For a recent shoot (see the MTI-Connections video), I was again working with the talented guys at p3. The idea for the video was to put the viewer into the eyes and body of an entrepreneur/inventor/designer. To achieve this, p3 wanted a POV rig that would allow the main character in the video to move freely, use both hands and walk around unconstricted. They also wanted to maintain a high standard of visual integrity and beauty in the shots, which ruled out simply using a GoPro, which would have made the POV rig much more simple, but compromised on image quality.

So, we built a helmet rig for my Red Epic.

Brian taking a turn wearing the helmet cam

This was a bit of a beast, weighing in at over 15 lbs including the counter weights and battery on the back of the helmet and we had to constantly switch off wearing the rig to avoid major neck cramping. But weight aside, the rig worked a dream. We used my Tokina 11-16mm f2.8 lens for 95% of the shots (using my 50mm 1.2 to fill in a few key sky shots), which was wide enough to give that POV feeling without much distortion.

Morgan enjoying the beautiful weather on Casco Bay

We even had an excuse to go sailing with the rig for a few shots. It was more than a little scary to have my camera hanging over the side of the boat, but we got the shots and no harm was done. Yikes!

Me, CJ and our guide at EIMSKIP shipping dock.

Morgan rocking the rig in a field near Boothbay.

All in all it was a fun shoot with some new technical challenges (we burned through a few Noga Arms trying to keep the camera locked into position) and a lot of cool labs and settings to film in. Here's the finished product, with some excellent graphics by Nathan Gillis.