Camera Work: Smooth Moves (page 2)

On Your Feet

A shot in which the camera moves along a horizontal line is called, variously, a track, truck, or dolly shot. The simplest way to make one is to walk with the camera. Trouble is, every time a foot hits the ground it jars your whole body--and the camera with it. On screen, the result is a rhythmic lurching movement that looks as if Frankenstein's monster shot the picture.

The cure for this disease: the Groucho Lope. If you've ever seen a classic Marx Brothers' comedy, you've seen the immortal Groucho scuttles through the action with his knees partly bent, as if to keep from shaking the ash off his cigar. A milder form of that same crook-kneed gait will greatly reduce your camera shake. Crouch slightly as you walk; focus on keeping your upper body level and smooth.

The Groucho Lope works especially well when you're moving sideways--say, to walk along parallel to your moving subject. (Incidentally, you don't have to worry about looking ridiculous. Folks expect camera people to act like this.)

Another good trick: remove your eye from the viewfinder, even if you don't have an external LCD monitor. This will eliminate camera shake caused by movements of your head. With a number of full-size VHS cameras, you can flip up the viewfinder lens and watch the image directly on the tiny screen inside. Even with barrel-type finders, you can often withdraw at least a little bit.

But despite all these strategies, walking shots will still be somewhat wavery. So when possible, don't walk, roll!

Cheap Wheels

Just about anything you can ride can serve as a camera dolly. Still, some options are smoother and/or safer than others. For example, a student of mine shot a whole program on roller blades, while an assistant did the pushing and guiding.

When making industrial videos, I often use heavy factory utility carts fitted with large rubber wheels. Library, mail room and food service carts work equally well, especially on the smooth floors in schools and offices.

Once I found a forklift operator so skilled that, after picking me and my camera up on a pallet, she rolled me down a factory aisle and then raised me up for a "crane shot" finish. The resulting shot was spectacular, if not slightly risky.

If a big-wheeled utility cart is not available, you can always use a shopping cart, though the smaller and sometimes off-round wheels provide a bumpier ride. (But don't pinch a cart from a market in order to get one.)

With all carts, the key to mobility is four-wheel swivel. On many carts, only the front two wheels will turn; that limits the ways in which your assistant can move you and your camcorder. For many years, the workhorse Hollywood camera mover has been called a crab dolly--because you can steer all four wheels together and make it move sideways like a crab.

The classic improvised dolly is a wheelchair. Engineered for maneuverability and fold-up portability, these chairs sport very large wheels which smooth out bumps. Their one drawback: height. Since it's impractical to stand in one, you can only shoot from low and medium camera heights.

What about using a real dolly? Bogen and other manufacturers supply moderately priced models for some of their tripods. The problem: despite the name, they're not really dollies, but what pros call "wheeled spreaders." Their small wheels and light construction make them impractical on all but the very smoothest surfaces. True camera dollies start at several thousand dollars each. You can make a simple model yourself quite inexpensively. (See "A Dolly all your Own," in the November 1992 issue of Videomaker, or "The $24 Dolly" in the June 1993 issue.)

If you engage in winter sports, you can get the smoothest moves possible with no wheels at all. In many resort areas, you can now rent a tiny color video camera attached to a headband or helmet and connected by electrical umbilical to a camcorder in a fanny pack. This rig lets you tape everything from your point of view as you ski or skate.

One alternative: purchase a weatherproof camcorder bag that you can shoot through. The up side is that you can still use all your camcorder's special features. The down side, of course, is that since you have to devote at least one hand to your camera, you'd better stay off the hairier ski runs.

Free Transportation

To continue the topic of wheel-less camera movement: take advantage of public people movers. Escalators, for instance, offer dynamic shots as you rise up into a scene or boom dramatically down on it. Many resort hotels and other high-rise buildings now feature glass elevators, both inside and out.

Moving beltways in airline terminals work well. For a humorous shot, send your spouse (burdened with most of the luggage) trudging up the walkway beside a passenger belt. Then, get on the belt and videotape the process of overtaking and leaving your spouse behind (shooting you a dirty look, perhaps). As with any panning shot, remember to align your body with the center of the arc, rather than the start or finish.

Planes, Trains and Automobiles

Perhaps the most common form of moving shot is the scene taped from a traveling car, bus, plane or train. Here are some tips to improve your results with this type of shot.

For obvious reasons, don't touch the window you're shooting through. Glass is a great transmitter of engine vibrations and road bumps. If you can, make sure that the glass is clean. If you focus your lens for distant scenery, the dirt will be invisible; but it will degrade picture resolution nonetheless.

You should also use a polarizing filter, if practical. You can rotate this indispensable lens accessory until glass reflections disappear. (Of course, the best way to defeat a window is to roll it down, but that works only with cars.)

Often, you capture the most dramatic views by placing the camera outside the vehicle. The problem is, this is not easy to do. You could rig a camera platform and clamp it to a fender, but the resulting vibrations would probably defeat even the world's best image stabilizing system.

You could set the lens to wide angle, hold it out the window and hope for the best; still, it's tough to get well-framed shots that way. Obviously you do not want to lean out a window yourself or stand up through a sun roof or sit in the back of a pickup truck (which is illegal in many states).

Once more, the answer is an external viewfinder, such as the LCD models sold by Citizen. Rig the monitor on the dash and run an RCA cable to the camcorder's video out jack. Now you can poke the camera out the window or the sunroof in perfect safety while you aim it by watching the monitor.