| Although they've been in business for 22 years, the principals at Crystal Pyramid Productions in San Diego carefully consider each new equipment purchase. "You want to stay on the cutting edge so your work looks good and your clients are happy, but you don't want to work 12-hour days just to pay the company store," says Crystal Pyramid's CEO and top 100 Producer, Mark Schulze. "Each piece of equipment has to be essential."
For Schulze, one of those pieces is the EasyRig2 portable camera-support system he recently added to his cache. The first time he took the seven-pound instrument on a shoot, he realized it had been a smart purchase. "I'd never go out shooting handheld more than half an hour without it," he says.
Compatible with film and video cameras, the EasyRig2 "reduces the static load on the neck and shoulder muscles, and transfers it down to the hips, the part of your body best designed to deal with it," according to its manufacturer, 16x9 (www.16x9inc.com). The support lets a camera operator shoot from various positions: the shoulder, the hip, or even at floor level.
After shooting an interview of Olympian and San Diego Spirit team captain, Julie Foudy, Schulze donned the EasyRig2 to shoot B-roll of the women's team practicing soccer. He was able to generate sweeping vertical moves like those from a Jimmy Jib, as well as up-and-down slanting Steadicam-like moves.
Schulze brought the EasyRig2 to a shoot at the Comic Con convention where he shot interviews of Lucy Liu, Elijah Wood and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Schulze says the EasyRig2 "took the weight off the right shoulder and placed it where it should be, on the hips. It also got a lot of stares and questions from other cameramen at the convention." Some took him for a costumed sci-fi character.
Schulze says the EasyRig2 has curbed the chronic back and shoulder pain he'd had from carrying his Sony D-35 Betacam SP camera, especially on shoots that call for hours of hand-held shots.
With prices that start at $2,375, the Easyrig2 can be purchased from 16x9's website.
Former Top 100 winner, Patty Mooney, is a co-partner of New & Unique Videos (newuniquevideos.com), a stock-footage library of images from around the world.
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