Pacific Motion Control

Famous Footwear “Neighborhood” Commercial

Behind the Scenes

Time-Lapse Setup Video

Shot with the Zebra motion control camera dolly on location and on a stage in Vancouver, British Columbia. The camera was a Phantom Gold HD high-speed camera at 600 FPS. Behind the scenes footage was shot with a GoPro HD camera mounted to the Zebra.

Director – Loni Peristere of Zoic Studios
Motion Control Operator – Mike Leben
Motion Control Tech – Craig Shumard

Spec commercial for Ecko Unlimited featuring a ton of motion control by Pacific Motion. Multiple passes were filmed using the Gazelle motion control camera crane. For the first pass, an actor in a Chroma Green suit was filmed as he “painted” the man on the wall. In the second pass, another actor stood with his back to the wall, then “broke away”, wiped himself off, then walked away. A third pass of clean background plates was then shot. This was done over multiple setups, in an actual dirty parking lot and alley in downtown Los Angeles.

Director – Jack Wung
Motion Control Operator – Paul Maples
Motion Control Techs – Craig Shumard, David Mansour, Garritt Hampton
Gazelle motion control camera crane provided by Pacific Motion Control

These commercials for Samsung were filmed, using the Cheetah high-speed motion control dolly, and a custom built low-profile head. The client needed a fully repeatable motion control dolly, and an extremely low-profile head for this shoot, and the cheetah was the only dolly that would do the job. It was required to move at 20 feet per second, throughout the whole shoot, and did so without any problems. The Servo motor and geared track drive proved to be very accurate and fast, and the rig could repeat both slow and high-speed moves perfectly.

The custom low-profile head was constructed specifically for this commercial, and measured just 5″ from it’s base, to the top of the camera plate, yet it had fully repeatable pan, adjustable, locking tilt, and could hold a full sized 35mm camera package, but in this case, a Sony F23 CineAlta high-definition digital camera was used to film multiple passes at different frame rates.

Footage from this shoot was also used extensively for interactive content on the Samsung website.

View some behind the scenes footage from this commercial shoot on the Cheetah Dolly page.

The commercial was produced by Motion Theory.

Motion Control Operator – Rob Menapace

Motion Control Technician – Craig Shumard

Second Motion Control Technician – Garritt Hampton

All of the “real pizza” footage in this music video was shot on the Pacific Motion Control stage, using the Zebra live-action motion control dolly, a Sorensen Design Pan/Tilt/Roll head, and a Phantom HD digital camera, shooting at multiple frame rates. The video is currently featured on the Jonas Brothers official YouTube Channel. The efficiency of the crew, and reliablity of the Zebra allowed this to be shot on the same stage, on the same night as this NBC/Orville Redenbacher spot.

Production Company – Engine Room

Director – Dan Schmidt

Motion Control Operator – Mike Leben

Motion Control Technician – Garritt Hampton

Filmed in January, 2009 on a stage and on location in Los Angeles, using the Gazelle live-action motion control dolly and a motion control bogie dolly on circular track.
Motion Control Operator – Mike Leben
Motion Control Techs – Craig Shumard, Garritt Hampton, Adam Francis