Short-Film Flexibility with Benji Dell
Short-Film Flexibility with Benji Dell
NODO is working hard to unlock the full potential of the Inertia Wheels using intelligent software and collaboration with other companies. One amazing example is NODO’s collaboration with eMotimo, where users can remap the Inertia Wheel’s Third Axis to control an ST4 on a slider. The size and flexibility of this integration open up new creative doors.
Longtime gimbal user and Inertia Wheels early adopter Benji Dell recently highlighted just how powerful the flexibility of this can be when he used the Inertia Wheels + eMotimo ST4 for a moving 360° shot in a car for the short film Champ—which premiered this year as an official Sundance Short Film selection.
Shots like this have been around for a long time. But often, the picture cars need to be permanently modified for the mechanical rigging to come through the roof. With the ST4 + Inertia Wheels combo, Benji was able to pull it off without pulling out the Sawzall.
NODO: Tell us about Champ and its unique challenges.
Benji Dell: My good friend and fellow cinematographer Nick Bupp called me up with an interesting shot idea he had for the film. He wanted to be able to do a 360 camera move inside of a car while a group of high schoolers drove around. Because the actors were free-driving the car, the rig itself had to be relatively small and not obstruct the driver’s view.
We talked about a few options, like rigging through a sunroof, but ultimately the budget was extremely tight (as they tend to be on narrative shorts). We thought about just mounting a small gimbal into the car’s center console, but in my experience, that never really looks good when you’re shooting subjects inside of the car. You get what I call the “boat effect,” where the horizon outside the car is perfectly balanced, but the people and car in the foreground of your shot—usually your subject—are listing back and forth. Not normally a desired look. As viewers, we are used to hard-mounted rigs when filming people inside of cars, like hostess trays, hood mounts, etc., where the camera is locked into the movement of the frame of the vehicle. This eliminates stabilized rigs and forces you into regular remote heads. There are only a few really small remote heads, but even those were outside of our budget scope.
NODO: When did the Inertia Wheels come into play?
BD: I remembered that the Inertial Wheels had a control mode to drive a smaller remote control head called the eMotimo, so we looked into it. The eMotimo ST4 only has a payload of 15 pounds, but the Inertia Wheels control worked and gave us the flexibility to get a 360 shot and other quick shots on the move while we were driving our pattern in the car. While we shot mainly with an Alexa Mini as A Cam, we used a Red Komodo for a smaller build size in the car and to save on weight for the eMotimo head with the added inertia of a moving car.
We mapped the Third Axis to control the slider so that we could push into the backseat of the car and vice-versa as we were rolling, which allowed us to see all the characters better and create a more interesting shot. Nick and I sat in a chase car behind the picture car and had complete control of pan, tilt, and slide.
NODO: How does all of this fit into your larger workflow?
BD: I have been a MoVI (first M15 and then MoVI Pro) and Ronin R2 operator for quite a while now. In the beginning, I just had the MoVI Pro with the original Alpha Wheels. Then I got into an R2 setup for bigger builds and as a remote head which it really excels at. When the Inertia Wheels came out, it made perfect sense because I could easily switch between MoVI Pro and Ronin R2 with the same set of wheels. I’ve even messed around with the smaller RS2 being controlled by the Inertia Wheels for a smaller profile setup.
I like how flexible the set of wheels is and the consistency of using the same control device for different remote heads—similar to how a focus puller may always use the same Preston FIZ. It removes one more element of surprise and adds a layer of familiarity that translates to better operating. Of course, the magic artificial mass and drag are always nice, depending on the shot.
