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jerry bruckheimer round the world shot

The most important thing is to keep the camera as steady as possible (so either on a track or a steadicam-type rig). Keeping the shot wide and using a deep DOF will help mask imperfections in your movements. Also doing it on a smooth surface will help as well.


Lethal
 
puckhead193 said:
great scene, terrible movie :p
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I don't know... I was pretty entertained watching it. Certainly no Citizen Kane, but the cinematography is nice and the bad puns made me laugh involontarily at times. :) Michael Bay will never win an Oscar, but he knows how to handle a camera, for example in this shot.

Usually for this kind of shot, you would use a dolly system with tracks. They are quite expensive though, and even the DIY ones will take up a lot of space in your garage. So if you hardly ever need them, I don't think it's a good idea.

Walking around however is not an option in my opinion. While the viewer may forgive imperfections in the smoothness of the horizontal movement, vertical movement from your steps will just look very wrong and as if you were walking around the person. ;)

I would probably try to get something with wheels and tracks to put your camera on or something with wheels to put yourself and your camera on. No budget dolly shots are often times done with a wheelchair. You can borrow these or even buy them pretty cheap, sit in one and have a friend push it along a pre-drawn circle line.

You could also try mounting a rope to the "dolly" (i.e. wheelchair, skateboard, or anything with wheels) and to the floor where your actor stands. Keeping tension on the rope will make sure that you always have the same distance from your actor (for a shallower DOF possibility).

There are also cheap tripod dollys (search on Amazon) without tracks. While those are not perfect, you could get away with it by using the rope trick and a really smooth ground.
 
matteusclement said:
I would try some of those ideas, but the roof I am filming on has gravel on it.
ROUGH.
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Oh, that's a pain in the a**...

For such a shot, you want to keep two things constant: The camera's distance from your subject and the camera's distance from the floor. For the first task, a rope to the center is still a pretty good idea and will already make your motion way smoother. The second one is harder to do on a rough ground.

If you are working on gravel, anything with wheels will have to have very big wheels. I have a bike carriage with 20'' rubber wheels that would work, maybe you can get something like that. Or you can still try the wheelchair, since the back wheels are pretty big. Try pulling it backwards. Maybe you can get a unicycle, maybe even with a damped saddle to mount your camera on (ask at a local bike store if they can lend you one).

That's all I can come up with. I would very much like to hear what you ended up doing and see the result. :)
 
what about tying a rope to the actor on one end and a rope on your monopod on the other?
then circle around.

sure you lose a foot of distance, but it would be smooth. the shot would have to be above the waist.
 
matteusclement said:
what about tying a rope to the actor on one end and a rope on your monopod on the other?
then circle around.

sure you lose a foot of distance, but it would be smooth. the shot would have to be above the waist.
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It would be way better than without any rope. Try tying it to his foot though. You will lose more than one foot of rope on his/her upper body (pi*diameter, which is more like 3 feet). Also I don't know if the monopod will do you any good for keeping the height constant. It will further smooth your motion though.

So, as a first try, this sound like a good idea. If you are worried about losing the 3 foot distance (I don't know what camera and aperture you are shooting, maybe your DOF is really shallow), you can take a thin rope (there is probably an English word for this but I don't know it) twice the length of your distance. Tie it together and have it go around your actor and around your monopod. As you move around the scene, the rope will glide over your monopod leg and you will keep the distance. Did I explain this understandably? Not sure, it's always easier with gestures... ;)
 
floh said:
It would be way better than without any rope. Try tying it to his foot though. You will lose more than one foot of rope on his/her upper body (pi*diameter, which is more like 3 feet). Also I don't know if the monopod will do you any good for keeping the height constant. It will further smooth your motion though.

So, as a first try, this sound like a good idea. If you are worried about losing the 3 foot distance (I don't know what camera and aperture you are shooting, maybe your DOF is really shallow), you can take a thin rope (there is probably an English word for this but I don't know it) twice the length of your distance. Tie it together and have it go around your actor and around your monopod. As you move around the scene, the rope will glide over your monopod leg and you will keep the distance. Did I explain this understandably? Not sure, it's always easier with gestures... ;)
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I think it's a really good idea. I will try it today and post ASAP.
 
Ive seen this shot done in other cool ways like a turntable.
Usually for fight scenes with green screen.
Only problem is the lighting.
You would have to attach lighting to the turntable as well.
Easily done in post and would be a cool challenge ;)
 
floh said:
Walking around however is not an option in my opinion. While the viewer may forgive imperfections in the smoothness of the horizontal movement, vertical movement from your steps will just look very wrong and as if you were walking around the person. ;)
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You'd be surprised at how far just counter balancing the camera can help eliminate unwanted movement (especially on smaller cameras). And if you are a bit more industrious this home-made stabilizer featuring a PVC gimbal produces some very good results (video at bottom of page).

You can also look at getting a stabilizer from Glidecam. Maybe some place in your area rents these?


An option to help over come the gravel could be to lay down sheets of heavy plywood and lay track (or walk) on that. I don't think a wheel chair will work well on gravel as the wheels are narrow and will want to sink into the rocks.


Lethal
 
Policar said:
Spyder type dolly and flexible track might do it. Pretty affordable to rent, but a compromise compared with how they probably actually did this...
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Yea we have a kit here and wish I could take home and use for myself ;)
 
Oh god. I love your ideas.

I should have mentioned that I am on a DIY budget.

I was thinking about doing something with a clean slate and a green screen. That way I could do the round about on the clean slate with just a peg to rotate around.

Well... I am doing a test today and it's over cast. Should be good.
 
Ive witnessed some fun DIY shoots ;)
Youd be suprised what you can do when you have friends that like doing stuff like this. I know this seems juvenile but this past student of mine (years ago) showed up in class with his full-length Star Wars Fan movie done with no budget. You can find the trailer here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7ADFbBPXNA
 
Kevin Monahan said:
Just walk around the subject, and then run it through the Warp Stabilizer in AE. :D
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That's the plan but warp is a bit of a tricky beast. It's hit and miss so getting the footage to be aces the first time is best. Distance is a big one. I learned that from my NATO video.
 
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