The Steadicam alternative for self-shooters

Technology means there are always things you can do that once weren’t possible.

Take Steadicam, a brand that’s been so successful since its launch in 1976 that its name has defined a category. It’s a great way to get tracking shots without tracks.

The drawback with Steadicam is that it’s a big, heavy rig whose operation is a specialised job. You don’t just want a professional camera operator; you probably need a specialised Steadicam operator.

So I was surprised to see an invite from the BBC’s Production Services team for programme-makers to come and see how self-shooters could get the same kind of shots by operating a new piece of kit for themselves.

It’s the Freefly Mōvi M10 - a motorised rig which fits around the Canon C300 camera that a lot of BBC producer/directors are using.

It works by using fast-responding motors to compensate for the wobbles you get in handheld camera shots. The results, as I found in my first try with the kit, are impressively smooth.

For self-shooting factual programme-makers, it’s ideal for walking pieces to camera (as long as you can get someone to check that your backward walk is safe and stays on track).

And a few minutes of using it made me think of plenty of other situations where it could be useful. For instance, it could make a dull set-up shot more interesting, especially when you have very limited access to a contributor but know you’ll need some decent introductory shots.

Once the rig is ready to use, it’s quite simple to operate, but Matt Crowther from Production Services, who was showing it to me, did warn that even when you know what you’re doing, setting it up can take half an hour. The exact position of the camera needs to be balanced so that the motors are always returning it to the right equilibrium position.

And for self-shooting directors, Matt explained, you’ll need a proper, detailed, two-hour session to learn how to do your own setting up before you take it out. Oh, yes, one other down side: by the time you’ve disassembled the Mōvi you need a massive case to put all its components in - which won’t do your excess baggage budget any favours.

But in the end I’ll be signing up for that two-hour session as I think the results will more than compensate for the necessary but tedious techy tweaking and the big case.

After my first outing I might even attempt the more sophisticated tricks you can do by having one person moving the camera in its rig while a second operates it using the remote control which is provided. Again, the difficulties of learning to make it all work would be more than adequately rewarded if you can pull off anything like the wonderful shots explained in this Freefly film about how it was used in a New York drama production. Take a look at the cab shot at the end of the film and tell me you aren’t impressed. (But you will need to learn to rollerblade and do an extremely serious risk assessment before trying anything like it.)

Filming and recording