TECH COLUMN
Oculus
Puts a New Spin on the Crane Cam
D
igital gimbal-based camera platforms are essential tools in cinematography, but did you know it’s a concept that dates back more than 2,000 years to ancient Greece with the first mechanical gimbal described by Philo of Byzantium? The most common gimbals – like those found on ships’ compasses – are three-axis gimbals. Which brings us forward thousands of years to SpaceCam’s Stabilized Imaging Technologies’ new Oculus 2.0 that goes one better with a four-axis gimbal. Unlike SpaceCam’s other systems, which are designed for aerial use to be mounted on helicopters and fixedwing aircraft, the Oculus is for a crane or vehicle mount. The four-axis design means it offers an unrestricted field of capture and the carbon fibre housing is lightweight and makes it easily maneuverable during setup and tear down. The gimbal itself weights about 50 lbs. (22.6 kgs) and will take another 20 lbs. in camera and lenses. It measures 23.5” W by 8” H and 28.5” long, with a 360-degree continuous pan, tilt and roll in all axes with a pan and tilt speed up to 260° per second. Oculus won the Best Engineering Award at Cine Gear Expo last June, and there’s talk of a 2016 Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Technical Award. It’s a far cry from the rudimentary heads SpaceCam founder Ron Goodman started out with, and he couldn’t be happier. There’s also a strong Canadian back story to the Oculus, starting with Goodman who was born in Ontario, and with his first experience with a gimbal platform, the forerunner of the
20 • Canadian Cinematographer - November 2015
Wescam, which was initially created as a military tool by the Canadian subsidiary of Westinghouse and later spun off as a company called Istec Inc. Goodman went to Ryerson Institute, as it was known then, and then Humber College, studying engineering and cinematography in the 1960s before getting frustrated at the pace of the classes and finding work with William F. White. He started working as an electrician on industrial and government-sponsored shoots and found himself suddenly bumped up to camera operator. “As an electrician, I nearly electrocuted myself in a rain storm shooting at an iron mine,” he laughs. “We were working with the prototype version of the Wescam and then I got an opportunity to go to Norway to shoot there.” Over 14 years working in Scandinavia, Goodman tweaked the Wescam into a smaller unit dubbed the X mount, shooting aerial scenes for productions like Superman, Superman II, Supergirl and The Cassandra Crossing. He was also involved in the infamous eight-minute single continuous shot in the 1975 Professione: Reporter (released
SpaceCam founder Ron Goodman with the Oculus.
