Gil Wertheim Posted August 19, 2008 Share Posted August 19, 2008 I am doing a dolly 360 shot in a house with 10 ft ceilings. I have my actress in the middle but as I move, there must be no evidence of it looking like a film shoot. Which means everything must be suspended in the air. How could I pull it off?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel Wallens Posted August 19, 2008 Share Posted August 19, 2008 Things can be rigged from above. Things can be placed outside of windows. Things can be hidden behind set pieces and props. Things can be lit with practicals (...to a point). Depending on what lens you are using/focal length, this is not really all that difficult. Really, it all depends on the space, and what instruments you will using. A little more information about the space/setting and gear would help readers of your post make their answers more specific. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Collier Posted August 19, 2008 Share Posted August 19, 2008 Well it all depends. I have had the good fortune of doing several of these shots before so there are a few questions you must answer first. what is the lens height compared to the hight of the actress compared to the focal length compared to the radius of the track.....or more simply put, will you see all of the ceiling during the length of the 360, is there a small circle in the center that won't be seen? is there a small circle in the center that will be seen, but the rest won't since the camera is so low? is there a radius on the floor that won't be seen? Figure out where the camera sees and does not. Place your lights where they cannot be seen. Place any practicles that make sense where they can. Practicles will save you in that kind of setup. If your hitting a brick wall, you might suggest a higher angle, etc to give you a small alcove unseen to work in, but as always thats the directors discression to give you that leaway. I have been stared straight in the eye and told....figure it out. We need it to be this shot. Those are the shots you always thank the director for later, even if your scratching your head and frustrated in prepro. Also see what can be done practically. I had the misfortune of doing one where most of the ceiling was seen, all of the walls and most of the floors were seen, and it was night, so no punching light through a window. For that shot since there was a small (3' radius) circle that was not seen, we set up everything in that space. I had two 650s on one nail-on plate (the second one was a maffer clamp to the baby spud between the plate and the light) and two more nail on plates ajacent to it with 250s on squeezers. Also to maintain a broken light patter established in earlier shots I had an open frame with a paper tape pattern tapped to the ceiling. All the cables were bound together and hung in the coolest area we could find. Then two stingers were run in a natural break up area (one that was not noticable due to art direction. Then to add a little interest to the shot I laid a kino flow on the floor just near the deck of the turntable, opposite the key light. Great looking shot, pain in the ass to set up...luckily for me it was the martini shot the last day of that show. oh, and if you use a camera light, it means you can make your lighting a bit more dramatic without loosing detail in those tricky parts of the spin. Good luck.....360s are fun and a pain. Enjoy both parts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gil Wertheim Posted August 19, 2008 Author Share Posted August 19, 2008 The Area is a basement, lots of open space, I am shooting this in October so I would have some time to work this out. What I am thinking of doing is running all the cables along the ceiling that will not be seen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Collier Posted August 22, 2008 Share Posted August 22, 2008 Yeah, thats exactly what I have done in the past. Its nice if you can get art dept. to either give you a fake ceiling to hide the cable, or a broken pattern to run the wire up the wall and along the ceiling. that only works if the spin is fast enough/lens is long enough that the background will blur out the whole shot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ira Ratner Posted August 22, 2008 Share Posted August 22, 2008 (edited) Don't most basements have low ceilings compared to the rest of ANY house? Unless you're living large? I guess this depends on what part of the country you live in, but my guess is that we're talking about 7' ceilings or so, correct? MAYBE 7' 6"? The key word here is basement, so do you mean an unfinished basement, where you see the floor joists for above? Or a finished ceiling? Edited August 22, 2008 by Ira Ratner Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert Sawin Posted September 22, 2008 Share Posted September 22, 2008 I am doing a dolly 360 shot in a house with 10 ft ceilings. I have my actress in the middle but as I move, there must be no evidence of it looking like a film shoot. Which means everything must be suspended in the air. How could I pull it off?? take a look at the movie city of God. Basically the guy just took the camera and walked around the character with no support just can't held. I think sometimes going hand-held can be overlooked. However a good camera operator certainly when her. Jaws seen on the boat was all handheld. Just something to consider. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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