TVC using rig for FX shots.

[GerryVasbenter]

TVC using rig for FX shots.

 

 

The brief is to replicate the same shot: a straight line push forward, with different players in each take, the two elements to be combined- a poor man's mocon.

Has anybody tried this successfully?

Issues to be addressed so far (rig running gyros set up for max stability)

 

a) Timing each element to the same length, click track? Music?

B) Maintaining match frame height and focal distance and camera position, cross hairs? laser? Sonic tape/s?

Given that Digital post involved will be put to the best effect, does anybody else think its possible, or just a nightmare waiting to happen - or both!!!

 

Gerry

[Eric Fletcher S.O.C.]

The brief is to replicate the same shot: a straight line push forward, with different players in each take, the two elements to be combined- a poor man's mocon.

Has anybody tried this successfully?

WHy not do it with the better tool, A dolly.

 

Seriously this is not a steadicam shot.

[RobVanGelder]

Please do yourself a favor and don´t try to emulate a Motion Control shot with something that is totally opposite of that technique.

If you promise the production that you can do this kind of things with Steadicam, you will most likely get burned!

It´s like banging a nail into a wall with a ripe banana!

 

Rob van Gelder, Bangkok, Thailand

 

Steadicam, MOTION CONTROL operator too!

[Rich Steel]

Motion Control is the only way to do this shot correctly.

 

Doing it using a dolly is gonna be real tough, even with the best grip in the world. But there's no way I'd sign up for using steadicam. I hear it too many times on sets now, "we'll fix it in post" what you don't hear are the poor post guys screaming and pulling there hair out. So get the right tools to do the right job.

[WillArnot]

All valid points. But what are the true nature and details of the shot? If it is only a 20 ft move on flat ground on a 35 mm or tighter, then yes the right tool is mocon.

 

But check out the shot I did in 'Angels In America' for Stephen Goldblatt. Starts on Al Pacino at a bar, goes past him through the restaurant, out the window, over one sidewalk into the street, crosses 4 lanes of moving traffic w/ taxis flying by the lens, crosses the other sidewalk, goes over a wall high, booms down 20 ft into the woods of Central Park, weaves through foliage and brambles to reaveal an unsightly event shall we say. (in a gruff voice... "Does yur lover know yur out w/ another man?) But the shot rocks.

 

Again, more details needed. If it has to be exactly the same length etc, and it's on a cyc, and nothing has to cross over the track, or obscure the cameras path, then great, mocon is the way to go. But don't underestimate what the computer can do.

 

We did my shot in 5 parts. All seamlessly married in the computer. We did have Richard Edlund managing the marriage of the FX. He won the Oscar yrs ago for his work on the speeder chase in the forest on 'Empire Strikes Back' with Garrett.

 

At the time I still didn't have a gyro package since I hadn't got Greg's Ultiimate and was still saddled with my Master sled, and you can see it mainly in the crossing the road portion... that portion of the shot would have benefitted greatly from using them.

 

If the move had to be exactly the same and have the elements change for super-imposition purposes, then mocon, but will you see the track? How long is the shot? Where is it?

 

Remember. It's not about you or your reel. It's about the shot and what's needed to tell the story. It's up to you to get the Director/DP/Producers to be honest about their expectations, and then with your knowledge and experience as an operator let them know what is possible and by what means it can be achieved.

 

You can't make apple sauce out of oranges.

 

Good luck,

 

Will