Taken this morning on the set of our new Christmas movie:
I had never worked with this DP before. I described the kind of slow, steady tracking shot I wanted. He mentioned that he had just built a rail system, so I had him fetch it. It was awesome in its simplicity.
The rail is a 12 foot section of plastic rain gutter, not sure the brand but it looks deluxe...very sturdy with a flat bottom and notched at the top for its own gutter guard (to keep leaves out.) The slider is just a two foot piece of gutter guard with a tripod mount affixed to the top. In this shot he has it resting on top of saw horses.
He was able to pull the slider at an extremely steady pace with no lubrication, but also mentioned putting some talcum powder to make it smoother. The tripod mount spins 360 degrees, so it could also be used to move forward and backward.
I had never worked with this DP before. I described the kind of slow, steady tracking shot I wanted. He mentioned that he had just built a rail system, so I had him fetch it. It was awesome in its simplicity.
The rail is a 12 foot section of plastic rain gutter, not sure the brand but it looks deluxe...very sturdy with a flat bottom and notched at the top for its own gutter guard (to keep leaves out.) The slider is just a two foot piece of gutter guard with a tripod mount affixed to the top. In this shot he has it resting on top of saw horses.
He was able to pull the slider at an extremely steady pace with no lubrication, but also mentioned putting some talcum powder to make it smoother. The tripod mount spins 360 degrees, so it could also be used to move forward and backward.
