Pacific Motion Control

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

Mexican pop singer Yuridia is  an international sensation, with 2 Diamond albums in Mexico, 18 Platinum albums in Mexico, 2 Platinum albums in the Unites States, 23 Gold certified albums in Mexico, 3 Gold certified albums in the United States, and 2 Gold albums in Central America. She recently spent a day at Pacific Motion Control, filming the music video for the song “Irremediable”. The London Alley Entertainment production was directed by Carlos Lopez Estrada, and produced by Christian Heuer. The crew spent two days at Pacific Motion, unloading props and dressing the set on the first day, and filming on the second. With a relatively short time spent on production, the video looks amazingly LARGE!!! Production on the video is top notch, and in just a few weeks since it’s publication on YouTube, the video has received over 1,983,563 views (it is receiving an average of 10,500 views per day!!! This only counts the official version on Yuridia’s channel. There are many copies, with tens of thousands of additional views).

The video was filmed using a Red One camera on the Graphlite motion control crane. The production made very good use of the Pacific Motion stage, and this video is a good example of what can be done in the space.

Yuridia “Irremediable”

Making-Of Yuridia “Irremediable”

Visit Yuridia’s Official YouTube Channel

Visit Yuridia’s official website – www.yuridia.tv

In their October 2009 issue, American Cinematographer Magazine featured a three page article on the production of The Maine’s music video for the song “Into Your Arms”. The video was directed by Aaron Platt, produced by Justin Cronkite, and edited by Hank Friedmann. It was shot in one day, at Ontario International Airport. The production used a Red One camera on a motion control dolly provided by Pacific Motion Control, and featured three separate setups with 80′ of track each. Joshua Cushner served as the motion control operator, and Adam Francis and Garritt Hampton were the motion control technicians.

The Maine “Into Your Arms”

The Maine “Into Your Arms” – Behind The Scenes

Read the American Cinematographer article

Visit Aaron Platt’s YouTube Channel

Visit Aaron Platt’s Official Website

Visit The Maine’s Official YouTube Channel

Visit The Maine’s Official Website

Pacific Motion recently got a call for a fast motion control dolly. That isn’t so extraordinary, but this client wanted to go REALLY fast! They needed a dolly that could track a professional athlete (and not a bowler or golfer), running at full speed. The client had contacted a few other motion control companies and been told to call Pacific Motion. The truth was, that no one had a dolly fast enough to pull off the shot that the client wanted. At the time, even Pacific Motion didn’t have a dolly that was fast enough to do what the client wanted. That’s where the fun started.

At Pacific Motion Control, we pride ourselves on being able to meet clients’ needs, whatever they may be, and this was the perfect opportunity to show our stuff. Within 2 weeks, with the help of Academy award winners, Mike Sorensen (creator of the Zebra, Graphlite, and Gazelle motion control rigs) and Al Miller (Aerohead and Talon Heads), we built and tested The Cheetah. The Cheetah is a gear-driven (for precision and repeatability) motion control dolly, capable of  traveling 18 feet per second (and easily pacing a runner), while outfitted with a Pan/Tilt/Roll head and full-size motion picture camera.

We built and tested The Cheetah motion control dolly in our shop, and we were sure that it would meet the client’s requirements, but we were excited to get the dolly on a stage, and test it under real-world circumstances. The first job that The Cheetah went out on required approximately 12 hours of continuous, precision repeat passes, on 100′ of track, at a top speed of 18′ per second. This was a torture test, and The Cheetah performed flawlessly. Throughout the shoot, The Cheetah never malfunctioned. It repeated every move with frame-accurate precision, and accelerated and decelerated even quicker than we expected. The client was thrilled, and so were we.

Check out the final product!

Motion Control Operator – Rob Menapace
Motion Control Tech – Craig Shumard
Second Tech – Garritt Hampton

We look forward to many more FAST shots with The Cheetah. If you need to film a fast-moving motion control shot, call Pacific Motion, at 818-768-1573, and if you need to do something that no one else has ever done, don’t wait, call us now.

Cheetah Dolly Specs

Visit our YouTube Channel for more videos

McDonalds Commercial

Reebok Commercial

resFest Digital Film Festival Commercial

SciFi Channel (now SyFy) Promo