Create Digital Motion

B&H Interviews Steadicam Inventor: Shooting is Like Dancing -

B&H, my favorite electronics store here in Manhattan, got to talk to Garrett Brown, the man who invented the Steadicam (and contributed some ground-breaking shots to the history of film himself). I love this quote, in terms of encapsulating the importance of movement inside shots:

“You have to get the physical ‘corpus’ . . . through the move and control this thing and not mess it up—it’s a delicate balance,” Brown says. “It’s hanging out there on a gimbal, it’s floating out on an arm, sticking out in some odd ways, and you’re tearing through the scene. That’s why it is so incredibly much fun to shoot Steadicam, because you have the artistic bit, you have the continuity of a move that does something, that has an emotional whack to it. And then you have the dancer’s tasks of navigating and not falling down, and the more gracefully you can do it, the better the shot looks.”

Of course, this makes me even more interested in DIY steadicams, not necessarily because I can duplicate his products but as a way of learning about the technology. Anyone built a camera mount yourself?

The Steady Approach: An Interview with Steadicam Inventor Garrett Brown

Related: cameras, interviews, photography, shooting, steadicam, techniques & more.

Comments 7. By Peter.

2008-May-27@09:10.

SmoothCam in FCS2: Editblog Tests, Comparison

By Peter Kirn

Snake comparison

Editblog does more tests of SmoothCam, plus comparison tests.

Editblog has responded to Anton’s SmoothCam tests with some tests of their own:

SmoothCam is smooth, but slow [Scottsimmons.tv]

Scott’s tests run even slower than Anton’s, regardless of codec. I asked Anton about this, and his take was that the technology was really intended for short takes, not long chunks of footage, and that you’ll want to make big use of subclips. (Hope I’m getting that right, Anton, but I’ll say I certainly agree with that statement.)

Nonetheless, Scott did an even more interesting comparison with other systems. I think it’s always worth having at least a couple of tools in your arsenal for different tasks, so this is all the more helpful:

SmoothCam vs. Some Others

We’re going to keep on testing. It’s also worth noting that SmoothCam isn’t the only technology that seems to benefit from Apple’s Shake team and their intellectual resources in video analysis. There are other match move capabilities built into Final Cut Pro. There are also some really compelling match move-related techniques in Motion, and, in contrast to these render-based algorithms, those operate in real-time. (I haven’t yet been able to find out whether those are also related to the underlying processing algorithms from Shake; if anyone knows, speak up.)

Real-time analysis I think will ultimately be the future, not only for correction tasks but all sorts of creative purposes and motion control.

Got more thoughts, blog entries? Send them our way!

Email This Post

Final Cut Studio 2 SmoothCam Tested: Fix Those Shaky Shots

By vade

SmoothCam footage frames

Click To Play

View video directly on blip.tv

Final Cut Studio 2 HD SmoothCam Tests [blip.tv]

Shoot jittery footage with your HDV/DV cam? While on a taxi ride? On a bumpy street, zoomed in, while being run off the road by the Hungarian mafia?* I know I do. While shooting freehand is great for that “Reality TV” look, sometimes you want to look like a pro while keeping your budget - and this is where Final Cut Studio 2’s new SmoothCam feature comes in.
(*It’s a long story, but yes, this happened. No, this is not that particular footage.)

SmoothCam is a technology borrowed from Apple’s high-end, node-based compositing system Shake that was ported to Final Cut Pro 6.0 as an easy-to-use effect filter. The basic idea is that SmoothCam tracks the motion vectors of the pixels in your footage and tries to make them as stable as possible, resulting in a smooth and bump-free shot. Sounds awesome, and as usual with Apple, it’s hyped to no end. But how good is it in the real world?

5 Email This Post

Pimp Your DV Camera: RedRock MicroFollowFocus & M2, DV MultiRig and DIY DV Mods

By Jaymis

Related: 35mm, accessories, cameras, DIY, dv, redrockmicro, shooting, stabilizer, steadicam & more

I’m sure some CDMotion readers must be wondering if I actually own a DV camera considering the stop-motion and still camera focus these last couple of weeks. Rest assured I both own and even on occasion wield a DV cam, however my DSLR has held me in thrall with its beautiful images, shallow depth of field and sweet, sweet resolution.

Perhaps I’d be more excited about DV shooting if I was to buy one of the lovely HD Cameras the cool kids are talking about, or I could upgrade my current one; lower it a little, give it some chameleon paint, a spoiler, some oversized exhausts, fat rims… Ok, so I can’t think of anyone who’s undertaking cosmetic camera mods. However there are some fantastic mods and accessories, both commercial and DIY, which can help you get better video from that humble DV cam.

Beautiful Image: 35mm lens adapters

Redrock Micro was built from the Micro35 Project, which itself was based on the extremely expensive Mini35 from P+S Technik. These projects all throw variously sized chunks of money at the same concept: Using film lenses on a video camera.

At the lower end of the price spectrum, RedRockMicro sell a DIY guide on how to make their commercial M2 Adapter, which will set you back US$995 or more, depending on options. They also sell a Follow Focus unit to go with the M2, which looks rather cool.

2 Email This Post