This promo for the Google Science Fair, featuring a fantastic Rube Goldberg machine consisting of typical science fair elements, was filmed in a single continuous pass using the Graphlite motion control camera crane.

Motion Control Operator – Paul Maples
Motion Control Tech – Adam Francis

Pacific Motion Control’s Cheetah Dolly was recently used to film a promo for season 3 of the TNT show “Leverage”. The dolly was running at full speed and carrying a Phantom HD high-speed camera. The rig captured some breathtaking footage of the Leverage cast frozen in the act of creating mayhem.

TNT Leverage Season 3 Promo

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

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

McDonalds Commercial

Reebok Commercial

resFest Digital Film Festival Commercial

SciFi Channel (now SyFy) Promo

Pacific Motion Control Demo

Music by Double Naught Spy Car

Motion Theory “Folding Effects” Demo

O2 “Connections” Commercial

Nike “One Ball” Commercial

Lexus “Perfectly Aligned” Commercial

Gordmans Commercial

Lenovo “Roll Cage” Commercial

Lexus “Perfectly Aligned” Commercial

Making-of Lexus “Slice” commercial

Sears “Chapters” Commercial