Grip Rigs For Cinematic Camera Movement (Part 2)

INTRODUCTION

There are many reasons to move the camera in filmmaking. It can be used to reveal more of a space and establish the geography of a scene. It can elevate action in fight  sequences. Evoke an emotion or a tone. Or even provide an unusual perspective to a scene.

To move a cinema camera in different ways requires different types of mechanical rigs. In this video let’s go over some of the common, interesting and even unusual rigs that are used in the film industry to create motion.   

BOLT

The Bolt is a specialised robotic arm rig, which is designed to move the camera at extremely high speeds, extremely precisely. It is built by Mark Roberts Motion Control and is the go to robotic arm for industry level film work. 

So, how does it work? This cinebot has a 6-axis robotic arm - which means it has 6 different points where the arm can swivel, rotate, pan, tilt and roll the camera. This arm is attached to a heavy base which is designed to slide along a track - which come in 3 metre length pieces - giving it an additional lateral movement axis. 

This total of 7-axes of movement means that it can move the camera in very complex ways, almost anywhere within a confined area. What makes the Bolt special is that it comes with software called Flair that is used to program each move that it makes, frame by frame. 

Once a move is programmed it can be saved and repeated as many times as necessary in frame perfect passes. In other words it can perform the exact same motion multiple times, so that each move records exactly the same image, even when broken down frame for frame.

This allows filmmakers to record multiple plate shots of the same take - where they can record different details in different parts of the frame multiple times, then layer different sections of each plate on top of each other in post production.

For example, this is a shot from a commercial that I camera assisted on a few years ago. The Bolt could be used to record two passes. One plate shot of the boy drinking orange juice, and another plate with a dog being cued to jump by an animal wrangler. 

In post, the animal wrangler could be cropped out and the motion of the dog jumping overlayed on top of the shot of the boy, so that it looked like it was recorded in a single take. This is made easy by the Bolt’s frame perfect, repeatable, programmed camera moves.

The Bolt is often combined with a high frame rate camera, like a Phantom, to shoot slow motion because the Bolt can move at extremely high speeds. When shooting slow motion, everything, including camera motion, gets slowed down. This means that to shoot extreme slow mo and still get a normal tracking movement, the camera needs to move at a much faster speed than normal.

It can also be used to get super fast camera motion when shooting with the camera at a normal frame rate.

It’s actually a bit scary how fast this heavy chunk of metal can move. That’s why the Bolt operators will usually either cordon off the area that the arm moves in or give a stern warning to cast and crew not to go anywhere near the arm, unless the operators give permission. Because if this thing were to hit anything at a high speed it’d be super dangerous if not fatal. 

For this reason, camera assistants will usually strip the camera of a monitor, mattebox, eyepiece and any additional weight that could offset balance or upset smooth movement or even pieces that could fly off while the arm moves and stops at extreme speeds.

Another use case for the Bolt is to program it to do very specific, macro moves. Using the Flair software and a special focus motor, the focus distance can also be programmed for each frame - since pulling focus at these extreme speeds manually is very difficult, if not impossible. 

This means it can repeat moves in macro shots, get multiple plates, all while maintaining perfect preprogrammed focus.

Although you can do incredible things with the Bolt, it’s usually reserved for specialised, pre-planned shots only, as it's both an expensive toy to rent and because moving it around and programming it takes a lot of time to do.     

TOWERCAM

Another piece of equipment which is designed for a very niche type of camera movement is the Towercam. This is a telescoping camera column which is designed to get completely vertical, booming camera motion. It is remote controlled by an operator near the base of the rig.

Unlike a Technocrane, which is more of an angled telescoping arm, the Towercam is an arm that moves completely vertically and can either be rigged from the ground or rigged from above and telescope up and down.

Although the hydraulic arm of a dolly can also be used to do vertical up and down moves, the range of its arm is much more limited to around 1 metre of vertical boom movement. There are different versions of the Towercam, but the XL can extend the height of the camera to almost 10 metres.

This is a great tool for getting large, symmetrical, up and down moves - which is why Robert Yeoman often uses it when shooting with Wes Anderson, who loves himself some symmetry. Using a dolly for horizontal tracking moves and a Towercam for vertical tracking moves.

But, it can also be rigged with a remote head, which allows an operator on the ground to pan and tilt the camera while it moves vertically. Which is great for this kind of a shot of tracking an actor walking up a flight of spiralling stairs. 

It can also be used for doing fast vertical moves, capturing live events, nature documentaries, or any other application where straight, vertical motion is required.       

3-AXIS GIMBAL

Let’s move on to a piece of gear that most people may know: a 3-axis gimbal. This is a stabilisation device that is used to keep the camera steady while capturing fluid motion. 

3-Axis refers to the three motorised points on the rig that counteract any unwanted camera shake. These axes control the tilt, sometimes called pitch, which is the vertical up and down motion, the pan, sometimes called yaw, which is the horizontal left and right motion and the roll, which is the side to side camera motion.

By stabilising the camera across these three points, these motors minimise shakes and vibrations, and give the camera movement a smooth, floating, fluid feeling - very similar to what a Steadicam does. 

Probably the two most popular gimbals on the market for industry level film production are currently the DJI Ronin 2 and the Freefly Movi Pro. 

There are many reasons these stabilising devices have soared in popularity in recent years. For one, they make it very quick to set up and adjust a shot with stable movement - much quicker than setting up and levelling a dolly and tracks. 

For another, their relatively light weight makes it easy to shoot in hard to access locations, where bringing other heavier gear like a crane or a dolly isn’t possible.

They are also flexible in their applications. For example, they can double up as a stabilised head - which can be operated remotely with camera wheels or a joystick - or they can be operated in a handheld configuration using the natural drift of the motors. 

Whereas in the past it may have been necessary to hire a Steadicam, a Steadicam operator, a stabilised Libra head and a Libra head technician. Now the productions can get away with hiring one gimbal technician with a gimbal - which can be switched between different rigs - including a drone.

Their flexibility also extends to how they can be operated. For example, shooting from a dolly on a track locks you into one lateral line that you can shoot from, while shooting with a gimbal is like shooting with a stabilised handheld rig. It can go anywhere your feet go, which makes it easy to adjust to the movements of actors changing position during a take. 

However, there are a few reasons why some DPs don’t like using them much. 

The camera needs to be balanced so that no undue strain is applied to one of the motors. Sometimes this is easier said than done, especially when using a heavier camera build or longer lenses. Any time a lens is changed it needs to be rebalanced. If a certain weight is exceeded it may not be possible to balance it at all.

Even when accompanied by a gimbal technician, these machines can give technical issues. In my experience, working with a Steadicam and working with a gimbal is like night and day. A Steadicam is simply engineered and almost never runs into technical issues, whereas gimbals almost always need to be tweaked by assistants to deal with technical glitches that pop up.

Also, unless the gimbal is being operated by a second operator with wheels or a joystick, it can be difficult to get precise framing, as the motors create a natural drift of movement as you move or stop, which can be hard to predict.

A last advantage of a gimbal is that they can sometimes be combined with other grip rigs for a special move. For example, when I assisted on this show, the key grip came up with an overhead sliding rail system with a bungee cord that the gimbal could be attached to. This took some of the strain of operating the heavy camera away and made it quick and easy to shoot fight scenes.

Or there are special shots like this, which combine a gimbal with the final rig we’ll talk about: a Spydercam.

SPYDERCAM

A Spydercam is a cable suspended rig that allows for smooth, controlled aerial movement. 

Setting one up begins by rigging several high tensile strength cables which need to be securely anchored above the shooting area so that the cables don’t touch the ground. 

A camera rig with a stabilised remote head is then suspended from those cables and its lateral and horizontal movement is controlled by motorised winches that are connected to the suspension cables.

This way the physical position of the overhead camera can be changed by an operator, called the pilot, using software while at the same time another camera operator can pan, tilt or roll the camera to change the frame that it sees.

The Spydercam was regularly used in films before the widespread use of commercial drones, to get controlled, smooth aerial footage within confined spaces, which couldn’t be shot by using a helicopter.

For example, aerial plate shots which swing or fall through a highrise city which they could later drop shots of characters into.

Even after drones became popular production tools, there are still applications for the Spydercam - most notably for indoor scenes or scenes shot in a studio that require controlled aerial camera moves.

For example, the shot mentioned before used a Spydercam with a specially designed release. This allowed a stabilised gimbal to float from one floor to the next, which the camera operator could then grab on the second floor and begin shooting with in a handheld configuration.

Another reason filmmakers may want to use a Spydercam is for a shot which starts close to actors. Having a drone start this close to the ground, objects or actors would cause a visible wind on screen and would also be a bit dangerous. Instead a precisely controllable Spydercam could be used to start on a nice, tight shot, which was then brought all the way up to a massive aerial wide by winching it up the cables.