Undercranked Puma POV

[Mike M]

Just thought I would post this extract from a film I worked on recently.

There was some pretty tricky running over very uneven terrain and the director also wanted to do a few high speed Puma POVs. We undercranked to 5fps and the actor had to act in slow-mo. I really didn't think it would work but was impressed when I got my copy of the film today.

I've edited it a bit to remove the non-steadicam bits, so don't try and follow the story too much. Basically a boy goes missing and the father, a farmer, goes out looking for him and the animal that killed him - an escaped puma.

The site is playing up a little, so if you have problems viewing the clip, I'll reupload and post a direct link:
http://lunarfilm.co.uk/Lunar%20Film/Lunar%20Film%20-%20Video%20Production%20in%20Chelmsford,%20Essex%2 0-%20The%20Wilds.html

I used my V25, flying an Arri SRII. Let me know what you think.

[jamiebgp]

Hi Mike,
Looked great....nearly cacked my pants. I hate scary stuff now.
Had a really nice look. Although a couple of shots went off horizon, I would say that was being overly picky and only really added to the build up. In my opinion a good job.


Hope your well

J

[Mike M]

Cheers Jamie.

Yeah, the horizon was pretty tough, particularly in the fast running bits where the actor kept starting and stoping to fire the gun. All good practice though, hopefully in a few years I'll be able to nail that kind of thing every time.

[Erik Brul]

Hi Mike,
Congratulations.. nice nice footage !
Jamie has a good point but in these scenery i think that is forgiven.. somehow for me the bit of horizon shots even increased the suspense and i found it indeed a bit scary:mellow: ..
Once again, really nice stuff

Best, Erik

[thecrew]

Very Nice work. One tip though, try to keep your posthand a bit more lose. Not only for the horizon but also for the panning left/right. i see some in your footage. That problem is a lot less using the 2 inch posts.

But very nice work, nice to see a v25 could do the job. ( its you of course, not the sled )

[Mike M]

Thanks for the comments.

I managed to get a copy of rushes and there were actually quite a few takes where I kept the horizon level. The director and the editor obviously don't notice horizons the same way as we do. I might do a "steadi" edit just to make myself look better :)

The V25 worked well, although there was slight vibration in some shots. This may have been because we attached the camera via the thread on the top handle, which isn't ideal but they didn't want to invert the camera and I didn't have a cage. It's no Pro/MKV/Ultra 2, but I guess you don't learn to drive in a Ferrari.

Job, some of the shots were done one handed to help with balance. What do you do in that situation? Hand on gimbal or post... or tell production to hire a quad bike?

[thecrew]

I hear ya, but still it should be possible to run one handed on the post without the right,left feeling. But i see big hollywood production with shots that look much worse. So concrats on your work