rotating shot

Steve Laramie

Steve Laramie

Veteran
What type of grip would I use to make the camera rotate 360 degrees in a fluid motion. Like in that one scene from "summer of sam" Where the main charecter takes drugs and the camera starts swaying sideways and eventually goes in full 360 degree turns.
 
Here is a Panavision solution:

1223937053.jpg


As you see, a third control wheel has been added to the device for presumably rotation control.

There are obviously newer ways (previous one was very Space Odyssey: 2001ish) to do this, such as a libra or scorpio head. All of which are expensive and usually need a certified technician. I designed a cheap way of doing this for a film I shot, I'll get back to you soon when I find the picture.
 
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Ok here is my really bad picture I made when designing the head. I called it the " '360 head".

I made this horrible picture because before I could build it onto the Panther dolly, I had to get it approved by the instructor. This requires TWO fluid heads. If you don't need an optional tilt or pan, the base which the last L-bracket attaches to, could simply be a block of wood, etc.

1223938356.jpg



All it takes are two strong pieces of L-bracket with drilled holes big enough for the fluid head bolt to fit through.

The results were good, but the HVX200/redrock maxed out the weight. I had to be very careful to keep it from having slight bounce in the image. If possible welding a brace in the L-bracket would eliminate this problem! I didn't have time to weld a brace.

Best of luck!



PS:

Make sure you drill the hole on the right spot of the L-bracket! Make sure that you build the rig so that the HVX's lens will be aligned with the axis of rotation. This is called "nodal rotation" and it will make those rotating shots rotate perfectly from the center of the image. If you are off, there will be a slight circular motion, and not perfect rotation.

1223938615.jpg
 
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that looks pretty solid ill give it a try. Do you use a fluid head for the rotation part? And also do you think I would need to modify this to work with a redrock rig?
 
Both of those things in the diagram are fluid heads.

When I did it I used a fluid head for the 360* rotation, and the base was a geared head (like the one from the first panny picture above)

The redrock's weight wasn't so much the culprit of the slight bounce as it was just how long that sucker is. The leverage from that long camera hanging on the L-bracket was immense. This is why I suggest finding the largest, and strongest bracket, or somehow welding a brace.

Can't tell you much more then that.
 
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=O833GL0JmWc

This is my attempt. What i did was film something static in HD, and then put it into an SD 4:3 timeline in FCP. I then keyframed it to rotate. this works if your outputing to 4:3 SD but dosnt help for much else.

What you can do is cut two big round disks and then cut a D shape into the centre of each. Use the flat art of the D to join the two together with bits of wood and build a camera platform. Then you can get some pulleys from a machine shop and bodge up a rotating base for it to sit on.
 
Ryan, with your setup how did you actually rotate it? Did you have a way of counter weighting it so it didnt want to keep dropping back down?
 
First of all the tilt on the vertically positioned fluid head is locked VERY tight. Second of all, if you are wondering about it wanting to rotate downwards for gravity: it really wasn't a problem. Since the camera is on nodal axis alot of the weight is evenly distributed. The small amount that wasn't simply went away when I applied lots of drag to pan movement on the vertical positioned fluid head. It did wonders. If it still has a small tendency to want to flip down to the resting position, you're gonna have to naturally guide it, as you would with a regular tilt.

As far as physically turning the thing, try different methods. Either one you choose, practice makes perfect. Practice often once you build it. If you thought slow/even pans were hard before, doing it sideways is really tough! Make sure you also are using a very robust and tough fluid head... preferably not your own. :)
 
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