How to do overhead shots from a bed (in a small NYC apartment)

[Andi Obarski]

Hey guys,

So I am shooting a short film in a few weeks and have been looking for options on how to shoot a wide (ish) shot and CU over a character lying in bed. We're shooting in an apartment in NYC and we will not have enough space/people power/ time to set up a jib that will support my Epic Dragon over the bed. Any suggestions on how to go about this?

Another thought I had was a right angle arm on a Kpod/Heavy duty tripod, but this also seems a little not so safe.

Thoughts?

Example is attached below.

Cheers

 

[Michael Tiemann]

Use a mirror.

 

[Domenic Barbero]

I usually put a cstand on either side of the bed and connect the gobo arms. then just rest the camera on top of the arms and secure and then just adjust the height of the stands. done it a few ways all using that as a base method.

 

[Bob Gundu]

Too bad as you don't need a crazy heavy duty jib to support an epic.
I have a bed scene in my review of the axis jib here.
https://vimeo.com/118034933

 

[David Mullen ASC]

A beefier version of Domenic's idea is a goal post rig with a combo stand on each side of the bed and a length of speed rail across. You'd need a few more grip items to somehow grab the camera.

Another idea is to put the bed vertically against the wall and have the actor stand up, leaning against it.

 

[Douglas Underdahl]

I've used the wall bed trick that David suggests. It's cool and you can dolly in and out of it if you lay tracks. It's also sort of "strange" because of the way people are standing instead of lying and the way the fabric and hair drapes. This could be a good thing or a bad thing.

Seven Jib takes about 90 seconds to set up. Fastest mini jib extant. You can borrow one from me for free if you promise to take some nice behind the scenes photos. Good thing about a jib is that you can move the camera around and up and down, etc whereas the two stand method is locked.

 

[Mike Quill]

Use a Dana Dolly/speed rail and invert the camera head.

 

[Peter Majtan]

I have used Steadicam for this exact kind of shot in the music video for MANDO DIAO...:

I stood up on a chair and used high mode with the sled being horizontal - camera pointing straight down...
I can guarantee you the apartments here in Japan are a lot smaller - you can see the top of my rig almost touching the ceiling while I am sitting down... ;o)

:sifone: Peter

 

[Emir Aksay]

You could use a gimbal with 2 people on each side lowering and raising the camera up?

 

[Ryan Skeete]

MichaelJQuill has a good idea. I did something similar using my Dana Dolly a while back. However, I removed the wheels and replaced with something called trigger clamps which I found kicking around the grip house.

 

[Andi Obarski]

Thanks, guys! These are all great suggestions!

 

[Peter Strietmann]

I've used a dana dolly with a wedge plate on junior and combo stands. I mounted the wedge directly to the dolly without a head and put a sand bag on the dolly. By doing it this way you can do an overhead dolly shot. It takes up very little space as well. I like this wedge plate because of it's versatility, http://www.filmtools.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=wedge+plate/

good luck. p