silicon Valley"
http://www.artadams.net/
Local resources : http://www.artadams.net/local

Dear CMLâ€™ers,

Thanks for the replies.

My ask was originated because once when I was training with a geared head I put a chart with letters and a tele lens to follow the letters.

I heard who people that training to operate gear head putting a laser pen in camera and try to write your own name on a wall.

Cheers,

Adriano S. Barbuto
DP
Sao Paulo / Brazil