How fast can a Movi/Ronin whip pan?

[Chris Warren]

Hello,

 

I have a shot in a future project where I would like to achieve it using a Movi/Ronin. It's a "one shot" type shot, however we will be using whip pans to hide cuts. I'm curious, how quickly can you whip pan with those?

 

Thank you,

Chris

[David Mullen ASC]

Probably as fast as the operator can swing his arms, the question is how fast does the camera stabilize itself after a fast jerk like that. You could always pan a bit slower and create the whip in post by speeding up that moment.

[Dylan Sunshine Saliba]

We tried this in one of the shots from a short (

)we did earlier this year. The shot at 0:48 we had a Movi set up with a C100 and a Canon 16-35 F2.8 on it recording externally to an odyssey. It was a little heavy for the movi, but we made it work. We used the remote for the movi to slowly tilt down then whip tilt back up while hand operating the dolly and jib movement. A little clunky and it needed to be enhanced in post anyways, like Mr. Mullen suggested. Hindsight being 20/20 I would have given the movi operator more time to properly balance the setup, but that would have only made it smoother, not faster for the whip.

[Satsuki Murashige]

Not fast enough in Majestic mode unless you're super close to the actor, maybe if you tuned the sensitivity way down in dual operator mode. I would consider building in some transition wipes with crossing extras or other physical obstacles, that would be easier to control.

[Kristopher S. Kimlin]

I used the movi recently on a football picture I shot called Woodlawn and while we were never trying to mask cuts, I did want to adapt some sharp whips on low footage of feet/tackles and I 100% of the time ended up utilizing my steadicam operator (low mode) to get the job done. These hand held stabilizers while great for somethings really do not function well for pure manipulation. They work great for getting low to the ground for short spurts of time with wide lenses moving steadily with/in/out on a subject. Your best option is to use the remote and manipulate the setting to have as much control at the joystick as possible for any whip pans.

[Tyler Clark]

I just did a commercial for an app which required a bunch of whip cuts from symmetrical MS to symmetrical MS.

 

While we used mostly sticks, we used the ronin for a couple shots that required us to cheat going through a floor after whipping in or before whipping out. I was rather surprised with the results.

 

I dialed in majestic mode to a point where it didnt need much force from the operator to pan the camera.

 

The camera recovered quite nicely though it did take some practice.

 

Some shots my AC would actually physically pan the pan axis while I held the top bar to point straight and when he let go the camera would correct itself.

 

While this does put some strain on your motors it gives a faster whip than the operator can perform. Also if you try to go too far with it the Ronin will kill the motor due to experiencing too much torque.

 

Test it for yourself and feel out what resistance and deadband is best for you but I think you can pull it off surprisingly well.

 

Though if you're going for a Birdman type oner, I would still test a steadycam as they can whip much nicer. I didnt have one at my disposal on our shoot because we operated with in house equipment for camera.