Hi there. I am rather new to this whole scene but currently seking to purchase a Sony Fx1e this weekend and then the adventure begins......

I have recently seen the documentary "Part of the Weekend Never Dies" directed by Saam Farahmand about the band Soulwax and he employs a technique whereby the camera pans from left to right by way of remote control through about 120 degrees or so.

I can't seem to find anything that specifically does this but this may be simply because I am so new to everything.....

Can anyone identify what I am talking about and where to purchase one/them. An example of the technique can be seen in the following clip (at 29 seconds):

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=32967388

All help gratefully received.

Not entirely sure I followed what you're actually after.

The pan shot @29 seconds looks like a straight pan using a pan/ tilt head on a tripod, nothing in it to lead me to believe it was done remotely, tho' it can be done using one of these:

Pan & Tilt Power Head (http://www.b-hague.co.uk/pan__tilt_power_head.htm)

Any help?


CS

I'm with Chris. Looks like a garden variety pan to me. And I used to have one of the motorized heads that Chris sent a link to. Used it on the end of our jib with a Sony VX1000 for high wide shots. It worked ok but it's not anything to write home about. Inexpensive though, if you need a motorized pan/tilt head.

I think that's the one as it looks very similar to a device attached to the end of the tripod in a few scenes. It created some very nice scenes in the documentary and looked a lot smoother than by doing it by hand.

Thanks for your help guys, really appreciated :)

Keep in mind that starts and stops will always be smoother with a seasoned hand as all the cheap devices I've ever seen don't ramp up to speed. If you NEED a constant speed, such a device might work quite well for you.

He used a bescor mp 101 to shoot with....or at least when they were in my town and he was shooting that is what he used.

Unless you are talking a motion control head, remote heads will simply duplicate whatever the camera operator "tells" them to do, via wheels or joystick. The best of them will give a 1:1 feel that would duplicate the results if the operator was performing the move on a standard head; many cheap ones will deliver a more mechanical feel (for better or worse), something like a roving security camera.

Unless you are talking a motion control head, remote heads will simply duplicate whatever the camera operator "tells" them to do, via wheels or joystick. The best of them will give a 1:1 feel that would duplicate the results if the operator was performing the move on a standard head; many cheap ones will deliver a more mechanical feel (for better or worse), something like a roving security camera.

Which would you see as the best ones? The Bescor MP101 mentioned above seemed really good in the documentary...