Flying fox cam shots
 

Just picked up a new mountain bike DVD called The Collective. The standout thing about the vid is the awesome film style camera angles and movement. It's something that's fresh and new in the sports video market that is saturated with 'point and shoot' photography. Some of the best shots are those from a flying fox where the camera op is in a hangliding harness suppended from a cable. These shots bring a totally new perspective to the video especially as they are shot on in Vancouver's North Shore forest.

Has anyone had any experience with shooting from a flying fox? I have some hangliding friends who have an old spare harness I can use and want to give it a try.

Dude... that is cool on a whole new level. I can't believe nobody else is commenting on this.

I was into mountain biking about 8 years ago... had a super trick Cannondale with JudySL, Kooka-everything... it was a hardtail that weighed 21 pounds.

Anyway... on the camera work... that's worth the price of the video alone... that's absolutely fantastic. Innovation succeeding.

Those guys have totally upped the ante for action sports videos. It's something I've been thinking about for a while but haven't had the people or gear to do properly. I'm so stoked that someone has finally come out with a more cinematic sports video, and mountainbiking is such a great platform.

These days there are too many kids out there with great cams, GL2s, VX2000s etc, that are just using them on auto and standing there or skating/riding along. It makes for videos that all look the same. Hopefully more people will see The Collective and take inspiration from it and start thinking about the shots as well as the stunts.

If anyone here is into action sports videos then I urge you to check out The Collective even if you are not into mountainbiking. The photography is awesome and will certainly get your gears turning.

I got the Collective video last Friday. It's amazing! BTW...they're using Bogen 503 heads! What kind of legs would those go with? I'm a newb. Please be gentle. 8^)

<<<-- Originally posted by Joe Calalang : I got the Collective video last Friday. It's amazing! BTW...they're using Bogen 503 heads! What kind of legs would those go with? I'm a newb. Please be gentle. 8^) -->>>

I tried a similar shot once, looking for a low budget way to ape the spider-cam (from a camera-rig book I read), for a DePalma-eque club shot in a DV feature I was operating on. We put a TRV 950 in a gym bag with a hole cut in for the lens and attached a couple of weather balloons, and two lines - one to hold the bag down and move it around, and the other for (extremely) rudimentary pan and tilt.

It sort of worked.

very cool stuff, a New Zealand friend of mine who lived here was really into mountain biking, I taught him how to use FCP and he started making his own videos. He built his own helmet mount and made some cool videos.

I always wanted to help him film his videos but getting up at 5am and driving for 3 hours and spending all day outside in the hot weather just wasn't for me. He was on the pro mountain bike circuit in Japan and him and his friends had chain saws and othe gear and would make their own trails in a out of the way forest, no one else knew about thier spot. I'm sure he know about this DVD. I edited the first video he shot, he went Helicopter riding in a ski resort in New Zealand during the summer, it was fun editing that kind of video. The collective crew has a great job.