We got the SAKK!

If you know us, you’ll know we’re not keen on a gimbal or any of that inefficient, expensive gear. Frankly, people over use the fancy gear, leading to a less creative and more restricted shot. Use a gimbal when you NEED a gimbal! Or, if you need a smooth shot, go all the way and get a dolly. Gimbals are a bit of a halfway house - an expensive house which failed it’s survey.

Before I go on a tangential rant about wrong kit wrong time, let me get to the point. We’re officially Sakked. Sakk is a brand of cine saddle. A cine-saddle being a brilliant tool designed for the handheld commercial camera op, videographer or any video production crew. It doesn’t offer much in the way of creative expression, akin to how a battery doesn’t better your image nor an SSD increase definition. It is, however, a necessity. A cine-saddle enables the operator to relax that little bit more, limiting the strain when shooting and therefore freeing up the mind, allowing for that extra bit of freedom needed to push creative thinking to the limits.

It may be a glorified bean bag and cost only a tenth of a premium gimbal set up, but it offers far superior value when on set, especially when utilised in the appropriate setting, which is pretty much every setting. Yes, you can use the Sakk practically all the time, anytime and it won’t restrict you to one shot style, unlike you know…

Arguably, the main seduction is when it comes to a long take; the Sakk relieves the pressure, helping spread the load across your back. On previous shoots, arms would shake and strain at the end of an unexpected and prolonged take. But wonderfully, with this bag of beans, you can capture the desired aesthetic with the much needed added support. Broadcast shooters would read this in confusion, as their cameras tend to straddle their shoulders, however, here at the Oxford House Video Agency we have cine-rigs which lack many ergonomic benefits. The pross out weigh the cons for us.

I should say, saddles can, like all extras, tease laziness. One example being, some say you can drop your camera on the bag and pop it in your car with a seat belt to save time. No. This maybe good for a one time thing, but make this a habit and you’ll likely damage your set up as the belt grinds it’s way back and fourth across your lens. As a younger shooter, I damaged a couple of primes this way, lesson learned.

Could I say more about the Sakk? Probably, but I’ll leave it there for now. Time to put it to good use and see how it stacks up.

PS: A couple of shoots in and it’s holding strong. It’s a relief to know the Sakk’s by your side when a take runs long, helping you stay calm and not beg for a cut!

(There are other cine saddles available, but the Sakk’s a good one...)