What is Vincent Laforet going to announce on his blog?

Put me on the want it now list. What a great piece of gear. Feel a tad for steadicam operators. I imagine theres a way for them to leverage this tool to its maximum however.

Steadicam is common today, so I dont think this will suddenly mean all shots are steadicam - but I can see it making life easier.
 
This won't replace the Steadicammer completely. It will become his/her new tool.
It still is going to take a two man team for pulling focus, etc.

It is definitely going to boost sales of wireless as well though.
 
I hope it comes with a free chiropractic.:huh:

So actually Freefly took a gimbal out of their drones, and bolted a hand grip to it, right?

As much as I like the idea, "game changer" is a bold statement.
In a certain way, this may cause some sort of "Disturbance in the Forcer" for the steadicam guys.

But I don't see this used from every filmmaker every day and do away with every tripod, dolly and crane.
Pretty limited in camera size and weight too. Try to bolt an Alexa on it. My back already hurts when I just think of it.
But hey, I would be the guy at the remote anyway .

We probably will see some sleek creative shots from this in the future, but I don't think that this will change how our industry works.
Just an other nice tool in the box.
 
Postmaster said:
So actually Freefly took a gimbal out of their drones, and bolted a hand grip to it, right?
Click to expand...
Exactly.

I guess for those on a budget there's no reason you couldn't get a GoPro gimbal, put it on a rig and power it up for the same effect. I'm waiting for the new DJI Zenmuse GoPro mount so I might be tempted to try this out.

They've basically taken the copter out of this type of set-up: http://www.freeflysystems.com/products/cinestar-8.php

As pointed out on the personal view forums, some bloke tried this idea out in his bathroom last year with a Zenmuse and GH2:
 
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Wow, it's quite incredible! I'm amazed by how natural the movement looks; my fear was that something like this would have unnatural looking movement, but it seems they really succeeded!
Because of price, I do not see this being as big of a game changer as the 5D2 was for video, since it will not be as affordable to the masses and easily accessible. Still, I think that it will make people rethink how to shoot certain shots and that's really cool! When someone can build a lightweight version of this equivalent to the price of a Glidecam HD-4000 + X-10 (~$3k) or even a Steadicam Pilot (~$4k), that will be a real game changer. The good news is I don't see that time being too far away.
 
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Only certain shots call for very smooth movement, it all depends on what your shooting. This is a great tool, no doubt. I think the next film fad will be super long takes. And again, these specific shots only work some of the time. Game changer, not even close. There's a few operators I know that wouldn't want someone else moving the camera for them. Not to mention, this will take some getting use to.
 
Very cool. I can see this piece of gear becoming a big rental item.

What's also interesting is that this gear invents a new job, which is image framing. One person to move the rig, one person to handle image framing ( via remote control ), and one person to handle focus pulling. ( via remote control ) So three people to operate the rig.
 
So how come Im hearing $15K? Not saying anyones wrong, but where has the price been noted?
 
I admit I'm more impressed by this than I expected to be. Seems like a really cool addition to the toolbag.

Funny that this almost seems like a reaction against shaky cam, and yet i'm sure in a few years if this device takes off, people will be talking about how cliche it is to do long smooth shots.

As always, the great filmmakers will use this tool to amazing results, while most will probably end up using this to make shots that, while cool, add nothing to story.
 
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