"Why is it called the Hot Coffee Cup Exercise?"

Back in 1991, I always got my morning coffee from a vending machine that dispensed coffee into a small paper cup. Usually overfilled and piping hot, these small cups were very difficult to hang onto and not get burned by them so I'd dangle the cup from my thumb and index finger and hold it away from my body. Always in a hurry I'd dash off, trying not to scald myself, and rush to an edit or a shoot. Holding the cup of coffee out in front of me in this way prevented almost any spillage because my body movement was being isolated from my hand. Immediately I realized this "holding technique" could apply to my Steadicam operating.

Holding a full cup of liquid and carefully walking around with it is a great working model for understanding how hand-holding a "floating" object behaves--and this particular floating object even has it's own horizontal level! The properties of movement between hand-holding a full cup and a Steadicam are nearly identical. There is a force enacting upon the floating object (natural body movement), there is the shock absorbing component for stability and control (the outstretched arm), and the discipline of control between the two (trying not to get burned by hot coffee versus trying not to stumble over anything!)

"What is the Handheld Steadicam--Really?"

A Handheld Steadicam is a free-floating body that absorbs almost all of the energy of the operator's movement through the phenomenon of counterbalancing. Counterbalancing, which means "weight balancing another weight", is probably the most elegant example of opposing forces. The act of operating the Steadicam applies an opposing force against its counterbalanced pendulum--your own momentum can disrupt the shot. That's why there's a gimbal on the Steadicam to help you control this.

The gimbal is where the "center of gravity" (affectionately called the "C.G.") is located and it is the point of least resistance on the pendulum.

Simply put--a Handheld Steadicam is very hard to use at first! It is a wildly-behaving thing with its own set of rules and physical properties. It requires concentration and visualization. Complete understanding of the Steadicam is important because it has to become an extension of your natural ablity to walk and move.

A Handheld Steadicam always has an underlying level of difficulty that never seems to be there at first glance. It is not a toy--it is truly a precision instrument. More often than not you may have to navigate through a difficult setting and just pray that you got the shot you wanted. Through concentration you have to simultaneously: fly the camera and Steadicam along an imaginary straight line, pay attention to the horizontal level, adjust grip pressure on the gimbal, compose the shot, AND watch where you're going! Only through visualization can you imagine it all coming together and only through practice can you get it right.

Let's Try This!

Keep your arm partially bent, so that it will absorb the shock of your footstep, and take one step forward. As you move take note of several things: How much did the level of the liquid in the cup move or slosh around? Did you spill any? Are your fingers wet?

Now do it the other way (the wrong way) for comparison and hold the cup as you normally would while drinking coffee. Chances are you hold the mug lower and closer to your body, or you might even tuck your upper arm down along your torso. If you hold a cup this way while walking more movement is transferred from your footstep--which is then transferred to the full cup more erratically.

This "exercise" is nothing more than an illustration for your own mental context. Full comprehension of how you and your Steadicam behave together is key--this is sometimes called "getting into the zen of the thing". Once you start to realize that holding your arm and cup away from your body isolates movement you can dare yourself to take several steps with it, then walk at a brisk pace, then run, and so on. This discipline (or zen) is immediately transferrable to your shooting.

Now try to ascend a flight of stairs while holding the full cup. This will help you understand how awkward it feels to handhold a small Steadicam on a staircase while pursuing a subject. Start slow (one step at a time) and practice your way towards going faster with a direct focus on the liquid level and keeping it steady. You don't want to spill because you could inadvertently create a slipping hazard while on the stairs. Spilling liquid should always be synonymous with not paying attention to the Steadicam's horizontal level. You'll get a real good feel as to where your feet should be and where the Steadicam should be so you don't run into anything.

After you've tried stairs try walking through doorways (with and without someone helping you--because oftentimes you can be on a shoot entirely by yourself) and also try going backwards down a sidewalk. Take it slow. Soon you'll find how easy it is to move along efficiently while checking the horizontal level AND navigating!

Steadicam operating shouldn't be a mechanical process for you. It should be organic. Attempt the "Hot Coffee Cup Exercise" in some form and see if it helps in your comprehension of holding and operating the rig. If it does help then practice it continuously. Each time you are drinking something take a couple of practice steps in honor of your operating technique. Go up stairs, down sidewalks, through doorways, and try different speeds. Trust me--it may sound silly but it WILL help you and your Steadicam become more in tune with each other. Suddenly energy transferral and technique begin to mesh together.

This exercise should be tried with an open mind. It has nothing to do with shot composition or physical endurance. It is merely an adaptive aid. Remember: You can achieve good practice results with plain TAP WATER as you can with hot coffee. (Leave the running around with HOT coffee to me!) This exercise will associate spilling something to sloppy camerawork and no drops spilled to a good level shot. With Steadicam it's easy to use everyday routines as guidelines. It's a matter of association and awareness (most of the time it's simply a matter of re-awareness).

See you at the vending machine!

Always...

• Practice!
• Practice!
• Practice!

Your solution of stilling sloshing coffee by forming a human shock absorber with your arm position does not work very well. Invariably the harder you try to absorb the lateral harmonic vibrations in the coffee induced by your shifting weight and velocity as you walk the worse it becomes.

Rather the trick is to induce vertical harmonics that cancel out the lateral harmonics. This is done by holding the coffee cup as you normally would about waist high and gently raising and lowering the cup........6"-12"... repeatedly while walking.....in a pattern that is not consistent with your steps. You will find that the coffee barely moves as it is affected by forces in two planes that cancel each other out.

For years I made my wife coffee in the mornings and took it downstairs to our basement bedroom, of necessity in a saucer to catch the spill. Walking with coffee on stairs is quite a trick, even more so than on flat ground, since the stairs introduce a very strong set of movements in the coffee. The "up and down" motion of the cup, simultaneous with walking or descending or climbing stairs cancels these other movements out. You can literally walk without looking at the coffee cup and will not spill a drop.

Try it yourself and see if it doesn't beat trying to stop.....vice cancel out....the sloshing coffee.

John Arbeeny
Lakewood, WA

Go to the Handheld Steadicam Workshop on the Web--written by John Brune

copyright 2009 steadicamjr@yahoo.com