Camera Platforms

Anyone who has ever been forced to sit through home videos of someone's children is familiar with the shaky image problem. The human body doesn't make for a very good shock absorber so far as sensitive camera equipment is concerned, and often the effect is a jarring shudder effect that leaves an audience with eye strain or worse.

This is why very, very few professional shots are ever done from the shoulder so to speak. Throughout the last 70 years or so, various methods have been invented to stabilize camera shots. These range from the simple, cheap and effective to the obscenely expensive and gravity-defying. Here we'll cover the main ones, and a few articles down the road in "cheap tricks", we will cover basic methods for building cheap and effective versions of them.

Electronic Image Stabilization

Most modern cameras, in fact most made within the last ten years or so, come with one form or another of image stabilization. The goal of these systems is to greatly reduce the shudder and jarring motions that are a hallmark of small, lightweight (and even large) cameras. These systems work by essentially dropping frames from a given recording. Assume you have 30 frames for one second of video, and also assume that right in the middle of that second, a violent motion acts upon the camera, such as a footstep or muscle tremor. Electronic Image Stabilizers will detect that the image data is radically changing, and attempt to drop one, or two, or many more frames out of those 30 in an effort to make the image seem smooth. This is a good thing for videos of the kids being shot by consumers, but it's not a good thing for people who yearn for greater quality in their work. This is why image stabilization should generally not be used at all. Instead, one should use a method of stabilizing the camera itself.

The Dolly

The first method of camera stabilization is the oldest, and simplest method. It's called a Dolly, and consists of a train-like platform with wheels, which moves along the ground on tracks.

Virtually all of the shots you'll see in a major motion picture will be shot from a dolly, especially those which seem to "pan" (or, as the name implies: Dolly) around a subject, following their perspective. As well, any shot which follows a subject for a short distance, or at a walking pace is usually shot from a dolly.

So why not just stick a camera on a skate board and roll it along the ground? Simple, wheels don't work as well as tracks. When a wheel rolls across a surface, it is susceptible to imperfections in that surface. As such, should you run over a small pebble or crack in cement, that motion will be picked up by the camera.

However, with tracks, one basically has a portable surface which is able to be totally flat, regardless of the terrain it is put down on. This makes shooting on soggy grass or dirt as easy as doing so on perfectly smooth cement.

A Dolly is usually equipped with four to eight wheels which ride on a track, which is assembled out of interlocking pieces of plastic or metal. These wheels ride along the track much as those in a looping roller-coaster, allowing no lateral movement of the Dolly as it moves along the track. Dollies can be as simple as a small platform with a tripod on it, or as complex as the professional Dolly pictured here, with an operators chair and motorized movement.

A Dolly allows for a fairly significant degree of freedom, is reasonably easy and fast to set up, and allows a near perfect camera platform to work from. Pulling a "Dolly" around a subject as it delivers its lines is often far more interesting to an audience than watching a talking head deliver a monologue, especially if reaction to outside events is needed.

Picture this: A scene requires an actor to deliver a monolog, then have a surprised reaction to an off-camera event. Using a Dolly with a "U" shaped track around the actor, one can shoot the monolog, and then "Dolly" around behind the actor to move the off-camera event into frame. This produces a more interesting effect than doing a cut to the next scene with the previously off-camera event.

The Boom

The Boom is also a simple device, and is also fairly old in the world of film making. It is basically a counter-weighted length of pipe with a camera attached to one end, weights and controls on the other, and a fulcrum point in the middle. Cranes allow for "flying" shots which are often used in film and television. They also allow for camera placement in very tight and small locations, and are much faster to set up for a series of close-in shots than a Dolly.

A modern crane also has an electric gimbal on the end of it, which holds the camera. This allows the Crane Operator to pan, tilt, and even skew the camera on two or three axis, allowing for a virtually infinite number of shots.

For example, everyone has seen an opening scene of a movie in which the camera seems to fly down from an elevated position for a close up on an actor. This is accomplished with a Crane. An operator will establish his shot at a high elevation with a long focal length, and then slowly move the crane (and camera) closer to the subject he wants to shoot.

Cranes can also be used to capture very low to the ground shots which would otherwise be very difficult to get a camera in to, or accomplish other feats which a Dolly can not, such as "flying" a camera over a small pond or garden wall.

The secret of the boom is that is exactly counter-weighted to the camera. This makes it very easy to move as well as very stable.

The SteadiCam

The SteadiCam is a fairly recent innovation in the world of film, at this point only 30 years old. The first SteadiCam was invented by Garrett Brown in an effort to make nearly impossible shots possible. For example, it is very difficult to shoot a very close shot of an actor running or walking a long distance, or of one running up stairs. The latter, was the first feature use of a SteadiCam, in which Sylvester Stallone was followed as he ran up the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art in Rocky.

The SteadiCam is a fairly simple device, although professional versions of it have been expanded to include many electronic items to allow for additional flexibility of the unit. The device allows a camera to "float" beside it's operator and not be effected by his or her body movements.

The SteadiCam is comprised by three main parts: The vest, which is secured to the operators body. The arm, which is an iso-elastic device attached to the vest. Finally, the Sled, which is a pole attached to the arm, which allows for a camera mount at one end, and a monitor, battery pack, and weights at the other end. The pole is allowed to rotate and pitch independent of the arm by way of a Gimbal.

It works on the same principal as an iso-elastic desk lamp. (one with the parallel arms and springs) If you move the light head to a position and let go, it remains in that position thanks to the tension of the springs on the arms. An SteadiCam works in much the same way.

When set up, a SteadiCam is balanced to the weight of the Camera and batteries to within a few grams. This allows the tension of the springs in the iso-elastic arm to hold the camera at any position the operator moves it in. Also, it allows the operator to move the camera with very little effort, which is the main benefit of the SteadiCam. Holding a camera may not seem like a big deal, but it is when the camera weighs 40-50 pounds, and one must haul it around for hours at a time.

Recent SteadiCams come with motorized camera sleds which allow the camera to be tilted and pitched by the operator merely by pressing a button on the control arm. As well, some models allow the monitor at the bottom (or top, depending on configuration) to also be moved at will.

These days, SteadiCams are in widespread use, and virtually every feature film makes use of one at some stage of the shoot. It is still a fairly young industry, and one the budding film enthusiast will want to pay attention to should they wish to break into the business. A SteadiCam owner-operator can make a very good living with a fairly small investment in equipment and training.

SteadiCams are not exactly cheap. A good used unit will run between 1,500 dollars and 2,000, while the top of the line new units eclipse 20 grand. However, with a little mechanical ability, one can build their own for a faction of the cost, and we'll cover that in the upcoming cheap tricks article.

The SteadiCam Jr.

The SteadiCam Junior is a pro-sumer level piece of equipment aimed at a market which would normally be unable to afford a full SteadiCam, but would like to achieve good image stabilization. It does away with the iso-elastics and fancy electronics, and basically goes about stabilization the old fashioned way: By adding weight.

A SteadiCam Jr. is basically a grip attached to a camera mount, and via a gimbal, a balanced arm with weights and a LCD display is attached. This allows the camera to move relatively freely, but have a good deal of weight attached to it to stabilize shots. It also gives the operator a convenient external display, which is pretty well a must in every filming situation.

A SteadiCam Jr. can be constructed for only a few dollars, and will also be covered in cheap tricks.

Vehicles

Vehicle mounts. Everyone has seen footage of a race car zipping around a track, or of actors in a car driving along a road. This is accomplished with a camera car.

A camera car can be anything, from a Go-Kart, to a MotorCycle, to a specially equipped pickup truck. There are two basic ways to accomplish vehicle shots. The Suicide Shot, and the Must-Have.

The Suicide Shot is accomplished using a very inexpensive camera attached to some part of the vehicle. It is shot with the mindset that the image quality will not be excellent, but an ugly shot of an amazing thing is better than a beautiful shot of a boring thing. The best way for an amateur to experiment is through the use of miniature "spy cameras", also known as pinhole cameras. These can usually be had in the 50-100 dollar range, and offer enough image quality for quick action shots in which focal range and resolution are not key factors.

A quick and dirty Suicide Shot can be accomplished by simply attaching a pinhole camera to the bumper of a car with bungee cord, with a thick piece of foam behind the camera to insulate it from the vibration of the vehicle. Power and Signal lines can then be taped down with gaffers tape and fed into the interior of the vehicle, and then recorded onto many types of devices, from any camcorder with a video input to a laptop computer with video capture abilities.

Note: At no time should the vehicle driver be involved in camera and/or recording operation. A separate camera operator should be in the vehicle to run the recorder. Doing otherwise may result in an accident.

The second type of vehicle shot is the Must-Have. This type of shot is one which will be a very long shot, such as a race car driving around a track, in which image quality will be key. In this situation, a professional camera is used instead of a small pinhole. For these shots, custom mounts must be fabricated to securely hold the camera as well as insulate it from vibration. Further, the lens of the camera must be protected with a piece of lexan or clear acrylic plastic, so that rocks or road debris will not destroy the lens. These shots are usually best left to professionals.

Please Note: Filming on public roads is extremely dangerous and should only be carried out by professionals with a film permit. Most all on-road filming is done under controlled conditions with professional drivers and camera operators. Do not attempt to film on uncontrolled public roads.

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