Steady Shots in High Seas and Editing 30,000 hours for One Season

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Paul F

Veteran
Someone asked about getting steady shots of a boat from another boat. That got me thinking of the rock steady shots Deadliest Catch gets in 30' seas. I found this piece which shows what cameras they use. They also mentioned that they get 30,000 hours of material for a season.

They show a rig to get boat to boat shots at 3:01. I still don't understand how they get a stable shot. Sure the gimbal holds the camera steady, but if the boat is bouncing up and down 30' and side to side, how does the shot stay steady? The shots they get are rock solid steady and framed as though the camera is radar-locked on the other boat.

http://variety.com/video/the-deadlist-catch-cinematography/
 
I just saw a quick view of it in the video but this looks like an aircraft type of gimbal mounted on a suspended Technocrane type jib. It makes sense, that long crane arm gives the op more pivot point in high seas. I might have posted the question, I have been shooting boat to boat stuff and IMHO, it all depends on the sea that day. I was out on 8' swells shooting a month ago and got very little usable handheld. But I have been other days when it is glassy and calm, like a lake and all of my footage is usable. Personally, I am going to try the Tyler Mount and see what I can get. Shooting on the ocean is very challenging and shooting with big swells and storming is insanely difficult. I hate Deadliest Catch, but I give them props, it's well done technically, I just find it too repetitive but lots of people enjoy endless repitition.
 
Well, to be fair, and not meant to take anything away from them -- the boat-to-boat shots are always very quick, there aren't actually that many of them, and they're rarely contemporaneous with the footage of what's happening on the boat at the time. They cut in a couple of seconds of good shot whether it was actually taken at the same time as the action on the boat or not.

That said, I've often commented when the narration says something like the crab boat is way out there "alone." Ummmm . . .
 
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