Executing the Perfect Vertical Orbital Shot

For this project, Flair was critical for building the moves offline in advance of the shoot days. Due to extremely tight location space and the complex vertical camera movement required to execute the Director’s vision, it was imperative the moves be programmed ahead of time in Flair — to ensure the path of the camera arm was pinpoint and accurate. The high speed and unique motion of the moves (with multiple robot axes moving at various speeds) meant they needed to be precisely plotted. This would ensure the camera arm paths stayed within Flair’s limit checks, so it could correctly track the target — in this case the talent.

Filming at the barber shop location was incredibly closed-in, so the production crew needed to be aware of how much space they had to work with. Flair’s ability to output the perspective of the camera move in 3D ahead of time allowed the Director of Photography to understand how much focal distance there would be between the talent and the Bolt, improving the efficiency of production before shooting even started. It also allowed the post-production crew to have a good idea of how much editing they would need to do e.g. remove shots featuring the track or reflections in mirrors.

Building and simulating the move offline in Flair not only helped overcome many obstacles prior to shooting day but also allowed for the move to be instantly uploaded upon filming. The vertical orbital shot needed to be precise, deliberate and exact without camera float (typical of a jib arm attempting such a move). Motion Control in conjunction with Flair was the best option to safely execute this technically challenging move in the shortest amount of time.