Crane test

Here are some previs shots using the $300 bargain-camera.com crane. The crane itself is made of powdered metal square tubing assembled by nuts, bolts, nylon washers and wingnuts. It's pretty simple and doesn't look particularly roadworthy. But what do you expect for $300? Here's our first test of a standard crane down car shot. The trick for these, we found out, is to leave auto-leveling on. The movement itself looks fine but it's really hard to get the camera to stop smoothly so you see a tiny bounce at the end [view].

The next previs shot is for the scene in which Ben finds a shrine filled with photographs of dead people. Disappointed, he lets the wind sweep the photo into the sky. Getting all the elements to work in this shot is tough. When it works, though, it almost looks fake, like it's done with CG. The photo is pulled directly toward the lens by invisible thread wrapped around the crane [view].