FEATURE | WHY THEY WON PERFECT MOTION THERE IS SO MUCH INNOVATION IN MOVING A CAMERA THAT THE WINNER OF THE ‘MOVEMENT’ CATEGORY OF OUR TECH INNOVATION AWARDS HAD TO OFFER SOMETHING VERY DIFFERENT
WORDS JULI AN M ITCHELL / PICTURES MOTION I MPOSSI BLE / BATCAM .TV W hen Motion Impossible first arrived on the professional video scene, it was a curio. A stabilised camera on a battery-powered piece of equipment could do; the only limit would be extreme height. With the new Agito robotic dolly, that was now a possibility.
wheels for track wheels so you are able to go on to standard track. But we haven’t stopped there, you can also choose a ‘narrow track’ end and that will go on to track ranging from 300 to 400mm, so is the same as Junior track and Furio track. Agito Sports will also follow magnetic track, which is far quicker to lay down and is safe to use in stadiums. “But the future is trackless and we want to set your camera free. Traditionally dollies are used on tracks, but once you realise you don’t have to lay track you won’t go back. Agito wants to take out the variability of filmmaking – you have the beauty of instant repeatability in any situation.”
Drewett said at the time: “Our new Agito is a free-moving robotic dolly system – any movement you can think of, Agito can do – you are only limited by your creativity.” AGITO SPORTS AND TRAX Future-proofing the Agito gave you a piece of equipment that could grow with you; this was a highly engineered vehicle that was configurable. Drewett explains the basics: “The Agito is split into three parts, the centre core section and the two drive ends. This makes up your robotic dolly system. You can then add on your camera mounting, which can be a different way of stabilising and moving the camera. You can then add a variety of camera heads.” Modularity was a key component as Agito had been designed to work in many different scenarios, including stadiums, in the middle of fields, film sets, wildlife and much more. In fact, Motion Impossible illustrated this by quickly showing two distinct models of Agito, Sports and Trax. Drewett explains the difference: “We have designed a way of changing our ends to suit the shoot. Most people have seen Agito with its off-road wheels, but now we have options. You can easily change the
and remotely controlled vehicle felt like it came from the same place as consumer drones that were starting to gain traction in productions. There was some resistance from the market, as initially the cameraman’s craft was questioned and it was maybe a push back for the remotely controlled drone market as well; everything battery powered and remote controlled tarred with the same brush. But CEO Rob Drewett’s previous life as a wildlife cameraman helped push the Motion Impossible message with some amazing stabilised, slow motion footage of big cats in the wild. Being a robot vehicle, the equipment was inviting the cats to get close and we started seeing shots that were new. That might have been a turning point for the technology. Motion Impossible also entered the VR market and showed how repeatable movement, robotically controlled, could benefit a production that was tied to a script structure. Then a year ago the new robot vehicle, Agito, was introduced. Rob Drewett wanted to disrupt camera movement with the new vehicle. He wanted his robots to achieve every camera movement that any
BROADCAST’S NEW ‘NO CAMERAMAN’ SOLUTION
As we all know, England are ICC World Cricket Champions, but at the finals there
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