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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 :)

Taylor Swift - Blank Space music video, shot with Dragons and the Ronin.

I thought lighting and VFX would be more of a secret sauce than lens choice.
 
Rome Will said:
Chris,

Awesome news! Looks like it's kitted all the way out...MB and everything. Your shot's look great so I know it worked. Again, thx for posting!

Side note question, but where are the handles?
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In this particular photo, I was using the Ronin as a remote head with multi cameras. The handle was in another camera's shot...
 
Rome Will said:
Yep, thanks for posting Jordan. I saw the part with the Ronin and Epic...wow, no help holding...like a EZ-rig or Flowcine arm to help...somebody's been eating their Wheaties! lol!
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Joseph and I freely switch off operating sometimes seemingly for no rime or reason, sometimes I'm more concerned with nailing the placement of a handheld light or bounce, and knowing his operating style, it's not a problem for me. Other times Joseph insists on pushing dolly so I'll hop on and operate. It really depends on the job and individual shot.

We we did some very long lens running and circle-track type shots, all on the Ronin. I'm talking 135mm...

There are only like 4 standard dolly shots in the vid, and they all appear in the BTS, ironically.
 
Great work Chris FYI Just downloaded "American Express Unstaged Taylor Swift" App very interesting.
 
Chris, in hindsight do you think the Ronin is too heavy for anything more than a one or two day shoot, or did having Joe to swap out with make it negligible?

That is crazy; 54million views! Nice! (Personally, I still like the Eminem SOTLs intro vid more though.)
 
Not a Swift fan but that video looked fantastic. (I second the Eminem short vote)
 
So are the lenses used on this some top secret thing, or is there a political reason for being unable to disclose?
 
Wow, what a treat. Fantastic all the way around, creative directing and writing (hell of an ending and payoff), just gorgeous cinematography, and Taylor is an awesome actress. Bravo, Chris!

Few questions if you don't mind? How many days of production did you guys have, and how big was the crew? Also, I've been using my Dragon and Ronin combo a lot recently and loving it; what did you use for your power supply (I made an AB battery belt with a long lemo cable that i just tap into and fly with, I haven't noticed any stabilizing or motor problems from it. I just got sick of using Redvolts due to their short supply and, to a lesser extent, their weight), and what lenses were you flying on there? I've been digging the Ultra Primes on it with a Preston, but weighing it (along with the Lightbridge) dfinitely takes some prep work ahead of time to balance correctly.

This is my favorite video of the year. Great work, thanks so much for sharing :)
 
Well the Taylor video has been out a little more than 2 weeks and we just blew past 100 million views! Maybe 50 of those were from me, but i'm not ashamed. ;-)


Frank Hague said:
Wow, what a treat. Fantastic all the way around, creative directing and writing (hell of an ending and payoff), just gorgeous cinematography, and Taylor is an awesome actress. Bravo, Chris!

Few questions if you don't mind? How many days of production did you guys have, and how big was the crew? Also, I've been using my Dragon and Ronin combo a lot recently and loving it; what did you use for your power supply (I made an AB battery belt with a long lemo cable that i just tap into and fly with, I haven't noticed any stabilizing or motor problems from it. I just got sick of using Redvolts due to their short supply and, to a lesser extent, their weight), and what lenses were you flying on there? I've been digging the Ultra Primes on it with a Preston, but weighing it (along with the Lightbridge) dfinitely takes some prep work ahead of time to balance correctly.

This is my favorite video of the year. Great work, thanks so much for sharing :)
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I use a Gold-Mount on the side of the camera with a janky aluminum mounting plate I fabricated from some scrap over to an obsolete electrical device… That allows a Gold-Mount plate to be mounted to the side of the camera and I can still handle the weight mostly. Unless the majority of the shots need to be at eye-level, which gets tiring very quickly. Operating inverted can help, but it's a little goofier to operate that way. The end result is that I'm on the group buy for the L'Aigle Exoskeleton as I despise Easy Rigs.

Mathias Erichsen said:
Wow! Great stuff!
Did you shoot this on Re-housed Canon FD's?
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That photo I posted of my Ronin setup was from a different job, btw… And yea, that was a rehoused FD done by Artur in Poland. I have a full set of those as well for my Ronin setup as they are very light weight.
 
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Christopher Probst said:
I use a Gold-Mount on the side of the camera with a janky aluminum mounting plate I fabricated from some scrap over to an obsolete electrical device… That allows a Gold-Mount plate to be mounted to the side of the camera and I can still handle the weight mostly. Unless the majority of the shots need to be at eye-level, which gets tiring very quickly. Operating inverted can help, but it's a little goofier to operate that way. The end result is that I'm on the group buy for the L'Aigle Exoskeleton as I despise Easy Rigs.
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Yeah, I'm not a fan of the EasyRig - Ronin combo either. I rented one for a five day commercial shoot I directed and ditched it half way into the first day when I saw how much shakier it was making our operator's footage.

As for the side mount battery, have you tried Cinemilled's new extended arms so you can use the QuickBack Gold mount? I'm excited to try it out: https://vimeo.com/111154673
 
Christopher Probst said:
That photo I posted of my Ronin setup was from a different job, btw… And yea, that was a rehoused FD done by Artur in Poland. I have a full set of those as well for my Ronin setup as they are very light weight.
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Ahh! I see :) What do you think about the rehouse by Artur? Thinking about getting a set myself..
 
I think for what they are, basically a resleeve of FD optics, they are great. I frequently use his 100mm and 135mm to extend out traditional K35s when I'm shooting with Camtec's K35 set (which are among the nicest set I've seen). I haven't seen the new generation of rehouses Artur is working on, which are a much more involved mechanical rebuild inside with increased focus rotation. I'd like to see those though.
 
Wow .. a passive Exoskeleton - completely missed that - thanks for the link.

My scriblings

+ I think think there maybe a market for an 'Active Piston on an Active Universal joint' designed to stabilise the item ontop in XYZ space with a residual load weight of 250g.
+ Anchor point on From of Vest. Power on Back of vest (going a small way to reign in centre of gravity)

+ Second Exoskelton part would be the transfer of weight down to your left and right feet. Actively transferring a proportion of the weight under/to you left and/or right shoe. Active Front of vest.

+ Active could incorporate active lockout of a pneumatic / tension system. Second Exoskelton would needs a low power cpu to coordinate.

Now I am thinking

Use a passive Exoskelton for the top - switching to as light materials as possible. What about a CF mesh around Boron tube?
And use a passive Exoskelton to transfer weight to your shoes....


... is it time to wake up yet?

AJ
 
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