He also designs film equipment in his spare time. During our interview this is what he had to say:

What equipment do you use?
We have Milos and Panthers from MRMC as well as the Wotan Crane. For controlling these I use exclusively Flair software. I have in the past used Kuper or Lynx software for some of the other motion control equipment but I stopped several years ago. I also use a very powerful new realtime compositing system called CineTools Video. Its excellent for shoots as it has a host of useful features such as mixes, wipes, variable speed record and playback, and easy resizing to check that footage from various sources and film formats line up correctly. Sometimes I also use encoded cranes or heads purely for recording the positional data with Flair.

What is your favored camera and why?
My favorite camera is the Mitchell S35. We also have an Arri 435 Advanced and a Thomson Viper camera but the Mitchell really is "back to basics". It does exactly what you expect. When the Flair software asks for
a single frame you know its taken a single frame without problems. The video assist picture could be better but the camera itself is good. We also sometimes use other cameras if the crew ask, such as a Sony HD or
Vistavision camera.

What is the main use of your motion control equipment?
It varies year to year. This year I have mostly worked on features, maybe 65% features and 25% commercials with the remainder being music videos, but last year it was about 50-50 between features and commercials.

What moco equipment do you use the most and why?
We mainly use Milos, we have 4 of them with one of them being our Wotan Crane system. The Wotan has an incredibly long arm, which is particularly useful for model shots where you require the reach to get over the sets. Typical examples are Hogwarts castle in Harry Potter and a recent shot going down a lift shaft for the new Batman movie. Other examples are the model sets from Ella Enchanted of the landscapes and town.

Is there a particular shoot you are most proud of?
Without doubt the filming of The Borrowers. This feature film required me to do the most complicated shots I had ever done and shots and effects that no one else had done before.

Director Michel Suissa of Sideshow uses a Milo Motion Control rig to shoot the latest Band-Aid commercial 'Liquid Bandage'.

The 3 day shoot was located on a beach in Miami. The commercial starts with a precise motion controlled move from 12 feet above an actor to within six inches of his cut foot. A time lapse shot of the beach and cloudy sky is mixed with live action motion control shots of his children covering him in sand all the while the liquid bandage is protecting away.

The Milo Motion Control rig was chosen by Sideshow because it was clear from the outset that the moves were complex and a motion control rig was required that had the capability of shooting any shot demanded of it. Milo had the speed, the rigidity, height, portability and ease of programming to undertake the job whatever it may have entailed on the day.

In preparation for the shoot Suissa and his team had rehearsed camera angles, distances and trajectories using simple video cameras. Using this footage back at the studio and feeding the data into Discreet Combustion his team created the key references for timing, camera, heights etc. "It was almost like a previsualization, only we did not have the time to flush things out with traditional computer graphics. The choreography as well as every single detail of every aspect of the shoot had to be well thought out and pre-produced before we got on set" says Suissa  "The post process was amazing to see all these things come together so seamlessly,"  said agency producer Donna Konrad.

Suissa opted for a Milo from Atlanta based Turner Studios, operated by experienced moco operator Nigel Rowe. Prior to the Milo arriving at the beach the grip department prepared a wooden platform staked into the sand for the rails to be levelled on. Once this was ready the Milo was rolled across the beach along a plywood walkway. There was some concern about the tide reaching the Milo, but using local tide charts it was decided there was a good margin from the sea. Although carefully planned out, the rest of the day was spent planning further moves that eliminated the infinite possibilities until they had a move that everyone could agree on.
 

Because of the sea air, the high winds and sand, the camera head was removed  and wrapped overnight. The Milo itself was carefully covered with a tarpaulin.

Nigel Rowe explained "When we returned the next morning before dawn we discovered that the tide had come two feet closer to the rail than we were promised.  It turned out that the wind had got up to 16 mph during the night and that had pushed the sea further up the beach.  The decision was made to then build a damn wall around the Milo after we wrapped that night. The shoot day was long and tricky as we battled the wind, sea spray and heat to get the shot done, which involved multiple wardrobe changes and various make-up effects for the cut and time-lapse shots of various beach activities. The three shoot days were long, from before sun up until after sun down, in high winds, sand and sea spray, all the things that aren't great for filming and motion control equipment" Nigel went on to say, "some mornings I would literally blow water out of some plugs (no matter how well we covered the Milo) but the Milo would start up, work and do an amazing job. This was the second job I've done with a Milo on the beach, there is a part of me that hopes it is the last but if not at least I know if I'm using a Milo we'll get the job done."