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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Has anyone successfully did the "spinning camera" move similar to what Michael Bay...

Scott Welsch

Scott Welsch

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Has anyone successfully did the "spinning camera" move similar to what Michael Bay...

Does regularly? I have a budget and want to try this, but keep the camera stabilized is proving to be a daunting task.
 
If you don’t have foreground, parallax shot will look boring (lol). as soon as you have foreground parallax things look more nature and real

This is one of my favorite, called Twisting parallax Pivot (with back parallax). Mostly use If Character’s thoughts are moving around character.

( Tip: Push in and little boom up, Push In with slight angle)

My way is... steadicam + mount gimbal and I am all IN... (lol)

12973111_10155294634653084_497850279544121008_o.jpg
 
Keeping the camera stabilized for this short of shot is a case of using a dolly in most images I'd imagine. Low angle, longish lens with large objects in background to aid parallax(but with enough light to have a relative high f'stop so that depth of field isn't too narrow), actors rotating opposite direction to camera track to increase speed of the dolly.

I am not certain but I think that most of these would be achieved on a curved dolly track, but you might be able also to get a similar effect on a straight track with a jib arm on the dolly.
 
what? you cant do this handheld? lol j/k

seriously though any good steadicam op can do this in a heartbeat.
 
Circular dolly track and a pedestal to make the vertical motion then you run in circles and aim for the center of rotation until you get get it right.
 
This is not that hard with a gimbal and a remote operator..
 
It's more than just having a circular dolly track. It's also how it's staged, there are background and foreground elements moving in opposite directions and sometimes having vertical movement. Battleship, which was produced by Bay, tried to do the same but the director didn't have the same idea about how it's visually done, meaning it was just a low angle shot without moving parts.
 
Christoffer Glans said:
It's more than just having a circular dolly track. It's also how it's staged, there are background and foreground elements moving in opposite directions and sometimes having vertical movement. Battleship, which was produced by Bay, tried to do the same but the director didn't have the same idea about how it's visually done, meaning it was just a low angle shot without moving parts.
Click to expand...

I believe I saw this exact shot you're referring to and it was incredibly weird to watch.
 
Bjorn,

I checked out your shot... AMAZING work fam! How did you conduct it? I presume dolly track, but the freeze frame look is also what I am curious about. I saw how they did on the Matrix with hundreds of cameras, but I am sure things have progressed since then.
 
Björn Benckert said:
I did this with the milo long ago. A Bayham with a freeze lol :)

https://app.frame.io/f/iMQ7Sp5R
Click to expand...

Wow man, pretty amazing work! I'm also dying to know how you pulled off some of those freeze frames. I know Syndicate is badass with CGI but still. That scene with the guy getting covered with flour is magic. You and Syndicate rule man
 
Nicholas Austin Skinner said:
Wow man, pretty amazing work! I'm also dying to know how you pulled off some of those freeze frames. I know Syndicate is badass with CGI but still. That scene with the guy getting covered with flour is magic. You and Syndicate rule man
Click to expand...

Thanks for kind words. But in ways it´s a lot more simpple than people think. Most of the stuff is people standing very still with lot of startch in their clothing and havng steal rods comming from the floor going up along their legs and such to lean at. Still it was quite a struggle to make as people simply still moved and alot of it is then camera projected imagery onto pologyon 3D models. The flour guy is simply a guy without flour n the air and than that is added as a CG element. When shooting this the big sturuggle was that the side walls of the sets needed to move in and out of the shot while I had the milo go full throttle in a 6m diameter arc. So when shooting the right side wall the left side wall was out of the shot making room for the rig, then while moving the right hand wall was pulled out right when it left frame and the left side wall was pushed in place... Not a small operation to say the least, and the half lap turn was 10 seconds in duration so things kind of needed to happen rather quickly... giving each wall less than 5 seconds to get out or in of the shot. On top of that those moving walls did not make it easy to light the set as the light could only be set in certain ways to not be distracted from these moving walls... We had most of it figured out in CG animatics, but then in reall life lights behavie a bit different, it bounce of people and god knows what. So yes it was a bit of a struggle. It did not help that I just bought my milo months before and this was kind of the first real project... and ofcocourse we end up slaming it into one of those moving walls in a take, so shit gone south, had to fly in service people from london over night etc. So it was an interesting project for sure. As I remember it won a Cannes lion and also was nominated the Campain of the century in some of those web thing awards.

Some nostalgic behind the scenes shots from it here: https://vimeo.com/104394162


Here is another take on the michael bay spin... The one man band aproach , me spinning it with the osmo on a selfie stick in Thailand :)

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10154225116608043
 
That is one hell of a commercial Bjorn, amazing work.

For the Michael Bay scenario, specially if wanting to use a 35 or a 50 mm to blur the background, i would say a 360 dolly track is the best option. To do this with a steadicam is doable- it feels like some of those shots are steadicam, others dolly- but it would require, depending on the lens of course, skilful steadicam operation. One trick to pull this off in a "no budget guerrilla" scenario, is to put the actor on a trolley with 360 degree wheels moving counter clock wise to the steadicam or dolly movement, or following their movement. It creates interesting- sometimes nauseating- results.
 
Björn Benckert said:
Thanks for kind words. But in ways it´s a lot more simpple than people think. Most of the stuff is people standing very still with lot of startch in their clothing and havng steal rods comming from the floor going up along their legs and such to lean at. Still it was quite a struggle to make as people simply still moved and alot of it is then camera projected imagery onto pologyon 3D models. The flour guy is simply a guy without flour n the air and than that is added as a CG element. When shooting this the big sturuggle was that the side walls of the sets needed to move in and out of the shot while I had the milo go full throttle in a 6m diameter arc. So when shooting the right side wall the left side wall was out of the shot making room for the rig, then while moving the right hand wall was pulled out right when it left frame and the left side wall was pushed in place... Not a small operation to say the least, and the half lap turn was 10 seconds in duration so things kind of needed to happen rather quickly... giving each wall less than 5 seconds to get out or in of the shot. On top of that those moving walls did not make it easy to light the set as the light could only be set in certain ways to not be distracted from these moving walls... We had most of it figured out in CG animatics, but then in reall life lights behavie a bit different, it bounce of people and god knows what. So yes it was a bit of a struggle. It did not help that I just bought my milo months before and this was kind of the first real project... and ofcocourse we end up slaming it into one of those moving walls in a take, so shit gone south, had to fly in service people from london over night etc. So it was an interesting project for sure. As I remember it won a Cannes lion and also was nominated the Campain of the century in some of those web thing awards.

Some nostalgic behind the scenes shots from it here: https://vimeo.com/104394162


Here is another take on the michael bay spin... The one man band aproach , me spinning it with the osmo on a selfie stick in Thailand :)

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10154225116608043
Click to expand...


BTW lol
 
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