Nice shot, part 7: Motion-control camera

A motion-control shot is a shot that basically combines the elements of a time-lapse shot and a dolly move. To explain: Let's say you wanted to have a time-lapse shot, to show the passing of time. To accomplish this, you'd put the camera in one spot for a good amount of time, and then you'd speed up the film really fast to show what happened in that space of time. But let's say you also want the camera to move in the shot also. To accomplish this, the filmmaker uses a device called a "motion-control" camera. This is a camera placed on a special robotic dolly that moves the camera at a fraction of an inch every few minutes. When the film is sped up, you should have the illusion of time-lapse, with the camera also moving very smoothly in one direction.

Requiem for a Dream
An amazing shot. 30 minutes to film this shot, for only 25 seconds of footage. There's so many things going on in this one too: Ellen Burstyn has to frantically clean the "apartment" set, and hit every one of her marks so that she keeps up with the camera moving; the lighting is amazing - it was set up so that as the camera moves from right to left, and more and more time passes by, the lights are shifted so it appears as if day has become night outside, and we can see that through the window - so all of the lighting technicians have to hit their marks perfectly; not to mention the fact that on a low-budget film such as this you only have a few takes to get it right (they got it on the 2nd).
Click on the picture below to watch the scene. (3 MB, Windows Media Player required)


Garden State
Another nice one. The highlight of this shot is the fact that the camera travels over all of the airplane seats and the people in them. (An additional note: at the end of the shot, there's a speed change from time-lapse all the way down to normal speed, in addition to the motion-control aspects of the shot...quite difficult).
Click on the picture below to watch the scene. (2 MB, Windows Media Player required)