Moving camera + high speed shots?

[Finnegan]

I don't have a lot of experience with high speed photography, so I was wondering if someone could give me some insight into how some of the shots in the video I've linked were achieved. Obviously it's Phantom work, that much I know -- but I can't wrap my head around how the camera movements are being made with relation to the subjects. For instance, there's a shot of a boy using cups to toss some water toward the camera as it dollies from right to left at the 1:22 mark. From the look of it, the camera moves across the entirety of the boy's body as the water moves only a couple inches forward. Now...when you throw water out of a cup it moves pretty quickly, so for it to be moving that slowly in the shot it had to be an ultra high frame rate, meaning the camera had to be moving super fast in order to avoid it.

Am I over thinking this, or is there some technique I'm not privy to that the director used to achieve some of these shots? Some commenters are mentioning an effect called time warp. Does that have anything to do with this?

 

[Ryan Patrick O'Hara]

I don't have a lot of experience with high speed photography, so I was wondering if someone could give me some insight into how some of the shots in the video I've linked were achieved. Obviously it's Phantom work, that much I know -- but I can't wrap my head around how the camera movements are being made with relation to the subjects. For instance, there's a shot of a boy using cups to toss some water toward the camera as it dollies from right to left at the 1:22 mark. From the look of it, the camera moves across the entirety of the boy's body as the water moves only a couple inches forward. Now...when you throw water out of a cup it moves pretty quickly, so for it to be moving that slowly in the shot it had to be an ultra high frame rate, meaning the camera had to be moving super fast in order to avoid it.

Am I over thinking this, or is there some technique I'm not privy to that the director used to achieve some of these shots? Some commenters are mentioning an effect called time warp. Does that have anything to do with this?

I've been involved with many camera moving + slow motion cinematography endevours and I can tell you that for most of the time, we just push a fisher dolly rather quickly, or have a telescoping technocrane extend at full speed. If you need to cover more ground / shoot higher FPS and really feel the motion, you can go to my favorite solution:

The "Cheetah" dolly! It's very safe to use because it's programmable / remote thus you don't have to risk the operator riding next to the camera. It's also very fast accelerating and quickly decelerating. This means less ramp up track and ramp down track.

http://nofilmschool.com/2012/11/cheetah-worlds-fastest-dolly/

 

[Ryan Patrick O'Hara]

I'm not saying this specific video used this. Likely it was not in the budget. Who's to say it wasn't a much smaller slider like mo-co rig? Likely not even mo-co. Probably good old regular gear.

This doesn't seem out of reach for dolly and track, with a safe amount of run-up and slow down time. Maybe even a 6' slider or something on the long side.

If the camera was traversing more distance with that framerate, I'd really wonder. But this looks difficult but doable with many conventional tools. Probably just took a lot of takes for timing!

 

[danjenkins]

I would guess the camera was just out the window of a car as it drove by the boy with the water. Every documentary on Holi I've seen shows kids just covering every taxi with color.

 

[Finnegan]

I would guess the camera was just out the window of a car as it drove by the boy with the water. Every documentary on Holi I've seen shows kids just covering every taxi with color.

Maybe, but the move is smooth as butter and doesn't (perceivably) bobble like it might were it on a steadi-cam. But I suppose it's possible.

 

[jax_rox]

Maybe, but the move is smooth as butter and doesn't (perceivably) bobble like it might were it on a steadi-cam. But I suppose it's possible.

It's Phantom - you could throw the camera and it would look smooth as sh*t.

Was working on the Phantom Miro a couple of days ago and you can only take 2.7 seconds at a time when shooting 1500fps. This translates to ~3 minutes of playback time.
You'd have to be shaking the camera pretty damn hard to get noticeable 'bobble' in 2.7 seconds of film.

They shot on a Phantom Flex, which (I believe) has a maximum fps of ~2500. I've never worked on the Flex, but I would assume it's similar to the Miro, though perhaps allowing greater record bursts.
The footage looks closer to 500fps or so, but they could easily have shot at 1500, or 2500 fps and sped it up later.

 

[Ryan Patrick O'Hara]

It's Phantom - you could throw the camera and it would look smooth as sh*t.

Was working on the Phantom Miro a couple of days ago and you can only take 2.7 seconds at a time when shooting 1500fps. This translates to ~3 minutes of playback time.
You'd have to be shaking the camera pretty damn hard to get noticeable 'bobble' in 2.7 seconds of film.

They shot on a Phantom Flex, which (I believe) has a maximum fps of ~2500. I've never worked on the Flex, but I would assume it's similar to the Miro, though perhaps allowing greater record bursts.
The footage looks closer to 500fps or so, but they could easily have shot at 1500, or 2500 fps and sped it up later.

The footage looks more like 400 fps/ 500 fps. But shooting at 1500 or 2500 fps and speeding up to 400, won't make it look any smoother than just shooting it at 400. I don't know if you meant that, or if it's just something I read between the lines. just wanted to clarify. They clearly have a dolly or a slider of some sort.

 

[nebular]

They clearly have a dolly or a slider of some sort.

those camera moves are not as easily achievable on a dolly. look how the camera sometimes is slightly rotating. and i don't think they brought up a what ever kind of dolly in that area to shoot.

or just look at the first shot or 0:51. how can that be shot from a slider?


steadycam. pretty sure.

 

[Ryan Patrick O'Hara]

A steadicam is a perfectly good option as well. All of these shots can be done from a dolly, and most from a slider. Now, that takes more setup time than a steadicam would, so yes, steadicam is another decent option. Just needs to be moving at a decent pace.

The slight rotation, and sometimes greater amounts of rotation does not rule out a slider or dolly though. It seems dutching the camera is part of the vernacular of the style of shooting, as you mentioned with shot from 0:51. That seems on purpose rather than slight incorrect horizon steadicam operating. This of course, could be a steadicam, but from the very good operating elsewhere in the piece, I'd say this is on purpose as it's quite strong. If on a dolly or technocrane, this would be done with either a tango head (which is very common in camera packages on commercials, music videos, etc) or with a remote 3-axis head that is capable of rotating the head.

Point is, I will say that this very well could be a steadicam, or it could be dolly, and some could be slider.... This is possible to do in many ways. Steadicam would likely be the fastest most economical. As someone mentioned, the floating feel of the steadicam would be reduced with the slow motion, and with a good operator, even real time shots can sometimes look very dolly like.

 

[Andrius Simutis]

With those kind of frame rates you could even just hand hold it and swing your arm towards your subject. Dolly, slider, and steadicam would work too, but that kind of smooth motion is less critical at these higher frame rates.

 

[Patryk_Rebisz]

People get way too excited over slow mo shi*. Each time i shoot it people go gaga over stuff that is nothing but basics of the camera's capability.

That said, Miro at 1200fps is super steady. Here you can use a fast moving car - not even fast just fast enough that the splash doesn't hit the car. Or one of those multi still-camera rigs from the matrix.

 

[Jassim]

I think the same technique is used in here too

 

[Leon Bailey]

I have always wondered this as well. Interesting post.