I'm actually quite surprised that hardly any of the steady/glide/fly cam tutes I've seen online mention the importance of the walk. They all seem to be about balancing, and then; "hey presto!".
The girl in that first vid was demonstrating an extremely poor walk technique, and it carried across into her (tbh, rather awful) footage. I suspect she may have been struggling with the weight a bit too. I've seen some of her vids before, and none of them have impressed me. She can barely talk the talk, let alone walk the walk (if you'll forgive the pun
).
I've only recently began my journey into filmaking and videography, but having a fair amount of experience of tactical shooting (I used to run an airsoft site/club), the stalk-walk was instinctive to me, and allowed a near instantaneous learning curve. Even with a shoulder rig I can get smoother shots than some of the steadycam operators i've seen in vids online. I guess like in many fields, there are plenty people that think you can buy into a level of professionalism without actually learning the craft.
I may be wrong with this, as it's a skill I have transferred from elsewhere, but if any of the experienced operators could chip in, that would be great.
The stalkwalk -
Sink your upper body down slightly (for me it's about about 4" or so) by bending the legs. Legs should be bent at the ankle, knees and hips, forming a Z shape. When stalking, you must roll onto and off your feet, walking primarily with your knees rather than plodding down and swaying. It's kind of a cross between a cat's stalk, and a shuffling/cycling motion. This leg motion distributes any impacts as smoothly as possible, and removes the natural gait we normally walk with. The waist therfore stays level rather than twisting and rocking about, and thus the body and shoulders can 'float', providing a very stable and smooth platform for the arms (which further buffer and absorb any final jiggles).
If you do this correctly you should feel your leg muscles doing a lot more work than they would do when walking normally. I'm pretty sure that many of the operators that make steady cam tutorial vids are not doing this, and consequently the entheusiastic amateurs that are looking to buy such a rig are put off by the given product's performance, when in reality I suspect that the person demo'ing thier new toy just doesn't know how to walk properly.
On a slighly different note, could any of the experienced operators here shed some light on the relationship between rig weight and column size please? Do you have any go-to sizes for different rigs or shot requirements? Or maybe you have a preferred column length/gimabal position no matter what?
I've found that there is too much web chatter about the balancing of the gear imo, which makes it hard to find more useful info on the subtleties of the rig when in use, so any tips or insight would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
ie The longer the column, the more mass at either end, and the closer the fulcrum is to the center of total mass, the more stable the rig.