MoVI: May Your Shots Forever be Stable

A large part of what separates the amateurs from the professionals in the visual media industry is how smooth the shots look. When you think about it; it makes sense. As of now, steadicams, (currently the easiest way to achieve these seductive, sweeping shots) go anywhere from $150 to over $10,000. Your average Joe isn't about to dish out a thousand dollars for smooth shots when he's got a built in stabilizer on his T3i. However, in the future we might see a steady drop in the price of steadicams with the introduction of the Freefly MoVI rig.

So you may be thinking, "What's so revolutionary about the MoVI?" This video will clear up any questions you may have:

One thing I found particularly intriguing about the MoVI rig is it's ability to not only be operated by one person, but also operated dually. Much like how a follow focus could be focusing a camera from another room, the MoVI allows one person to follow the action with the camera while another sits somewhere else concentrating entirely on framing. 

Secondly, even those looking for that, shaky, running with the camera look can find the MoVI rig useful. For example,  the MoVI M10 offers a user adjusted shakey cam that allows the operator to shoot with consistent, realistic movement. Who would have thought that a device could be so good at being smooth that a shakey camera would be considered a feature?

Below I attached the link that directs you to Laforet's finished video. Keep in mind, the short was made for the purpose of displaying the MoVI's abilities. Therefore, the plot of the video is fairly lacking and in itself not so interesting. However, when focusing on the shots one can easily see the upgrade in production quality the MoVI brings to the table. As of now, a MoVI rig goes for about $15000. However, I doubt it will be long before similar rigs aimed towards consumers come unto the market. Knowing this, one must question how much longer the line separating amateur productions from professional productions will remain in tact.

http://www.freeflysystems.com/media/videos.php

CineSkates

I was looking around Kickstarter.com and came across a very interesting invention made by a student at MIT. He starts off with a statement that I really liked. "Video quality is no longer limited by resolution but instead by stabilization." Unlike 5 years ago, it is now hard to find a single camera at any store that doesn't shoot in high definition. Even the camera on my phone shoots in crisp 780p. And for under 1000 dollars anyone can buy a very nice DSLR that will shoot in 1080p with the ability to buy new lenses. At ICTV rush night I discovered that almost every field show was choosing to shoot on a DSLR rather than a traditional camera. CineSkates is perfect for DSLRs as they simply attach to a small flexible tripod and allow the tripod itself to act as a dolly. The whole video on kickstarter is shot using CineSkates and it has some impressive shots.


This is also a good example of how powerful kickstarter is when you have a good idea. This project was asking for 20,000 dollars and has already been given 240,000. It makes sense though because if you pledge 275 dollars you get the whole system. I thought about doing it myself.