OT: Kit for a vertical tracking shot?

farss wrote on 2/3/2005, 5:13 AM
The only thing I've seen that can do this so far is the Technocranes, now there's one hell of a piece of gear but as far as I know there's only one in the country and pretty much overkill for what I need. In case you're wondering, conventional cranes and jibs will not do this, they're a fixed length arm which means the camera follows an arc. I want it to take an 'elevator ride' down no more than 4 meters and hugging the subject pretty closely. With the Technocrane the arm can extend/retract to match the arc and therefore track a vertical line, put a dutch head on the thing and WOW!

Bear in mind we'll be shooting in HDV so the beast has to be a smooth as silk. I'm open to any suggestions including making something myself but the need for absolute smoothness kind of freaks me a bit. I do recall seeing a much simpler rig somewhere that can do just a vertical track using telescopic sections, hm, light bulb goes on, maybe a forklift would be smooth enough?
Bob.

Comments

Jay Gladwell wrote on 2/3/2005, 5:47 AM
Bob, a forklift could work, but it will take a few rehearsals to learn how to finesse the controls. Many, many years ago we needed a shot that required a crane. We had none and no immediate access to one. Someone mentioned using a cherry picker (lift bucket like those used to work on power lines). Everyone said it wouldn't work, too jerky. The DP (Bob Stum), an old guy who knew what was possible, said of course it will work. He took the controls and after about three or four tries he had that bucket moving up and down as if it were gliding on ice!

Good luck with your shoot!

Jay
Jay Gladwell wrote on 2/3/2005, 5:55 AM
Using a wooden frame, a simple pulley system and a platform at the bottom, you could build your own "elevator."

Jay
rmack350 wrote on 2/3/2005, 8:55 PM
In that case you would counterweight the bucket so that the move is easy to make.

I've driven a variety of lifts and would suggest you go to the rental yard, tell them that you want to do, and ask to try several lifts out. Generally, you'll want an operator for the lift and you'll need to make sure you've got enough room for the two of you and a tripod.

Many lifts have a second set of controls at ground level so maybe you can leave the operator down there. Also, perhaps if you've got one of those little steadicam units you can use that while in the bucket to help smooth out the move. Or just go hand-held. In any case, see if you can test it all out at the yard before you reserve a lift.

For jibs, if it's on wheels (think "Track") you could probably work out a move that would eliminate the arc. Might be worth it if you've got lots of other uses for the jib to make the rental and crew expense pay off. Usually, a jib or crane will require several people to operate-Camera operator, jib operator, Dolly grip, and maybe another strong back to help load counterweights. To get the vertical move right, set up a board or pole and then have a spotter direct the dolly grip forward and back. The dolly grip could also set marks on the pole and track run. Mark the middle and ends of the move on the pole and mark the two ends of he move along the track. The hard part is watching both sets of marks-hence the spotter.

This is probably an expensive solution.

Rob Mack

farss wrote on 2/3/2005, 11:35 PM
Thanks guys, some good ideas there. Until I get to see the site I don't know for certain just how much headroom I've got. The good news is (we hope) that the client is going to build one of the units for us to film, so we can get shots without a lot of the overhead gear in place.
Now just for a laugh, I'll tell you what we're filming. It's a product packaging system and it runs thru an aweful lot of things like biscuits or cereals in a minute. So we're going to have to buy say 100Kg of breakfast cereals, put that in the hopper at the top and as it comes out packaged at the bottom have a small army of PAs ripping the packets open and feeding it back into the hopper at the top (and out of shot of course!).
Whatever product we end up using I know one week after the shoot none of the crew will be able to look at the stuff. Where my grandfather used to work they shot a KFC commercial one day, so guess what we lived on for a week :)
Bob.
vicmilt wrote on 2/6/2005, 5:39 PM
A fellow named Jackman has a website with a PVC dolly using skateboard wheels and 2" PVC pipe construction details, for $5 bucks. I bought and built the rig - very cheap, and smooooth.
It would be perfect for you with just a little thought. You'd build the elevator out of the pipe and hoist or drop the camera on an attached platform.
rmack350 wrote on 2/6/2005, 5:53 PM
Sure but if you need to operate the camera then you'll have to go up and down with it or get a hot-head.

Bob, I did an industrial job with some Swiss guys working for Siig (maybe ten years ago-time flies!). We shot a candy packaging line. Very loud. Get some ear muff type protection for everyone or they may go nuts. Also, It's hard to communicate if it's very loud.

The candy company had tighter security than any bank data center I've ever been in. I guess the competition is pretty hot.

Rob Mack
Jay Gladwell wrote on 4/7/2005, 7:26 AM

Bob, I'm curious, what ever happened with this shot? What did you wind up doing to get it? There was no follow up to let us know, one way or the other.