Dahnielson

Why do we need motion control?

There are always voices raised against using motion control on a shoot. Here are some of the arguments you will hear, and the reason why most of them not are true.

Motion control is slow! This is a common rumor which is not true with today modern rigs that take the same amount of time to set up as any other dolly or camera crane. If you want to do a big crane move, the time it would take for the grip to lay track, set up the crane and rehearse would be the same as for a motion control crew.

Motion control are expensive! To rent a rig and crew do cost a little extra because it is a specialty, just like the other specialties you pay for on a shoot. But you will quickly get value for your money and save costs and pain later in the post-production.

Why do we need to be repeatable? Why can’t we shoot something wild and later use motion analyze software to track the cameras motion? This is the most common argument against motion control. But motion tracking can be used only if one real photographic plate are shot, and that first. And all decadent elements are created digitally. If more than one plates needs to be photographed in the real world, the first can be motion tracked and the following plates shot with motion control repeating the tracked shot. But by shooting everything with motion control the post-process becomes very fast and painless, and consequently cheaper.

Why do we need that precision? For example navigating macro or endoscope lenses over a small area in tiny moves, so small that a human operator could never make. Or to create smooth camera movements when shooting time-laps or animation. One popular gag in commercials is to speed the camera up and down during shooting. Motion control can be use to create smooth moves in constant speed while the camera speeds up and down.