[DJI PRO | Christopher Probst, ASC]
My name is Christopher Probst, ASC.
I'm a cinematographer working in commercials,
music videos, television, and feature films.
I'm here to talk about the new RS 2 and the Komodo combination.
As a cinematographer, I'm always looking for a tool to solve a problem.
So I keep my eyes out for whatever technologies are coming down the pipe
and keep them in my back pocket to try to see if, down the line,
that's what I need to solve that problem.
I think a lot of people in the early days of
when gimbals were coming out and being explored,
where somehow thinking that it's a replacement for a Steadicam,
it's going to allow the cinematographer to grab the camera.
And what we eventually discovered is it's not a direct replacement,
it's an addition to and a different tool that can be used in different ways.
My history goes back to the original Ronin gimbal.
I always wanted something that would directly intercut,
be the same sort of color science,
the same sensor technology,
the same recording format, the same lenses I'm using.
That is an important aspect.
So I was flying Red cameras but stripped down
and with a remote video, trying to make it as compact as possible.
Certainly that limited the choice,
you couldn't put a big zoom lens on it,
but within those parameters, I still wanted it to fit into my ecosystem.
[Eminem – Phenomenal] When you're handholding a gimbal,
[Eminem – Phenomenal] you're taking the weight into your own arms.
The idea of a gimbal is useful to get through sort of tight areas
and go through a little portal or something.
So if you're strapping on big exoskeletons
or big cable apparatus to take the weight
because you're fumbling with the actual payload that you're trying to hold,
it becomes cumbersome and clunky.
So trying to strip that down as elegantly as possible
but still be in a sort of cinema mold of a camera system
and the lensing language that you're using, that's important.
And it's something that I think that's kind of gotten away from us,
because the gimbal has gotten so good
that going into a larger gimbal like a Ronin 2,
which many people are now almost using as a replacement
for a remote head or even a Libra head on Russian arms,
you start to lose that mobility,
that lightness of form and be able to just grab,
pick it up, and carry it.
Because what happens is,
in a standard configuration, you have the camera underslung,
so you're carrying the camera,
and that's fine for certain shots.
But in the view, if it's too low in that mode,
you wind up having to hold the camera up high.
And even in the military,
they will have Marines to hold their hands out with no weight,
and after 10 minutes there, they want to cry.
Now, put in a 15lb, 20lb gimbal setup
and try to hold that for 15 or 20 minutes, and it's a deal-breaker.
So then you come up with all sorts of contraptions to strap your body,
to try to take the weight of this increased camera size and gimbal weight
to be able to replace the Steadicam, which has
a contraption that you strap to your body to take the weight
and distribute it somewhere else.
All of that adds bulk and constriction of motion
and it kind of defeats the purpose of this sort of grab and go
and still be able to do these sort of fluid stabilized moves.
So it's not that it's a bad thing that
the gimbal has gotten larger, and it had better capacity
and stronger motors that you could put on a car and high wind,
and it would still be able to maintain stability.
That's all great, but we sort of lost that initial impetus
of having this lightweight handheld solution that
was giving you those stabilized moves.
I shot a number of videos for Taylor Swift on my original Ronin setup
which, at that time,
I was using a carbon fiber Dragon camera on Blank Space,
which we shot outside of New York at a mansion.
We were all around the grounds there,
doing various shots with her running, walking dogs.
We did a particular shot where we were arcing around a small gazebo
and had an 85mm lens doing an arcing close-up.
Basically running, had almost a full clip,
and that was just an impromptu grab that the director decided to do,
so we didn't have to lay down a bunch of circular track,
which was the wrong diameter
for that particular little gazebo, and it was perfectly stable.
We did a video for the track, Wildest Dreams, which we shot
for one day out in the Tejon Ranch, which was doubling for Africa,
as well as one day on the Universal backlot,
we staged a big marquee premier event for the movie once it was coming out.
And so there are shots where she is exiting a limousine,
going through all the paparazzi and the crowd,
and that was me on the gimbal drifting back with her as well.
We did a short film,
which we took out the first prototypes of the Monstro camera when it came out.
And I also had an early release of the Ronin 2.
And we did a shot where we started on a window
which was broken and fluttering in the wind
and sand was coming in through the window, and we pulled back
and we go across the floor see all this sort of detritus on the floor.
And we pan, then we travel down a narrow hallway.
Now, that's not to say that that could not have been done with
a couple of other tools, but in our form factor,
in terms of the actual physical location that we are at,
you couldn't put a Technocrane in there.
Perhaps it could have been a Steadicam,
but we didn't have a Steadicam operator out there,
but we did have the Ronin.
So we did that shot,
and it was very low and raking, and I was able to control that.
And that was a great example
that we actually went down the hallway and then panned into a bathroom
and dollied up and found our lead character.
That sort of free-roaming,
not tethered to anything aspect to a handheld gimbal is actually pretty nice.
By having the camera become smaller
and the weight payload of the gimbal come up a little bit,
it's kind of like this perfect meeting of the two technologies.
With the RS 2 and the Komodo combination
they have expanded the weight capacity to a point
where it simultaneously is meeting the newest generation of the Red camera,
which is the Komodo, which has brought the size down
to this small little cube and weighing just over 2 lbs for the brain alone.
Now, I can create a system that I can build this whole gimbal setup
around 10 lbs or less,
giving me back that capability of grabbing something
that is not going to break my back or induce massive muscle strain
but gives me the ability to do those sort of unique shots,
stabilized, but yet directly matched into the same camera ecosystem that I'm using.
We shot a live performance for the Billboard Awards recently
with Post Malone for the track, Circles.
On that, we had a Technocrane,
I had a Steadicam operator, and I had the RS 2 out as well.
We had Inspire drones flying around capturing high angles,
we had the Technocrane that would get sweeping shots,
and then within this structure of a big sand refinery
processing at a quarry out in Simi Valley,
we had multiple camera points set up on multiple levels.
So I did a shot that began quite low
and rose up to meet Post Malone,
he came walking and then panned over, carried two of them down
a narrow corridor and hinged as they went to a staircase
and was able to then hand that off to a Steadicam on a lower level
that he picked up and carried them through a tunnel
and all three of them had their reasons to be used.
All we are as filmmakers are problem solvers.
We're coming up with a way to film something, to tell a story,
to put a camera into a certain position,
to work within a certain environment,
to achieve a certain move.
But now, with a Komodo getting even lighter
and the weight capability of the RS 2 getting a little bit better,
we are at this certain perfect nexus point.
[DJI PRO | Christopher Probst, ASC]