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How can I do a rising vertical shot well and inexpensively?

Stephen Pruitt

Stephen Pruitt

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Hi all. . .

I'm in the planning stages for our next film, "Terminal," and I'm thinking of a particular shot or two that I will need. Here's what I need to do:

I want the camera to be straight over a bed, looking straight down, and then very slowly and smoothly rise up (or lower down) over the bed. I realize that I will have to knock a hole in the ceiling overhead the bed, and that's not a problem. What I need to know if what inexpensive (UNDER $1000) piece of gear would you recommend I rig up to accomplish that shot? It's needs to be a "money shot" in the sense that it can't wiggle or jump or anything else. Obviously, some sort of hydraulics are suggested here, but I won't have that option. A jib won't work before I won't be able to get it into the room (and jibs obviously swirl in an arc, anyway).

Any thoughts?

Thanks!

Stephen
 
1 Why can't you get a jib into the room? 2. They can move straight up or down if you are on track . 3. Maybe if it's a bedroom, and it's and important shot, you can build a bedroom set (no ceiling, and you can get what ever you want in there).

Nick

PS, How far do you have to move? Dolly, Ubangi, and risers will get you about three feet of movement. Get a good grip and bag the shit out of it.
 
Hi there, Nick. I was hoping to avoid having to build an entire bedroom set, as it will be REALLY costly, as opposed to just doing something with knocking the ceiling out and redoing it. And getting a big-enough jib into a room will be a killer, anyway. I was wondering if I could put some cables on the camera and then somehow run a motor to pull the cables.

Thanks.

Stephen
 
The real question is how far do you have to move? Ceiling to bedspread ? 3 feet?

Down is certainly easier than up.

Nick
 
Stephen Pruitt said:
Hi all. . .

I'm in the planning stages for our next film, "Terminal," and I'm thinking of a particular shot or two that I will need. Here's what I need to do:

I want the camera to be straight over a bed, looking straight down, and then very slowly and smoothly rise up (or lower down) over the bed. I realize that I will have to knock a hole in the ceiling overhead the bed, and that's not a problem. What I need to know if what inexpensive (UNDER $1000) piece of gear would you recommend I rig up to accomplish that shot? It's needs to be a "money shot" in the sense that it can't wiggle or jump or anything else. Obviously, some sort of hydraulics are suggested here, but I won't have that option. A jib won't work before I won't be able to get it into the room (and jibs obviously swirl in an arc, anyway).

Any thoughts?

Thanks!

Stephen
Click to expand...


What kind of ceiling is it? It's probably easier to rig a fairly stable pulley system than to knock out the ceiling above it. Probably cheaper too.
 
I'd think seriously about building a room set. This is often much cheaper than you might think, if you can dress it with things that you own and after all, you might need only three of the four walls. If the location of the bedroom is an important one, then you can get more value and use out of the set and it is always easier to work on a set than in a real location. You don't need a true sound stage, you can build it anywhere with the room to hold it, particularly if sync sound is going to be an issue.
My 2 cents...
 
Stephen, the arc that you seem concerned about will not be noticeable on a jib if you undersling the head. And you don't need a big expensive jib, either, look into the Long Valley with the undersling bracket, it will cost you a lot less than taking out a ceiling and will provide you with a great tool as well.
 
Thanks for the suggestions. I have a 5.5' Kessler Crane now, which I use for indoor use, but it's not even close to being able to give me the straight down linearity I'm looking for. I was thinking pulleys, but I could be nuts.

A sound stage just won't work. I've got a $300,000 total budget on this film, and my actors and crew are going to be getting $220,000 of that. Add to that that the room needs to have a hardwood floor, etc., it will have to be the real McCoy, I'm afraid.

Jim Hare, how did you get that roll in the shot? With a head or with a twist of the jib? Nice shot, though. I really liked it.

I'm looking for about an 8' to 10' move in total, starting with a close-up and then moving up slowly to a wide.

I'm going to try some pulley stuff and see what happens.

Thanks!

Stephen
 
Hi Stephen,

Did the twist in post, which is why I shot 11mm. I did other takes straight up between 16-28mm, but wanted to experiment with it. Found I could do a full 2k without stretching the image.

From what you've said, I agree, pulleys are probably the best way. Maybe cut a hole large enough for the camera to get through and pulley all the way to the rafters!

Best of luck on your film!
 
no money? then change gravity to help you.

tack some carpet to a wall. stand a bed against it. stand actor against this. make bed around actor. use coat hangar to hold errant sheets etc. use hairspray on errant hair. screw a cheap sidetable to the top of the bed. glue a lamp and bedside book to sidetable. pin discarded clothes/slippers to carpet. set up a dolly tracking back from bed with 3 axis head (3 axis fluid 7/weaver steadman - or turn the camera head "sideways" which will allow the spin). put a horizontal rooflamp or ceiling fan at the end of your "crane" (to suggest getting to the "roof")

voilà. uber low budget dead vertical Barton fink style crane shot.
 
Oh yeah, 7 Jib . . .

And 7 Jib 3rd axis (which I don't make anymore, but I have a rental solution where you put a 7 ON a 7).

I've also done the "stand the bed against the wall" trick and it's cool but also it doesn't look quite the same, but that could be just what you are after, something that is weird and off-putting but also can be beautiful.
 
The bed on the wall trick is pretty cool, provided you can find a room with hardwood floors on the walls, and. . .

I think it is going to have to be pulleys.

:-)

Stephen
 
post a link once your are done. curious to see how it worked out. I did a similar shot just by attaching a rope to the end of the camera and stabilizing. But at the end it worked better spinning rather then dead straight. http://www.vimeo.com/4178046 at about 1:44.
 
Multiple pulleys should work. You need to stabilize it somehow, perhaps with weighted arms extending outward. It would have to be a very slow, careful move to avoid swinging all over the place. If you arrange the pulleys 90 degrees turned from one another, you might have better luck. Also, the two wires would need to be attached to one another somewhere to move together. Maybe even three pulleys/ wires, to add stability. Do post some behind the scenes tests.
 
Stephen,
As Joe points out your pulley setup will need to be stabilized and/or weighted if you go that route.
I have done shots similar to what you described here using a jib, and not to get into a pissing match over jibs, let me just suggest as was mentioned earlier, changing to a higher end jib should allow you to lock off your side movement if needed, and provide the stable shot your after. As far as the room goes, you know better than I do what type of shot you are after, but let me say that lens selection on the shot will make all the difference, as far as the distance of the move needed, and the area of the room seen on camera.

All the Best!

Dave
 
Well this way is cheap, easy, but not necessarily second best, depending on exactly what you need.. if your planning to finish to 2k why not make use of the 4k, use a fairly wide lens and perform an image pan in post (obviously panning from center outwards).

I have my own floating-point sub-pixel accurate panning tool (I have no commercial editing software at all, at the moment..and processing TIFFs can be slow, but..) I'm sure something like After Effects could produce an only slightly inferior pan.. so long as it allows very accurate sub-pixel movement (ie, high quality resampling, especially important if the shot is fairly long, I don't know, I'm out of date on software..don't use Premiere though, its resampling is crap historically..), the effect can be very beautiful.
 
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