"Flying Down The River" clip

[Piton]

Well, I'm not the greatest pilot, but the latest project is aerial in nature, but much safer, cheaper, and quieter. Most of the shooting I do is backcountry skiing, climbing, and biking. Alot of the places it is illegal to use a motorized vehicle, so I've been developing another way of obtaining aerial footage. To be honest, for me, this is a much better solution than an RC heli for what I what I typically shoot. Of course the heli will stay in the quiver, but it has just been challenged.

My system has pan,tilt,speed control, and video downlink. It is light, portable, and quick to set up. The clip does not have the KS2 Gyro on it, hence the wobble at the end. With the gyro, the wobble disappears.

These are short 150ft shots. I've successfully done 300ft shots, and I see no reason why 400-500 wouldn't be entirely possible.

Here's a brief 16mb clip.
Cablecam (http://www.pitonproductions.com/RandomVids/Cablecam.wmv)

And......
Flying through the garage (http://www.pitonproductions.com/RandomVids/CablecamHome.wmv)

[ssozonoff]

Hi Piton,

Cool, I am also trying to develop other techniques to shoot outdoor sports.
Thanks for sharing this.

Serge

[Brady Longmore]

That technique should come in very handy in many situations. I would like to see a pic of the actuall camera mount. Or even a short clip of the camera in action.

If you watch the bonus material on the Lord of The Rings DVD you will see that they used a similar technique to film the fight seen in the woods at the end of the first movie. It's pretty cool. The camera is passing right between trees and limbs with the fight going on below. I think the camera even changes paths at one point and breaks off in a new direction to follow the action.

Good work.

[Piton]

Hi Piton,

Cool, I am also trying to develop other techniques to shoot outdoor sports.
Thanks for sharing this.

Serge

Yeah, it's work in progress, just like heli's. Should be dialed in by mid summer.

[AZ ChopperCam]

nice! looks like a winner!

need to get yourself some wire removal software.

[Piton]

nice! looks like a winner!

need to get yourself some wire removal software.

Yes. In reality, the camera will hang a bit lower and not be pointing up like it is. Sort of like pointing a cam on a front mount heli into the rotorblades.

Still beta testing this stuff. It'll come around.