A couple of months ago, there was a camera workshop headed by Dan Kneece, a guy that got his start in filmaking by mastering the Steadicam and working his way toward the top. He was in town for the short Civil, and with him he brought two awesome cameras. One was a Panavision and the other an Arri Flex.
The main purpose of the Arri Flex (I'm assuming) was for slow-mo, since it shoots at 120 fps. Camera A was the Panavison, and everybody wanted to crowd around. There aren't many times when you can get near, let alone touch and play with this camera since they are Hollywood-only. We all took turns with different roles on each camera: focus puller, camera operator, 2nd AC and the clapper. I enjoyed pulling focus, because I've always wondered how that worked on set. I also enjoyed operating the Panavision; the pan and tilt each had a knob with a rotating handle that you worked simultaneously to get the frame you wanted. They were counter-intuitive at first, but once you adjusted, the panning and tilting were very fluid. (Oh, we each took turn as the talent, walking in a straight line from mark A to mark B in case you are wondering what we filmed).
I also got hands on experience with loading film in a canister in a light proof bag (I don't know the lingo for these things). The actual clapper/loader for Civil didn't help me out at all, but a fellow workshop attendee guided me through it, and I must say, what a stressful job that would be (I'm up for the challenge, however).
This was an eye-opening experience, and I felt like an outsider at first around all the media arts types, but I brushed all that aside and jumped right in (I had to elbow a little bit) to learn as much as I could during the day. Thanks for telling me about the opportunity Heidi!
