OK, Break's Over...

In a recent post, I talked about how I used Doggiecam to pull off a shot I needed on a commercial. The director wanted to crane down from the rear window on a diagonal line to the front tire and hold on it for several seconds. "No problem," I thought. I figured we would just go car-to-car with a crane arm on an insert car. Then came the catch. They wanted to have the camera mounted on the hero car to maximize the stability with the tire. (For those who don't know, the most stable way to get a car shot is to actually be mounted to the hero car so the vibrations of the road match up with the camera). So we (me and my Best Boy) sat down and started ciphering. What we came up with was a powered slider (like the "over-saver). "Too bad no one has one," I said. "Doggiecam has one," he said. I called them, described the shot, and they said it would be no problem. They came out and after a few hours of rigging, had the thing set up and it worked like a champ. Since this site is mainly concerned with camera movement, I thought a more detailed explanation of this shot was warranted. The shot was as sweet as they come and everyone was happy. This story highlights the problems you often come across when using insert cars and process trailers. No matter how you lock off and support the camera, unless you are actually mounted on the hero car, the vibrations will always be out of synch because the car and camera are separated. This is often fine for a movie or tv show because it adds to the sense of movement and actually driving, but on a commercial, they usually want it as slick and stable as possible.