Jib arm with stabilized head for filming on lake?

[Tom Lowe]

I have a shoot coming up at Lake Powell, and I want to find a jib with a stabilized head so I can skim the Epic across the water at high speed, and race up the canyons with the camera right above the water.

I understand that stablized heads are very expensive to rent? What is the cheapest way I could do this? I will probably be operating from a 26-foot deck boat like this... and shooting from the bow...

[Nick Gardner]

You could go steadicam low mode with a garfield mount and some speed rail. Put the camera in a splash housing. Cheap, all mechanical, no electronics to get wet. You are on a lake, it's fairly flat how stable is the boat at speed? You could build a speed rail mount on the front of the boat and rent a Mako head, they are fairly affordable.

Nick

[Chad Lancaster]

sorry to sidetrack

Tom, I use to go house boating on lake powell every year as a kid. There is a cool pothole arch that shows in low water level. Its up Rock Creek Bay @ 37° 8'9.71"N 111°10'14.81"W

http://www.dbherberg.com/powell/Pano...CreekArchV.jpg

[Nick Gardner]

http://www.airsealand.com/rentals/St...ohead/pricing/

Mako head

Nick

[David Collard]

There's a small company that's been at NAB the past two years. They rent small and medium gyro stabilized units that mount efficiently.
It's called a "Tyler Minigyro". (818) 989 4420, tylerminigyro.com

[Tom Lowe]

Can I undersling the Tyler mini gyro somehow?

I will probably have an ATM dual KS8 gyro rig with me, but there is no real way to get the camera closer to the water with the ATM rig, that I know of. The deck is already a couple feet off the water, and the ATM rig will add another couple feet.

[Michael Panfeld]

Have you considered mounting the cam on a small remote controlled helicoptor? Not the tiny ones, the ones with like 8 foot blades that can easily carry a 50 lb payload and are usually have 3-axis gyro stabilized platforms. My friend has a service in DC for this. I am sure that there are others closer to LPowell.

[paulherrin]

haha, i think there have already been some... "issues" flying helicopters over lakes. probably don't want a repeat.

[David Mullen ASC]

The only time I've shot boat-to-boat crane stuff involved a Libra head -- I don't know what the cheaper version of that would be. I suppose with a 5K original you might be able to zoom in and stabilize the footage in post if it's not too rocky.

[Ivan Kovax]

I have a shoot coming up at Lake Powell, and I want to find a jib with a stabilized head so I can skim the Epic across the water at high speed, and race up the canyons with the camera right above the water.

I understand that stablized heads are very expensive to rent? What is the cheapest way I could do this? I will probably be operating from a 26-foot deck boat like this... and shooting from the bow...

Tom - if you are willing to be a foot or two high... get some old car tires, place appropriately at the front of the boat for shockproofing. Place the high hat (perhaps Mitchell to get another few inches lower) and go for it. If you shoot at a slightly higher shutterspeed you can remove the rest of the bumps using warp in after effects. you will not, however, remain horizontal to the water line and will be at the whims of the boat's manovuring. Alternatively I have learned through experience that the Hunan body makes a pretty bitchin shock absorber... Not reccomending it... Just sayin...

You could certainly jerry rig a badass Jib with ghetto stabilisation but the more arms and hanging bits you have, you will technically always get more wobbles as they are amplified in the structure.

HTH...

Ivan

EDIT:

Ignore everything I said. I reckon the steadycam idea mention above is killer!
+1 to that!