CAMERA HOUSING FOR SHOOTING HORSES

[David Conley]

Hey guys!

I am heading to Arizona in a couple of weeks to shoot a Western series and it looks like we are going to be doing some shots on the ground with horses passing right next to and sometimes over the camera. We have very experienced riders, but I am looking for a housing that will be rugged enough to keep my RED safe and not lose too much in terms of image quality. I was hoping you guys would have some good ideas. Any help is appreciated. Thanks!

 

[Eric M Hurt]

I think the first person to contact would be the animal wranglers to see what is acceptable to put under and around the horses. If they are movie wranglers they will have had experience with this many times before. As they say, you don't want to put the camera before the horse ;-)

 

[David Conley]

I think the first person to contact would be the animal wranglers to see what is acceptable to put under and around the horses. If they are movie wranglers they will have had experience with this many times before. As they say, you don't want to put the camera before the horse ;-)

Thanks, Eric! That's a good call. I am sure there will be some concern with horses tripping over a camera housing and most likely the wrangler has dealt with something like this before. I'll pick their brain. Ha! I guess I was putting the camera before the horse a bit

 

[Eric M Hurt]

No worries.
One thing you might consider (if okay with wranglers) is digging a hole to put the camera in and covering the hole with THICK lexan. This may be impractical since the lexan would need to be able to support the horse if it stepped on it, making it expensive, but if the budget worked you could get the camera lens right at ground hight and rake the angle a bit. I did this for a civil war film I shot this past summer. We had troops charge over the camera which was protected by lexan (although not as think as you would likely need). It's a dramatic perspective to cut to for a bit.

 

[Naim Sutherland]

I really like the idea of digging a small hole, Eric, that sounds like it would result in a pretty cool shot.

Hopefully the horse wranglers have some ideas. Horses naturally step over large rocks and fallen trees and stuff like that, so there must be a way to get them to step over and avoid the camera.

To protect the camera, I wonder if you could cut a pelican case or modify a flight case or something to allow a hole for the lens, but maintain its structural integrity, then just mount a clear filter in the case to protect the NDs and lenses from dust. Luckily you only need an 87mm hole for those Panchros.

No matter what you do, your issue is going to be making something strong enough to take the weight of of a horse and rider if they were to step on the camera without breaking the bank, so adamantium is out. I don't even know if a partially buried case would be good enough. You're talking about 2500lbs on a small surface area.

For horses going around it, I imagine you could mount a safety flag of some kind to the box... something vertical, brightly coloured that can be pushed over easily if they run into it, but horses will naturally avoid something like that and not crash into it. That approach would potentially ruin other angles though, and you'd be forced to shoot around it on the other camera.

 

[David Conley]

Thanks, guys! I like the idea of burying the box as well and I was considering that for the first horse shot, but I think you are right, Naim. 2500lbs on a small surface is going to be bad news for the camera and the horse. I do like the idea of a modified pelican case because that would be strong and pretty cost effective, since we don't have the biggest budget for this. I was hoping if I bury the box right in front of the most experienced rider, he could just jump over it, which could work for one of the shots we want. I will get the wrangler's info today and make some calls. Thanks, again!