cable support system
 

Hi,
If you look at the making of "Lord Of The Rings" you will see them using some sort of pulley/cable support system for their cameras, so that they can do all those "camera flying through the trees, looking down" type shots. Has anyone tried to make, or bought (cheaply), a similar system for DV type cameras?

I am planning to make one soon. I need to get a mounting plate and new tripod head. I am going to use the same plate (from a Bogen 501/503) for both. This way, I can move from the cable car back to the sticks quickly. I bought plastic coated cable and some 4" nylon laundry pulley wheels from Home Depot. To fix the cable to trees, I have some ratcheting truck tie-down straps. I got a piece of carpet to protect the trees from abrasion. I plan to use a lower rope in parallel to the top cable. This will also have pulleys that will hold the shuttle car down to keep it from swaying. To picture this, my camera shuttle will be traveling between two ropes/cables like two verticle dolly tracks. The lower cable will have an elastic connection (bungees) to the shuttle. This will keep the swaying down, but won't cause the shuttle to bind between two taught cables.

keep us posted, marcus. I'd like to hear how it comes out,

hook up some kind of motorized winch/pulley to actually pull the camera...then you dont have to worry about pulling at a consistant speed to make the move look smooth

Here is one i did a few weeks ago...


Here is a bit of test footage, it’s a bit wobbly but it was pretty windy out so it made it sway a bit. The cable you see in the test is my firewire cable going to the laptop so I can use the laptop to record and as a monitor.

www.WebDogPro.com/video/cable1.mov

I will be motorizing the main drive today and I hope that will make it smother.

NOTE!!! One thing i stongly recomend is a safty strap from the camera to the suspension wire, i put one on and it almost was needed. one of the bolts fell off and when i was pulling it in for the night the rig fell into 2 peices, if it came off when using the camera could fall if you dont use a sling.


I got some pics of the cable Cam in use today.

Alot of my riging is from my Mountain Clumbing stuff. that is about a 40ft span right now but i could go up to 130ft.

www.webdogpro.com/video/DSC01332.JPG
www.webdogpro.com/video/DSC01336.JPG
www.webdogpro.com/video/DSC01337.JPG
www.webdogpro.com/video/DSC01344.JPG


more info at http://www.dvxuser.com/V3/showthread.php?t=40666&page=5

Hi Max,
The rig looks great. I was worried about the stability problem myself - I was toying with the idea to use two ropes, running parralel a few feet apart to support the rig.

The only reason i don't want to use two ropes is it makes riging it a lot harder, if you don't have the tension on both exactly the same it will make it lean.

What i am thinking about since i want to motorise it i will need some batteries on it is to make a platform about 1 foot wide from the rope and have a small 12V battery on each corner that will add more weight and hopefully making the rig heavier will make it more stable.

If there is only one pulley on the lower rope, it shouldn't make it lean. Of course, it would need to be attached at the center of the bottom of the camera sled. Also, I plan to use a bungee cord between my bottom cable and sled pulley to prevent binding.

Max,

Nice rig, it has inspired me to build my own.
I have a question, how long are you drops from the main carriage?

I am going to do a two-cable/rope system vs. a single, then create an adapter for a single cable just in case.

Thanks,
Bill

Having been inspired by this thread I started my own overhead dolly.
Here’s some images what I have so far, just the basic dolly.
Next weekend I will make the camera mount.

Full Side View
http://cinebydesign.net/film/overhead-dolly-1.jpg

Close-up of pulley Perspective View
http://cinebydesign.net/film/overhead-dolly-2.jpg

Full Perspective View
http://cinebydesign.net/film/overhead-dolly-3.jpg

I decided to make my proto-type pulleys out of aluminum just because it is easier to work with. If they work I will make them out of steel.

Bill

Here are the latest images, it has yet to go to paint.

http://cinebydesign.net/film/overhead-dolly-4.jpg
http://cinebydesign.net/film/overhead-dolly-5.jpg
http://cinebydesign.net/film/overhead-dolly-6.jpg

O_O i want one,put a motion control head and pulley on it!!!

Are you guys aware of the "Sky cam" system, which is used extensively on major league football games, as well as motion pictures?
http://www.dtvprofessional.com/2003/...kycam_pana.htm

Wayne Orr, SOC

It’s a real swinger!!
Well hopefully not. :-)
I had to see it in the air before the storm on Saturday so I mounted my XL2 and found a place to run some rope. It still needs paint, :-( however there’s time for that today.

Bill

http://cinebydesign.net/film/overhead-dolly-7.jpg
http://cinebydesign.net/film/overhead-dolly-8.jpg
http://cinebydesign.net/film/overhead-dolly-9.jpg
http://cinebydesign.net/film/overhead-dolly-10.jpg

Skycam is cool but a bit out of my budget range. :-)

Bill

Working on it!!!

Bill

i think if you pull the lines more taught or use steel cable, it will have less tendancy to sink it or sway. try it and lemme know

Riley,

What I did not say is this was temporary set-up.
It was done with cotton clothesline so pulling tight enough to get the slack out most likely would have resulted in breaking the line. I just wanted to get some images to post before the impending storm arrived.

The test bed will use a nylon type of line and the final product will use cable or Spectra.
Thanks for the comment. :-)

Bill

I was thinking...it can't be that much harder to make a rig with a seat so it can take an operator. All you need is steel cable, put one end round the tree and hook it over its self then pull the other end tight by attaching it to a 4x4 and reversing. The weight of the operator would hold it steady and a knot in the cable at the other end would stop him hitting the tree. Plus you would have more control over the shot, framming and pan/tilt etc.

Andy.

any update on this? hows your rig

Max,

Sorry kind of lost track (pun intended) of this thread.
No new news got on to other things, however it time with the better weather to get back to it.
I’ll post again when I do.


Bill

i`m very intrested to know if this came along any further. I need to make one or borrow one for filming in late october.

i made one myself last year, its pretty simple and effective

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=76948

i saw that post and it looks pretty good aside some shakiness...did you ever make a tutorial?

Just noticed your post Nathan, yeah the shakiness was because i was on my own and i was also in the shot so i had to attach a rope and run the camera up to the start which meant getting it to stop shaking was hard, if i'm up the ladder and its an actor running i can stop the shake altogeather.

I never made a tutorial , i did use the rig recently for a promo shoot though and it worked really well.

Andy.

Ah. Unfortunately the shoot I was thinking to use it for is getting rushed and will likely be next week so I don`t have any time :\ Maybe next time