| For the 2003 surf documentary STEP INTO LQUID, Director Dana Brown set out to record the best footage ever of big-wave surfing at Cortez Bank, 100 miles off the shore of California. The results were arresting: Witness the likes of Ken "Skindog" Collins ripping down the faces of 65-foot giants. Action sports eye candy? Sure. But it was filmed with an elegance approaching that of poetry-no mean feat, considering that the camera boat was riding the same swells. Capturing steady shots required fistfuls of Dramamine and an innovative, Sci-Tech Oscar Award-nominated camera mount known as the Perfect Horizon.
The Perfect Horizon is the brainchild of David Grober, a veteran marine-production coordinator for films and the founder of a company called Motion Picture Marine. "Throughout the years, I saw it would have been really helpful to have a small, easily transportable camera stabilization system," he says. Some earlier devices employed gyros to counteract aquatic motion but also tended to fight intentional movements by the camera operator, and systems powered by hydraulics were heavy and messy. In 1999, after years of tinkering, Grober released his own invention.
The core of the unit is a gimbal that swivels nimbly from side to side and forward and backward so that no matter what happens below it, the camera platform remains level with the horizon. Finessing the twin electric motors that power the mount's correctional movement was Grober's biggest challenge. "If you have any sort of backlash, you'll see it onscreen," he says.
The Perfect Horizon has evolved substantially since its debut. The latest version is waterproof, housed in carbon fiber and aluminum, and lightweight (30 pounds). It can be perched atop a tripod with the camera mounted directly
| above, or be suspended beneath a crane;
the camera is controlled as it would normally be, with full pan and tilt abilities. The Perfect Horizon's sea legs have also proved effective on land. It has been deployed on cars and golf carts (SPANGLISH, YOUNG BLACK STALLION) as well as on boats (DIE ANOTHER DAY) and jet skis (BLUE CRUSH and HITCH).
Perhaps the most imaginative use was a scene in "HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN" in which Harry takes a manic journey on board a triple-decker bus. For shots of the interior havoc-sliding beds, a swaying chandelier-filmmakers built a full-scale model of the bus and positioned it on top of a swaying platform. Inside, the camera was placed on a Perfect Horizon mount. With the visual perspective level, audiences were able to grasp that the bus was tipping back and forth. "That was the only way they could do that shot," Grober says.
|
