Fly camera on wires?

S

SantaCruzMichael

Well-known member
Does anyone have experience flying a camera rig on wires?

I'd like to put together a system that does what the NFL's Cablecam (http://www.cablecam.com/) does but on a much smaller, single-axis scale.

Specifically, I shot a runway modeling show on Saturday night that was extremely crowded, limiting my ability to get the variety of angles I wanted. On Sunday, I was lying on the beach mulling over what could have worked better. My first thought was to bring a jib next time and work that over the heads of everyone in the first two rows.

Then I started thinking more abstract. For example, what if I put two c-stands (or something heavier) at either end of one side of the runway... positioned a short extension arm horizontally over the top of each stand, put a pair of Hollywood heads on that rod about ten inches apart... run two 25' steel cables parallel down the side of the runway, and through the Hollywood heads... hung 50lbs worth of shot bags from each cable end... and then ran a little camera platform back and forth on the pair of cables?

To pull the rig back and forth, a third line would run down the middle of the support cables, attach to the camera platform with springs to buffer movement.

If it needs stabilization, a couple Kenyon gyros attached to the platform might do the trick but, with their battery packs, would add a lot of weight to the setup.

Hmmmm, anyone have suggestions, or experience with a setup like this?

I think I have a couple more shows like this coming up... and who knows where else this rig might be useful.

Cheers!
Michael
 
I fly microphones (and tiny cameras) from "aircraft cable" suspended across the room. But I would only do something like that with cable that was secured to the building, and NOT from portable stands. I don't consider it safe for the camera and especially for any audience under the path of the camera.

There are many examples of cameras flown along a linear wire (vs the 3-axis "Sky Cam" positioning systems). I've seen many examples on YouTube of what people have done. I think flying a camera along a runway sounds like a good idea if you had remote control of at least zoom (and pan/tilt would be nice, too.)
 
Yeah, Richard, I'd like to have remote control of zoom and pan, and I think I can cobble that together.
The Cinevate Pegasus system looks interesting, but they don't have much detail online about how it converts to a suspension application.
Hmmmm......
 
i built something like that. It uses 2 steel cable (3mm diam) , and eventually a third one for security. you can have a very lightweight trolley if you use the cable to feed power to the trolley. a small battery/capacitor must stay in place to ensure continuous power supply.
I purchased a kenyon giro, just in case it needs better stab.
you will need wireless monitoring (that is cheap and easy to find) and wireless control (RC car and plane system are ok).
i use a 2.4Ghz RC system for car that provide 4 servo controls.
the problem is the speed of the trolley, since a large range of speed is difficult to obtain without oversizing everything.
another problem is to find a way to get your cable straight (walls, trees are ok, but sometime you just got nothing to grab.)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top