*** Dulux Let's Colour Project ***

Working with Stink UK and Director Adam Berg (well known in the moco world as the Director of "Carousel" for Phillips, shot using the Milo) Let's Colour was shot over five weeks and took us to four continents. The shoot started in Lapa, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and ended in Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India with a couple of days in Paris and London in between.

  
Ulti-Head on track in Rio (left) and in Jodphur (right)

In Rio and Jodhpur Stink UK required a light weight system with pan tilt and tracking of up to 30m that could be checked in as luggage and flown to these locations with the crew. We customed a rig with the Ulti-Head on track with a belt system that would allow the rig to run on standard dolly rail. In Paris and London the Talos was used with 21m of track. For fill in and multiple viewpoints we used the SFH-30 with DSLR cameras.

Most of the shooting was done using ten or twenty second exposures shooting preplanned moves, with the Arri 435. For the variable speed moves we ramped the camera using the features in Flair from these low frame rates up to 25 fps as part of the move.

See links below to watch the Director's Cut and the making of.  

     
Talos in Paris (left) and in London school yard with the SFH-30 (right)

Click here to watch the Director's Cut               Click here to watch the making of

*** Samsung 3D TV commercial, A New Dimension ***

Rogue Films approached Ian Menzies with the project of shooting a commercial for Samsung’s first LED 3D TV. The aim was to create a 3D feel to a 2D image. The Director, Sam Brown and DP, Damien Morisot wanted to have a handheld look to all of the camera moves shot with the motion control rig. After several meetings and tests at MRMC the theory and method was proven.

The location for the shoot was Buenos Aires, Argentina. The commercial was shot on film with an Arri 435. Three days were spent on location shooting TV monitors with blue screens that had been installed around the city, in parks, bus stops, outside shops, on sidewalks, etc. Three days were then spent in the studio shooting the content for the TVs.  

 Ian Menzies said, “We took the moves shot on location and repeated these for the TV content. In some cases the move had to be scaled, for example the popcorn shot.  After shooting a long track shot at the location, we then shot the popcorn for the content of the TV. The popcorn was in a small box, so we scaled the move down 12 times to make it look large on screen and then shot it fast at 125 FPS to slow it down on screen” 

Once composited the resulting footage made it so that as you are watching the TV and you move around the TV, the content on the TV moves in relation giving a sense of relative perspective and creating a 3D feel.

The motion control rig for the job was the Talos, quick to set up for the location shooting and ideal for the required studio shooting. MRMC Mimic Pan Bars were used by the DP to control the pan and tilt of the camera and give the shots the handheld feel they wanted to achieve. 

Click here to watch the commercial               Click here to watch the making of

  *** Cheryl Cole, Three Words Music Video ***

Cheryl Cole’s "Three Words" music video had the concept of one camera move for the duration of the video with a second camera breaking off to film an alternative camera path then rejoining the existing camera.  It would have been extremely hard to achieve this programming a motion control rig hence we relied heavily on prevized moves from the post production company (The Mill).  The moves were solved on set using IKTRIX motion control move-solver software and where then simply fed into MRMC Flair and the rig then performed the moves. The restrictions in the set meant that the track had to be laid in a position that could achieve the entire move.  It was necessary for motion control, 3D and Director to work closely together on set within tight time scales to achieve satisfactory results.   

This was a hugely challenging project given the usual time scales of music videos however it was great that everyone worked together to achieve a good end result.  Ultimately it was very encouraging to see that 3D, motion control and creativity can be achieved spontaneously on set.

Click here to see the "Three Words Music Video" or on the video image below.