I like guerilla film-making and clearly, having a bunch people with you for testing a location (not shooting a teaser, you have a very weird definition of testing) is counter-productive.
As I say, have fun trying to build a camera without even a tripod.
Many people have different definitions of 'testing' - the OP himself said he was 'testing' a scene.
Even if I'm doing camera tests, I want a tripod - even if I'm just shooting lens charts, I'm gonna need a tripod to get a static shot and to get the height of the chart.
If I'm doing lens tests, I'm going to want to see how the lens performs when pulling focus at different stops, and how it looks when moving. And not when it's moving shakily, assuming I could even hold a camera for that long without any support equipment (I'm not talking about a DSLR here).
Where do I put the camera when I'm tweaking a light? On a table?
On the floor?!
What if we're shooting at the beach, and I want to test at a beach to see how it's going to look, how we might tweak lighting etc. I've gotta hold a 10kg Alexa kit on my shoulder the whole time? I've gotta facilitate lens changes in my lap, so that I don't have to put it down on the sand? I don't even have an AC to take the camera off me or facilitate a lens change whilst I'm holding the camera for him/her? No thanks.
Not all cameras are as light or as small as a DSLR, and not all cameras are specifically designed to be handheld - indeed, if we were shooting with an ENG shoulder-cam, perhaps I wouldn't necessarily need a tripod.
But if I want to test some lighting/shots for a scene and the Director won't even let me bring a
tripod!
I'm talking about
actual camera tests, not simply rocking up to a location and taking some shots so you can see what the
location looks like. I'm talking about shooting some footage with some sort of lighting on a subject's face, testing the camera's settings, testing the lens, testing the lighting... Seeing how the
camera/stock/lighting looks, even in conjunction with how it looks in the location.. takign it through the post process, seeing if it's going to cut together...
If that's the way
you work, then that's perfectly fine, I have no issue with that. But that doesn't mean that others don't have other needs. You like shooting guerilla style, without a lot of crew and equipment. That's fine. But not everyone shoots with little crew and minimal equipment on DSLRs, and I think it's important to make the distinction if you're going to be giving advice. Sure, perhaps h44 isn't likely to be shooting on a RED, but he hasn't said he isn't. Also, he specifically stated he'll be using mics. As much as he may call this a 'test' it would at least be some sort of scene/teaser rather than strictly a test of say, a stock. I understand that's not the way
you test, not what you'd classify as a test, but that's the question being asked. Similarly, even when discussing different tests, I understand
you work in a certain way, but I work in a different way, so I'm going to have different needs when I do tests.
If I'm shooting DSLR, I might
not take a tripod to a camera test, but it depends on exactly what we'll be shooting.
I could be shooting a test of some film stock to show the Director to convince him to shoot film. If I'm trying to convince him to shoot film, I'm not going to show him shaky shots..