When I shot my first film, Commissioned, I learned the value of the bean-bag style steadying device very quickly. To give you just one example, for our opening segment, I made our Assistant DP run around shooting shots of our main character’s car (played by yours truly, because he lost his mind in his first directing film) from the top of fence posts. (The film was set in Kentucky, so we used the most common piece of rural architecture available to us!) What could easily have been extremely shaky shots if she had had to balance the camera on top of the fence posts by hand, became very professional shots because we had a bean-bag stabilizer for her to use.
The next film I shot, we had a sequence that had to be shot in the untamed back country. Cleverly, I underestimated the value of the bean-bag device, justifying my over sight with the excuse that we didn’t want to get excessively weighed down. Considering that the bean-bag was packed with ultra lightweight foam pellets, this was an especially stupid excuse. As my exceptionally adroit wilderness guide (and audio technician) led us into the wilderness and across cliff faces, I began to notice that, after all this exertion, my muscles had a tendency to spasm when I tried to hand-hold the XL1-S camera we were using. This caused our footage to be shaky and we actually had to slow-mo much of it to make it useable! (This story proves that you can go backwards in intelligence if you don’t pay attention!)
With the overall simplicity of the bean-bag, it’s doubtless that creative folks have been making use of them for camera stabilization since there were cameras. However, many of these bean bags actually used beans or other dried vegetables and grain, which is problematic for cameras that are recording sound. Additionally, the beans had a tendency to move around some. Using sand proved to be ineffectual, because it was too heavy and tended to have too little give to it. In the nineties, one Australian company started using lightweight polymer beads, which proved to make a bean bag malleable enough to place a camera on, yet stable enough to stay put, and quiet enough to not make much noise. The inventor slapped some tie down straps on the bag, got a plethora of patents on the layout of the bag, named it CineSaddle to appeal to folks in Hollywood, and then priced the bag at $500.
Obviously, most of us would rather not pay $500 for a bean-bag, even if it helps us get much more stable shots. As such, companies like Visual Departures have made competing bags that have many benefits of the CineSaddle, with a much lower price tag.
As such, we decided to take a look at VDL’s Steadybag, to show you how it stacks up against the competition and how good a value it presents for you on your next film shoot!
Ease of Use
The Steadybag is extremely easy to use. Anywhere you want to place your camera (within reason) can be accommodated by placing the Steadybag on top of it and then nestling your camera into the bag. Fence posts (as I mentioned earlier), mailboxes, or rooftops can all be used with the Steadybag to come up with creative shots quite easily. (Okay, the rooftops are not quite so easy, but you get the point.)
Depth of Options
The depth of the options for the Steadybag is as infinite as your imagination. Any place you can reach, you can probably arrange the Steadybag and Camera.
Unfortunately, one of my favorite features of the CineSaddle is not available on the Steadybag: the tie downs that allow you to mount a camera to a car hood or car door. I’m sure that this is one of the patented elements of the CineSaddle layout, but even having dual grip straps on the bag could give you some sort of equalized tie-down ability.
Performance
To prevent eratic behavior in wet or humid conditions, the Steadybag is filled with custom-milled polypropylene beads that are a bit heavier than the ultra-light foam polymer beads utilized in the CineSaddle. The greater weight does give the bag a little greater feeling of overall stability, which ties in nicely with the rugged build to the bag, and Visual Departures . The thick nylon of the bag provides protection from tears on sharper objects and the double stitching of the lining and edges help provide longevity to the bag. The beads don’t make much noise when you’re situating the camera into them and they compact securely beneath the camera.
The only place that I noticed there being much of an issue in performance was in the case of slick surfaces, such as counters or metal objects. As such, I wouldn’t mind seeing them add a rubber or rawhide surface on the bottom of the bag to make it easier to prevent slippage in these areas.
Value
The Steadybag is far more economical than the CineSaddle it competes with and it’s solid construction give it a good life expectancy, which makes it a good value. To further give you the best bang for your buck, the Steadybag is available in two pricing options: $42 for the 3 lb. SB-1 which is designed for the DV and HDV cameras most of use and $69.99 for the 7 lb. SB-2 which is designed for large format cameras and/or DV/HDV cameras with a 35mm lens adapter attached. This allows you to buy the type of Steadybag that fits your needs best.
Final Comments
If you’re going to be doing any sort of fast shooting, a bean-bag steadier is a life-saver. Visual Departures’ Steadybag is a well-constructed, good performing answer to this need. If you don’t already have one, then you should definitely check out the Steadybag!
Ease
of Use
10.0
Depth
of Options
7.0
Performance
8.0
Value
9.0
Overall
Score
8.5
The
director of two feature length films and half a dozen short films,
Jeremy Hanke
founded Microfilmmaker Magazine to help all no-budget filmmakers make
better films. His first book on low-budget special effects techniques, GreenScreen Made Easy, (which he co-wrote with Michele Yamazaki) was released by MWP to very favorable reviews. He's curently working on the sci-fi film franchise, World of Depleted through Depleted: Day 419 and the feature film, Depleted.
