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Cinema Starts with Support
What if the missing piece in your image isn’t your camera or your lens, but the way you hold the frame? We sit down with Tanner from Miller to pull back the curtain on tripods, fluid heads, and the surprising role support gear plays in cinematic storytelling, live events, and everyday content.
Tanner traces his path from live music shoots to Red Digital Cinema and into camera support, showing how the jump from DSLR to cinema is less about specs and more about control. We unpack the “right feel” of a fluid head, the tuned resistance that lets you feather pans, land tilts, and keep horizons locked, along with why sealed, serviceable designs survive heat, cold, dust, and sudden rain without binding up or ruining your day. From independent operators to broadcast crews, stability and repeatable motion are the difference between usable footage and expensive frustration.
We also get hands-on with the Miller AirV: a light, portable system that turns sturdy once deployed. The Versa plate accepts common standards like Manfrotto and DJI, so moving from gimbal to sticks takes seconds instead of tools. Quick leveling, smart counterbalance, and carbon fiber legs add speed and confidence, whether you’re shooting in a tight booth, on a windy sideline, or across a long event day. These are the details that protect your camera, save your framing when someone bumps the sticks, and shave minutes off every setup.
If you’re just starting out, Tanner’s advice is direct: create with what’s in your pocket, learn in free editors, ask good questions, and invest first in support that outlasts camera bodies. Better motion, safer sets, and faster workflows come from the ground up. Ready to feel the difference a true fluid head makes?
Enjoyed this conversation? Follow, share with a friend who shoots, and leave a quick review, tell us your wildest tripod fail and what you want to master next.
All right. Hello, everybody. Welcome to Auto Focus. My name is Brooke. I am joined today by my friend Tanner with Miller Tripods. We have one of the tripods here in the studio, so I'm excited to get to show you guys how smooth and amazing this thing works. But Tanner, thank you for joining me. Why don't you introduce yourself and tell us a little about you and what you do?
SPEAKER_01:Absolutely. No, thank you for thank you so much for having me. As you said, my name is Tanner Woodward. I'm here representing Miller Camera Support and Miller Tripods. And yeah, I've been I've been in, me personally, I've been in the business from a representing different manufacturers, different kind of either camera providers or different solutions throughout various aspects of the market, right? I've I've worked everywhere from Red Digital Cinema on the camera side, not only working with our partners and customers directly for selling cameras and making sure that they have the right system for them, but I've gone into broadcasts and working in virtual production to join um you know live CG and virtual graphics on field for different providers, like CBS, Fox, um, NBC, sports, things like that. And then I joined Miller, and now we're working with different customers and different uh partners and from sports to film to TV to news, universities, kind of everywhere in between to make sure that they have the kind of the best support underneath their camera, right? That's awesome.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, that's amazing. Well, okay, I wanted to talk a little bit about you first. Um, so what is your experience and how did you get into cameras and video?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, absolutely. It's it's it's funny, right? You know, I was in I was in school and I was actually I was going to school down in California, and I was pre-law, so working as so business and pre-law. And going throughout that, you know, finding I was working, you know, a couple of different jobs here and there. And a a couple friends of mine were kind of starting a film and kind of content creation company, um, doing mostly like live events, so live music, live concerts, um, different festivals, things like that, where they're creating kind of really cinematic after movies for different artists, right? So at the time, we when we've I had graduated and was kind of thinking about, okay, so what's the next, what's the next steps? Where do I go from here? I kind of started working alongside them and and going out of the net, going out to these different venues, picking up cameras, doing, doing photography, doing just kind of artist capture, things like that. And I had never picked up a camera before in my life. I'd never really been, I was always drawn and interested in kind of content creation and just general production. Um, you know, I always had a love for film and TV, obviously. And, you know, so when I had moved in with these guys and we they gave me an opportunity to say, hey, you know, we need someone to go cover this this event or this artist. And and um, so I was going to, you know, different like nightlight venues um and doing photography for them. And then that eventually from there, um, one of my buddies who was also at at that same company had was working for Red Digital Cinema at the same time. And um so that I got introduced to kind of a whole new level of kind of professional production equipment, right? Just a whole different realm of I was doing you know photography and like short form video and things like that. And it was a lot of fun, it was really great, but it was it was nothing that nothing, nothing like picking up a red camera, a true broad cinema quality camera, and then understanding that all of the kind of workflow that went alongside that, where the data, the data that came along inside the capture, especially at a high resolution, um, being able to not only use it to capture and get a good shot get a good shot, but also being able to then take that shot out and export it out and be able to actually do something with it in a realistic setting. And uh it was it was quite a shock, right? Picking that up and going from there and doing that. But I fell in love with it, right? And and found and and found and found different pathways through working with those types of cinema cameras and those types of systems. And then the people, and then from there, you know, as we were still doing this conference, I I got offered a I got introduced to some more people to at Red, the company, um, because like I said, my friend was where he was working there. And um yeah, they I ended up getting offered a job there just as a just as like an account manager, um, working with, you know, the on the sell on the sales and business side of it and working with just independent owner operators, right? So people that were, you know, customers and and create and creatives that were taking that jump, right? Going from whether they were working with smaller DSLRs or um kind of smaller systems in general, and they were taking that a professional leap into the red ecosystem. I got introduced to a lot of these guys that were doing, and I was and I was working on from the company side to then kind of bridge that gap with them, right? So, like, look, this is how I know what you're I know what you're talking about. I know, I know the the fears that you're working. How do I, how do I manage a 4K, 6K, 8K workflow, right? Um, how do I capture, how do I even get a good shot? How do I work with the color science of the camera so you can achieve the shot I want, right? So I really just fell in love with working with customers on that side of things, right? Um, so not only and and because I had experience working in really dynamic environments from nightlife and live events to going using a red camera that's traditionally for, you know, in studio cinema, but was a system that could be modular and built for outdoor production and kind of run and gun and kind of the independent owner operator, I was able to kind of really relate with those types of users and you know, create try to create the best experience I could for them jumping onto a red system, right? And um, yeah, so I worked through the company. I was there for about five years. And um yeah, like I said, I just I fell in love with that side of the business. Um, working not as necessarily a creative myself, but trying to be just an extension of them, right? Say, hey, look, this is yes, I yes, I'm working for this company. Yes, I have this name behame behind me. Um, yes, you're using our, yes, you're you're interested in purchasing our product. Great. How can I help you make the most of that, right? How can I help you achieve the goals and and and and image and look and creative um accomplishments that you're trying to achieve? And that's really what I've tried to maintain throughout my career at these different at these different companies and different entities I've worked with. Is that same same kind of mentality?
SPEAKER_00:Like, how steep is that learning curve like when you're going from like like a camera like this to like a cinema camera?
SPEAKER_01:I mean, it was it's it's definitely a learning curve because you you you feel like there's, I mean, at first you feel like it's an impossible jump, right? Because you're like, okay, uh DSLR, I'm used to working with SD cards, I'm used to working with certain data, I'm used to working with certain lensing, um, I'm used to working with autofocus, I'm used to working with a lot of those things. And back then at the time, Red didn't have, we didn't have a lot of those kinds of cards. We worked with a solid state drive, right? We had, we worked with that's what captured all your data. And we're working with terabytes of of data at a time, you know, working with really high-resolution files at the time. Technology has obviously advanced for not only everything everything else, the data side um and the computing side, but also at the red side as well. I mean, right now they're I mean, they're using compact file CF cars, CF Express cards, and some of the newer cameras, some of the newer cameras have autofocus, which we didn't have. So at the time it was a much bigger jump than it probably is now. Now it's probably a lot easier, more digestible um to make a jump from a high-end DSLR into like one of the um like a Komodo or Komodo X, even maybe the Raptor system that Red has today. Uh, I would say those they're much is a much easier transition between the two because you're using similar, a similar ecosystem that you're already used to working with, right? Back then it was it was quite a jump, right? Because it was like, okay, well, everything I have now, nothing works for that, right? So it was like, okay, it was a big, a big jump, but it was one that was always worthwhile, right? Because you're you're they were the the quality of the content was just you could tell immediately overnight with some of these guys I was working with, hey, I this is my first project I shot on red, take a look, what do you guys think? And we were like, we were blown away, you know. Um so it was it was very easy to see that that jump. Although it may have been difficult and a difficult and maybe costly thing to support with the, like I said, computing data side of things, lensing side of things. But um nowadays I think it's a lot easier to do.
SPEAKER_00:That's awesome. Yeah, yeah. I know I remember when um when we because we upgraded our cameras here, we have black, black magics, um the mic, the uh we have the micros in all of our uh studios. And I remember having because like I come from a photo back back background, so I'm used to using like night Nikons, cannons, things like that. And like just the terminology was totally different, you know, like there's gain instead of ISO. I was just like, you know, I was just like, I cannot figure out what I was like, what is gain? Where's ISO? And I remember just looking for stuff and I spent a lot of time. Me and Chat GPT spent a lot of time together when I was learning those cameras.
SPEAKER_01:And it's funny, I mean, absolutely, right? And it's funny because the I mean, even back then, and it's still like the the essence of filmmaking. And I'm not, I didn't go to film school, right? I'm not a film, I'm I'm not, that's not, I never claimed claim to be. I don't, I don't, I work and support the guys that do the work, but I've never done work myself, apart from you know, running gun independent uh, you know, live event capture. That's all that's that's an extent of my personal, you know, filmmaking and content creation. But just learning the, like you said, the terminology, right? Um, learning how to use a a manual a manual lens versus using an autophobia, uh, a lens with um mechanic mechanics in it, right? I mean, even being able to just do that and dial it in the right way to achieve the look that you want. I mean, all of that is it's it's a major, you know, there's a there's a science and there's a practice and study to all of it, right? And a lot of time and a lot of effort goes into really being able to achieve the right look in the right settings and having to do that manually for a cinema camera versus maybe a DSLR that does a lot of that kind of lifting for you. Um, yeah, it's it's it's a learning curve, you know, and and and it it gives it once you kind of start understanding like the minute differences between tweaking that a cinematographer or DP can do to achieve a certain look, it gives you such a high such it give it gave me such a high level of respect for the guys that can do it and and can do it well because it's it's it's a lot. It's a lot, it's a lot to do. I mean, and then not even to mention the lighting aspect of things, right? And it's like, oh my gosh, you know, so um it it's yeah, it's quite it's quite the difference.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, that's good. I mean, at least like if you're on a set like that, you're gonna have like your lighting specialists and your like director of photography and all that other fun stuff. So yeah, hopefully it's not like just a one-man show. But I guess there are filmmakers out there that are probably doing all of this just by themselves.
SPEAKER_01:When we were red, we really pro we were really proud of ourselves and the fact that we were supporters of the independent owner operator, right? The guys that were out there in the field, they were by themselves and they were making magic happen um on their own. And I I feel like the modular systems that, you know, back then were kind of were newer back then, you know. I'm talking nine, nine, you know, if nine-ish years ago. Um, you know, instead of having an all-in-one big built-out rig, you could throw it in a in a in a in a pelican case and you had everything you needed, right? Um, they could go out to extreme environments and they could shoot and capture different sporting events. Um, you know, I mean, we we look at productions that that use red light, you know, I mean Red Bull, a lot of the skateboard, a lot of the kind of extreme sports world that use these systems, they were able to get a really high quality level achieved because the system was modular, right? Yeah, uh which is cool. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:I know. Well, now that I wanted to talk about tripods. So, like, how do tripods fit into the into filming? Like how to, you know.
SPEAKER_01:It's it's funny, it's funny, you know, because before I joined Miller, right? I I I always had I didn't have the knowledge that I have now, right? And and not saying that I I say that like I was very naive about that back then, right? I was like, look, as long as the camera's up on sticks, I'm good to go, right? That was always my thinking. And that was, and I've realized now, um, after being, you know, I've I've been at Miller for about almost a year now. Um, and and using different systems and really seeing the differences, I'm like, okay, there's a clear, there's very, a very clear reason why people choose certain brands or certain certain certain um tripods and certain heads versus others. And there's there's a use case for every single one of them, right? And it's really just, I mean, you think about like what supports what supports you getting the shot that you need, right? What gives you the ability to achieve the shot that you want? And what's gonna give you a level of assurance that, hey, my investments, right? My camera, my, my lens, all my gap, all the gap that's associated with it is gonna not only be supported in these in different environments or different situations, but it's gonna be as flexible and give me the the the accurate movements that I that I that I watch that it would require to get the shot that I need, you know. So now me being here and seeing all that and truly using them, I've I have a very newfound respect for the whole camera support world, right? Um, because the differences are massive. Um, you know, from just using a normal tripod, from just using a um, you know, from from using a lighter system versus using a really heavy system. From, you know, you really have to build, you really have to take into consideration when you're purchasing a camera or when you're using a camera, what's holding it up, right? And how and how is that able to be used for me to achieve the shot that I need. You know, if you're not going handheld or if you're not gonna go on a gimbal or stabilizer, your other options are tripods. And and you need to be able to achieve the shot and be able to have a certain level of um kind of smoothness and and the accuracy within the mo within the actual motion of the head, the fluid head itself to give you that. Um, and that's where tripods and that's where Miller comes into play, you know, is be able to give you the level of confidence required to achieve the shots that you want.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah, this is so cool. I know. I was I was gonna ask you. So when you did live events, did you always have a tripod or did were there times where you're just like, you know what, I'm just gonna put it on my shoulder or handheld gimbal?
SPEAKER_01:I mean, I we I man, for so I did that for about a about two almost about two years, where we I was doing four, you know, three to four events a week, right? Um, and it varied. It varied a lot of it because of the stuff, because of the type of work we were whether it was a festival, music festival, or or we were doing a show at a nightclub or or a small kind of venue, it varied, right? Most of the time we had a gimbal or kind of stabilizer because that's what we we were just in these really tight spots, so we had to be. And then other times where we were doing wider shots, we would have tripods set up uh where we'd have the red systems or different cameras mounted and set up to where we could achieve these wider shots or or more kind of tactile shots that we would require. We weren't doing traditional film filmmaking or traditional broadcast and um or eng style work, but we would just kind of we made do with what we had, right? And the tripods, I remember the tripods that we used, we bought, you know, we just bought had bought kind of ones we just have could can kind of justify spending on, right? It wasn't that they weren't necessarily bad ones, they weren't necessarily great ones. But we used them and they fell apart and and we'd buy new ones, and it was um it was tough. It wasn't it wasn't easy, right? Because it was like there's a lot of times where I'd be like, okay, I'm just gonna run handheld because it was like I'm not getting I'm not getting the movements I want, right?
SPEAKER_00:I feel you. No, I was totally like that. I think just making that shift from photography to video, like I like I did not ever want to use the tripod because I was just like, I'm like, that's better if I hold it. That's the thing you know, so I can see it myself in my eyes. And you know, but then like once I once I once I can converted to it, I was just like, okay, these are so much better. Like there's no, there's no shake, there's no, you know, you're just like, yeah, I'm not doing a Jason Bourne movie, like let's just keep it. Like it's got to be.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, you're not running around through a crowd trying to dodge, you know, people putting their hands up in the air, where they're gonna knock, you know, it's like being able to set your shot, be able to lock it off, being able to do those types of things to give you some kind of stability in your in in the the shot that you want to achieve. I mean, those are the things that a tripod are that's what they're for, you know, that's what they can do. Um, and then you introduce something now. Now you say a fluid, now you bring a fluid head into the mix, right? Which we weren't even using fluid heads. We were like locking cameras off on just just on the sticks. Yeah, you know, but you and it's if you but if you bring a fluid head into the mix, now you're talking about your pan tilts, you you have you have drag and and adjustments that you can do to the pan tilt to then really give it the weight and res and kind of um tenacity that you would require that you want, right? So if you if you want it to be as rigid to get a real slow pan or a real nice kind of ease shot, you can now do that with a fluid head. Whereas handheld, you're gonna do it, you're always gonna see a little bit of jitter in the image, especially if you're punching in on your shot on your target, right? Um, you're never gonna be able to have a nice, real clean, handheld locked off shot like that a fluid head, a nice uh good fluid head and a good set of sticks can give you, you know. It's awesome.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Okay, but let's talk about Miller some more. How did you learn about Miller? Because you said that they're not they're not based in the US and it's not a very well-known brand here.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, you know, it's it's funny. Miller, I I so I've always known about Miller, even back, even back in my red days, right? It was it was kind of one of those brands, the O'Connor, like with the O'Connors, the cartonis, the things like that, that I was always like, okay, this is a professional level, right? And that's where Miller always sat for me, in my eyes, right? And I was working with with owner operators that were um, they wanted to get to that level, but they might not have quite been there yet. So they were looked, so that was like where they were evaluating tripod brands. And as much as I worked with the operators on the camera side, we had to be kind of the agent of consultation on, hey, what else should I get, right? And Miller and those other brands were always kind of in that, in that same, in that same vein. Like, you know, hey, take a look at these ones, right? Because they have a great reputation. Um, they've they've been in the industry a very long time and they make phenomenal products. So I had always known about Miller. Um, and but I never had, I never had an opportunity to, I had used one of I had used them a couple of several times um at different studios that I'd gone to for either demos or to do like a kind of you know, to score in and tweak some cameras or work with the opera, the actual the studio team to to dial in some of the looks on their cameras. Um I did a lot of that work too. And so I had I'd used them, but it wasn't something I was really intimately familiar with, you know? And um, so I was approached um during my time, I was I was working broadcast live events um a year ago, and um I'm mainly from the CG, the graphics side, so doing real-time graphics um in an unreal proprietary engine um for live sports. And I was and I it was I was just traveling nonstop, right? So it was just it was a it was a tough environment. Um, you know, my my family and I we wanted to do to introduce a little bit more stability into our into my professional life. And I was approached by um a representative from Miller and um you know just got to talking about it. And it's and and there was an opportunity there for someone in the US, and we have a US presence. Um, we have a great team that's located in New Jersey. And but they was approaching, they want to kind of expand their actual, you know, they're the guys who are out on the road doing, doing, working with customers, um working with our our channel partners, and just kind of building up the um kind of the reputation and the brand itself, you know, and and that's kind of where you know I was like, and it falls in line with with the work I like doing, right? It falls in line with being out in the being out in the field, being out about, um, working with users, working with channel partners, working directly with them to find a system that's gonna be best suited for their needs, right? So all those kind of things lined up and um I ended up taking the opportunity and um I'm very happy I did.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, that's awesome. So, well, like what uh tell us a little bit more about Miller though. Like what is Miller? Like, like how does it how did it start? Like, kind of like what's the history of Miller?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, so Miller was founded in 1954. Um, so it's been around for quite a long time, right? We're talking 70 plus years. Um we just celebrated our 700 70th year um in 2020, 2024. So right before I joined, right? Um, and so Bob Miller um was the original founder and inventor of the Fluid Head. And he kind of came came in, this wasn't you know in the in the 50s, was was was working and was noticing that a lot of the kind of camera support systems that were around were were clunky, were not really designed with a for a filmmaker in mind. Obviously, we're talking in the 50s, those kind of things. The technology just wasn't necessarily there yet, right? So there was a need for a a device, um, a tripod, something to support cameras that would give the actual operator the not only, like I said, the the rigidity of and and trust that they're that they're gonna be able to get the shot they need, but something that's gonna support the camera and support their their what they're trying to achieve. Um, and that's where he came up with the fluid head, right? And so that was in back in the that was back in the 50s, and um, we've kind of grown and evolved since then. Obviously, you know, we're we're talking about these for the first sticks that were made were were from I think it was it was New Guinea, New Guinean wood. Um, so which we st which is funny that we those were back in you know 60 years ago, and we still have guys using those today, those same sticks that are using. Like OGs, like it's still OG wood sticks, everything still using the same um the same system that was made that was made back then, you know. Um so saying since then, like I said, we made a number of advancements, not only in the kind of the operation of the system, but the the way it's built. Um, I mean, we have we have everything from it's it's an alloy composite head now, um, to we have carbon fiber legs, you know, we have all the kind of the the most recent advancements that you would want from a camera support system.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, that's awesome. No, we um you guys sent us a sample and thank you so much for doing that. And it's been so fun. So we actually did take it to an event. We had an event just around the corner um this uh earlier this week, and we did use it for our recordings, and it was it was actually it's been this is so nice. And like just carrying it around, it really isn't that heavy. Like I've seen like like you pull, I pulled it out of the box. I was like, this is giant. Like this can be so heavy, but it really wasn't. It was easy to carry around, it was very, very portable. It's it was yeah, it's it was actually really, really good experience thing. Yeah, so thank you.
SPEAKER_01:No, they're yeah, I'm glad you guys are using it, right? They're for they're they're phenomenal systems, and that one that you're using there, that's the air, it's our Air V, uh, it's our newer kind of modification to the air system, right? So it's we I don't want to say entry level because it's still very professional system, um, but it's built for lower payloads, right? So it's built for cameras like DSLRs or lighter, um, lighter cinema cameras, things that are about 11 pound um kind of payload, right? So they're real easy to pack up, it's easy to carry, it's easy to deploy, easy to set up. Um, and what's nice about the Air V Plus is which is a kind of a system that we're adapting to our other heads as well, is that it has that Versa plate on it, that orange plate. And that plate, you it you use a little switch underneath it. So you can pop in like a DGI plate or a Manfrodo plate. So you don't have to worry about these little kind of inconveniences, right, that kind of go along with building up a camera or having to switch camera to camera to different different head or head to different system. You know, all those kind of things take up time, right? So what we're really trying to do is just simplify a lot of those kind of annoying little behaviors that you have to do on set, right? So, like I said, swapping the swapping of plates, having to go in with a flathead and then take off a plate of each camera and then put a new one on. You know, now you have one head that can be fit a number of your different plates. So if you're going from gimbal to head to head to gimbal or or vice versa, you know, whatever the situation is, you're only using one plate, you know. So those types of things we like to try, we're trying to think about what are the small little changes we can make because our system is our system, right? The the mill, the flow head itself, you know, we've been, like I said, since 1954, we've been trying to perfect this this head, and there's not much to really make better. All we can do is try to eliminate now the annoyances of going into your day your day-to-day work, right? Things like that. Things like we also have a quick release lever on the on the base now um to remove the actual head itself from the sticks, you know. So it's it's not on that, it's not on that Air V, but on some of our other units, right? You have these quick release clamps that you can pull now, pull off, and you can take the head off and swap it from stick to stick to stick. And you don't have to rebalance your camera. So little little things like that, the rebalancing aspect, the you know, having to use a singular plate for every different system you're going to. These little things that, yeah, they might not seem big, but they save you a ton of time in production and they and they also make your life just a little bit easier, right? A little bit more convenience because there's a lot there's a lot to make it inconvenience, right? So we're trying to take take those little things to make that system a little bit more easier to use.
SPEAKER_00:Awesome. Thank you. No, this has been this has been a great, this has been a great thing to use. Um, like let's talk about the fluid head. So like like what what makes a fluid head different than like, you know, just like a regular tri tripod?
SPEAKER_01:Absolutely. So the fluid head, right, is using uses and especially our our fluid head, right? So it uses a system of gears inside. So think about the clutch of a car, right? And usually from gear to gear to gear to operate at different speeds or different kinds of um variations of movement within the head. Our system operates very similar to that, right? So you're basically using a different kind of system of gears to allocate tension to the head to either make it real smooth or to make it a little bit tighter and more rigid, right? So by doing that and being able to kind of adjust it at a very minute level, which Miller allows for um in the actual head, it's in the design and the craft of the of the head itself. This gives us the this gives our users the ability to be to really dial in their specific camera payload to achieve the speed of pan and tilting that they would require or want, as well as the smoothness, right? So all those things, you know, the that Miller glue, you know, that's why we always say in the the the Miller is the right feel, right? Because it's the the feel that of of what allows those gears to then work all together in conjunction to give you a very, very smooth transition between shot to shot, frame to frame, um, and just between your movements altogether, right? And that's why it's it's a very noticeable, that's what I was saying earlier, the how noticeable the feel of the system is versus using a system that's that's not a Miller, right? You can you can you can feel the difference right away. Um and that's what makes us special and that's what makes us unique in this marketplace, right? Is that is that the is it the way that the actual head moves and feels from shot to shot, from movement to movement, right? And that matters um because it's what gives you the ability to be creative and to achieve the shots that you want um in in any environment and in any circumstance, right? Um our heads are all designed, our are you know, think we're designed, built, made, manufactured from from design to conception, from design to conception, we are built in Australia. Um we're we're built for users that are used to harsh environments, right? So thinking about those environments and being able to apply not only this this very rigorous model to a changing weather, changing um, you know, think about sandstorms, heat, you know, cold, things like that that can that can mess with the way a mechanical system feels. None of that stuff will impact our our fluid head, right? Um, and because they're designed to weather those types of conditions.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, so like in the wet, like in the actual, like this could get like wet and it's gonna be fine.
SPEAKER_01:Absolutely.
SPEAKER_00:Oh wow, that's so cool.
SPEAKER_01:Think about sand, think about sand and dust and um you know, I mean, the you know, any any kind of environment that you would be in where those types of conditions can affect a mechanical head. Ours are all hermetically sealed, right? So then so things can't or not can actually penetrate the head itself, right? Um, which will kind of leads me to talk about our the service side of things in Miller, right? We see very, very few of these ever come back, which is a good thing, you know.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, because like not even 60 years later, you know, they're they're not they haven't come back, you know.
SPEAKER_01:They come they come back for maybe for a tune-up, right? To maybe run run run through its paces and say, Hey, let's just give it a once over, that's it. Unless there's an active unless there's kind of you know a an active chance here that just where something falls off a truck, we hardly ever see these come back, not necessarily due to any kind of you know weather conditions or or things that are user, you know, user-based, right? So our cameras are our our camera systems are incredibly robust enough to survive the the harshest conditions that they can be placed within. And in doing so, if you're not in those conditions, you're gonna have something that's gonna, like I said, work, stop on it, it's gonna stop on a dime, it's gonna be smooth to transition, and it's gonna be able to be used um as your daily driver for you know for the length of your career. That's amazing.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, no, I this has always been, you know, it's gonna be kind of messing with like, you know, the the just the just the smoothness of it has been so it was been so so so cool to see. And so I'm hoping we can, you know, like when we when we put it all together, you'll be able to see like how like how the camera was kind of moving around. And it's just yeah, it's like it's so much smoother than like any other tripod I think I've ever used.
SPEAKER_01:So yeah, that's good to hear. I can say it's it's you know, we we've been in the we've been in the business for a long time. We've been like I said, 70 you know past 70 plus years now. Um, you know, we've been and we've we've had a we've had a staple in the US market, right? So we've we've been we've been in the US for a lot for for a good amount of time. Um the where we've been primarily used in like a lot of broad like broadcast, ENG, sports, things like that nature. Um and you know, we want to expand and and kind of capture more of the kind of the independent content creator market um and the kind of film and TV market, right? Because we have a phenomenal system. Um it's gonna last it'll last it lasts a lifetime and it will give you the accuracy and stability as well as smoothness that you would require for some of your most most demanding productions.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, no, and this is really great because like I just want to reiterate how like not heavy this thing is because like we were using like I remember using other big tripods. I think when I was in like you know journalism school or whatever, and you just like you're carrying around this huge thing, but this is not like this at all. And like it has like a really nice, like there's a cool strap and it's got it's very comfortable. And um, so yeah, it's just it's so easy to use. And so like content creators could use this, you know, because I I see most content creators, they they're like they have like look really like small, flimsy ones you can just like um, you know, you basically pull out of a backpack and you can put it up, but like the second the wind blows, it's gonna knock it over, you know. And so like this is this is so much sturdier than anything else. It's smoother, it looks nice, and then it's it's really not that heavy because like it looks like it should be heavy, but it is not. Like I was, I was really, I was really surprised like when I pulled it out. I was like, when I picked it up, I was like, oh, this is not heavy. This is awesome.
SPEAKER_01:No, absolutely. And and it's you know, what do what do we all care about? We care about protecting our investment, right? We care about protecting the things that you know, and that's the same thing as a tri what a tripod does. It's is it's meant to support your investment, right? It's meant to it's meant to give you the ability to use it to achieve a certain shot, but it's meant to keep everything stable and sturdy. And, you know, the the last thing you the and I've seen it, and I've seen it so many times where someone clips a tripod running through a set or or or walking around, and then the whole, you know, your 30, your your$20,000 plus system hits the ground, and you're like, oh like, oh no. Yeah, I mean your heart, my heart breaks a little every time. Like it's like, oh man. And as as much as you know, can be as much can be done to prevent that, a tripod can do a lot to prevent that, right? It can be it's from the from the system that you choose, from the stability of it, from the from the way it's built, all those things can be done too, can be, can be a choice to choose what you want to do to support your investment. And a Miller system is gonna protect it, you know. And um, you know, 10 times out of 10, it's gonna keep it's gonna keep everything up and and keep it going. Uh, the last thing that's gonna happen is the breeze is gonna roll through and knock it over.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, it's only not gonna knock it over. And this thing is really sturdy because like we were in a pretty tight spot. Um, and of course I put the camera like in this, in this corner of a booth, and so I had to like go as I was like moving around things. I I mean I kicked it a lot, I'm not gonna lie, but I was like, I was like, oops, but like it stayed, it was really sturdy. Like it didn't, it didn't fall over. It didn't, I didn't, it didn't even like lose my shot. Like I didn't even like move. I was like, oh, thanks, you know. So it was, you know, yeah, that's that's just the whole the whole experience of using it has just been has been has been really great. And thanks for letting us borrow it for like for four weeks. So this has been really cool. But yeah, that I just yeah, I love how smooth it is, I love how light it is, and I love just yeah, how how it's like it's it's light when you're carrying it, but when you get it up there, it's sturdy. Absolutely. Yeah, this is awesome.
SPEAKER_01:And we've done a lot through, you know, Miller's done a lot through the past, you know, 60, 60, 70 plus years now to really like said, not only keep it sturdy and rock solid, we've added, you know, slide sliding and quick release plates, ball leveling, spreaders, counterbalance systems, you know, um, you know, little LED lit leveling um bubbles on there to make sure that you are where level and where you need to be, um, you know, to carbon fiber tripods and sticks. You know, we've done everything we can do to give the operators as much confidence in achieving the shot that they want.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, that's awesome. Well, thank you. So thank you so much, Tanner, for being here. And I just have I always have one last question. And it's always uh, what advice would you give to someone who is just starting out, who is just starting out on their content creation journey?
SPEAKER_01:Oh man. I mean, it's a it's a question I've been asked, you know, many times. And it's something I always tell people like we live now in a day, time of our time of you know, time of our lives where we can go out and shoot pretty much with it with what we have in our pocket, right? You know, if we you have a cell phone that can shoot that can capture video, you have a cell phone that can shoot photos, um, you can go out and start doing that right now. You know, there's nothing to really stop you from doing that. And you start kind of learning, okay, this is what I I like, whether it's just going out and shooting nature, right? You know, going out, going outside and finding something that you can shoot or or taking pictures of, you know, just anything in the world around you, right? Just getting started, doing that kind of thing, and just start publishing your work. You know, we we have unlimited access to individuals and companies and and other creatives at the touch of a button and right in our pocket. We can start uploading our stuff and start sharing, sharing our content or sharing whatever unique piece of um, you know, whatever our unique insight is into the world very easily, you know. And so I always tell people, just go out and start shooting something, go out and start making something. Whatever, whatever the idea you have or whatever it is that you care about in the world, just go out and make a video about it. Go out and make, go out and shoot, go out and shoot it, go out and shoot some, some, you know, so if you see you like you like and you like wildlife, you like nature, go out and take some photos in nature. Go out and find, go on a hike and and and start working with some of the free editing softwares that we that there are a dime a dozen nowadays that you can download and start using to mess with and start learning, you know, Photoshop and these and these other systems, you know. It's all a it's all gradual progression, right? It's all starting from somewhere to get to somewhere else. And there are just so many tools nowadays to where you can go out, take a photo of something, take a video of something, and then upload it into a free editing suite, and then start learning those tools, you know, because those tools do translate into the higher uh the into the more professional software tools as well. You know, you start looking at you know stuff like After Effects and and um you know, and the Adobe Suite and with Premiere and Um, I mean, there's just resolve. You have so many different tools at the professional level, but all the free ones use the same terminology, you know, and they make things a little bit easier now, right? Um that you can start going doing doing all that stuff. And plus now, now with the the on the onset of AI tools, a lot of things you can just ask a question. How do I achieve, how do I shoot what are the best settings to shoot in daylight outdoors? What are the best camera settings to shoot daylight outdoors? I mean, those are tools I didn't I didn't have tools like that, you know. No, we don't learn, yeah. Use that at best. Well, that looks terrible. Okay, so how do I make it look good? You know? So there's just so many tools nowadays that you can use at your disposal to to dial in your camera the right way or dial in your or dial in your lens the right way if you're using a manual lens to learn from, you know, not to mention if you're in school for it as well, right? So like I say, I tell you, just go out and shoot stuff. What are you what is what is it you're interested in now, what you care about, go and make a video about it, you know, whether it's you talking or whether it's you shooting it or is you building something and showing off the work that you've done, whatever you can do, you can you can kind of make content around it, right? Which is really cool. Um, and like I said, you're learning the tools and you're learning the terminology that translate into the bigger production level stuff, you know? Yeah, for sure.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. You gotta start somewhere, right?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, you've got to start somewhere. And just like I said, taking your phone out of your pocket to go and take a make a make a video of something you care about, it's not a bad way to start.
SPEAKER_00:I love it. That's perfect. That's really, really good. That's really good advice. Because yeah, like the you know, you're not gonna ever do anything unless you start. So you're never gonna get better unless you start. So you gotta start.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and then and if you do ever, you know, and if you get if you are doing that stuff, I mean, reaching out to people that are doing the work that you love, right? I mean, there's so there's so many cool creator creators out there that from wildlife to film and TV that are or action sports, hit them up. You know, say say hello, introduce, you know, just say introduce yourself. You might not get a response, but you may you may get a response as well. And a lot of these guys are willing to just be like, hey man, absolutely. I started here, I did this, do this, you know, and then it's it's great. It's we're everyone's fairly accessible nowadays. So we can always be reach reach, you know, you can always reach out and ask questions, and and that's always a a great place to kind of get more information and get started.
SPEAKER_00:Awesome. Well, thank you so much. All right, one last plug. Where can people find Miller um anywhere in the US?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, so you can go to MillerTripods.com for just to start. You know, we like I said, we are based, we do have an entity here in the US. Um, we have a full team here in the US from service support sales um that you can contact us and we'll get you can talk to us about any of your upcoming project needs or any upcoming um you know systems that you might be interested in or want to kind of understand more about. We're always happy to have a conversation. Um, and then we're online at different resellers across the country. You know, we talk about like BH, Film Tools, um, you know, Texas Film Gear, uh a lot of different resellers across the US fully support um the users that want to take a look at Miller. Um up in Canada as well, um, companies like Lauren Lapham, IJES all support us as well. So wherever you are in the world, um you can get a hold of us. We have offices, like I said, globally. Um, and yeah, we're we're always available to if you have questions, just ask.
SPEAKER_00:All right. Awesome. Thank you so much. Thank you for being here.
SPEAKER_01:Absolutely. Thank you so much, Brooke. Okay, take care.