copy written for VMI
You’d be forgiven
for thinking that time moves rather slowly in the rural villages of
Midsomer, but behind the scenes technology has not stood still. For the
evergreen ITV crime drama’s most recent season – number 22 – the team at
producers Bentley Productions switched cameras from ARRI Alexa
Mini to Sony Venice with Cooke S4is and deployed
the Ronin 4D gimble system from DJI.
article here
The director of
photography on all four feature length episodes is Al Beech.
“I popped into VMI
in March to prep all the kit for Midsomer when Ian Jackson
showed me their new toy,” he explains. “Although I took a quick look at the
Ronin 4D I didn’t think too much about it until we began prepping a
scene for episode 1.
Director Roberto
Bangura wanted to create a flowing shot that chased someone up several flights
of stairs into an attic. It was too small a space for a Steadicam and I
couldn’t think of another way of achieving it until the Ronin 4D came back to
mind.”
Beech hired the rig
from VMI and employed it on the shot.
“It worked brilliantly
and the director fell in love with it too. So much so that we used it on every
episode.”
This integrated
4-axis gimbal has a built-in 6K Cinema Camera with onboard RAW capture and full
frame 35mm sensor. A VMI Package as hired by Bentley Productions includes
gimbal, 6K camera, three prime lenses (25,25,50), and 7-inch wireless monitor
with wireless follow focus, power, storage and reader.
[Ed note, VMI now
also stock the Sigma Contemporary Prime set of 6 lenses which can be
used with the Ronin 4D]
Beech reports, “We
recorded 4K on both Venice and Ronin 4D. Both cameras have a 17×9 Aspect Ratio
and it shoots Raw with pretty much the same latitude as the Sony. It also has
dual ISOs, 5000 and a base of 800 which proved useful. It blended flawlessly with
the Venice.”
Naturally, Beech
found the gimbal ideal for running tracking shots such as one he made through
woods in this series.
“A lot of shows
don’t have the budget for Steadicam, or if they do, then you’d look to
hire a Steadicam for a day or two and arrange all the shots for those days.
With the Ronin we had it on set pretty much all the time and we could get all
the shots we needed when we needed them.
“I’ve used Ronin 2
with Master Wheels before and that worked superbly but it does necessitate a
large separation between the operator and the actor so you’re relying much more
on communications between the Grip and the actor, and it’s all a bit
slower.
“The 4D allows you
to operate the camera single handed, close to the actor and this gives you a
much better sense of spatial awareness. It’s perfect for moving tracking
shots.”
The operator can
monitor via an onboard flipout screen with the video outputs to external
monitors for focus control and the director.
“We did one wide
shot that transitioned into a close-up. I was trotting at full speed down a set
of stairs in a car park to meet the actor and it looked like a Technocrane with
no wobble or missed frames that would have told you otherwise… and for
£10,000 less.”
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