Pacific Motion Control

Pacific Motion prides itself on being able to provide exactly the right motion control gear for the job. Sometimes that means building a custom rig. In this case, the client needed to film the perfect golf swing for a Nike Tiger Woods commercial. We can do that. We built this motion control golf club swinging rig using one of our Sorensen Design International motion control camera heads, a second Sorensen rotator, a head extension, and a little bit of secret sauce. The rig was able to perform a perfect golf swing, smoothly and repeatedly hitting a ball with perfect precision.

The Graphlite motion control camera crane was recently used to film a commercial for Super Mario Galaxy 2 for the Nintendo Wii. The commercial was filmed on a stage in Mexico, demonstrating that even our largest motion control rig is fully portable. In this case, the Graphlite, Kuper motion control computer system, and track were all packed into cases and flown to Mexico. Multiple setups and motion control passes were used to make it appear as if the actors are in a spherical world, and able to run, jump, and flip like Mario.

First in Motion Control

On the set of a recent Tsubaki commercial, I had the opportunity to capture a few hundred pictures of the Gazelle Motion Control Camera Crane in action, in order to put together a couple of really good 3D photo sets on Microsoft’s Photosynth website. For someone unfamiliar with motion control equipment, this is a good opportunity to see what a motion control camera crane looks like, set up and ready to go.

For this shot, we were on a very long track run, and the rig needed to go about 13 feet per second, so we were using our large servo track motor, and a 5/1 gear ratio for the track drive. we also needed to pan very quickly, so we fitted our motion control pan/tilt head with a servo motor for pan, and a large servo amplifier rode on the rig.

At the time of this shoot, this was as fast as we could possibly make the Gazelle go, and it performed flawlessly. Since this time, we built a much faster track drive system. Originally built for the Cheetah dolly, this track drive system can be used on all of our rigs, giving them the fastest tracking speeds of any full motion control systems.

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