Since June this year we’ve been flying the Movi 10/ MR gimbal under our copter while filming. We’ve mostly been carrying our in house Canon C300, but we’ve also shot with the 5D (with and without Magic Lantern) and had the pleasure of filming with a RED Dragon.
The Movi is a brushless gimbal that stabilises the camera under the copter, so that even in breezy conditions the camera (and the footage) remain stable. Not having to apply stabilisation in post production has a variety of benefits. Firstly, your editor can now take the footage straight from the card and into the editing suite without having to apply a stabilisation effect, dial in the amount of stabilisation required and wait for the lengthy process to complete before having a usable clip. Secondly, stabilisation effects crop into your footage as part of building a smooth shot and makes the footage look “soft”. With the Movi, you won’t need to crop in on the footage and so you get the full resolution from the camera everytime. Thirdly, since your team on the ground can see the footage we’re filming live as it happens, you’ll be able to tell right away whether you got the shot you need. Belt-driven gimbals are prone to bumps and and little bits of “wobble” as the copter moves in the air. If this happens during a shot that you’re filming, then you’ll have to start it again and hope there are no more gusts, and it may not even be removed in post stabilisation. With the Movi, you’ll see how smooth the shots are on screen and you’ll only have to worry on giving feedback on the framing and pace.
We can also use the Movi as a handheld rig – like a steadicam. We’ll have a showreel of shots of this type soon. We’ve got a shot sample video that we put together from some shots taken on a morning at a beautiful seaside golf course. The shots haven’t had any post-stabilisation applied, so the footage you see is the footage that came from the camera (though colour correction/ grading has been done.