BIG GIMBALS GE AR .
reasonably be used for all sorts, and the company shows a system integrated with the Teradek RT lens control system on a Red body. But there’s a clear interest in live and as-live TV production, with the Newton S2 head adding three-axis stabilisation to its original S1. Newton notes that the S2 weighs around 7kg; a couple less, for comparison, than Arri’s SRH-3, though they’re not directly comparable devices. It does mean that the head and a box camera
TUNNEL THROUGH The Newton Nordic stabilised head (above) is used here with the Flowcine Black Arm
“Crews can take heart that composing a useful frame remains a human endeavour”
set-up stabilised head will, after all, maintain a level horizon without intervention. Although crews can take heart that composing a useful frame remains an exclusively human endeavour. The moving camera has always been popular because it packs 3D information into a 2D medium, in the form of parallax. Making best use of that still requires a human being – although, come to think of it, we haven’t seen an artificially intelligent gimbal yet. Let’s not give them ideas.
can ride easily on a wide array of platforms. Head and camera represents a very achievable payload – not only for many cranes, but also rail systems and cable-suspended camera platforms capable of fully 3D positioning. Sports broadcasters, take note. Modern facilities might easily offer a piece of equipment designed to mount a camera on practically anything, almost to the point it’s hard to categorise as grip or camera gear. If there’s a theme, it’s one of automation; a properly
RED HOT Sandstorm Technodolly (below) has become a versatile tool for LED volume production
Equipment crossover The distinction between remote heads and gimbals is blurring. Remote heads often stabilise; many gimbal manufacturers now provide remote pan-and-tilt controls to double as a remote head, and what was once a Technocrane has now been accessorised by Sandstorm as a repeatable motion control Technodolly, with multiple degrees of freedom. The Supertechno design has provided flexible ways to move cameras through 3D volumes, though most telescoping cranes are manually operated; moves can be approximately repeated, but not precisely duplicated. Sandstorm makes it possible to record moves created by a conventional grip team and repeat them, or export them for visual effects software. And a movement path can be imported and executed by the crane, within its ability to move fast enough. What’s new is not only freedom, but portability. Sandstorm offers the instrumented Technodolly in its own studio, and as a transportable unit. Other Technocranes are big, heavy devices requiring long set-up times – Sandstorm predicts the Technodolly can be off its truck and set up in under two hours.
59. DECEMBER 2021
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