Facilities and camera hire company Esprit Film and TV has designed and built two lightweight rigs for wildlife and documentary filmmaking. They will see immediate action on a new wildlife production shooting this summer.
“The majority of rigs on the market are not robust enough to operate in the field,” explains Esprit managing director Dave Blackham. “Other rigs, for features work or live production, are too expensive or overly complex for the sort of work we do. We wanted very strong, lightweight rigs capable of supporting larger imagers such as the Red One plus lenses and with the ability to perform motorized IA and convergence if we need it.”
With Brian Shirley of Opt Out Engineering Blackham has built the Harrier mirror rig which weighs 8kg and has a 120mm interaxial distance and the Hawk side by side configuration which weighs in at 6kg and has a 520mm interaxial.Esprit is also building an underwaterhousing for stereo work and is preparing to debut the rigs and housing on a wildlife production shooting this summer.
The Bristol-based company has also equipped itself with an Apple oriented 2D and 3D post production facility including Final Cut, Cineform and After Effects. It has a Red One camera with Angénieux lenses for hire and is about to take delivery of a Red Epic.
The company is a BBC preferred supplier and has conducted stereo tests for the BBC as well as local independent producers.
Last year Blackham supplied kit and technical assistance to the production of Werner Herzog’s 3D documentary Cave of Forgotten Dreams.
www.espritfilm.co.uk/
