Jdegraff wrote on 09/13/01:
Hi everyone.
While we're all going through some hard times right now due to the terrorist attacks here in the U.S., I thought I'd share some information I got recently. Talking to a Steadicam operator in the UK, he said that the unit used in Aliens was actually a Model III, not a IIIA. Some subtle differences he says, but nothing major. He was also kind enough to take some AWESOME pictures that I thought I'd share with everyone, especially those that are or will be working on an M56 rig. There's a few more specific shots I'm seeing if he'll take, including the vest if he still has a stock one. Here's the link:
[link=www.vision-forge-graphics.com/jesse/steadicam/index.htm]www.vision-forge-graphics.com/jesse/steadicam/index.htm[/link]
Then click on the Model III Reference Pics link. I didn't link to that directly in case you wanted to check out the other pictures or the cool Addidas commercial
Warm wishes in this trying time,
Jesse
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Bugstomper wrote on 09/17/01"
Great stuff!
Which end of the arm attaches to the vest (I assume this end [link=www.vision-forge-graphics.com/jesse/steadicam/detail/images/mvc00008.jpg]www.vision-forge-graphics.com/jesse/steadicam/detail/images/mvc00008.jpg[/link] goes to the vest)? Do you have a picture with the arm attached?
Thanks,
Stefan
PS: I think those triangular shaped framework on the front of the M56 is a peg holder (is this the correct term?) of a motorcycle. Does anybody know of what type of motorcycle excatly? The Kawazaki GPZ type looks similar but I haven't found the correct one yet.
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Jdegraff wrote on 09/17/01:
Yes, that's the end that attaches to the vest. However, according to the pictures that are on Harry's site and the DVD picture archives, it *appears* that there was some kind of custom attachment in place of the standard socket block connector. I still need to frame-by-frame the DVD to see if I can get a good indication if this was indeed the case.
Jesse
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Jdegraff wrote on 09/18/01:
I was heading to bed last night at 9:30 to do a little reading before turning in, when I realised I'd forgotten to try the DVD screencaps on my roomie's system (my Dell has some kind of hardware or firmware block on taking stills), and lo-and-behold, I was able to
3 1/2hrs later, I left a zip file of 230+ stills copying to my website to then edit & post later at work. Unfortunately, it looks like something barfed in the transfer, so no update yet 
I took shots of things like the lamp mounting to the vest, the elusive right side of the dropship pilot's helmet, and most importantly, how the smartgun attaches to the Steadicam arm. One interesting thing that came out of that was comparing the gun & arm pics on the DVD/Harry's site, with the rig in use in the film. In the film, the socket block connector (where the arm attaches to the vest) is standard, while the wrist pin & gimbal (or lack thereof) are custom jobs. I'll show all this clearly when I get the pix up.As for compression & image size, I'll set up two versions of the information: One for detail hounds and one for folks that just want to see the pretty pictures
Both of them will have thumbnails to select pix that way, and both will also have zip dumps where all the images are available. I'll keep the image *sizes* the same, but will leave the detail section uncompressed while compressing the other version by about 30-35%.Jesse
Edited by: [url=http://pub217.ezboard.com/bthealienslegacy.showUserPublicProfile?gid=williegoldman>Willie Goldman[/url] at: 4/14/04 2:49 am