Put the rig on the other side

goofy foot

Goofy foot is operating normally with the sled on the right side. It is the mirror image of what we call “normal” — operating with the sled on the left side. The term is borrowed from surfing (it's a California thing, dudes) for those crazy guys who put their left foot forward on the board. Or is it the right foot?

In general, there is no advantage or disadvantage to operating on one side or the other, and (perhaps strangely) it is not more natural to operate goofy footed if you are left-handed or right-handed. Certain shots and situations are easier if operated on one side or the other, but it's pretty rare that a shot can only be done one way.

So why are so few people goofy footed, and more importantly, why should you learn to fly both ways?

You should fly the sled the way it feels more natural to you. You should also learn to fly on the opposite side, because once in a great while it's easier to fly the sled on the “wrong” side for a given shot. For instance, running forward with the camera skimming along a wall on your right side is much, much easier if you are operating goofy foot.

Why do so many people operate “normally”? In Steadicam's beginning, there was only one arm and one operator, Garrett Brown. He was right handed, and the first (light) Steadicam was operated one-handed. Both the booming and the aiming were done with the right hand. The arm's “elbow” bent only one way, like the elbow in Garrett's right arm.

Along came The Shining, and the two-handed technique was bom. The arm still came from the right side, so Garrell's left hand began to do the fine work of aiming the camera. It probably didn't bother him too much: his right arm was stronger for the lifting, and as a professional banjo and guitar player, his left hand was pretty agile.

Before the advent of arms with double-hinged elbows and quick normal-to-goofy flip over systems, it took a lot of work to go goofy. So most of us who followed Garrett learned (naturally or not) to fly the Steadicam “normally,” and we have passed on our knowledge and prejudice to the rest of the world.

Don't forget to practice operating in Don Juan.

Going goofy

So what do you need to do to go goofy? Flip the socket block and change your threads. What was up on the socket block is now down, so the 2.5 turns out on the side to side screws now applies to the cither rod end. Be sure the new “bottom” screw is all the way in before you start.

Don't be surprised if your goofy foot threads don't exactly match your normal threads — you aren't exactly symmetrical, you don't stand the same way. All you need to do now is practice everything all over again, with the left hand doing the lifting and the right hand doing the fine work. Practice, practice. It will come in handy some day.

Operating same side as arm

It's hard to operate the sled on the same side as the arm is connected to the vest. Not only are there clearance issues, but no matter how hard one tries, the sled seems to pull away.

An old (and erroneous) explanation was that the weight of both the arm and the sled was all on one side, so everything pulled to that side.

But if you think about it. that makes no sense. We operate normally with the sled off one hip, and the arm crosses our bodies. We can carry a very light camera or a very heavy one fairly easily, without any change in our threads in the arm, and, by gum, all the weight of the arm and sled is to one side of the socket block. Curious.

When operating normally, increasing the camera weight a whole lot doesn't seem to affect us much at all. But if we carry even a light camera on the same side as the arm, it is almost impossible to operate. Curious.

In this photo, the arm is folded back on itself so things can. pass closer to camera right, but the sled must be held farther from the operator's body.

So what's really going on?

If we are operating normally on the left side, then all the vertical pins in the arm are being pulled in that direction — mostly len and a bit forward. Each joint leans toward the sled, and we counteract that condition by adjusting our threads.

Almost everyone's side to side threads are out a couple of turns on the top, angling the first joint of the arm out of vertical and, this is important, directly away from the sled. This angling of the joint nearest the body away from the sled compensates for the “slop” in all the joints, and the net effect is that of a perfect system with all the joints perfectly vertical.

When our threads are adjusted properly, the average lean of all the arm joints is zero, and the sled floats nicely on the left side.

When we go goofy and operate with the camera on the right side, all the arm joints lean right. We know how to set our threads with the arm starting on the left side — we start with a leftward lean, again, about two turns out on the upper side to side screw.

But look what happens when we are operating normally and the camera moves to the right side. Now all the arm joints lean to the right, and the first joint is still adjusted far to the right. With all the joints angled to the right, it's no surprise that the sled wants to fly off to the right.

So, if for some reason you want to operate the camera on the same side as the socket block (and you don't want or need to go goofy), all you have to do is adjust your threads. You'll find that you need to crank in a lot on the top fore and aft threads, as well as go all the way in on the top side to side thread, and out a turn or two on the bottom side to side thread. When you get the threads right, the sled will float as easily on the wrong side as it does on the normal side.

Give it try! Expand your operating repertoire! Amaze your fellow operators!