Fake Photog Finders Club
- Thread starter Chuxty
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Brock Samson
Well-known member
After having seen the right hand whatzit move so many times... I have to ask, where the heck did this come from? I mean it'd be one thing if it was isolated to a flick or two...but like EVERY movie with a shooter in it? Is there some 'technical consultant' running around Hollywood telling people that this is how they do it in the biz? You'd figure that SOMEONE on these sets would have a TV background? Wiiiiiiiieeeerd.
Latin Lens
Well-known member
No fotogs in LA have their SAG card? Hollywood should not be allowed to get away with right hand top hold anymore!
Todio
Well-known member
BTW, I've seen boom operators in TV scrums holding booms the wrong way and without earphones to boot, any photos of that?
BTW, if you look at the press conference scene in Titanic, you'll see a good friend of mine, Reynauld Trudel, who was the actual boom operator in that scene. What better way to get a boom in close than to actually be on camera? He says he hated it!
BTW, if you look at the press conference scene in Titanic, you'll see a good friend of mine, Reynauld Trudel, who was the actual boom operator in that scene. What better way to get a boom in close than to actually be on camera? He says he hated it!
Here's another thing to try. Have one of your friends try to hold your camera on their shoulder. They instinctively hold it "right "hand"-le hold". It's weird. Ask one of your friends to put it on their shoulder and they will probably do it. Hell I tried this on a reporter and he did it! lol
D.St.
Well-known member
My wife used to like the show "Step By Step" when it came on. Terrible show, but it has one of my all time greatest transgressions. One of the characters was shooting a music video when the camera ate the tape.
Trouble was, the camera they were using was an HL-79, which had no tape deck!
Trouble was, the camera they were using was an HL-79, which had no tape deck!
cameradog
Well-known member
Imagine hoisting a sack of concrete up on your right shoulder to carry it. Where will your right hand be?
Imagine hoisting a girl over your shoulder to carry her. Where will your right hand be?
Imagine a really strong guy hoisting a beer keg up on his shoulder. Where do you picture his right hand?
Imagine hoisting anything other than a camera up on your right shoulder. Where will your right hand be?
Now imagine someone with no camera experience being given an object to hoist onto his right shoulder. And lo! There's a handle right where his right hand would naturally be if it were any other object! The question isn't why people hold the camera like that. The question is why wouldn't they hold the camera like that? I mean, that's the way you hold heavy or bulky objects on your shoulder, and there's a handle already there to help you.
We're all trained to hold a camera correctly. It looks silly to us when people don't. Asians are trained to use chopsticks. It looks silly to them when Americans try to use them for the first time and don't naturally do it correctly. It's not silly to the American, though, because he hasn't been taught the right way to hold and use them. Just as it isn't silly to the actor, because all he knows about holding something on his shoulder is that you wrap your right arm around it with the hand on top, like a laundry bag or bundle of lumber.
Imagine hoisting a girl over your shoulder to carry her. Where will your right hand be?
Imagine a really strong guy hoisting a beer keg up on his shoulder. Where do you picture his right hand?
Imagine hoisting anything other than a camera up on your right shoulder. Where will your right hand be?
Now imagine someone with no camera experience being given an object to hoist onto his right shoulder. And lo! There's a handle right where his right hand would naturally be if it were any other object! The question isn't why people hold the camera like that. The question is why wouldn't they hold the camera like that? I mean, that's the way you hold heavy or bulky objects on your shoulder, and there's a handle already there to help you.
We're all trained to hold a camera correctly. It looks silly to us when people don't. Asians are trained to use chopsticks. It looks silly to them when Americans try to use them for the first time and don't naturally do it correctly. It's not silly to the American, though, because he hasn't been taught the right way to hold and use them. Just as it isn't silly to the actor, because all he knows about holding something on his shoulder is that you wrap your right arm around it with the hand on top, like a laundry bag or bundle of lumber.
How many people have ever used a home camcorder? You hold 'em buy the grip on the lens, too. Or am I the only one who remembers home camcorders that actually went on your shoulder?
I also love in the West Wing (or maybe some other POTUS show / movie) you see cameras w/ their light on about 50 yards from the podium & a couple photogs w/o a tripod.
I've never shot* the President, but I'm guessing if I ever did, I'd bring sticks.
(*w/ a camera, not a gun. ok Mr. Homeland spy?)
I've never shot* the President, but I'm guessing if I ever did, I'd bring sticks.
(*w/ a camera, not a gun. ok Mr. Homeland spy?)
D.St.
Well-known member
But isn'tdoing the research and learning the nuances of a certain role part of being a good actor ?
Isn't making sure your actor portray their roles accurately and appropriately part of being a good director?
I know most "movie cameramen" are fry-cooks and pizza-boys looking for that big break, but a little research wouldn't hurt, would it?
Buck Satan
Well-known member
My favorite faux-pas is the photog giving the "running commentary" at the huge accident/plane crash/natural disaster...usually to himself. So much for a nat sound pack...or any nat sound for that matter. 
queen of blue
Well-known member
Look closely at the last shot. It's not actually a left hand camera, he has both hands on the lens.
And on another note, I was thinking about how I now heft something heavy onto my shoulder .... and I'll be darned if it isn't always on the right, and usually weighted toward the back with my right hand holding the front edge down. So I guess now I lift EVERYTHING like a camera? Go figure. I suppose the longer I'm out, the more that will wear off.
Brock Samson
Well-known member
What they did is flip the viewfinder upside down, if you look the lens is still oriented the traditional way. They just wanted to be able to have him swing left to right with the camera being the dominant object instead of him.
Television trickery!!! Such devilry.
I have heard of "kits" to make the camera usable on your left shoulder(with a pistol grip). An old photog I used to work with when I was an intern, said he had his camera set up like that at one of his old stations.