Car Rigging and Car Mounts - Best Results?

[ian dart]

hi mitch,

a couple more rigs i have done, in the ute (pickup) i tech screwed the high hat to the floor and harnesed the camera crew to hard points
i have seen some behind the scenes of top gear and they hang a jib arm out the back of a pickup for some of their shots but they have a ton of experience and a special camera vehicle.
cheers

 

[Mitch Martinez]

Maybe you should describe the shot you are trying to do so we can come up with specific solutions?

Hi Paul,

Totally... Basically, the thought is to do the shot that's seen on Top Gear's show relatively frequently where it's a simple enough looking jib shot

- the camera car is in front of the subject car (the subject car is driving toward the camera with matching speed of the camera car). the camera starts at a higher angle and jibs down about 4 or 5 feet (guessing on that distance). no need for any crazy remote pan/tilts or anything...

 

[Paul Nordin]

Hi Paul,

Totally... Basically, the thought is to do the shot that's seen on Top Gear's show relatively frequently where it's a simple enough looking jib shot

- the camera car is in front of the subject car (the subject car is driving toward the camera with matching speed of the camera car). the camera starts at a higher angle and jibs down about 4 or 5 feet (guessing on that distance). no need for any crazy remote pan/tilts or anything...

The problem you are going to have is the anguar momentum of the jib arm reacting to the bumps and dips of the road. For shorter moves a steadicam arm is great. If you can find a super flat stretch of road you might be able to pull it off with a jib arm that has it's motion damped. Other than that, at least in my experience, the options start to get very expensive to deliver smooth quality results.

 

[Mitch Martinez]

We'd definitely plan on doing it on a flat stretch of road. I forgot to mention that. We want to make it as simple as possible to reduce complications and variables.

Also, the shot itself would be only two or three seconds before cutting to the next shot. I'm hoping that helps our odds...

 

[Paul Nordin]

Also, the shot itself would be only two or three seconds before cutting to the next shot. I'm hoping that helps our odds...

Yeah, that will probably help. The quicker the move the less car motion will affect the move. Just shot bag and brace the crap out of your jib arm, and you might think about using a less heavy cam on the jib for this shot than the Red One.

 

[Frank Glencairn]

So here's another question: has anyone done a jib shot on a moving vehicle? Like from the back of a pick-up truck or something?

I was second unit DP on "Indiana Jones and the Spear of Destiny". We had a U-haul trailer and simply put the jib/tripod on it and strapped it down a bit. Worked great for the stunt sequence with the motorcycle.

Sorry, I don´t have a better photo.

Frank

 

[Mitch Martinez]

I was second unit DP on "Indiana Jones and the Spear of Destiny". We had a U-haul trailer and simply put the jib/tripod on it and strapped it down a bit. Worked great for the stunt sequence with the motorcycle.

Sorry, I don´t have a better photo.

Frank

This rules. I'm psyched to try it out. Any recommendations besides strapping it down? Is wind resistance something that needs to be accounted for with the jib operation?

 

[Kwan Khan]

must have insurance please