Thanks Bob,

But this was shot in front of an audience. How would you employ MoCo or a Technocrane during a live shot. I think the equipment alone would get in the way of the performance.

Am I missing something? Could you do this type of movement in post edit?

TomG

My guess is a Skycam (invented in 1984 by Garrett Brown, Steadicam inventor) or one of it's many competitors.

Mike

"Could you do this type of movement in post edit?"

In theory probably yes. If you had enough cameras cover the scene from enough angle so that 3D modelling could be used.
The amount of computation involved may tie up all the computational power of the planet for a considerable amount of time....

Probably easier, cheaper and quicker to use one of a number of devices to move a real camera around. Cranes are used during live shows with a paying audience. I know there's been some complaints from patrons who've paid top dollar for seats only to have their view blocked by cameras and cranes etc wizzing around.


Bob.

Felt like a Steadicam rig to me. Great operator. No cables.

My guess would be a talented Steadicam operator.

I agree...with the side to side tilts on the relatively still shots I'd say steadicam. In fact, it could have been helped with the V-dub deshaker.

I would go with the skycam. The shots *around* the piano are too fast for any steadicam operator, and they are too predictable. When the camera gets in close to the keyboard, it's always at the exact same position.

If it was a Steadicam operator I'd sure want to be on his side a brawl.

It could have been a Steadicam operator on a Segway or better yet add a Russian Arm like this guy has:





Bob.

I haven't seen one of those MILO rigs used by any wedding videographers yet...

Well, however they did it, it was really smooth and the photog was nicely done.

TomG

........If it was a Steadicam operator I'd sure want to be on his side a brawl


I agree,, and i would let him handle any 2 cam shoot i ever had,, hell any three

Here is another number with longer shots of the stage and setup. . .



Waldemar sounds a lot like Voldemort which explains why it looks like freakin' magic to me. . . (lol)

The fly-in near :30 displays an image of him up close on the right side of the stage, so there is obviously more than one camera going (very obvious, I know) ... I can't see any cables hanging anywhere ... and there are some better and closer shots of the rigging beginning again at about 1:00 ... but nothing resembling a flying overhead camera of the sort that I am familiar with...
To my untrained eye, there appears to be a track down at the front of the stage with a remote control camera near the left front of the stage that might even correspond to the shot displaying on the big screen. . .
It is amazing and quite intriguing...
Anyone ever been there - or close enough to visit and solve our mystery. . . (wink)

A few years ago ( that long? ), I ran across a software package that is used on the football analysis shows all the time now - it will show one of the real camera angles of the field and then spin the whole thing around to look in the opposite direction (animated) from the shots of the people and their positions on the field and the position of their arms and legs... and then it can be animated from that new position to continue the action that started from the original position. . .
It was a relatively inexpensive package as I recall ... but would take up so much computing power, I'm not sure my three computers would handle it - even if I could figure out how to create a render farm with them ... (grin) I did a quick search for it but didn't get any hits...

There are programs out there - but I don't think the musical pieces here use them. It appears to be real cameras rotating and moving about while the performance is being executed... then again, I'm not sure I even understand fully everything I know about video, let alone enough to speculate on what might work and not work in any application. . . lol

Until that time ... Earl J.

IMHO, this is not even debatable. It is clearly a very talented steadicam operator that shot this. The slight side "wiggles", the initial nearly imperceptible tilts on quick forward & back movements all are indicative of the steadicam. Plus the close shots of hands with fast in and out, no other jib or crane equipment would look that way. And the skycam would not behave at all that way in fast in and quick reverse.

That all said, I am in awe of the operator who had the guts and gusto to really get edgy with his shots. It is the kind of shots I could only dream I could do, but know I couldn't. This is an operator who loves his steadicam and the music it can make as much as the musician’s on the piano. True work of art that is breathtaking to behold. BRAVO! Standing O.

I still remember vividly the first steadicam shots I ever saw about 1976. They were from Garrett Brown doing a demo with NBC in a news piece on the gas crisis at the time. One continuous shot. Started with a shot made to look like it was under a vehicle looking up through the gas tank fill. At first you see only a round circle of blue sky then the nozzle came in and gas poured toward the lens. Pull out, sat/stood up, backed into likely an SUV or pickup bed as you wisked along streets, stopped, dismounted, then backed up again into what was clearly a helicopter flying over the area, then down I think I remember to a shot of the correspondent. I was out of my chair, yelling at the television, "what is that!!!" Several months before I learned what it was. To this day I am riveted at full attention on great steadicam work.

Regardless of the shooting technique, this bit was done better and funnier (including the Hungarian Rhapsody shtick) by Victor Borge on live television over four decades ago.

But I still found it amusing.

Some interesting videos and background info on the Steadicam development: Garrett Brown

"It is clearly a very talented steadicam operator that shot this."

If it is, then his name must be Andrew (the Robot in Bicentennial Man). No steadicam op I've ever seen can move that fast (around a grand piano in two seconds), and repeat the same exact shot of the keyboard, same position, same zoom - three times.

Thanks, Earl_J

That was a really nice piece of work as well. I think I am appreciating this Voldemort (Waldemar) more and more. The shooting and editing are very appealing. I wonder if they were able to pull off that video with just two cameras...? More likely three?

TomG

"No steadicam op I've ever seen can move that fast "

You have not had the pleasure to see the best, unfortunately. I have watched steadicam operators who shoot at a full run. When it won the Academy Award the example footage was a run up a flight of stairs.

"the same exact shot of the keyboard, same position, same zoom - three times"

Very, very close, but not quite. And, IMHO there is not a single zoom in the shots. All very wide angle lens and steadicam moving in and out quickly. No zoom causes an almost imperceptible tilt as it starts. Inertia on a steadicam does.

So, Steve, I appreciate your view, but I respectfully stick with my conviction that it is steadicam. Now let's find the producers and get the real answers.

David

Not a problem, TomG ...
I am curious about things like that - not with the intend of ever attempting to duplicate it- rather a sense of exposure to the very best techniques for intricate and mesmerizing video FX ...
I only indicate two cameras since it is all the evidence I can see... it appears that the venue is elaborately equipped and efficiently manned for the most amazing products. . .

I guess I'm just curious that way. . .

This thread has also introduced me to many other techniques and devices for better video of my own... thanks for bringing it up and sharing it with us...

Until that time ... Earl J.

I agree with David. The first time I used a steadycam in 1981 I might have been able to do it - but my back may not have. Now - no way...I have worked with SC operators who I'm sure can do it and as I mentioned earlier, the tilts and slight jerks in the starting motion are typical of a steadicam.

Kent

Looking at that video and the previous one again I'll go with my original guess.
There's obviously one very long crane from the back of the venue plus there's a shorter one to the LHS of the auditorium with its jib extended in close to the piano. The video is not very clear even at 720p however the shorter crane on the LHS of stage looks very much like a Techno.

At IBC a few years back I watched a fashion show staged to show off the various bits and pieces of gear at the show. One Technocrane, two SC operators plus assorted extra cameras on sticks. They had a couple of girls doing acts on ropes and the way the camera on the crane could track them was amazing to watch. The control system lets the operator make linear camera moves. If you watch some of the demo reels you'll see this being done. Fly in over the audience, take a look at the lead singer then over to the back of stage, look back at the audience and track along behind the band. Throw in a few loops around the drummer.

On the other hand I really doubt it was a SC on a Segway. There's mic cables taped to the floor. They're not that thick but...
Also the long crane shots show no one near the piano apart from what appears to be the jib of a crane.

Bob.

I still think it's a skycam.

Check the movement at 1:17 in this video:
http://www.youtube.com/user/szkaradnik#p/a/u/1/uigLVQDE0V0

And at 3:22 in this one:
http://www.youtube.com/user/szkaradnik#p/a/u/2/tr1cSDKlKsw