In the fall of 2018, the Vancouver headquarters of global clothing brand lululemon contacted Anthill regarding a specialized project. The lululemon video marketing team was researching a way to shoot slow motion while panning — all in a studio environment — and was considering sourcing a robotic actuating arm for this purpose. After researching options and realizing that renting a robotic arm would cost almost all of the allocated production budget, the client contacted Anthill Films for advice on how to most effectively capture the footage they were looking for. Anthill director Darren McCullough’s recommended using our Phantom VEO-4K camera (able to capture up to 938 frames per second at 4K resolution) paired with a cable cam system, custom-built for their indoor studio.
The Phantom VEO-4K high-speed camera rigged with Mōvi Pro stabilizer and mounted to a custom-built cable cam system
“The client was looking for a parallax-style slow motion shot of a model to create the feeling of moving around something,” says McCullough. “The Phantom camera was the obvious choice, but we then had to figure out how to mount the cable cam inside a small studio space, which was a constraint we hadn’t encountered before.”
Within two days, Anthill staff had fabricated a collapsible cable system that could safely bear the weight of the camera, stabilizer and cable cam unit. After testing the setup and sending the sample footage to lululemon, the marketing team approved the shoot.
Executing the shoot was technically challenging as the camera operator needed to pan and keep the subject at the center of the frame, all while the camera was moving along the cable at speed. Having extensive experience with this type of setup, Anthill Films cinematographers were able to capture all the required shots in a timely manner.
The assets from the lululemon holiday 2018 shoot will roll out into approximately 700 deliverables this season from Instagram posts to in-store videos to email newsletters.
Behind the scenes of the Phantom VEO camera and cable cam system in action