shooting on an ice rink

Michael Morlan · September 12, 2007

Hello all,

One of my days on a feature will be covering talent skating in an indoor ice rink. I would like, among other shots, to preceed/follow the talent with a smooth camera. I'm thinking my doorway dolly retrofitted with a hockey skate rig I'll build and pulled/pushed by some amateur hockey skaters. That's a general idea.

Other shots may be executed from a static position. What form of friction matting may I put down on the ice to provide a solid footing?

Any other thoughts/challenges/solutions to shooting on ice?

Michael

Chris Keth · September 12, 2007

Hello all,

One of my days on a feature will be covering talent skating in an indoor ice rink. I would like, among other shots, to preceed/follow the talent with a smooth camera. I'm thinking my doorway dolly retrofitted with a hockey skate rig I'll build and pulled/pushed by some amateur hockey skaters. That's a general idea.

Other shots may be executed from a static position. What form of friction matting may I put down on the ice to provide a solid footing?

Any other thoughts/challenges/solutions to shooting on ice?

Michael

Adhesive sandpaper on the bottom of stand legs does pretty well.

Kieran Scannell · September 12, 2007

I once had a shoot with a lone skater on a pond, i actually sat on a chair (which had small skateboard wheels attached) and was pushed along from behind by a very experienced ice hockey skater. It made a huge racket but we were shooting mos ( It was for a promo) so it didn't matter, the results were surprisingly good, you can get really close to the ice, which at speed with a wide lens looks amazing.

Good luck!

Kieran.

Brian Drysdale · September 12, 2007

I once had a shoot with a lone skater on a pond, i actually sat on a chair (which had small skateboard wheels attached) and was pushed along from behind by a very experienced ice hockey skater. It made a huge racket but we were shooting mos ( It was for a promo) so it didn't matter, the results were surprisingly good, you can get really close to the ice, which at speed with a wide lens looks amazing.

Good luck!

Kieran.

We had a sleigh made with our own ice blades fitted for a commercial. It was used to film CUs of the skaters feet as I sat on the sleigh shooting hand held with an Aaton being pushed by the skating instructor at the rink. They also had a chair on skates which, I believe, was owned by the rink.

Michael Morlan · September 19, 2007

Since I have some welding and woodworking skills, I'm designing a rig to fit my Modern doorway dolly. The skating rink has been very kind to donate new figure skating blades for the project.

My hope is to have steerable skates using the dolly's own steering hardware. Maybe even a brake. ;-)

I'll post pics as the project proceeds.

Josh Fritts · September 19, 2007

If it is in your budget and can afford a Fisher 9, 10 or 11 dolly, then they make Ice attachments implace of the wheels.

Check this out:

http://www.jlfisher.com/dollies/optional_a...p;Accessory=SKE

Chris Keth · September 20, 2007

Wow, make sure your guys have a little practice time on the ice with the dolly. An out-of-control dolly in a rink could be unpleasant.

Michael Morlan · September 21, 2007

Wow, make sure your guys have a little practice time on the ice with the dolly. An out-of-control dolly in a rink could be unpleasant.

Yep. We will be practicing with a former hockey skater and grip (although he's never done the two together.) Alternatively, our dolly grips will simply have ice cleats strapped to their boots.

More in mid-October.

Travis Cline · September 22, 2007

This might be hard to find in Texas, but I've seen this done by a steadicam op that was a great hockey player. You need budget for it, but it gives you alot of flexibility on the ice.

Travis

Chris Keth · September 22, 2007

This might be hard to find in Texas, but I've seen this done by a steadicam op that was a great hockey player. You need budget for it, but it gives you alot of flexibility on the ice.
Travis

Now that is a unique skill and one I would love to see.

chuck colburn · September 22, 2007

ROSEBUD

Michael Morlan · September 23, 2007

he he he. "Rosebud"

I popped out a quick design for my key grip to build with his mad TIG welding skills. Normally, I would tackle this myself but I'm on set for the next four weeks.

http://michael-morlan.net/projects/atfn/iceskate/

It's essentially a steel (or aluminum if my guy is feeling frisky) frame in which the dolly wheel rests with four stainless steel blades bolted to the corners. Alternate designs might feature a slightly wider frame to accommodate other wheels and a single blade on each edge rather than two.

Jess Haas · November 14, 2007

Hey Michael, howd this turn out? If the shoot hasn't happened yet and you need an extra hand I am very comfortable on a pair of skates. For slower dolly moves it seems like a dolly grip with ice cleats would be a better option than on skates.

If you need someone crazy enough to skate with a steadicam let me know ;-)

~Jess

Michael Morlan · November 15, 2007

Hi Jess. Nice to hear from you. Yep. We're done with that. Worked rather nice. One issue is that we were completely dependent on the smoothness of the ice. Imperfections are transmitted straight to camera. It turns out that, since we left the ice un-Zambonied from the previous night that the frost collected overnight provided an excellent friction surface for our crew. So, no special shoes required.

I'll feature the dolly setup in a on-set account in a couple days once production has approved my choice of images from the set.

Best,

Michael

Brad Grimmett · November 15, 2007

If you need someone crazy enough to skate with a steadicam let me know ;-)

~Jess

Probably not a smart move. I know a lot of people have done steadicam with roller blades on over the years, but that doesn't mean it's a good idea.

Jess Haas · November 15, 2007

Probably not a smart move. I know a lot of people have done steadicam with roller blades on over the years, but that doesn't mean it's a good idea.

I wasn't totally serious ;-) I would be crazy enough to try it with a very light camera such as an HVX or something but that is about it. And when I say try I don't mean show up the day of the shoot and say I can do it, I mean go there before hand and see if I feel comfortable enough to do some controlled stuff.

Have you seen the video of the guy on the unicycle with the glidecam? Don Juan, off road, in the dark on a unicycle. Now that is nuts :-)

~Jess

Rasmus Heise · November 15, 2007

Hi! I just returned from Budapest, where I shot two nights on ice..

The crew made two simple metal plates with simple skates under them.. They also made a handle so that the grip (or myself) could run around on the ice with this 'dolly'..

It worked great.

_ras heise

Joshua Lassing · February 10, 2013

In Bosnia, I had a similar situation where unexpected ice was an issue during a rather expansive wide exterior scene, ... what I ended up doing was similar to the contraptions you guys have rigged ( I wish I had the iPhone stills still... :( ) but, we rigged the blades to a pre-rigged/custom dolly, threw a riserplate w/ mitchell Mt, mounted the head right on the improv. dolly, and had the 'dolly' grip wear ice' shows, and one of those ice sticks... It was a slow-moving, (but long) establishing dolly move, so safety wasn't an issue, and we pulled the shot off...

In situations where harming the set may exist... This may not work, but for our situation it was ideal. Also -- runners spikes have various sized cleats that can be removed with a wrench... Not sure how safe that'll be without ankle support... but, it's worth the thought in the event ice shoes are accessible...

Hope this helps someone!

-Joshua Lassing