Sachtler Assures Image Stabilisation

The shooting of the trailer on a magnetic monorail recently saw Heide Fliegner, a producer, cinematographer and author from Germany, working with the artemis EFP Pro HD SDI camera stabilizer system from Sachtler.
During the shooting in Macao, China, visualizing speed came to the fore. Heide Fliegner put this project into action for the Macao government and the Huettinger AG, Schwaig in Germany.
Believing that technology should serve the concept, Fliegner insists that her equipment be versatile. That is why she chose the artemis EFP Pro HD SDI camera stabilizer system from Sachtler.
The task was to simulate the view of the future passengers out of the front and side windows in a magnetic monorail at a height of six meters doing almost 20 mph.
In order to be able to implement the plan Heide Fliegner consulted some colleagues who had done similar projects.
"The Director of Oktoberfest had designed a suspension system for three camcorders which did not work completely jitter-free and was therefore not entirely satisfactory for his use.
"After I had copied the rope suspension systems, my first thought was to position three camera stabilizer systems on a truck with operators in order to achieve the three perspectives I needed. But then I realized that it wouldn't be easy to get three artemis systems and three operators to China," said Heide Fliegner.
"Curt O. Schaller on the other hand, developer of the artemis camera stabilizer system, was ahead of me.
It was clear to him that we had to build the three cameras onto a single artemis system in order to ensure a uniform height level of the image axles. He developed, designed and built a special camera mounting plate for the three cameras at the artemis workshop in Eching near Munich. The T-shaped mounting plate was equipped with three Sachtler Sideload plates that enabled optimal positioning of the camera‘s center of gravity as well as keeping the complete unit as compact as possible.
Roll Call Productions tested the driving shot sequences with three Canon EOS 5Ds in the run-through. I had hoped to use three easy-to-transport, high-resolution cameras that could easily be attached to the platform on an artemis camera stabilizer. I also wanted to use a large selection of lenses. Only after the tests with the camera did I realize that a DSLR with a CMOS sensor was not really a good match for the artemis and this unusual requirement. Therefore we finally chose the slightly larger Sony Z1HDV camcorders.
Film shooting on a truck - with a perfect system
The final result was astonishing and absolutely satisfactory. Due to the fact that 3D animations still had to be built in during the post-production it was even more essential that the shots were jitter-free and we didn‘t even have to take the tires of the truck into account.
"I had filmed some of the making-of and had always been sitting next to the Operator, Clemens Treml, on the truck to monitor the technical production and the technical DoP work also. I hardly had to assist because the system was perfect. My hand-held camera work I had done from the truck had been so shaky without artemis that I was once again convinced about this system.
"It was amazing how many bumps, shakes and jitters were absorbed by the artemis system! And our client is grateful for it," he said.
More information, visit: www.sachtler.com
(BMcC/GK)