Camera motion control

For the first time, an attempt to combine a moving object with a separately shot background while moving the camera was made in 1916 during the filming of The Dutchman's Flight. At the same time, the movie camera was moving on a trolley along rails with special marking. As a result, it was possible to combine the image of a ghost shot on the same film in advance with the castle wall, synchronizing the movement of the camera during both exposures ^[1] . The technology received further development only 30 years later, when MGM film engineer Olin Dupy created a system that records the movement of the camera on the soundtrack of an individual film. When shooting the second exposure using the method of a wandering mask, the movements of the apparatus that occurred during the first exposure were exactly repeated by the drives of the cart and the panoramic head . The system was used in the shooting of several films, including the musical picture “ American in Paris ”. The complex, requiring preliminary programming of the movement, was created by Paramount Pictures in the same years. One of the most famous films with a repetition of the motion of the film camera in 1968 was the " Space Odyssey of 2001 " by Stanley Kubrick ^[2] . In 1971, on the set of the film “ The Andromeda Strain” , a system was used in which the movement of the camera was recorded on a tape recorder ^[1] .

The technology was first used on a large scale in 1975 to create the first part of the Star Wars movie saga ^[3] . The microprocessor of the Dykstraflex system ( Eng. Dykstraflex ), developed specifically for this film, recorded several parameters at once: movement speed, camera position, focal length of the lens and others, only 12 channels. As a result, it was possible to create about 350 combined editing frames , on which the camera panned behind the "flying past" spacecraft against the background of a separately shot starry sky ^[1] . At the same time, during the shooting, it was not mock-ups of aircraft that moved, but a camera mounted on a crane truck, which made it possible to make models large enough and increase the reliability of the image. Until now, the combined frames were shot with a fixed camera, giving a static image, within which the layouts moved. The new technology brought to the screen the dynamics and authenticity characteristic of newsreels of air battles. A year later, the system was used during the creation of the combined frames of the film “ Close Encounters of the Third Degree ” ^[4] . In 1978, the creator of the system, John Dijkstra and his two co-authors, was awarded an Oscar for technical achievements ^[5] .

The technology was further developed during the filming of the continuation of the saga: " The Empire Strikes Back. " To create combined frames, 12 motion parameters of “ Vistavision ” format cameras were also recorded, which separately shot the background and actors ^[6] . The combination took place according to a variant of the technology of a wandering mask with a blue screen on a stunt machine with two pairs of film projectors of the same format ^[7] . The system, called ASEC, provides for mounting a movie camera on a trolley mounted on precision non - separable rails 20.7 meters long ^[4] . The complex included a film projector for front projection and a blue screen measuring 11.5 × 22 meters, mounted on rails 61 meters long. Any model could be mounted on a tripod with a robotic head moving on separate rails 9 meters long. The computer provided an exact repetition of 12 parameters of movements of the listed objects in the shooting and rehearsal mode. Focusing of all lenses during movements occurred automatically. The system worked successfully when shooting the film " Black Hole ", and its modification Vista Flex was used in the film " Star Trek " ^[4] .

With digital technologies of film production, the use of reception has become more accessible, since the combination of different exposures takes place according to the more flexible Chromakey system. In addition to recording the movement of the camera, its position and focal length of the zoom, modern Motion Control systems allow you to program the filming frequency , the opening angle of the shutter and many other parameters. The distribution of camera crane trucks and panoramic heads with remote control makes the technology available to most film producers, and even videographers ^[8] . Robotic carts and panoramic heads controlled by a microprocessor according to a given program are used to shoot the Hyperlapse video, allowing you to move the camera step by step and pan it ^[9] .

A variation of the reception can be considered the synchronization of movement of different cameras, simultaneously shooting different parts of the same scene. This method of combined shooting was used when shooting the actor’s dialogs of the Hobbit movie trilogy in order to achieve different growths of characters in the 3D image , the roles of which are played by actors of the same complexion. The shooting was carried out simultaneously on two different sites by cameras, the movement of which was synchronized ^[10] . The final image is "assembled" by the computer , giving the illusion of a large difference in the size of the characters without violating the depth of the three-dimensional frame. This technology allows you to more successfully shoot complex dialogue scenes in which actors must interact with each other. At the same time, cameras can freely move and pan, while maintaining the dynamics of the image, familiar to modern cinema.

• Wandering mask
• Remote control
• Multiple exposure

• I.N. Alexander, A.S. Khaikin. Combined Filming in Films (Russian) // " Technique of Cinema and Television ": magazine. - 1982. - No. 9 . - S. 61-68 . - ISSN 0040-2249 .
• Buster Lloyd. Thumbnail in big cinema (Russian) // “MediaVision”: magazine. - 2010. - No. 8 . - S. 26-30 .
• Special effects in the movie “Empire” Strikes Back ” (Russian) //“ Technique of Cinema and Television ”: magazine. - 1981. - No. 6 . - S. 68 . - ISSN 0040-2249 .

• Zebra Motion Control Camera Dolly Cranes & Dollies . Pacific Motion Control. Date of treatment August 3, 2014.

• Welcome to Mark Roberts Motion Control . MRMC. Date of treatment August 3, 2014.