On Location: Camera Mountings

Working on location poses special problems. Camera mountings need to be portable and robust yet still capable of smooth shot development. It is rare to find smooth tracking surfaces outside the studio. Thus some location mountings have pneumatic wheels to alleviate the problem and an adjustment to level the camera head when working on uneven ground.

Heavy cameras

A number of robust mountings are available for the heavier broadcast camera. They are generally lighter than their studio counterparts and are capable of being folded or broken down for transportation.

Lightweight cameras

These are sometimes erroneously referred to as hand-held cameras. They can certainly be hand-held but a professional cameraman would rarely do so unless for some compelling reason.

The workhorse mounting for location work is the lightweight tripod. It has pointed feet to sit firmly on rough surfaces, can be attached to a ‘skid’ (wheeled base) or ‘spreader’ (flat base) for smooth surfaces, e.g. a polished floor. The legs can be individually extended and the panning head levelled with the aid of a built-in spirit level. A good head will have an adjustment for correctly counterbalancing any camera over its whole tilt range and a friction adjustment for panning and tilting to facilitate smooth operation. A small tripod (‘baby-legs’) is also available for low-angle shots.

Sophisticated mountings

Lightweight portable pedestals are also available. Some separate into two sections (base and column) for transportation and have an ingenious method of utilising the column itself to pump air into the column to counterbalance the weight of the camera to enable smooth changes in camera elevation. For tracking shots it is often necessary to lay rails carefully levelled with chocks and to use a mounting that can be tracked on rails. A greater range of shots can be provided by a mounting fitted with a counterbalanced jib but this may need two or more operators. In tight spaces the ‘hot-pod’ (a uni-pole support) will assist the cameraman to hold a steady shot and the ‘squatterpod’ (a pan and tilt head mounted on a flat plate) is a useful table-top camera platform.

For the very ambitious, walking or running shots can be achieved by a very fit and strong cameraman fitted with a sophisticated harness, e.g. Steadicam or Panaglide, that gyroscopically isolates the camera from his jerky movements. Furthermore, mountings with longer jibs (for seated cameramen, and ‘boom swingers’), anti-vibration helicopter mounts and even perches on hydraulic platforms (cherry pickers) may be hired.

The portaped

This versatile lightweight camera mounting has a pneumatic counterbalance for the camera and may be used in the studio as well as on location. The pedestal can be mounted on a skid (Tri-track) for simple tracks/crabs on or off shot, or the counterbalanced crane arm (Dolphin) can be fitted to the Portaped for more sophisticated camera movements.

The lightweight camera head

This type of head enables the camera to tilt about its own centre of gravity. It has an infinitely variable drag range and has a large tilt range. For ease of operation the viewfinder may be mounted on the head.