What to do if an effects shot requires a motion control system but you don't have the time or money to spend on a complex, expensive motion control system?
For the current filming of the feature The Nanny Diaries, RhinoFX was brought on to tackle the visual effects, specifically a series of frozen moments, where everything, except for the main character Nan (played by Scarlett Johannson), suddenly stops. In these moments a box of wood and glass forms around the immobile people like a diorama and Nan, an anthropology student, studies them much like she did the famous dioramas at NYC’s Museum of Natural History.
Normally, this type of shot would have RhinoFX turning to a full motion control system, like the Milo.
“Something like the Milo was out of the question because we just didn’t have the budget for that,” explains Harry Dorrington, creative director of RhinoFX. “There was an Arri head that was a little less expensive but then we looked into this relatively new product called the Mo-Sys.”
The Mo-Sys Motion Control System by Kontrol Freax (www.kontrolfreax.com) is limited in that it cannot boom up and down, but pan, tilt, zoom, track, zoom and iris movements are all repeatable. One of the major advantages, in addition to a rental cost of about $1,200 a day compared with over twice that cost for other motion control systems, is the speed of set-up and use. Unlike other systems, the Mo-Sys system does not have to be pre-programmed. The camera operator, DP and grip perform their functions just like they would on any normal shot. The Mo Sys system records their every movement and the system will repeat the exact move.
“For speed on location it’s fantastic,” says Dorrington. “We were shooting at the corner of 50th and Madison during rush hour. Just in terms of speed and locations I don’t see how we would have done some of the stuff we did without it. And also we couldn’t afford the higher end systems.”
RhinoFX will get the plates and the data from the Mo-Sys and import them into Autodesk Maya to add the wood and glass diorama effect.
Originally developed as part of working within virtual sets the Mo-Sys system has been used on HBO’s Rome, Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and Harry Potter Chamber of Secrets.
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