Pacific Motion Control

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When Claudio Miranda, ASC was deciding how to shoot several pivotal scenes in Tron Legacy, he determined that due to the weight of the dual Sony F35 3D camera package and the multilevel sets, traditional Steadicam shots would be impossible. He wanted a rig with the flexibility of a Steadicam, the ability to go anywhere and provide rock solid movement for the heavy camera package.

Claudio had worked with Pacific Motion Control before and was familiar with many of our rigs, so he called to see if we could make these shots happen. As we talked with Claudio, we determined that what was needed for the job was a portable, overhead motion control crane system – a system that didn’t exist. This was a challenge that we were determined to meet. Over the next few weeks, we custom built the Overhead Graphlite system to meet the needs of the production. This rig is totally portable. In fact, it’s first job (Tron) was over 1,200 miles away from our shop. The rig provided 48′ of linear movement (adaptable from 12′-72′), 15 feet of arm reach, 360+ degrees (infinite) of swing, 45 degrees of boom travel, 360+ degrees of pan and tilt. It did all of this while carrying a camera package that weighed 90 pounds!

With little time to complete the build and test the rig before shooting, Tron Legacy would be a trial by fire, but the rig performed flawlessly. During the weeks of filming the rig never missed a beat, and enabled the crew to capture amazing shots, including a fight scene shot in a continuous circle, with over 1080 degrees of movement!

Photography By Douglas Curran
Courtesy of Disney Enterprises, Inc

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

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