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Flying Cam


Dominik Muench

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Hi guys,

 

i try to find a way to creat a "flying cam" effect where the camera hovers a meter or so over the ground and moves in different directions, it shouldnt look like a steady dolly shot and i cant use a steadycam, anny suggestions how i can pull that off ?maybe handheld and with some posproduction effects ?

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Hi guys,

 

i try to find a way to creat a "flying cam" effect where the camera hovers a meter or so over the ground and moves in different directions, it shouldnt look like a steady dolly shot and i cant use a steadycam, anny suggestions how i can pull that off ?maybe handheld and with some posproduction effects ?

 

What excactly do you want to simulate with this? A bird's view? or something ''unreal'', or an object falling?

Dimitrios Koukas

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yes something unreal, the camera being a flying/ floating observer.

 

we did once some great shot of a piano falling and how this would look from the piano's view.You see that piano was falling on someone's car, so we wanted to see the car from above.

We used this very simple but very sofisticated method:

we have attached an arri 435 on a heavy chain and thru a big sprocket .

We measured the chain's weight and the camera's weight.As the camera was falling from above the chains weight went bigger till it stoped the camera!

We have hanged the camera from the hand grip (top).

U can stop the camera's rotation with a rope somewhere attached in the camera's mounting plate.

Be sure to leave enough chain on the other end.

So u will need a crane (maybe like the ones the builders use to carry things from level to level), a sprocket and some heavy chain.

If you want I can make a drawing for u.

We first ofcource tested all this with adding some sand bags with same weight as the camera's weight.

Dimitrios Koukas

Edited by Dimitrios Koukas
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we did once some great shot of a piano falling and how this would look from the piano's view.You see that piano was falling on someone's car, so we wanted to see the car from above.

We used this very simple but very sofisticated method:

we have attached an arri 435 on a heavy chain and thru a big sprocket .

We measured the chain's weight and the camera's weight.As the camera was falling from above the chains weight went bigger till it stoped the camera!

We have hanged the camera from the hand grip (top).

U can stop the camera's rotation with a rope somewhere attached in the camera's mounting plate.

Be sure to leave enough chain on the other end.

So u will need a crane (maybe like the ones the builders use to carry things from level to level), a sprocket and some heavy chain.

If you want I can make a drawing for u.

We first ofcource tested all this with adding some sand bags with same weight as the camera's weight.

Dimitrios Koukas

 

 

I would of used a bungie rope instead of chain. You could of used the guide rope you spoke of to stop the recoil back up. A sudden jolt to the camera might of ripped the thing in two!.

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Hi guys,

 

i try to find a way to creat a "flying cam" effect where the camera hovers a meter or so over the ground and moves in different directions, it shouldnt look like a steady dolly shot and i cant use a steadycam, anny suggestions how i can pull that off ?maybe handheld and with some posproduction effects ?

 

You thinking of a "deck dogs" look?

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I would of used a bungie rope instead of chain. You could of used the guide rope you spoke of to stop the recoil back up. A sudden jolt to the camera might of ripped the thing in two!.

 

You see a bungie rope wasn't the point my friend, cause we needed the camera to stop, and believe me it stoped smoothly, cause as I said the chain that was hanging on the other side of the crane got heavier as it was going up, so deaccelerate smoothly!

Really smoth like u had a mechanism or a man doing it!

The rental company trusts the AC's I work with.

I said it's so simple but sophisticated.

 

No worry to crash the camera in two, we tested the whole thing with sand bags more than twice.... I can't find the footage to post it unfortunately, it was back in 1996, a tv commercial for METAXA drink.

Regards

Dimitrios Koukas

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that explains a lot ;)

 

Maybe the bungie rope will do best for your aplication, but imagine that your first AC will jump up and down in panic to catch the camera!

And also have in mind that the chain cause of it's weight it's in a way more ''controlable'',the bungie will do some left and right yawings too.

But, you are the DP here, and u are the one that has to comply with the productions demands. Good luck with this and I hope that u will give me the opportunity to look some of this footage in the future.

Dimitrios Koukas

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